Realms Undreamed Of

by Ardashir

Rating: teen
Tags: Adventure, Violence, Princess Celestia, Crossover, Twilight Sparkle, Main 6, Profanity, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Death, Human, Princess Luna, Horror
Length: 125392

Twilight's search for John the Balladeer leads her to him and to the return of some of his and her worst enemies.

It was a few years ago that Twilight Sparkle and the Element Bearers sought for aid against a threat from beyond their world, and found it in the person of John the Balladeer. After the threat was defeated he was returned to his world, and Twilight has been searching for her human friend ever since.

Now with Princess Luna's aid she's found him in dreams. Dreams dark and terrible, and haunted by enemies both alien and frightfully familiar.

And this time she and John are alone.

MLP:FiM (c) Lauren Faust and Hasbro; John the Balladeer and associated beings (c) the estate of Manly Wade Wellman.

Published 2018-02-26 00:50:07 UTC
Last updated 2019-09-10 03:43:45 UTC

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Luna just looked at her. Twilight began to pick out a form to go with the eyes and stellar mane, a deeper dark against the unlit room. The dark Alicorn Major walked around her desk to stand before Twilight; still in shadow though the lamplight fell full upon her. The younger Alicorn Minor felt like fidgeting but resisted.

“What didst my message say?”

“What? Oh!” Twilight concentrated. Why did Luna seem so stern? “It said, ‘Twilight, we have found thy human friend John. If thou still wishes to see him again, come to the Palace as swiftly as you may’.” She finished and looked at Luna. The Night Princess looked expectant. “That’s everything – I think?”

“Indeed,” Luna said, even that single word managing to be intimidating. She turned and began to walk away towards a secondary chamber half shrouded by turned back curtains. “I have found him…”

“Is he alright? Has he come back?” Twilight hurried to walk alongside the Princess. “I, I wanted so much to talk with him after everything, to learn about his world.”

“Didst thou not learn about the human world in your two visits where Sunset Shimmer fled?”

“Huh?” Twilight blinked and frowned. “I, I did, but they left me with almost as many questions. The humans there were so much like ponies, and none of them were the same tribe as John or Thorn. John told me they were going to try flying to his world’s moon, but in Sunset’s they already had years ago. And…” She closed her mouth, wondering how she could even say it.

“Huh? John the Balladeer? Rowley Thorne?” Sunset blinked at her, confused. “Twi, you couldn’t have met them, either of them!”

“What? Why not?” Twilight and Sunset were in the Canterlot High library, to try and ask the questions she’d been unable to last time. “John helped save us from Thorn and the Sunny Town ponies. I wish I could have told you and the others to get his help here, he probably could have helped against that magical music of the Sirens…” Her voice trailed off as she noticed the increasingly confused look on Sunset’s face.

“Twi, I – Look.” Sunset walked over to the shelves, ran her fingers along a section titled ‘Science Fiction and Fantasy’, pulled down two thin paper-bound books and held them up to Twilight. “When I first came here and tried to learn about magic, I even tried reading some of these fantasy books. It took me a little while, but I figured out they were all just stories. Like Daring Do.”

“Actually? We met her too. And Auitzotl.”

“Uh, yeah, right.” Sunset rolled her eyes. “Look, just look at the titles, okay?”

Twilight did. And her eyes went wide.

The first cover showed John, just as she'd known him for those three days, silver-strung guitar and all, surprised at his campfire by a thing like a human version of a Sunny Town pony. "’Who Fears the Devil – the Complete Tales of Silver John’?"

The second showed a human she'd never seen before, dressed like a human Manehattanite and armed with a silver bell and sword cane, facing down Thorn in in some city setting. "And... ‘The Third Cry of Legba – the Complete Stories of John Thunstone’? By... Manly Wade Wellman?"

She looked up from the books to Sunset, her hair frizzling just like her mane had done in Equestria.

“Yeah, one of the teachers here must have been a real fan of this stuff, they have a whole couple of shelves full of books by him and Bloch and Kuttner and Moore.” Sunset carefully returned the book to the shelf. She returned to the table and said, “Twi, they used real-life occult books and people as research material for their stories, but none of it was real. Thorne was just based on some con artist who believed his own con, and John was a lot of heroes from folk stories where the author lived all mixed together. I spent almost a year hunting for those books before I realized that real magic didn’t exist here. Until recently.”

Twilight knew she must have looked as stunned as she felt. Sunset gently set her hand on Twilight’s shoulder. “None of them were real.”

“But – I met them!”

“And thou didst meet them,” Luna said when Twilight explained. “As did thy friends, and my sister.” She turned and set her gaze on a small orrery nearby. Unlike the normal ones, this one showed worlds and not stars. Her horn glowed and she set it to spinning.

“There is more than one human world, as there is more than one Equestria. Some wondrous as Paradise Valley, some terrible as what Tirek would have made of our land, some as mundane as our own. The one through that portal echoes ours, as ours may echo others.” Luna looked up at one of the walls; Twilight followed her gaze to a painting hanging on the wall – an old, old painting of a white alicorn with dark red mane and tail and a quill-and-inkwell cutie mark.

The Moon Princess spread her wings, ruffled them, and folded them again. “’Twas why I took on the search for thy friend. There are many worlds, but only one Dream-realm. And to judge from what you said of him, his words of prophetic dreams, his presence in it must be strong. I needed but a trace to find him, and beside his words from the songs thou spoke of, you gave it to me.”

“That’s right, he did,” Twilight said. She shook her head. “Wait, what trace?”

“Why, this.” Luna said with a smile. Her horn glowed with moonlight, and something coiled and shiny floated from one of the tables, the same color as Luna’s magic aura. Twilight took a moment to recognize it.

“One of his guitar strings?”

“What better?” Luna set it aside. “Searching through dreams is not like searching in the real world. One does better to look for, for associations rather than locales. I searched long just to find what I felt to be his world.” She sighed. “I felt no small dismay to realize it was more familiar than I guessed. In my time as the Nightmare, I once journeyed there.”

“YOU DID WHAT?????”

Twilight's outcry echoed through the chamber, bouncing off the walls and unseen ceiling above to splash down against them. Voices sounded at the doors along with hurried knocking. Luna, proud owner of the Royal Canterlot Voice, winced and scowled at Twilight. The young mare flinched.

“Sorry,” she said, giving a nervous smile. She waited for Luna to go to her door and reassure the startled Night Guards that some monster hadn’t suddenly burst in, just a startled past her manners Alicorn Minor. Only when the doors closed again did she ask, “How did you, I mean Nightmare Moon, ever get there?”

“You can say, ‘How did I’, Twilight Sparkle,” Luna looked down before raising her head again. “The tales some tell in misguided kindness are untrue. I was myself the whole time, though drowned under hate and envy. But those emotions so controlled me and made me enough like a Windigo that I, I was summoned as they are summoned.” Twilight felt a thousand questions go through her mind. Luna must have guessed. She frowned and shook her head, tossing that starry mane.

“Nay. Much I no longer remember. There were humans, one named Dee who didst summon me, and another called Kelly, I think. More humans later as I sought to find something to use ‘gainst my sister – a deluded king, a cruel and arrogant noble-mare named Bathory who I remember with disfavor; frauds and fakes pretending to magic, and one with no need to pretend named Loewe. Old and bearded as Star Swirl and with a great giant made of earth, invincible and unstoppable, that I sought to use.” She shook herself. “At the end one more, a tall lean man in black with a hard face and a staff bearing a cat’s head. He wounded me and drove me back into my own realm. More I remember not.”

“But it was enough to guide you to John’s world?” Twi dared hope. To finally have those questions answered!

“It was enough,” Luna said. She headed for the curtain off to the side. Almost skipping, Twilight followed. Past that curtain she found another room, and inside, objects and tools that dimly reminded her of ones she’d worked with when the resources of Celestia’s own magical lab were open to her. Astrolabes, telescopes, heavy-laden bookshelves, focusing matrices/containment circles set into the floor, and tables heaped with crystal scrying spheres, smoking braziers, spellbooks, and horn-drawn magical/astronomical diagrams.

Moonfire played along Luna’s horn and the room grew brighter as over the central table, a sphere of light appeared. A softly glowing blue mist drifted within it, with brighter sparks flaring up before they dimmed again.

Twilight walked closer to get a better look as Luna busied herself by another table. She stared into it and gasped.

Pinkie Pie giving a party so amazing that even Sombra and Tirek gave up being evil to become good…

Rainbow Dash flying so fast she outraced the setting sun, defeating an army of enemies, and becoming more famous than even Firefly the First...

Rarity granting her dresses as gifts to all her friends, with a flickering image beside her, first of a handsome pony-prince, and then of an older and well-dressed Spike…

“Look not too deeply into the dreams of others, Twilight Sparkle,” Luna said. “What is seen may not be entirely flattering, and some dreams are best forgotten.”

“But what could be so bad about a dream?” Twilight said as something else rose to the surface, something an angry crimson shot through with streaks of the deepest black and the most poisonous green. She looked at it. “Huh, what’s this one?”

“Twilight, NO!”

Twilight tried to pull herself away but found herself falling, falling…

Tirek roared laughter above her as she struggled to rise from the blasted earth. Her friends, Discord, even the Princesses, all lay about her. She’d tried everything, but none of it was any good. He’d consumed her magic along with everypony else’s and now he was going to take all the magic in Equestria, even the life that expressed that magic, until all was a dead wasteland of dry bones and withered dead trees on a plain of sterile white ash and only Tirek remained, bloated like a massive gorged spider forever and ever and –

“NOOOOOOOOO!”

The world around Twilight fell into shreds. The hard dead earth below her softened back into Saddle Arabian carpeting, and Tirek’s reek returned to the soft incense Luna favored. She reached out with her unicorn’s sense and sighed relief to feel magic working through her again.

“That was a dream?”

“The dreams of Tirek,” Luna scowled at the nasty little black and green and blood-red ball in her magic grip. She hurled it back into the depths of the sphere. “May it bring him what little joy such a monster can know.” Twilight watched and saw it sink back out of sight. “Be careful, Twilight Sparkle. In the Dream Realm there are enemies even I hardly dare to face.”

“I’ll be careful,” Twilight said, fighting down a shiver. “But John?”

Luna looked at what seemed to be the outer fringes of the sphere. “I have done exploring of my own, such as I have not done since long before my fall, and pushed my Dream-Map outwards in all directions. And finally, shortly before Tirek’s attack, I found thy friend.” She pointed her horn at one slightly brighter than most light, silver streaked with gold and light blue, at the edge of the sphere. “Here.”

“Okay,” Twilight said, looking close at it. It just looked like a pretty light to her. There was little to remind her of John’s knowledge and bravery and decency. She tried looking closer with her magic and got the feeling like she stood on the threshold of a great library. Or better still a conservatory, one that somehow felt akin to Applejack’s farm.

Thinking of that reminded her.

“Shouldn’t we get my friends as well? They’d like to meet John as well, and say hello again.”

“Nay.” Luna shook her head. She returned once more to the table, setting various plants including something like black and gray lotus blossoms into an old stone mortar that Twilight would have expected to see in Zecora’s very traditional hut. Her horn glowed and a pestle rose to begin slowly grinding the contents. Over that soft slow noise, Luna said. “This realm is yet strange to me. I have only gone close enough to be sure that John exists within it. He does, but,” she frowned, “a danger I do not know does so as well.”

“What! John’s in danger?”

“Perhaps,” Luna set the pestle aside, poured the mortar’s contents into a bowl of carved ivory. “I sense that nightmares plague him, strong ones.” She looked at Twilight. “Didst he tell thee of wars that he fought?”

“Huh? Oh yes, he said a little about it, told us he saw ‘a thousand fall at his right hand, and ten thousand at his left’.” Twilight tried to remember. “He said something about being a soldier. A – rifleman? In a place called Cor-e-ya?”

“I thought so. His dreams are akin to those of ponies that have fought, but darker and bloodier.” Luna looked into the bowl and seemed satisfied with what she saw. “As though something made them worse, be it sickness or age or an enemy.” She set the bowl before Twilight. The smell reminded her of warm milk with a sweet undercurrent. “Take this and drink, that we may be on our way.”

“How could an enemy make dreams worse?” Twilight lifted the bowl with her own magic and drank it down.

“It is possible, when more than one will works together to wield dark magic,” Luna shrugged. “However, this will be tricky enough with but one pony along. If I took you and your friends, I would not be able to defend everyone. And in a dream of war and strife, you could be wounded or even slain.” She looked thoughtful. “So far from dreams I know, even I run risk, if but a small one. Remember this if we are separated, Twilight Sparkle.” She caught Twilight’s eyes with her own and they blazed. “The dreams of others are worlds unto themselves. I can shield us from whatever we find in them unless directly attacked, but the dreamer can set the rules as they desire unless an outer will or collection of wills forces their own changes on it.”

“Alright,” Twilight slurred the words. “W-wait, what’s wrong? I feel,” she yawned, “Sleepy.” The floor beneath her suddenly felt comfortable. Twilight laid down on it and fought to stay awake and listen to Luna. Don’t show bad manners, think how horrified Rarity would be.

“Doubtless,” Luna’s voice bubbled with amusement. Her voice seemed to come from an ever-increasing distance. “Tis a potion I learned the making of long before my banishment. It brings one into the Dream Realm swiftly.”

“Like this.”

Twilight started. “Huh? I just felt sleepy, but now I’m wide awake.”

“Art thou?” Luna said. She pointed behind Twilight. “Best not turn and see, then.”

“See what?” Twilight asked even as she turned. And gasped.

She laid there on the floor, a pillow under her head. A silvery string or cord came from her body to her. She didn’t see where or how it connected, but when she tugged on it she felt it inside her, somehow.

“That will help thee to return to thy living body, if we are separated.” Luna turned and walked to the doors of her chambers. Twilight followed. They swung open silently before her and she gasped.

Outside was a realm like no other. Similar to the wherever-it-was Celestia had taken her when she transformed into an alicorn, but different. A sort of pale mist expanded as far as she could see; silvery bubbles drifted through it, and in them Twilight caught glimpses of ponies and other beings – dragons and griffons and other things she couldn’t begin to identify. Some of them glowed more brightly than others, shot through with various colors, red and blue and purple, green and yellow and more.

“Those are dreams?” Twilight approached one. It showed a dragon, a great wyrm, surrounded by a world of gold and gems. He rolled in it, laughing deep thunderous dragon laughs as he twined necks with his dragoness. Smaller versions of them both, the hatchlings, flew all about them. “And this is the Dream Realm?”

“It is.”

“This is amazing!” Twilight wheeled on Luna, a notebook and quill appearing somehow beside her. “Do you see into everypony’s dreams? Err, you don’t watch them all, do you?” She blushed. “I’ve had some that…”

Luna silenced her with a hoof on her lips.

“I am no voyeur, Twilight,” she smiled. “I have seen much in dreams that I politely forget.” She frowned as another bubble, this one seeming somehow rancid and streaked with a mixture of brown and red and green, floated closer. “Others I destroy as I can.” Magic arced from her horn and it burst. For an instant Twilight saw an image of what could have been Pinkie Pie wearing a multi-hued cape decorated with cutie marks, then it was gone as if it had never been.

“Now we must go from here,” Luna flew off as she spoke. Twilight spread her wings and followed. Below them what seemed like an endless sea of worlds rippled and roiled. Something about it seemed comforting at first, but then it began turning cold. Then colder. Twilight shivered in a chill such as she’d only ever felt in the Frozen North, on her first trip to the Crystal Empire. Too, the ‘sky’ changed, going from something like a gorgeous aurora to a dull red.

Twilight was about to ask where they were when she twitched her ears. Yes, she heard it, and again. An endless rumbling off in the distance. Like a thunderstorm, but this one seemed to be continuous. A smell like fireworks. Noises like the sounding of hunting horns or bugles, a harsh metallic braying. And under it a surging roar like the sea, but filled with anger and fear. The sun overhead looked small and red, giving a fitful light as though even it didn’t want to see what lay below it.

Luna stilled her wings and glided down to the ground below, Twilight following. A wasteland like the dead Equestria in Tirek’s dream, rust-red, dry and cracked and opening into crevasses like the lips of thirsty ponies. About them lay piles of wreckage, metal mountains rising high, higher than Canterlot’s Mount Epona, so high she wondered how she ever flew over them. Then their hooves touched down; the earth felt different, not natural, like Thorn’s grimoire when John and her had buried it in Whitetail Woods almost three years ago.

“Princess?” Twilight shied away from the wreckage. Nothing about this place reassured her. Even the fireworks smell, metallic on her tongue, made her want to leave. The chill in the air felt worse. She tried casting a simple spell against winter cold, but it did nothing. The chill bit right through like Windigos rode it. “How can John have anything to do with this? I remember what he said about his mountains, they reminded me of Equestria’s, not…” She waved her hoof. “Not this wasteland.”

“I have seen this place before,” Luna simply responded. She looked around, picked a direction that seemed no different from any other to Twilight, and started walking. “In the dreams of ponies, though thankfully not for an age. Aye, and griffons and Diamond Dogs and even dragons. It is the Red Lands.”

“The Red Lands?” Twilight raised her voice as she spoke. That nonstop rumbling was getting louder as they walked, even as the cold grew worse. “What are they?”

“They are a realm within Dream,” Luna answered her, her own voice rising. The rolling thunder was now loud enough to be painful, slamming into her body as well as her eardrums. “All those who remember great violence and death in their nightmares touch upon this place.”

“Must we go through here?” Twilight found herself yelling. She looked down and saw snow whirling around her hooves, growing deeper at every pace. When she spoke again her breath steamed. “Even if we find John, we won’t be able to speak to him in this racket!”

“We must go through here to find thy friend, that we may draw him into more peaceful realms to speak,” Luna yelled back herself. “Remember what I said of dreams! His nightmares have given us a doorway into his ‘self’ to use. This is a place of great danger. Stay by me always!”

The snow lay deep enough now that Twilight had to walk on top of it. Luna did so as well. They seemed to be ascending a slope, with piled dark rocks before them blocking the view beyond. The rolling thunder made Twilight flatten her ears, the concussions slamming her body like Applejack’s hooves against a tree. Like the climax of a fireworks display close-up, the booming of Tirek’s magic blasts, of her Library home blasted to flaming splinters around her, except this just went on and on. What kind of storms did John’s world have anyway? She felt slight annoyance to see Luna coolly ignoring it. Pity she didn’t know a spell against noise!

“Isn’t there anything we can do about that thunder?”

Luna just looked at her. Compassionately, and Twilight felt, a little sadly.

“It is not thunder, Twilight Sparkle.” Luna walked to the top of the ridge and looked down the other side. Twilight joined her and gasped as the last of the broken Red Lands around them slipped away to show a land of rocky ridges and deep snow, a half-frozen lake, a sunless gray sky, howling wind and cold that could make even a Windigo shiver.

“’Tis war. Such as Equestria has not known since the days of King Sombra.”

And Twilight Sparkle looked down into Tartarus itself.

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Twilight would wonder later just what part of John’s dream caught her attention first. Was it the cold, winds roaring like a herald of Sombra? The horrid noise, equal parts screams and curses and sobs and that endless ear-shattering roar? The shrill bugles and the thousands upon thousands of cracks! and bangs! like the world’s largest strings of firecrackers all cracking endlessly all over and along the barren rocky ridge she and Luna stood on?

Or was it the smell, hot iron and a wet raw fertilizer like Ponyville’s fields in planting time and the reek of sweat and fear and rage?

Or would it be –

A roar rose from the valley before her, sending her into the air, wings grabbing for altitude, before she controlled herself. She saw what looked like a whole city’s worth of men in thick padded jackets, their hair black and their faces contorted with fury as they charged right at her and Luna. Weapons like prodless crossbows in their hands, some long with blades like spears at their tips, some short with snouts of perforated dark metal and large round drums slung beneath. Their yells and those bugles reached her anew, and she knew, just knew that they were aiming every single one of those weapons at her. Her horn began to glow as she sought a defense only to stop when Luna shoved her nose into her ear.

“Fear them not!” Luna yelled. Twilight wondered if she used the Royal Canterlot Voice. She barely heard it. “They are but Shadows to us, and we to them. Only thy friend John will see us as we are. To all others…”

“Here come the Chinks!” A voice yelled behind her, and, “Open fire!”

A harsh metallic roar like half a dozen dragons sounded behind and above Twilight. Dream or not, she threw herself down with a shriek and buried her face in the hard frozen earth.

“Look not!” Luna cried out. So naturally Twilight did.

And regretted it ever after.

She saw what made the roaring. On the rocky ridge behind her were men that looked something like John as she remembered, but younger. Young as those human-shaped ponies from Canterlot High. Their clothes were different from the men charging up the ridge, thick but not quilted, dark olive rather than earth brown, with plain round helmets. They frantically worked half a dozen massive machines set with four long staves apiece that cast streams of what looked like red-hot magic bolts down into that charging mass. Where they touched those men, they ripped them apart. A red mist rose above them, and Twi choked as she realized what it was. Twenty-four streams of fire hosed all down and along the line from all six of those weapons at once and screams filled the air along with cries of fury and, yes, determination.

And to her unbelieving horror despite the bodies and pieces of bodies piling up before them they still came on.

Luna grabbed Twilight, there came the somehow still audible snap of teleportation. For an instant as she felt her atoms scatter Twilight thought one of those weapons had struck her and wanted to scream in terror. She clung to Luna like she did to her mother when she wakened from foalhood nightmares. Then her body rushed back together and she found herself looking at the ridge from what must be a hundred lengths behind it. The noise was still horrible, but it didn’t feel like her head was about to come apart.

“Twilight!” Luna looked her in the face, blue eyes locked on violet ones. “Remember, we are safe! These are things that have happened. So long as I am here, and near thee, they are but visions without substance.” She looked around and frowned. “Though I have known few, however much combat they saw, that could summon up such dreams as this. I wonder who or what feeds its strength into this nightmare?”

“Th-those hu-humans, what I s-saw happening to them…” Twilight gasped, took several deep breaths, and brought herself back under control. She could still hear the weapons firing, hear yells of words that she remembered the human Dash and Applejack using when they were stuck beneath the stage, and tonal monosyllables that didn’t sound like they should ever come from any kind of a person. “John told me he’d seen war, but I, I thought it was like what I heard Shiny telling Mom and Dad about that one time with those raiding minotaurs, not like, like this.” She waved one forehoof at the carnage all about, like when Thorn sent the Timberwolves into Ponyville but a million times worse.

“I have seen worse in other worlds, as has my sister,” was all Luna said. “I regret that thou have seen this, but remember. Thy friend sees this in his dreams near every night of his life. And it is being made worse, in some way,” Luna looked around, snorting and ears pinned back, the Protector of Dreams even here. “Let us find him and begone from this Tartarus.”

“Yes, Princess Luna, of course.” Twilight got up and followed her. Her horn glowed and she took the silver guitar string from her pack. Focusing on it, she got a feel of ‘to the right, half a league from here’.

She looked and saw rocks there, as barren and cold as everything else here. She wondered why anypony, or human, would fight for a place like this. “He’s there, or nearby. Maybe a dozen furlongs away. Or so my magic tells me.”

“Indeed.” Luna nodded. “Then let us go.” And she strolled off, ignoring the flying lead and and explosions as though this were a mere walk in the park. Her hooves clicked lightly against the stones beneath them. Twilight made to follow, wondering uneasily if it was Luna’s long life or what she’d seen in dreams or both that left her so unaffected by this.

Those bugles blew behind her wildly, triumphantly, as the thunder of those weapons faded and screams rose. Twilight looked despite herself. The charging men were overrunning the ridge. However many of them were slain, they’d just kept coming until the guns ran out of ammunition. The men who’d worked them didn’t run either, but fought back. It was soon over and the men in those quilted coats were spilling past it and looking like they headed for her and Luna.

“Foolish tactics,” Luna said, and Twilight almost jumped. The Night Princess stood right beside her, watching the battle with clinical detachment. “Those men were ill led to do that. Or desperate. Soldiers’ lives ought not to be thrown away so wastefully.”

Several somethings whistled overhead and came down in the midst of those men. The earth shot upwards and some of them flew shrieking through the air. But they came on, still yelling and blowing those bugles.

Twilight hurried to follow Luna and did not look again.

#

Twilight forgot later how long they walked across that battlefield. Wounded and dying humans were all around, some begging for someone, anyone, to help them. Some were missing – pieces, and a few just seemed to be too terrified to move. Others cursed constantly under their breath as they saw to wounds or just laid by rocks or under cover, weapons in hand and watching their enemy come at them.

To her shock Luna walked past it all without paying much notice.

Twilight couldn’t resist. As they passed someone who reminded her of Flash, a spreading crimson stain on his clothes, laying there helpless in snow and on stone, she went to lay down beside him and try and do something, anything. Maybe her magic could heal his injuries? Real healing magic was hard, it could take as much out of the injured as the original injury, but just stopping the wounds from bleeding?

“Twilight, no.” Luna walked past her and set her hoof solidly on the young human. It passed through him as though he were an illusion. “They are not real, remember? They cannot touch or be touched.”

“I know, but,” Twilight looked at the dead and dying men all around. “Can’t we do something?”

“We are,” Luna said. She turned and began to walk away. “We will be removing these images from thy friend’s mind, or at least strengthening him enough to control them.” Twilight gave the man one last hurting look and hurried after Luna. Luna looked back at her. “Besides? Look back. See what has happened.”

Twilight did and gasped. Those barren and snowy rocks were still there but the young human was gone. Much of the battlefield behind them seemed empty of both sides.

“Princess Luna, what’s happening?”

“We are real beings,” she said. “In Dream, the shadows one sees often fade into nothing as soon as one passes them by. And we are outsiders here.” Luna looked back towards a stony ridge. “Do you remember what you saw there?”

“What?” Twilight looked at it, empty and lifeless. “Wait, we saw humans there, didn’t we? They, they fought, and...” She tried to remember and tossed her head in annoyance. “I know we saw them fight! And there was something, several somethings that roared like dragons.” She frowned and her horn began to glow. “I’ll use a memory spell – Hey!”

“Not in here!” Luna forced her horn down with her own. Twilight’s half-formed spell shivered and fell apart. “Magics are dangerous in this place! We stand on the threshold of thy friend’s mind, and carelessly employed magics used here can cause him damage.” She looked back at the ridge. “Or summon back the memories we saw. Would you put him through that again?”

Twilight shuddered. “No. I wouldn’t.” She looked back one last time and froze. Something moved in the mist behind them, several somethings. “Princess, I thought you said that when we left part of a dream behind, it faded?”

“What now?” Luna looked carefully beside her. Both alicorns focused their sense against the storm around them. Twilight wished she dared cast a simple spell to focus her eyesight. But then she saw them.

A small group of roughly a dozen of those men in the quilted clothes were moving. They went quick and quiet, using the rocks for cover. They held weapons in their hands – not the short prodless crossbows with the drums beneath, but longer ones, long as spears. No details at this distance, but... Twilight strained her eyesight.

Their forms blurred from one moment to the next. Not quite invisibility, but definitely some sort of distortion magic. It seemed to Twilight that they looked different, somehow, from the other humans she’d seen, whether John, Thorn, or through the portal. Their limbs moved as though boneless, or at least jointed differently. Like changelings to ponies.

Twilight looked closer. Her hooves scraped against the stones, sounding oddly loud with the noise of the battle now moved away.

The figures froze. They seemed to slither behind the rocks. Twilight didn’t see it, but she felt their eyes on her. Muscles twitched under her coat like she was bitten by a fly.

“I distrust this and them,” Luna summed up Twilight’s own thoughts, her voice cold. She took a pair of steps forward, her head half lowered as though setting her horn to thrust. “I think we should meet these beings before we speak to thy friend, Twilight.”

“Uh, Princess, are you sure that’s a good idea?”

“If they are but of the dream, they will not even notice us.” Luna ruffled her wings, tossed her head and snorted. “And if not, then we are Princesses of Equestria, I am defender of the dreams of Equestria, and John has aided us in the past. I shall know why they sneak about in his dreams.” Luna said those words like she meant them, and she did, starting back towards the figures.

Twilight followed. She remembered something John told her back when they met, about how useless it was to flee evil. Because then it would chase you, and if it caught you, then what? But at the same time she remembered her own recklessness in dealing with foes like Tirek, and how disastrously that almost ended.

Then again, she thought as she followed Luna, maybe these are other friends of John’s. Maybe they want to find out why his dreams are so terrible. She somehow knew the argument to be false even as she thought it.

By now she and Luna were close enough to start picking out details about the figures. To Twilight’s dismay the sounds of the battle began to return as well. By the scowl on Luna’s face she noticed as well, and was not pleased. The figures rose up as they approached. Twilight noticed they kept a firm grip on their weapons, those elongated crossbow tillers. Dragon-like eyes shone at the ponies, the pupils slits that ran up and down. Another tribe from John’s world? Like those pony-like humans in that other one? Like donkeys and zebra to Earth Ponies? But he didn’t mention anything like this.

“Greetings, outsiders,” Luna’s voice was neutral, neither welcoming nor threatening, but Twilight noticed how she kept herself ready to fly. The strangers said nothing, they just eyed her coldly. “I and my friend,” she indicated Twilight with a wave of her wing, “are here seeking the one who dreams this dream. What do you here?”

“Our business is our own,” one of them muttered. Twilight blinked to see their faces, flickering from their former countenance to something odder. Those slit-pupil eyes, long lank black hair framing cold, lean, hard faces. The weapons they held were nothing she’d seen here, brass-bound with levers that cocked back. Something about them gave her a feeling of both familiarity and disgust.

“Our business is our own,” the speaker repeated himself. “Return to your own proper place. We hunt an enemy. Meddle not in affairs beyond the reasoning of a beast.”

“Beast?” The Alicorn Major quirked an eyebrow. She mantled her wings, a Pegasus ready to either run or attack if need be. “You have ill manners, outsider.”

“For you we have no manners.” Some of those weapons rose slightly; Twilight wondered if their owners didn’t quite dare to point them at beings they knew nothing of. But again, something of those weapons felt all too balefully familiar to her. “Go now. Before we destroy you.”

Luna pinned her ears back and snorted. Twilight moved to the side, her own wings flaring, making sure she had room if she needed it to fight. A fight… In here? After Luna told her to be wary of using magic? Well, she had her wings and Earth pony strength, but still? She swallowed and hoped they could talk this through somehow.

“I care not for threats.” Luna’s voice felt chillier than the snowy wastes around them. “And if the enemy thou speak of is who I think they art, thou hast declared thyself MY enemy as well!” She spread her wings out wide and sent magic along her horn, illuminating her eyes and turning her voice to thunder.

“NOW BEGONE, WHILE ‘TIS STILL THY OWN CHOICE!”

Any being on Equestria less powerful than Discord or Tirek would have turned and ran. Twilight’s hopes were dashed as the strangers simply raised their strange weapons and aimed them right at Luna.

“No!” Unknown dangers in the use of magic here or not, she had to stop this. Twilight gathered the power for a shielding spell. On sudden impulse she used the variant she’d learned from John that night in Zecora’s ruined hut, and all but unused since.

Five Kings of the North, who stand as a shield against evil…

Five Kings, whom none should invoke save when in mortal danger…

Five Kings, I trust in your protection…

A shimmering field of energy flashed between Luna and the strangers as their weapons belched flame and black smoke. Twilight gasped to feel something potent and horribly familiar slam into her shield. And more, try clawing around it, scratching at her mind. Luna prepared to hurl herself at the attackers, only to freeze at Twilight’s words.

“Princess! Their magic! It’s like Thorn’s!”

Twilight’s hope that the headstrong Moon Princess would control herself went shattering down as she said, “If they be allies to Thorn, they are enemies to me!” Then to the strangers, who showed no surprise as they recharged their weapons, “NOW YOU VERMIN WILL LEARN WHAT IT MEANS TO THREATEN THE PRINCESS OF NIGHT!”

One of the strangers stepped forward. As he did the others all stopped aiming their weapons and looked to him. Twilight guessed he must be their leader. He looked no different, save perhaps slightly taller and with clothes of a slightly better cut and material. When he opened his mouth to speak she saw all his teeth were the pointed ones of a carnivore.

“Those who defend our enemy, die with our enemy.” Luna snorted her fury at the leader’s words. He raised his hands, fingers outspread. Twilight didn’t fail to notice the oddness of them, five fingers tipped with pointed claws, the fourth longer than all the others. They were predators, she thought, predators stalking their prey. Lean and hungry beasts. Hungry for John’s life, and theirs?

“You have sought to stop us,” he said, his voice soft but somehow far more fearsome than Luna’s bellow. “You have interfered in our vengeance. You have made yourself our enemy, and now you will suffer for it.”

As he said those words the others behind him seemed to focus all their attention on him. He reached under his clothes and took out something on a thin gold chain that filled the palm of his hand and showed a dull yellow-white like old bones. A single small gemstone, red as a drop of heart’s-blood, glittered at the center of it.

Luna held back, power arcing along her horn like flickering heat lightning. Her wings flared; muscles bunched under her hide; she scraped a silver-sabatoned forehoof against the ground, readying for a charge.

And then the lead stranger spoke words Twilight had hoped to never, ever hear again.

“I made my wish before,” he said, pointing his forefinger at Luna in a spellcasting gesture. And the words crawled in Twilight’s mind like Thorn’s; she felt the force building up behind it. “I make my wish now. I never saw the day my wish went unfulfilled.”

“Princess, we have to get out of here!” Twilight flew between Luna and the beings. Luna, about to hurl herself at the attackers, hesitated.

Twilight dared hope that they’d get out of this in one piece, then…

A thing of sparkling blue smoke leaped from the caster’s finger at the Moon Princess.

“What horrors haunt you, blue horse?”

The sparkling blue swirled around Luna’s head, disappeared into her horn. Her blue eyes went wide. And then narrowed into poison-green slits.

“No,” Twilight said.

“NO!” Luna cried. “Not again!” But her voice was already changing, turning deep and throaty as she wheeled about as though seeking an enemy to gore with her horn, a horn already lengthening while the hide turned from deep blue to purest ebony, not a black coat but an absence of light – all light.

“Not again!” Luna stared at Twilight in horror, her teeth fangs like the strangers’ as she became a pony Twilight had seen only twice before and thought never to see again. “NO! I refuse to become her! I will not! I AM NOT HER!”

Luna’s – no, Nightmare Moon’s – horn flashed and she was gone.

Twilight turned to face the thirteen strangers who’d already cast out her guide, the one being keeping her safe and oriented in this nightmare.

And saw them pointing their weapons at her.

#

Clip-clop, clip-clop, clip-clop…

Golden-sabatoned hooves sounded on mosaic and terrazzo; the back corridor of the Sun Palace brightened as if in full sunlight as Princess Celestia sneaked out of the Throne Room. Her aide Raven trotted at her side, trying to keep up with the Alicorn Major twice her size. Day Court today had been thankfully brief, with no foolish squabbles or feuding ponies to deal with.

“Anything else today, Raven?”

The white unicorn adjusted her glasses, flipped through the clipboard levitating before her. “No, Highness. Not until sunset.”

“Not even a wedding in the Outer Gardens? It’s a perfect day for one.”

Flip, flip, flip…

“One scheduled, at two.”

Celestia smiled. Time to surprise them; not everypony gets married by their Princess for the cost of a slice of the wedding cake….

Royal Unicorn Spellguards stepped back and bowed as the two entered the Royal Apartments of the Palace –

Just in time for Luna’s Royal Canterlot Voice to boom through the entire wing of the Palace like the roar of a dragon.

“NO! I WILL NOT BECOME HER AGAIN!”

“Sister!”

Celestia didn’t even notice teleporting to Luna’s inner sanctum in the Observatory Tower, blasting the heavy silver-inlaid ebony doors apart, lighting the darkened chamber with her horn. On the far side of the room, Luna rose, shaking herself. No, shivering.

Celestia knew of only one thing that could do that to her beloved sister.

“LUNA!” The Sun Princess hurried to the Moon Princess’s side, taking in the inlaid conjuration circle in the floor and the third, smaller Alicorn Minor lying within it. “What happened? And why is Twilight – Twilight!”

Twilight’s legs twitched, her sides worked, as though she fled something in the dreams that held her. Sweat began to run down her flanks, turning thick and foamy. A long shallow gash opened in her side and blood began to run, thick and dark.

“Twilight!” Celestia lowered her horn to touch it to her forehead and bring her forth from this nightmare. She only stopped when Luna’s horn caught and held hers like a sword parry. “Luna! What are you doing? We have to awaken Twilight, something is hurting her!”

“We dare not!” Celestia stared at her in shock. Only now did she notice the wide-eyed horror in her sister’s eyes, the way her sides heaved like the billows of a smithy. Luna shook her head, her words nonsense to Celestia. “I brought her into another world’s Dream Realm… Seeking her human friend who aided us against Discord and his ally. We encountered hostiles, stalking John – human warlocks, a herd of thirteen, walking those dreams as Sombra walked the shadows. They conjured my own fears, set it upon me… It forced me back into HER!”

“You left Twilight there? Among those creatures?” Celestia looked helpless at her former student. Twilight shivered, as though from great cold. The wound on her side had closed, but still trickled blood. “Twilight’s body is here. Can’t you simply return through her dreams?”

Luna looked at Twilight. The hurt in her eyes faded before newfound determination.

“I shall try.”

The dark Alicorn Major laid on her barrel beside Twilight, legs folded beneath her; closing her eyes, she set her horn against the smaller Alicorn Minor’s. Silver-blue magic flowed from horn to horn while Celestia watched; then she felt the magic reverse.

“They have set some sort of wards,” Luna muttered, her eyes still closed. “Strong ones, and alien. Like Thorn’s magic; so different Equestrian magic cannot well counter it. They want none to interfere in their quest to destroy John, and if Twilight is inside his dream as it dies…”

As if on cue Twilight shrieked. Celestia gasped to see many small somethings peppering her hide as though small rocks pelted it.

Luna broke contact, opened her eyes, looked up at her sister.

“I don’t dare break through by force. ‘Twould damage the realm itself, and the dreamer. As though somepony meaning to aid Twilight smashed down the castle walls to find her.”

Celestia looked down at her sister and her protégé.

“Can we simply awaken her?”

“Not without grave risk,” Luna looked at Twilight where she kicked. Fear thickened her voice. “The dreams we found are dangerous ones. Violent, more so than I expected. It is the Red Lands.” Luna hesitated as though expecting horror from Celestia. The Sun Princess simply nodded once, her eyes hard. Luna nodded herself and said, “To awaken her could wound or even kill her, and John. More, it might provide a path for our attackers to follow back into Equestria. And if they nearly seized control of me by surprise, in my own realm…” Her voice trailed off.

“I understand,” Celestia said. When she’d finally caught up with Thorn, she’d cast him back between the worlds instead of blasting the warlock where he stood. She hadn’t dared to leave any trace of him in Equestria, anything that could be used as a link or portal by others like him.

Now it was the Princess of the Sun who spoke, the mare who’d faced down Discord and Sombra beside her sister, and Syhlex and his sons without her.

“We cannot sacrifice John,” her voice filled the room. “He aided Equestria and saved the lives of the Element Bearers among others. But we must save Twilight, and swiftly.”

She looked at Luna. “Can you return to aid her?”

“It would be a grave risk, but aye, I can and will.” Luna’s horn glowed a cold blue as she floated the potion bottle over to herself – only to have it halted, held in a sun-gold aura.

“Not alone,” the Sun Princess whinnied. “What if you took companions to keep you reminded of who you are? Those who saved you from the Nightmare once before?”

Luna nodded.

Hooves pounded on the stairway outside; Raven galloped through the smashed portal, along with half a dozen Royal Guardsponies. Raven skidded to a halt, gaping in shock while the Guardsponies continued into the chamber, horns lit and armed.

Celestia ran her eyes over them, settled on the guard captain, and neighed four words.

“Summon the Elements of Harmony. NOW!”

#

“Get away from me!”

Twilight hurled more of the snow and rocks at her pursuers. They hissed more of those weird whispering curses – she didn’t understand the language, but the tone left her no doubt of what they said. They dodged away and fell behind her as she raced across the battlefield. She paused to catch her breath.

Something snarled and clanked and growled almost in her ear.

“AHHH!”

Twilight shot upwards, her wings snatching at the air, as something massive and squat, covered in some sort of armored hide, rolled under her. Not until a moment later when thunder roared and fire blasted from the long proboscis atop it did she realize it to be another machine. Something screamed through the air until it hit and exploded like a magic blast.

The top half of another human showed through the open hatch in the machine’s roof, grasping the handles of one of those shooting staves and calling something down into its interior. Then more thunder and explosions. Then more screams, her own with them as she fled.

How do John’s people even survive this? How did he survive it?

Something or somepony yelled, and what looked like streams of hornets, burning bright, flashed by her eyes. She hurled herself back down to earth as the massive armored wagon ground its way across the snow and rocks. Others of its kind followed, line abreast like Guardsponies formed for a charge.

As soon as she landed she began running again, towards where she remembered Luna guiding her.

Luna, what did those creatures do to her? Twilight glanced around, looking and listening for that familiar face and voice. All she heard was explosions and screams and yells and curses. And somewhere behind her, those other-humans. How did they do that to her? How many of them working together? She frowned to remember something John told her that long-ago night in Zecora’s hut, about groups of thirteen evildoers bound together to unite their power and wills and one. Like how we unite as one bearing the Elements….

Something whistled in that dank gray sky above. Twilight threw up as strong a shield as she dared and dodged aside. The whistling met the ground and exploded, blast after blast after blast hurling rocks and dirt high and everywhere. Somepony shrieked, loud and shrill. More blasts, more rocks and invisible hornets whizzing through the icy air, and the shrieking stopped.

“John! “Twilight raced across the bloody field, stampeding in blind equine panic. “John, Luna, somepony, anypony, please! Help!”

That patch of barren rocks grew larger in her vision as she got closer. Part of Twilight reminded herself that she’d faced creatures capable of scouring this field from end to end without even slowing down, faced them and won. But then she’d had friends with her, and now, now she was alone and – No! She slowed as she reached the rocks and went down behind the cover.

I am an alicorn, an Element Bearer, and a Princess of Equestria! I will NOT let myself be panicked into stampeding like, like some animal! She slowed down, calmed her breathing and let her magic flow through her body, examining herself. Aches and pains and bruises and she badly wanted to ‘drop some fertilizer’, but no injuries. Good. That’s settled then.

She looked over the field from where she was, careful not to raise her head too high as she remembered what John told her. He was a ‘sniper’, like a Spellguard sharpshooter; holding back in hiding to pick off enemies at range without being spotted. She took a moment to feel thankful that none of her Equestrian foes ever planned that coldly or cleverly. Okay, so think. Remember those few months you spent alongside the Night Guard before going to Ponyville. Where would be the best spot for something like that? A place where you can see but not be seen?

“Animal.”

Twilight ducked out of sight and froze. It was those other-humans, or their leader anyway. But why couldn’t she see them? They must be using their own magic, like the kind from John’s world, using it to hide.

“Animal,” that voice came again. “We defeated the other, weaker one.” Twilight smiled to think of someone seeing her as stronger than Luna. Maybe the leader sensed her amusement somehow, for they said, “We have no quarrel with you. Not yet. We only seek to avenge ourselves on the one who dreams this. Leave him to us and you can flee in safety.”

Twilight rose snorting, her ears down, to see the leader of the strangers just on the other side of the rock. He wore clothes that looked all wrong for this cold and climate, a long black frock coat and wide-brimmed hat like the pictures of Pinkie’s father. In one gloved hand he held its mate, both gloves made of what looked like pale cream suede. High boots set with buttons covered his feet and black pants that even she could tell must have been cut to his figure covered his legs. A high-buttoned white shirt, pale earth-brown skin and long lank black hair that looked almost feathery. He raised his ungloved hand as though to call halt. Twi once more noticed that the third finger on it was longer than the first two, and all were tipped with short sharp claws. That red gem necklace hung at his throat, glittering with evil promise.

With him were his followers. No. They were some of the beings from this dream, the ones in the heavy quilted uniforms with those short crossbow tillers with the drums hanging below. They seemed frozen. Under his control? Luna said strong enough dreamers could seize control of an other’s dream and start to manipulate it.

“You listen to me,” Twilight hoped she sounded more angry than afraid. Whatever he thought, none of it showed on his face. He stayed expressionless as she said. Calling on every memory of defiant speeches she’d made to others from Nightmare Moon to Discord to Tirek, “That man is my friend and I’m here to help him. If you try hurting him, I’ll make you sorry you ever even thought of it. Now you turn around and I’ll let you flee in safety!”

He looked at her coldly. Twilight hoped he’d listen.

“Foolishness is its own punishment, and none are more foolish than those who defy the Shonokin.” He turned to the armed men with him and spoke something to them in tonal monosyllables, adding for what she knew to be her benefit: “Kill the beast.”

Flame burst from eight weapons at her, ripping the air with a staccato BURRRRRRRP!

Twilight tried to take flight but screamed as a red-hot bit of dragonfire ripped at her right wing joint. She dropped and rolled down those rocks to find herself before the humans and the, the Shonokin. The dream-soldiers looked at her without emotion. The Shonokin matched them with ease.

I’m going to die they’re going to kill me and to them it’s just stepping on a bug.

She tried to summon her magic, but even as she did the Shonokin gripped the gem at his throat and made a gesture. Something seemed to lash across her mind’s eye like a horsewhip and the magic fell apart.

He stepped aside, his feet crunching in the snow.

The soldiers raised their weapons and sighted.

Twilight fought to gather her strength, to dodge or leap at them like Rainbow Dash would.

Something.

Anything.

Nothing.

She closed her eyes just as the shots came. Not the dragon burps, but –

BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! Followed by a high metallic ping!

Twilight opened her eyes and stared. And screamed.

The quilted-suit men lay before her. Their heads, their heads were just not there anymore. Only mangled meat sat atop their shoulders, turning the nearby snow into crimson slush that stank like a griffon butcher shop.

Something hissed like a snake, but not quite. Snakes lacked the malice in those words. She looked up and saw him vanish, unweaving like an image of smoke, and she was utterly alone in this Tartarus.

The icy wind cut into her; the stench of blood and death filled her nostrils, the noise filled her ears, the aura of dark magic swirled around her.

Cold… Blood… Death…

She curled up in the rocks and snow and started screaming.

Something crunched on the snow behind her.

She kept screaming.

Then a voice she hadn’t heard in almost three years filled her ears:

“Twilight Sparkle? Whatair are you a-doing here?”

Author's Note

I want to apologize to anyone offended by a certain word in this chapter, which will reappear in the next. I think you can guess what it is. All I will say is that I've spoken with veterans and mist of them remember hearing that and far worse on battlefields.

Chapter 3

Chapter 3

You ask me what my name is,

And what I’m a-doing here;

They call me John the Wanderer

Or John the Balladeer…

John’s my name, and it’s no brag for me to say that I’ve seen many a strange thing and been in many a strange and terrible place, but there were few places I ever saw in my whole born days half so terrible as the place they called Chosin Reservoir in a land they call Korea. “Frozen Chosin” we called it, a frozen-over lake way up north near China. I didn’t like it air bit, air way, when I first saw it and the things that happened there; and when I started a-seeing it in my dreams years and years later, I liked it less than the first time.

I first saw it when I was a boy who wanted to see the world and went off and joined the Army. Most men do when wars come around, but that doesn’t make it the slightest bit wiser. I took my training along the other fellers they put me with, I learned how to tell my hay foot from my straw foot – that’s your right from your left, it was easier for a lot of us mountain boys to learn it that way – how to make my kit and march all together and take orders from sergeants that were, thank God, wiser than we were. If I’d been any wetter behind the ears I reckon my helmet would have slid right off my head. They fed us meat seven days a week, which made me feel like I’d sure enough died and gone to Heaven; most times as a youngster living with my old aunt I figure we saw meat maybe two-three times a week, except when I potted some rabbit or squirrel or bless us, a deer for venison or maybe a bear for meat to be smoked and dried and made into bacon.

They tried to teach us how to use our rifles too, but there they didn’t need to worry ary way. I knew just about every way there was to use a rifle; needed to, growing up, before and after I was a-working for Ranson Cuff.

I remember how my sergeant watched me shooting at the target. I aimed and pulled the trigger fast, eight times right after the other before the clip popped out with a ping!, and he said, “Johnny, what the devil is wrong with you? I told you to aim before you pulled that trigger, you clodhopper, you think Uncle Sam can afford to throw his money away on the bullets you just wasted?” He said some more, too, but if you been in the Army you can probably figure what it was he said. No need to go repeating it here.

“I didn’t waste a single one of those bullets, Sergeant,” I told him. I pointed at the target, which might as well have been a barn door for the size of it. “You can just look if you don’t believe me.”

The sergeant, a short thick-built fellow with a face that looked like someone chopped it out of the mountain rock back home, waited until everyone emptied their gun. He walked down to the target. He looked, poked at it with his finger, swore some, and came back to me.

“You a regular Sergeant York, ain’t ya?” He frowned on me, but he looked pleased to be doing it.

“I can’t say if I’m as good as him or not, Sergeant,” I answered him back my politest.

“Well, I will say it,” he said. He took off his hat and rubbed his forehead. “All eight right smack dead center, close enough together I could put the palm of my hand over them?” He started to smile then. “Guess I can tell your division commander he’s got himself a new champion marksman.”

I figure he must have, because when I went to my unit the officer right over me asked to see me do it again. So I did, and then I did it for his officer and the one over him and a fellow with a right fancy uniform who everyone in the division answered to, and he called me the best shot he’d ever seen. “I imagine you got your share of turkeys back home,” he told me. He talked better educated than anyone I’d ever known afore except maybe a preacher or two. “You have quite the marksman’s eye, private. Ever shoot a man before?”

“No sir,” I told him. “I purely hope I never ever will, either.”

He looked just the least bit sad on me. “A good wish,” he said. “Unfortunately, it’s one unlikely to be fulfilled where we’re going.”

It wasn’t either. We got to Korea, a land halfway between China and Japan. We marched and marched and marched until I wondered our legs didn’t fall off us, and found ourselves all the way up north by rocks and hills and ridges as barren as what the world must have looked like before even the first beasts and plants were on it and then I did it for his officer and the one over him and a f. The wind blew down colder than anything I ever knew in the hills, cold enough that I saw men’s hands and noses turn black from it, cold right through even the good thick winter clothes we had to wear. Cold enough that some of us had to pass water on our rifles in the morning just so they could be fired, and the artillerymen joked with us that they didn’t need ammunition, they could just go a-shooting the blocks of ice they found in their gun barrels every morning. It was so cold you wondered if when you called your last, the words would fall down frozen on the ground.

For there was a lot of shooting and screaming and a-crying out when I was there. If you’ve been in a war you know what it’s rightly like, and if you haven’t then thank God every night of your life for it, and you don’t need to know from me. It was like what the Good Book says, all screams and confusion and garments rolled in blood. I saw more men a-dying in that valley than I air thought lived in the whole wide world before. My friends and the other fellows too, some called them gooks or chinks or worse, but they fought as hard as we did air time we met.

Like I said, I saw more death and dying there than I air did want to see and did my part to bring it about. I was best shot in my platoon, best shot in my company, best shot in my division, and most times I got told off to shoot down air fellow I saw a-coming at us. I did it too; made my stomach turn all over the first few times but after that I stopped noticing much, other than to be glad that it wasn’t me or friends of mine a-dying. Not that time, anyway.

I came away alive, of course, but a right many fellows I knew didn’t. Not my old sergeant, nor the fellow who loaned me his guitar that I had for so long after until I met Mister Onselm and the Ugly Bird, nor the one from Montana who told all of us that Korean winters were nothing compared to home, nor either the skinny fellow from that town they call Arkham up north who had nightmares near every night and could tell you long sections from what folks call the Classics and who made me want to be reading them my own self.

I came away, but a part of that place came away with me, and I see it in my dreams now and then ever since. It reminds me air time what someone once said, how when you wake up and remembers your dreams you should ought to be glad. If it was a good dream you were happy to be having it, and if not, you were glad it was over and done with. And after time those dreams got to be less and less, and I began to hope I’d have them nair more.

But lately now, since my own love Evadare and I moved into our cabin at the Fork, and since I went off to one of the strangest places any man could ever speak of and returned , they were coming back, worse than ever. Worse even than the real things that gave them to me, which I’d reckoned to be impossible. I woke up screaming and shaking, again and again. I woke Evadare up with them too, and she held me and spoke to me like you would with a little child until I remembered where and when I was.

I did all the things I could think of to make them stop. First natural things, like drinking some tea made for me by my good friend Reuben Manco that he swore would help. Then working myself until I was happy just to collapse into my bed at day’s end, so tired I reckon I fell asleep afore my poor tired head hit the mattress, and still no good. I even went to a fancy city doctor, and he looked at me and asked questions and ran some fancy machine over me and said there was nothing wrong with me and he wished himself to be half as healthy as me.

“But if it isn’t any natural thing, what is it?” Evadare asked me after I came back, from riding buses and then walking almost a day back up to our home. Reuben Manco was there as well, short and lean and with his eyes bright with the wisdom he gained to become a medicine man of his people, the Tsalagi, what we white folks call the Cherokee.

“I hoped that doctor could help,” he said, his voice deep and not the least happy. “He’s helped my folk when my own medicine wasn’t enough, and asked respectful questions before and after to be sure he did right by them.” He looked at me, “I begin to wonder just what on Earth or off it could be doing this to you, John.”

“That won’t be helping you,” Evadare looked unhappy to see me making up coffee for myself so strong and black you could have floated an axe head in it. “You can’t be going on like this, John.”

“Why are you a-telling me a thing I already know?” I snapped back at her, and right the moment after, “I’m sorry, Evadare. I’m feeling like a gone gump right now. I hoped that doctor fellow could be telling me what it was.”

“What if it’s not any natural thing?”

I stood up straight then. Those who know me know some of the low-down wicked spell-hurlers I’ve dealt with in my time. Mister Onselm and his Ugly Bird, Mister Loden who’d lived three hundred years and might have lived three hundred more if not for me, Shull Cobart who Evadare and I both were saved from by Kalu Barebones, Brooke Altic and his Shonokin people who said they ruled these lands before either Indians or white men came, and who meant to do so again. Rowley Thorne who I met in Equestria, and many the more besides. All of them mighty evil and evilly mighty, and I didn’t feel the least bit sorry for stopping them. All dead and gone, I thought, or were they?

“If it’s something a-hiding itself in my dreams to be doing this,” I told Evadare, “then that’s where I’ve got to be a-meeting it.” I walked over to my shelf and took down two-three books that I’ve used aforetimes. The Long-Lost Friend from up in the Pennsylvania Dutch country, blessed and helpful to me and many a more. The book by Albertus Magnus that uses so many holy names it might as well be a prayer in itself. And Spence’s Encyclopeda of Occultism.

I opened the last one first. I read for dreams and nightmares, and found what I was a-looking for. “’If a sorcerer wishes vengeance upon some enemy’,” I read out loud, for Evadare and Manco as well as myself, “’let him and his fellows gather in concert’…”

“Like a witches’ coven,” Reuben Manco muttered. “Or like the singing to death I’ve read of, done overseas in the Pacific islands. I’m sorry John, please go on.”

“’Let the sorcerer and his fellows gather in concert’,” I read the words, and felt myself getting colder as I did, “’and enter the dreams of their enemy, by the insignia and spells taught by a conjured angel to Dr. John Dee. Once there, let them remain hidden and use their collected will to alter the dream to their own desires. By so doing they may make an end of him, by either slaying him in body or reducing him to self-destruction.” I thought back on what my dreams were like the past month or so, and said, “That sounds rightly like what they’re a-doing. Whoair they might be.”

“They want you to kill yourself,” Reuben said, his voice grave. He walked over to me and looked me in the face, making sure I heard ary word he said. “That or exhaust you to the point where they can attack more directly with magic or more mundane means, and kill you that way.”

“No!” Evadare hurried over and hugged me good and hard. “You know what they’re doing, can’t you stop them now?”

“If they came at him any other way, even magically,” Reuben Manco told us both, “I and John could do something about it. Bless the house with cedar and tobacco, with prayers to your God and mine, and it would make them retreat. But in dreams?” He rubbed his chin and frowned, the wrinkles in his face going deeper. He looked up. “John, show me the picture of that ritual figure again, the one from the book.”

“Here it is,” I said, a-handing it to him. “It looks the least bitty bit familiar to me, though I misremember where I’ve seen it before.”

He took the book and looked at the image, frowning more than before. He set it down on the table between us.

“This isn’t any of the Enochian poor deceived Doctor Dee got through his conjurings with Ed Kelley,” he finally said. Tapping the writing in the figure, he said, “It reminds me more of the ideographs I’ve seen used for Chinese, or something like that. I’ve read enough in my field, and I think you have as well John, to know that there are rumors that Dee actually did once manage to summon an angel at the court of Emperor Rudolph. An angel in the shape of a great winged unicorn, black as night. Normally I would question that, but given the story you told me and Evadare about those three days you were missing…”

“Those horse-folks wouldn’t be doing air such a thing,” I told them both. “If they were a-wanting to be talking to me again, they’d try and visit me, not use some witch’s magic on me.”

“You know them better than I do,” was all Reuben Manco said. Leastways they didn’t look funny at me any more when I talked of it, even though they’d seen Twilight and her friends right as I came back to them. I thought no more of it then. Reuben Manco didn’t say any more on it either, just went back to what he’d been saying afore.

“As I was saying, John, it seems the best way for you to handle this is to go into those dreams of yours again, and to look for the parts that don’t belong, and examine them closely.”

“See what doesn’t belong,” I repeated him. “I remember thinking then and now that I and those other fellows that were there were what didn’t belong. But I’ll do what you say. Find what’s in my dreams and a-making them worse, scout them out and find out whoair they are and whatair they want.”

“Exactly,” Reuben said. He reached into the pocket of his old shirt, made from deerskin and set with beadwork, and took out something that glittered brassily in the light. I looked the closer and saw it to be an old pocket watch, the kind that railroad conductors used to use, big and heavy and with a train worked into the metal of the lid.

“Glad now I kept this after leaving Dartmouth,” he said to no one in particular. “It would be better if we did this under more controlled circumstances,” Reuben lead me to the bed with Evadare following. “But right now speed is more important.” He made me to lie down on it and held that watch up afore my eyes. It shone in the light from the lamps. He began to spin it lightly. “Watch this, John. Focus all your attention on it.”

I did, a-knowing what he was doing and not being worried the way I might could be if someone else were to be a-doing this. This was hypnotism, or entrancing some folks called it. I never had it done to me afore but I’d seen it be done one-two times, and some witch-folks I’d fought against did something like it but the stronger to bring you under their will.

“I’ll put you under,” he told me, his voice going smooth. “This way, if or when something goes wrong, we can bring you back out that dream swiftly. Trust me, John, my friend and blood brother. Trust and relax. Relax. Relax and return to the frozen valley, knowing we will stand by to aid you. Relax…”

I sort of fell into those words of his. I felt like I was sinking down away from the goose-down filled pillow and straw-stuffed mattress, away from the when and now I was in and back towards memories I kept a-wishing I could forget forever. I felt for maybe a moment long like something circled out there around me in the dark, like a pack of hungry wolves ready to bite or maybe something stranger and nastier than wolves, something or other like the Flat or the Raven Mockers. Then I felt a jerk like from falling off a wagon into the snow.

And I looked and saw what I knew I’d see. Snow everywhere, and barren rocks, and the sky gray and hanging low overhead like the lid of a chest you were being shut up in. The wind whipped and howled in my ears near as loud as the mean I heard a-fighting and dying all around me air place, bullets whipped all over. Bugles blew harsh and shrill, a music you nair wanted to hear, because a moment later came the sound of Chinese burp guns and mortars and wild yells full of anger and hate and maybe even fear.

“Here come the Chinks!” I saw a fellow I’d not seen for twenty years and more, short and gaunt and stubbly, dirty blond hair poking out under that round green helmet of his, looking and smelling like a bath would do him as much good as me right then. He raised his rifle and fired, and I marveled that I heard the flat crack over ary thing else. He looked at me. “Get up, damn you! Keep lying there and those guys will –“Another crack then, ending in a wet noise, and he fell back and kicked the once. I didn’t look at his face. He didn’t have one any more.

I snatched my rifle and sat up, looking over the rocks me and my platoon were a-sitting in when it all happened. Snow whipped at our faces and I made to squint. But I saw them. What looked like a rising tide, a whole sea’s worth of men in padded coats yelling and waving banners and blowing their horns and a-shooting at us. For this was Frozen Chosin, and those were the Chinese soldiers that came into the war then, and they were a-coming to try and kill us all.

I snatched my rifle up, aimed as best I could, and started to shoot. I saw one fellow after another drop down, and if I regretted it later, I regretted it the less than I did the fellows I saw falling all around me, fellows I knew. Some shot, some hurled grenades, and maybe one or two just huddled in terror until the sergeant kicked them up and got them shooting using words you wouldn’t want written for your last.

“Where the hell are the quad fifties?” Someone yelled right close by. He started to stick his head up to get a better look, but the sergeant yanked him down and gave him a kick to boot.

“They’re there! Hear them shooting?” We all tried to listen, and I did hear them off somewheres, going like mad with the heavy sound of their firing. I heard another noise too, one I knew but shouldn’t have heard there. High-pitched frantic screams like a woman in terror. They were the kind of noises a horse makes. But more familiar, someways.

I slipped down from my place on the rock and headed back where I heard them. I half wondered why no one yelled at me to get back where I belonged until I remembered. This was a dream, something long gone by. And maybe whoair was after me here wanted me off from even dreams that might could be a help.

Well, I thought as I headed for that panicked screaming, whoair is doing this better hope they don’t catch me now. Because while I didn’t like using it to shoot people I had a rifle in my hands, and if someone meant to try sneaking around in my head and a-using things like this against me and maybe other folks too, when I found them I’d give them a reason to know why old General Sherman said war is hell.

I thought that and rounded a turn in the rocks and double quick slammed my rifle to my shoulder when I saw a squad of Chinese led by a man in clothes that looked like they belonged in the hills charging right at me. No, I thought even as I fired, bam-bam-bam-bam-bam-bam-bam-bam and then that ping! as the clip came out. Eight men dropped down afore me to nair rise up again in this world; the one who’d been in the back of them turned and slipped off, vanishing like between one breath and the next. They weren’t a-charging me, but a-charging –

“Lord have mercy!”

A tiny horse huddled between the rocks, about the size of a newborn foal, eyes tight and screaming. A little mare I’d known once for three days, purple as Spring lilacs with a pink-purple six-pointed star marking her flank and a spiral horn six-eight inches long a-rising from her forehead.

“Twilight Sparkle? Whatair are you a-doing here?”

Chapter 5

Chapter 5

When I saw just where my fool head had dropped Twilight and me, I near about grabbed her and jumped over the side of the boat and into the water. Then I minded me what I’d seen in that water all those years ago, and what it might be here and now with those lowflung Shonokin a-using around, and kept my seat.

“I ain’t paying you to laze about, Johnny!” I ducked not quite fast enough. A fat heavy fist clouted me alongside the ear. “You and Miss whatever-her-name-is get to rowing or I’ll be a-throwing you from this boat!”

I looked up at Ranson Cuff and saw him in my memories as I remembered him from life. Maybe not so tall as I remembered, for I’d grown my own self since, but big. Built broad and squat, so much so he looked shorter than he was, but that same heavy face and lemon sour complexion. His eyes set close enough together that you’d think he could peek through a keyhole with both at once. And that bony little nose of his, the only bony thing to that whole hateful face he owned.

I reckon maybe a moment long I thought about snatching up that oar of mine and seeing if it wasn’t just a little bitty bit harder than his head. Then I minded me what would be a-happening and bent to rowing.

“Yes, Mister Cuff, sir,” I said, and sent us through the water. He glared at Twilight. I wondered me why he didn’t notice airy odd thing about her. Little purple unicorns stand out most places I’ve been. I reckon it must have been that it was a dream, for all he did was to yell at her the way he did at airy person who had to take it from him.

“You deaf or just stupid, girl? Get to using that oar ‘fore I toss you over the side for bait.”

Twilight looked at him like he was a bug under her foot. She glanced sidelong at me and how I dressed back then, in whatever castoffs Ranson tossed away, and her face got harder still. I gave her a quick be-silent with a finger cross my lips. She snorted and took one oar in her magic, I guess you’d call it, and started rowing.

“Head us over in there,” Cuff said. He pointed over the water to a place where the frogsong sounded the loudest, to a spot among the hanging old trees and moss that glowed the faintest soft green. The ripe sort of smell from the water and rotting plants all about us seemed the stronger from there. “I’m planning to have me some frog legs for dinner, and I hear a whole nation of them in there. We’re a-going in for them.”

“Hold on, Mister Cuff,” I said. He turned on me with a scowl, like he always did. I wondered myself why I tried to help a man who’d done wrong by me and air other person I knew, but I said it airy way. “I heard tell of that place from the Indians,” I started in on what that old Indian I remembered from those days told us both that night. For whatair reason Twilight seemed to be here in his place, so I supposed maybe I ought to be a-doing this. “They said it’s no use to go a-sticking frogs in there. That place belongs to Khongabassi. The Frogfather, they call him.”

“Indian talk.” Cuff spat over the side. He looked at me, his eyes narrowing the more, bored and mean. “Indian talk you mouth to me. Boy, do I have to give you a whipping again?”

“I’m just a-telling you, Mister Cuff,” I responded him. “It’s the worst kind of bad luck to go after frogs right there.” I pointed ahead of us at the green glow among all those trees, over and in the water. We’d gotten closer and it looked the brighter, but not quite like I remembered from that long-ago night. Not exactly. I wondered me if it had a nasty sheen to it that minded me of a snake with poison in his jaws. “They told me that Frogfather doesn’t like it when the frogs get killed, and least of all when it’s done right at his front door. They said he’d come out and after whoair did it, and they’d not like it.”

Cuff just scowled the more. He sudden like snatched his gig up and made to hit me with it.

“Now listen to me, you little…” Suddenlike the boat rocked under him and he grabbed for the sides. I saw how Twilight gave me the least little smile and knew why the boat did that. He made sure to be steady and snapped at me, “No more nonsense out of your fool mouth, you hillbilly. You take me in there. Remember, your old aunt owes me more money that she can pay.” He smiled all fondly at that. Ranson Cuff sure enough liked it when someone owed him money, even better when they couldn’t pay in coin and he took it in whatair of theres he liked, be it this boat we were in or food off their table or a hog from their shed. He liked that better than if they gave it to him for a gift, not that airy soul ever liked him that much.

“She owes me,” he said, his round face going sour again, “and you’re working for me until it gets paid off. And if I get wet or the boat gets damaged or any other thing happens I don’t like, you work to pay for that too.” I knew the next words a-coming from his mouth before I air heard them, he said them so often. “You know what that makes you to me, boy?”

“A slave,” I told him back, and even though I knew this for a dream, and minded me that I’d been gone and free of him for more years than I cared to think, those words coming from my mouth still shamed me. The way Twilight looked on, her eyes going all wide, made it nair better.

“That’s right,” Cuff said, sounding almost gleeful. “I own you, boy. And you too!” He reached down and slapped Twilight alongside the head. “Now get yourselves a-rowing. I want my dinner already.”

We started a rowing again, and I felt kindly less sorry about what would be happening than I’d been afore. I caught me a glimpse of Twilight’s face. Her brow furrowed and her mouth worked like she worked on something to say, like any human man or woman would when they think hard.

“Mister Cuff?? Sir?” When he just spat over the side again, she added in a voice that made it sound like she’d just eaten something sour, “Master? Tell me, how did I become your property?”

“How?” Cuff turned and sneered at her, opened his mouth to talk, and suddenlike froze. “How… did I…”

For maybe four-give seconds it seemed like air thing about us all stopped. The frogs stopped their croaking. The smell all about just took itself away. I didn’t even feel the wood of the boat under me or the oar in my hands. The green glow in amongst the trees gave a sort of shiver, like it took fright.

“How did you come to own me, Mister Cuff?” Twilight said again. I saw how she looked proud, like some folks do when they make a right clever move in checkers or chess.

I wondered me what it all meant. And then it all came back. Like some picture movie stopped running for a few moments and began running again.

“You’re here because your family owes me money on their boat and line of traps,” he spat. “I loaned them money all neighborly-like, and when they didn’t pay me back they had the choice of giving me their boat or a-giving me you to work it off.” He reached down and slapped her again alongside the ear. “That jog your memory, girl?”

“It certainly does, Mister Cuff,” Twilight said, and a-started rowing again. Cuff turned his back on us and squatted down like a big old toad. He held the lantern out in the one hand and held the gig ready to stab with the other.

I made sure he didn’t look and leaned in close to Twilight.

“Whatair was that all about?” I asked her as quiet as I could. “You nair were here.”

She smiled back on me.

“That’s right,” she said, sounding happy. “I was never here, and I wanted to see how this, or they, would react if I broke the script.” She nodded at me. “You saw what Cuff did? And how this place reacted? I don’t think a real dream would do that, skip like a record jumping. Not unless someone was trying to guide it.”

I felt my own eyes go the wider.

“So you reckon the Shonokin are right close by?” I looked at Cuff. She shook her head, tossing her mane like any horse you air saw.

“Yes, but not him.” Twilight looked up ahead at that nasty green glow, now near bright enough to read by. “I think he would have done, well, something else if he were one of the Shonokin. He’s a part of this, like a piece in a game, just being played.” She nodded ahead.

“Whatever we have to worry about is in there.”

And we just kept a-rowing to meet God alone knew what.

Because whatair else could we do?

#

Twilight ignored her disgust at the situation for a few moments as they slid into the lagoon. The trees and odor and damp were everywhere here, and even stronger than outside. Dream or not, her muscles twitched under her coat like a fly bit her at the humidity. The water however looked very clear, lacking the rusty stain she usually associated with bog water. There must not be any iron deposits here to taint the water. She looked at Cuff and scowled.

He caught it from the corner of one eye. His whole ugly little face scowled as he raised the gig like to hit her with it again.

“You heed me, girl, or I’ll throw you out here and now to swim back.” Behind her John gave her shoulder a warning squeeze.

“Yes, Mister Cuff,” she said as she kept rowing. He turned back to see to the frogs. Twilight wondered briefly how this could go on in any land that even pretended to civilization. Diamond Dogs kept slaves, griffons did once, but ponies never did. She squirmed as a nasty memory rose. Well, except for Sombra, and he was enough. And unicorns and pegasi, in the age of the Three Tribes. We’re not quite so pure as I’d like us to be.

Twilight fought down her revulsion at Cuff as he snapped at her and John, “Now guide us in closer now, and be quiet. I see a fat one right there.” He squatted down in front of her like a large toad or especially repellent dragon, the gig held in one meaty hand.

“So do I,” she muttered so softly under her breath that not even John heard it. She caught a glimpse of what he aimed for. It was a large frog, big even by Equestrian standards, a wetly brilliant green and with eyes that shone as fine and many-colored as a dragon’s jewels in the lamp-light. The gig shot out, faster than she thought a man like Cuff could move, and when it drew back the poor frog was kicking on the end of it. Its mouth gaped like it begged for help.

Cuff smacked it against the side of the boat and it went limp. He knocked it off the end and into the boat. She caught the smile on his face and realized that this was the real joy to him. Not the eating, but the killing.

“Now get me in there closer and no trouble from you two,” he gave her a look like he wanted to kill her almost as much as the frogs. Twilight reminded herself what was really going on here and gathered herself. She needed to be wary about her magic in this dream, but if Cuff tried anything to her or John she’d take her chances.

She looked around and froze. Down in that clear water, she saw something like a massive pile of old trees and wooden stumps set against the bottom of the lagoon. The green glow came from within, and from it, something large swam in the direction of the boat. It kicked out sideways frog-fashion, pushing itself forward with broad flippers, but it reached out ahead of it with the forelegs like she imagined John’s folk would need to. Fingers with webbing between them tipped those forepaws.

Claws tipped those fingers.

And the eyes showed slit pupils.

“Here it comes,” John said behind her.

“No,” Twilight said, handing her oar back to him and getting her magic ready. “Here they come.”

“What are you two fools doing?” Cuff swung the gig up, ready to crack them with it. “Do I have to give you both a whipping tonight afore I even eat? I –“

A large wet-green brown-splotched hand, darker on top and lighter on the palm with grey skin stretching between those clawed fingers, seized hold of the thwart between her and Cuff.

He started and said words in John’s language she didn’t know but doubted were a blessing as a massive green head, broad and with green-lit eyes, rose to join that claw. A mouth that stretched from one side of the head to the other opened and a heavy, angry croak came out. She saw teeth like needles inside that mouth, sharp and ready to grip. The boat rocked under her. John called out behind her,

“Twi! Watch out, the boat’s near ready to tip over!”

She didn’t get to answer. Cuff gave one yell and then with a shrug the Frogfather reached out with both massive muscled arms and seized him by the shoulder and neck. It fell back into the water and Cuff went with it.

And so did Twilight.

“John!” She yelled. Or tried to. The foul-tasting water that filled her mouth choked it in her. She looked up and saw John’s face distorted by the water as he looked down at her, eyes wide with dread. She glanced down as she kicked wildly, trying to reach the boat. Frogfather swam into his green-lit den of logs and vanished, still bearing a feebly-kicking Cuff.

Twilight felt herself sinking. She lacked access to her Earth pony endurance, but she found new strength as she swam her way up towards the boat. She forced herself to ignore the part of her mind that yelled at her to use magic or her wings. She fought even harder against the animal part of her mind that only whinnied in panic.

She rose and sucked eagerly at the air as the water streamed along her mane and face.

“Twilight!” John steered the boat over to her and helped her clamber in. Coughing and choking, she did so. “I thought you were gone for sure,” John slapped her on the back by her withers as she spat the water out.

“I thought so too,” Twilight said. She shook herself like a dog. John didn’t yell or try to dodge, he simply made sure of their lantern. “What happens next in this dream, usually?”

“It usually sure enough ends right about now,” John turned to the oars and began turning the boat around. He pulled strongly at them, sending them back towards the entrance to Frogfather’s realm. “Funny thing, though, in the dream and in real life the boat always turned over when Frogfather grabbed Cuff. I wonder if maybe the Shonokin changed it. But why would they do that?”

“Huh, why is right…” Twilight looked at the lantern where it hung, right over some bottles of lamp oil. “Wait, did we have that oil on the boat before?”

“What oil?”

Frogfather rose from the water with a sibilant laugh that in no way belonged to that massive body and smashed the lantern down into the oil and the wooden boat. Fire roared up like a dragon breathed on them.

“John!” She gave a whinny as arms wrapped around her and John hurled them both into the water. Not again! As they rose to the surface, she yelled. “What the hay, John!” Behind them both the boat burned, far too fast for any normal fire.

“Twilight!” He pointed to the shore. She knew it couldn’t be more than a few lengths, but it looked so very far. “We got to swim for it fast! Frogfather, that Shonokin that looked like him, is down there!” He immediately struck out for it.

Twilight looked down and saw something massive heading for them under the water.

“John, hurry!”

He didn’t hear or maybe just was already swimming as fast as he could. Frogfather, the Shonokin, closed in on him with ease. It snatched at his legs and began pulling him down.

Twilight took the deepest breath she could, aimed her horn like a spear, and somehow forced herself forward fast enough to feel it drive into Frogfather. A horrible roar sounded in her ears, followed by a scornful laugh as the monster turned on her. Twilight froze.

He wanted me to do this!

The clawed hands sank into her like fishhooks. What felt like red-hot nails sank deep into her flesh. She bit against the shriek in her throat.

And that was all that kept air in her lungs as Frogfather dragged her under.

She kicked in terror. Her hooves drummed on the monster’s sides. If he felt he gave no sign, he just dove deeper. Twilight wondered why Frogfather didn’t use his fangs or claws. They would have torn her apart in moments. Why bother, a cold part of her mind said. You’ll drown swiftly enough.

The water grew darker around her. They must be reaching the bottom, or maybe that was just the lack of oxygen. She looked around and saw bones all about, wrapped in the water plants, bones from alligators and bears and deer and men. Some still held fishing gigs or knives in bony hands. She remembered her lessons about how long a pony could last underwater without air. Three minutes? Less? How long had she been under? It felt like forever.

She kicked and tried to drive her horn into Frogfather. It sank in, but barely. That was still enough to make it wince and move its claws to her face. She clamped her jaws as it began trying to force them apart.

Her mouth began to open, and Frogfather suddenly recoiled. Twilight forced herself not to gasp as she saw John. He’d swum down behind it and snatched a knife from one of the skeletons. Now he used it on Frogfather. Not cutting but stabbing, pushing it in and sawing it back and forth. Twilight broke away and began swimming for the surface. She wished desperately she were in her through-the-portal human form from Canterlot High. Hands would be so very useful right about now. She paused to look back and froze.

Frogfather held John’s knife hand with one claw and with the other was forcing his head in towards his jaws. He fought, tried to claw at its eyes. It ignored him and opened its jaws wide to bite his head off.

If I go back to help I may not make it up. If I use magic we may all die.

She swam back down as she thought it. She couldn’t move fast enough to use her horn like a lance. So she just set it against Frogfather’s body and called up a spell she hadn’t used since the fight against Tirek. And before that, at the Battle of Canterlot against Swarm Chrysalis.

Frogfather felt like a bag filled with jelly against her head. She maneuvered to set herself between its body and John’s and triggered the spell.

Raw magical energy blasted out from the end of her horn, a directional blast straight into the bag of jelly.

Something dark and foul exploded into the water around her, the shockwave pushing both her and John to the surface. A voice shrieked in agony as they broke into air again, gasping and choking.

“Twi! Whatair did you do?”

“Saved us!” Twilight pointed to the shore and its gnarled trees, lit by the burning flatboat. A glance downwards showed no sign of Frogfather beyond a massive roiling dark cloud in the water like an underwater thunderstorm. Chunks of something floated in and around it.

Neither of them needed any further encouragement as they swam for shore and safety.

#

“Howdy, y’all!”

Applejack trotted through the front door of Sugarcube Corner, two baskets of Sweet Apple Acres’ finest bouncing against her sides. The ponies inside, Thunderlane and Derpy and Bon Bon, greeted her with smiles.

“Mrs Cake, Ah fetched those apples ya special-ordered!”

“That you did, dear,” The portly mare behind the counter looked over the apples with a critical eye. They shone red as heart’s-blood rubies in the light, and looked even bigger. Applejack lifted her head a little higher when Mrs. Cake said, “Flawless, the same as always. Pinkie will be delighted, she’s working on her, eh…”

“Something a little different?” Applejack suggested.

“Something totally new and deliciouseriffic!” Pinkie bounced up between the two mares. Once Applejack would have wondered where her friend came from, and how. Now she just took it in stride as Pinkie somehow began to balance the baskets on top of her poofy mane, saying, “It’s gonna be my best recipe yet! Apple Cupcake with caramel candy covering…” She froze, twitched two or three times, then her mane deflated. AJ and Mrs. Cake barely caught the apple bushels in time, setting them on the counter.

“Pinkie, dear! What’s the problem?”

“Pinkie?” Applejack gulped. Pinkie’s mane and tail hung straight to the floor like that of her sisters, her eyes wide and glazed.

Applejack had seen her like this only a few times, and none of them had been good. A glance showed her the rest of the ponies in the room looking at them both with sudden concern. “What’s th’ problem?”

“Bad.” Pinkie said, her voice a distant monotone like her big sister Maud as she turned to face the door. AJ moved to stand beside her as the other ponies began clearing the way between the two mares and the entrance. “Real bad. Not Tirek’s-coming-back bad but still bad.”

“But what?”

Applejack’s answer came with a sound of steel-shod hooves on cobblestones and the door slamming open.

“Lady Applejack! Lady Pinkamena!” A pair of Pegasus Royal Guards barged in, led by a Captain in high-crested helmet who almost flew across the room to them. “You must come with us immediately!”

In almost the same breath the two other Royal Guards got behind the two Earth Ponies and rushed them towards the door. They didn’t stop even when Applejack whinnied fury.

“Now hold on there, partner!” Applejack pinned her ears back. “What’s so goldurned important ya have ta…”

“No time!” The officer responded. “Princess Celestia’s own command! Have to get all five of you to Canterlot right now!” By now they were outside, at the center of a ring of staring ponies, being hustled towards two royal pegasus chariots sitting in the street where it widened at the old well. Another pair of Pegasus Day Guards were in the traces of each, forehooves scraping the dirt and powerful wings – large even for pegasi – half-opened, ready for takeoff.

Applejack dug her hooves in; the guardspony pushing her collided with an “Oooof!”

She was about to repeat her question when the Captain said, “Princess Twilight is in grave danger! The Elements are needed to help her!”

“Huh?” Applejack blinked and leaped into the chariot. “Why didn’t ya say as much already? Let’s get going!”

A straight-maned Pinkie already stood in the near chariot, somehow with saddlebags on her sides and containing some of her baking from the smell.

“I keep them ready for summoned-in-a-hurry emergencies.”

AJ didn’t question. Outside, the Guard officer looked around as though seeking somepony.

“What’re we waitin’ for?” Applejack pointed her hoof in the direction of Canterlot. “Y’all said we were in a hurry!”

“We need all the Elements, Lady Applejack!”

“Captain Sirocco!”

With a rustle of wings two more Guardsponies dropped down, hovering just off the ground. They looked disappointed; so did the Captain.

“Where are the Ladies Rarity and Fluttershy?”

“Not at their homes!” The first guard said, and the second added, “Both Lady Fluttershy’s cottage and Carousel Boutique are closed, no sign of them!”

Did somepony grab them too? Applejack wondered and then facehoofed. She knew where they were.

“Spa Day!”

Everypony looked to see a small green and purple dragon running up to them as fast as his short legs could manage. In one claw he held a rolled scroll, and he yelled as he came.

“It’s Spa Day! Rarity and Fluttershy…” Spike took a deep breath, “will be at Ponyville Spa! The big tent-building off from the Town Square!” He collapsed by the chariot, his sides heaving as he panted for air.

Captain Sirocco didn’t waste any time.

“Get them and bring them here, now!”

The two hovering pegasi shot down Library Lane to the town square, heads down and wings snatching for more speed. Ponies scattered in all directions.

“Doggone ya, Spike!” Applejack leaned over the side of the chariot. Pinkie wasn’t joking or even bouncing in eagerness to be off, she just looked at Canterlot, mane still deflated, as deadpan as any of her sisters. That frightened Applejack more than she wanted to admit, and with nothing else she lt it out at Spike. “Why didn’t ya tell us soon as ya got that message? We coulda been ready by now!”

“I got the message,” Spike panted back. “Just a few minutes ago! It’s a long run from the castle to here!”

“That’s right, Spike, and Ah’m sorry,” Applejack looked down at the scroll in his claws, bound with a crimson emergency ribbon. “What-all does it say? Anything ‘bout what’s happening ta Twi?”

Spike unrolled it, his breathing slowing as be began catching his breath.

“To the Bearers of the Elements of Harmony,” Spike read. “You are summoned to Canterlot IMMEDIATELY. Accompany the Guardsponies I am sending for you. This is an emergency. More than Twilight’s life is at stake…” Spike’s eyes went wide. “Twilight! If she’s in trouble, I gotta come too!”

He began clambering up into the chariot beside Applejack and Pinkie.

“We were told to bring only the Element Bearers,” the captain began to say.

“He is an Element Bearer, or might as well be,” Applejack snapped back.

“An’ he helped save us more than once,” Pinkie Pie kept looking at Canterlot as she spoke. “We go, he goes.”

The captain looked displeased but didn’t say anything. Then Rarity and Fluttershy came galloping back up the street, the two Guardsponies flying escort above them.

Rarity was not happy; her mane hung dark and wet as she glared at the captain.

“What is this all about? Fluttershy and I were in the midst of an utterly magnificent bath, and then you come racing in demanding that we come with you! Normally I am delighted to have a stallion be so ardent for my company, but right now… Rarity’s eyes swept her friends and her voice lost its frivolous tone. “Applejack? Pinkie? Spike? What’s wrong?”

“Oh dear!” Fluttershy leaped into in the empty chariot. “It’s not some new monster, is it? I was hoping we were done with that sort of thing.”

Applejack filled them in. “We’re needed at the Sun Palace right now. Twi’s in danger!”

“WHA-HA-HAAT?” Rarity seemed to teleport into the other chariot beside Fluttershy. “What are we waiting for?”

“Lady Rainbow Dash!” Captain Scirocco looked from Applejack and Pinkie to Rarity and Fluttershy. “She’s needed as well, but she’s not home! Do any of you know where she is?”

“Dash?” AJ looked up at the sky. A few fluffy clouds were visible, but no rainbow-colored tail hung down from any of them. “Oh, no, she could be near about anywhere!” She turned to drop down from the chariot. “If ya need any help…”

The captain blocked her path.

“Lady Applejack, the best help you can give now is to hurry to Canterlot!” AJ fell back on the floor of her chariot with a yell as the pegasi couriers surged against the traces, barely clearing the rooftops as they took off for Canterlot. A second later, the chariot with Rarity and Fluttershy joined them, climbing for altitude. The last words AJ she heard over the windblast was the Captain’s yell to his remaining guards.

“FIND HER!”

“Dash,” AJ muttered as she crouched against the windblast, “wherever ya are, get ta Canterlot right quick. ‘Cause something tells me this ain’t gonna be easy!”

Chapter 6

Chapter 6

“So where are we now?” Twilight looked around afore she dropped and rolled in the dirt underfoot, like any horse in my world you could name. When she got back up she looked drier. Maybe I envied her the least little bit for how easy it was for her to get clean. “This isn’t that swamp.”

“It purely isn’t,” I responded her, and it wasn’t, either. None of that creeping moss hanging like ruined curtains in some haunt’s house, or the smell like something rotten, or the thick heavy swamp-plants all underfoot. Not night any more, either. It minded me of something. I said as much out loud.

“Well, it should, shouldn’t it?” Twilight walked past me and down the trail we stood on. “Whatever it is, it’s something from your memories.”

I tried minding myself what this place must be as I walked along that trail aside Twilight. It looked old enough to have been used by the first settlers and the Indians afore them. Dirt packed down beneath and half-seen animal prints in it, deer and rabbit and something that minded me of a man’s hand. Except I nair saw any man-print that showed claws tipping the fingers. Not airy natural man, airy way.

“It feels familiar, is all I can rightly say now,” I told her. I looked ahead and saw more trail and trees ahead. No sign of any sneaking Shonokin, and I didn’t, well, I didn’t feel like they were using around us right then. I said as much to Twilight and, “Might be what you did to the one playing at being Frogfather scared them off for now. I thank you again for that.” She didn’t say a thing, just kept trotting along. I added, “I mind me what you did when we first met. You’ve been a-learning since then and no mistake.”

“Thanks,” Twilight’s mane half hid her face when she spoke, but she sounded unsettled. “They’re our enemies, and I, I suppose I helped kill Sombra, and fought Tirek to the end, but I still don’t like hurting anypony whoever they are.”

“Who are these fellows Sombra and Tirek?” I inquired her. “Fellows from your world like Thorne and the Shonokin?”

She looked at me like she wondered what to say. She opened her mouth once or twice, sighed, and then pointed her horn at a long-fallen tree nearby. “Those Shonokin of yours don’t seem to be near. Maybe I should tell you what’s happened since we met.” She looked at her bare shoulders and frowned. “Even if I can’t prove it all right now.”

“I mind you said you had wings now, like Miss Dash and Fluttershy,” I went to set my guitar aside and didn’t feel the least bit happy to realize I didn’t have it with me. I looked down to see my army boots were on my feet. I took those with me after leaving the service. This must be some time when I wandered afore I got either my guitar or the learning I found. Back when I wondered what to do with myself after the fighting. I sat myself beside Twilight. “I purely hope they’re doing well. And Pinkie, and Miss Rarity, and Applejack and Spike and all the rest.”

“We’re all fine, which surprises me when I think about it.” Twilight smiled to say it. “It’s been a pretty lively past couple of years for us… How long has it been for you?”

“Near ‘bout the same, I figure.” I did some wondering. “It seems time passes more normal-like atween out worlds now. Normal for us, airy way.” I stretched my leg but didn’t feel tired as I would in my own old waking-word body after all I’d done. That was maybe the one part of this I liked.

But not so much as what I’d hear next.

“We-ell…” Twilight said, and started to speak. I tell you all, I wish you could have been there to hear it. She’d seen things like some hero from the old stories my greatest-grandmother and father might could have brought over the seas with them. How she and her friends stopped a wicked queen that a-tried making slaves of her people and a-turning herself into the lady her brother loved, and using her to be killing, Cadence, I think she called her.

“Does that name sound odd to you?”

“Not when I think on just how much you ponies purely down love music.” I wondered me if I heard something flap heavy-like through the trees overhead. I looked as cautious as I could, I didn’t want to go frightening Twilight or letting whatair made that sound know I saw them, but nothing there. “I doubt me that was all that happened. And I nair would have thought you had a brother.”

“Heh, yeah, Pinkie Pie said that surprised more ponies than I’d ever know.” She smiled and narrated me some more, how she and her friends faced a wicked dead king and freed his poor folk from a-being his slaves, like someone from one of those stories the brothers they call Grimm wrote about.

And more, about how those Elements of theirs changed again and became part of them like that magic they all used. I wondered me how crazy this would all sound to airy other soul alive, like something they show on that television I keep a-hearing of down in the towns.

And more still from Twilight. How she became what she called an alicorn.

“But you always had one of those,” I bespoke her, pointing to her horn. She wondered at me with her eyes and blinked.

“They used to call unicorn horns by that word a long time ago in my world, before the Princesses… They use it in your world too?” She looked around for something to write it down with and sighed. “I so hope I can visit your world for real someday. Like Canterlot High. I have to learn what your people know.”

“Like what place now?”

She told me how she’d gone to another world chasing another student of Celestia’s, someone named Sunset who’d gone bad and needed to be shown that she’d done wrong. All human folks there she said, or near all. “Not like your people though. More – colorful, like us; same coat colors, same mane colors, same names, like a reflection of Equestria. But music could be as strong there as when you used it. I wish you could have seen it.”

“I’d not dare, save I had a friend like you with me for the company.”

She grinned and finished it up. More troubles in that other place, but with Sunset a-helping this time, against three sirens like from the old-timey stories of the Greeks. Stopping them, and then finally facing down what sounded like the devil his own self, something she called Tirek.

And as she bespoke me, something else that made me feel uneasy, like someone was nearby, a-watching and a-hating on us both. I looked around and listened with whatever attention I could spare from Twilight, but nair sign, nair sound, of anyone, be they Shonokin or whatair.

“You’ve had a time for yourself, and no mistake,” I told Twilight. She blushed as I said, “Did I air tell this to anyone, they’d nair believe a single word of it.”

“There was a lot more,” Twilight admitted. “Things I consider at least as important – helping old friends, making some new friends, learning and seeing new places and a new home, I still miss the library, and trying to teach some of what you showed me about protective magic when I could find the time.” She sighed. “I’m pretty busy these days.”

“Not so busy that you couldn’t come here and let me drag you into my troubles, sorry to say.” I patted her on the withers. That minded me. “You say you have wings now, and are as strong as Applejack. Whereair did they go?”

“I’m not sure,” Twilight scratched her chin and frowned. “I think it’s because this isn’t my physical form, and this is your dream-realm. Luna told me that since you remembered me as a unicorn that I might find myself turned back into one.”

I reckon I felt the worse then. It must have showed, because she took me by the hand. It felt funny to have that little hoof holding me, but the look in her eyes was as kindly as any human born of woman that air lived, and more so than some.

“It’s not your fault! It’s nothing you can help. I did pretty good as a unicorn, too.” She stood up and set her head against me. I patted her along the neck as she said, “And no talk about dragging me into your troubles. You’re a friend in trouble and I’m able to help. What else am I supposed to do?”

“I wish this didn’t fall on you along with me,” I gave her a gentle squeeze back. “But I’d be hanged for a liar if I didn’t admit I felt right glad you were here. Whereair ‘here’ is right now.” I thought for a second and minded myself of something I once read, and I said it to her. “’Great perils have this beauty, that they bring to light the fraternity of strangers’.”

“Yes!” Twilight looked double interested at those words. She shook her head. “That sounds like something Celestia might say.” She smiled. “Something I might say too, these days.”

Something rustled in the bushes right nearby. We both heard the short sharp mean laugh.

That fast Twilight was up and atween me and it, her horn glowing as she faced the spot where that laugh seemed to come from. Whatair it was we didn’t see, and I can say I tried.

“Why don’t you come out?” Twilight said. She didn’t raise her voice but I heard how she meant bad business when she said it. “Come on out, and see if you find what we said as funny when we can look you in the face.” She scraped the ground with one front hoof, like any normal horse getting theirselves a-ready to fight.

Whoair was in there didn’t want any of it. We both heard, or maybe more felt, something sidle away. I can’t describe it so well as I wish, but it felt like the heaviness of cold and hating eyes on us slipped away. I tell you all, it felt good to not feel it any more.

“I think it’s best we were a-moving along again,” I said to Twilight. I looked down around and saw a few pieces of wood here-there on the ground, big enough to make a good torch or club with. I fetched the biggest piece up and held it. It made a fine good weight in my hands right then.

“I think you’re right,” Twilight bespoke me in turn. We both of us set off down that trail, a-watching the woods about us as we went and wondering whatair it was we would be running into next.

And with me hoping and a-praying that whatair it was, it wasn’t something of my memories that the Shonokin would use to make an end of us both.

#

Twilight kept her ears and eyes open as she traveled beside John through the woods, moving what felt vaguely like downhill. If direction had any meaning in what was basically a dream-world. She thought they could go faster if she could fly. That thought made her concentrate on restoring her wings. She felt magic stir in her, but only a hint of what she had back home. Twi looked at her shoulders and sighed. It was a shame John was so strong-willed. Then again, if he wasn’t, the Shonokin would be able to tear this whole place apart and kill us both.

That gave her an idea.

“John? Maybe I can get my wings back in here after all.”

“Howair do you mean to?” He loomed at her curious, and almost as young as some of her human friends at Canterlot High. But there was a shadow in his eyes that they never had. They never had to kill their own kind, which probably explained it. At least she hoped they didn’t.

“This place is really from your own memories, right? It’s your dream-realm,” Twilight waited for him to nod, looking wary. “Well, then you should be able to change it. Just concentrate on me having wings again, and it should work.” Twilight stood in front of him, legs braced. “I think.”

John’s eyes went wide. “I can surely try, but what if I make you into something else? Something like those Sunnytown ponies we met in your world? I’d not like that, and I reckon you’d like it the less.”

“That won’t happen,” Twilight said as she made herself relax. She closed her eyes. “Just think strongly of ‘pony with wings’ and I should be able to use that to take my true form back again.”

She couldn’t see his face, but after a moment she felt something pushing at her, reshaping her. It wasn’t like the sudden wrench she went through when she used the Mirror Gate – wait, there were so many of those mirrors, would one lead to this world? It was more like the sudden uncomfortably warm ‘flowing’ she felt when using polymorph magics. And somehow when it ended she felt very familiar.

“Twilight,” John said, sounding amused and dismayed at once, “I reckon it didn’t work. Not how you wanted it to, anyhow.”

“What do ya mean – Huh?!?”

Twilight found herself off the ground. Yay, wings! But her voice! Rough and scratchy and very memorable. She looked along her body. A sky-blue coat, a long lashing rainbow colored tail and mane...

“You turned me into Rainbow Dash?” She folded her forelegs and huffed as she glared at John. It took her a moment to realize that was how Dash showed annoyance and she quickly unfolded them.

“You told me to think on a flying pony, and Dash was the one that stuck out in my mind the best.”

“She’ll be glad to hear that,” Twilight said, dropping back to the ground. She prepared to take her old form back and hesitated. “Wait, could you think of an Earth pony?” She saw his confusion. “You know, like Applejack?”

“I’ll try,” John said, and she felt him do it. That warm stretching and pulling again, and when she looked over her withers she saw a golden mane and tail and burnt-orange coat. She raised one hind leg experimentally and felt Earth pony strength in it. John crouched down in front of her.

“You look rightly enough like Applejack to be her twin,” he said. “Whyair did you want me to be doing this to you?”

“It might be useful,” Twilight stretched and found she could restore herself to ‘unicorn’ by focusing her thoughts on her memories of herself. “I may not be able to throw a lot of unicorn magic around, but maybe Pegasus and Earth pony magic will be less damaging in here.” She sighed. "Then again, I'm still not very good with Earth pony or pegasus magic. Better to stick with what I know." She closed her eyes and thought of herself, what she saw in the mirror every morning. When she reopened them she was herself again.

John blinked to see it happen.

“You get yourself in trouble that bad, you do whatair you need to and nair mind me.”

“We are in trouble that bad,” she reminded John. She started off down the trail again. “And I won’t take chances that might maim or kill you, any more than you would me.”

Something snickered again nearby. John snatched his club up and she snorted at it. It reminded Twilight all too well of Chrysalis’ mockery. The way the Shonokin made themselves look somewhat human, and even their slit-pupil eyes, brought the Changeling Queen to mind as well. But the Changelings and Shonokin are two different species, aren’t they? Or are they? If humans can be counterparts to ponies, why not some other race to Changelings? She shook herself, mane slapping against her neck. Thinking about the possibility of meeting another Chrysalis did nothing to calm her.

Purely for something to talk about, and to stop herself from giving anything else away to their watchers, she said, “Just what are the plants and animals we can find around here?”

John told her, pointing them out as they went. “There’s wake-robin, the blue beside it is spider-wort, and those little rosy bits are twisted-stem…” She kept her eyes on the plants and her ears tuned to both John and the odd sounds about them and by that they passed, well, some period of time.

She would wonder later how much time passed before she looked up to see a town before them. Twilight blinked at the sight of it.

Wooden frame houses, so different from most of Equestria, reminding her best of one visit she’d made to the hard-living Whiteys, the ponies who lived deep in Whitetail Wood. They looked weathered, but firmly made. A small shop, enough like ones back home to bring a pang of memory. In the distance a schoolhouse almost exactly like Cheerilee’s in Ponyville, enough so that she half expected to see little fillies and colts come tumbling out.

She also heard somepony speaking. But no ponies – people – in sight.

She started forward, only to freeze as John took hold of her withers.

“Now I mind me of this place,” he said, his voice wary. A glance showed her how his eyes narrowed. “Better stick close by me, here. This was one of the worst scared times I air did know in my whole long life, even in Equestria.”

A wave of dread broke over Twilight like one of Sombra’s magical mind-game traps. Or when she’d faced down Thorne or Tirek at the height of their power.

“W-what time was that – this?”

“Remember in that Library tree of yours? When I told you about that grimoire like Thorn’s?”

They were all in the Library, after she first met John at Sweet Apple Acres, and she was telling him what had happened to her with Thorn. And he was interrupting, again.

“I reckon I can tell what you saw when he opened that book. The first part was all white paper pages with writing on them in red ink, a-looking to be done by hand. The second part was red paper pages, and the writing on them was in black ink. And the third and last part was all black paper with no words on them you could see, save when Thorn made you hide all the light away and then you saw silver letters come onto the page…”

Then something snapped inside her with the memory of Thorn’s “magick” and she was on top of him, ready to trample him, horn charged with magic and ready to fight, seeing only another of Thorn’s race under her hooves. Applejack’s voice coming from a great distance, trying to talk her down.

“HOW DO YOU KNOW?”

And John also trying to calm her down, speaking even more slow and careful than Applejack.

“When I was a young man, maybe a sight younger than you are now, I wandered into a town where they were a-burying a man that’d died and asked for someone to eat his sins and take all he possessed. Like a gone gump, I did just that because I was hungry and looking for a home place of my own. It was a low-down trick. The people who offered me the house and all in it meant for me to become a witch with them. They tried to trick me into it with money and then food, and when neither worked they offered me a book to read. It was like the one I just described. It almost took me, but I got away.”

She didn’t like where this was going. “Y-yes?”

“This is it.”

John let go of her withers and strode forward for a building she didn’t recognize, some sort of public hall like Ponyville Schoolhouse except larger and white instead of red, with a tall steeple crowning its belltower. The slow tolling of the bell rang in her head, her ears twitching down with each peal. He was four lengths ahead before she shook herself free of the memory and followed him.

Beside that building, a fenced-off yard filled with markers – rough-hewn stones similar to Pony memorial stones mixed with wooden stakes with crossbeams. By an open pit at the far corner, a small herd of “people” stood. Twilight looked with interest. This was the first time she’d seen any members of John’s race, aside from Thorn and those few men in that frozen place, but she didn’t care to remember Thorn and was too busy saving her life among the snow and ice. So she took a closer look as she followed John.

He walked right into the yard and stood on the outskirts of the small group. Twilight took it all in: the stallions – no, “men” – in rough clothes that showed signs of patching at the elbows, made of some fabric that showed in grays and browns and blacks, with white shirts beneath those long coats here and there. Many of them held broad-brimmed hats like Pinkie’s father wore in their hands, their scarred knuckles showing tight and pale. The mares – no, “women” – with them wore long dresses, slightly better kept than the men’s clothes but of the same sort of cloth. They all showed faces that reminded her of Applejack’s older relatives as well as of the hard-living Whiteys, lined and rough from weather and sun.

And in every one of those faces, dread mingled with satisfaction as they stared at the sight before them.

Another human-stallion stood there, in a long black coat like but unlike those of the Shonokin, holding a hat in one hand and a large open book bound in black leather in the other. Behind him and next to the open pit, what even she knew for a casket, plain wood with the lid nailed down. She dimly noticed something like a large dog lying beside it. So his folk practice inhumation like Earth Ponies, instead of cremation like Unicorns or “air burial” like Pegasi or “trench burial” like Sea Ponies… No marker tree? She looked at those faces again and saw the glee, no, the relief, there. No. Even if they do it normally or not, they don’t want any part of this one returning to them. Like Princess Celestia casting Thorn back to wherever he came from.

Beyond the casket and the crowd, two shrunken gray figures sat stiffly on the ground like naughty foals being disciplined, their backs to the hall. Confused, she looked at John.

“Old mountain custom,” he whispered to her. “Airy witch or person that sells their soul won’t look on a church ‘less they can’t help it.”

Twilight looked back at the figures. Their clothes were unwashed rags, their hair hung in a tattered mess. They looked like the saddest and most pitiful beggars she’d ever seen.

“Whoever they sold them to, they didn’t get paid enough,” she whispered back to John. He just nodded.

“And thus,” the human before the crowd said as he indicated the box behind him, “we set to rest Levi Brett,” a sudden intake of breath from the crowd, short and scared. “Our deceased,” his mouth seemed to work on an unpleasant taste, “brother.”

“And good riddance,” someone muttered somewhere in that crowd. The rest shifted like they felt they ought to rebuke them, but lacked the desire.

“He has left this request behind,” the black-coated man said. He set a thick leather packet down on the casket, along with a heavy bronze key. “For someone to eat his sins, take their weight on themselves, and pray out the evil that he did. For that person, he set aside the money in this wallet, a good fifty dollars.”

Twilight looked at John. Even here curiosity still worked in her. She whispered, "'Eat his sins'?"

"It's an old-timey custom, near dead even when I was a boy," John whispered back to her. "Someone who died without air confessing their sins and asking forgiveness for them, other folks will ask a body to take those sins on their own selves to save the dead man from a-dealing with them." He nodded at the speaker. "Fifty dollars is a right rare amount of money to be a-asking for that."

Twilight didn’t know how many bits “fifty dollars” was worth, but the sudden intake of breath and renewed interest in the eyes of some onlookers showed her John's truth. It must be valuable here among these folk. One young man among them, as young as John had been in Frogfather’s swamp, stepped forward as the man spoke again.

“And too, that they shall gain his house on Dravot Ridge, along with all that is waiting for them within it.”

At those words the eager human-colt paled and stepped back into the crowd.

“Twilight?” John stepped forward. “Come along with me now.” To the man in the coat, he said, “I’ll take them, sir. Me and my friend here with me.” He pointed at Twilight.

The crowd looked at him and then her. Twilight wondered if for a second confusion flashed across those faces. It passed like a handful of dust on the wind. This is a dream, after all. From what John and Luna both said, I’m a part of it. To everyone but John and the Shonokin, I belong here.

Black Coat stepped forward. He seemed relieved, but when he spoke it was with a tone of warning.

“Are you sure, son?” He looked down at Twilight. Worry was in his eyes. “And yourself, young – lady?”

“I rightly am, preacher,” John nodded to him. “’Asides, it’s for the dead man’s rest, isn’t it?”

“That it is,” Black Coat – no, “Preacher” – replied, and a shrill voice from the crowd called, “Amen! Bless you, brother and sister, you’ll need it to rid yourself of Levi Brett’s sins!”

“John…” Twilight looked around at those faces, gone from despair to sudden hope mingled with fear. She wondered who if any of them was a Shonokin. Even if they weren’t, she felt the tension here in the air. “You really did this?”

“I was a-starving then,” he answered her as he took the wallet from the preacher. “And fifty good dollars was naught to laugh at. But mind now, stick close by me.”

“Don’t worry,” she muttered back as Preacher raised one hand over her and John alike.

“Son, daughter,” he said bleakly. “Let me give you whatever blessings I can now. I can only hope it will be enough and that you won’t suffer out of season for what you’ve done.”

“That would be right good now, preacher,” John said. Twilight waited with him as the blessing was said. It reminded her in some ways of similar things she'd heard said among ponies. And zebras and griffons and Diamond Dogs as well, from what she remembered. No surprise, is there? Most of us want the same things. She glanced at the casket. And fear the same things.

And the words were done. John turned to one of the nearest in the crowd, a stout man and his wife with blunt honest faces. His eyes stabbed at them both over a thick heavy beard and mustache.

“I ask your pardon,” John said, taking some of the money from the wallet. It looked dingy in the light. “Is there air thing to be eaten here? My friend and I are hungry, and we can pay…”

The man recoiled. It reminded Twilight of what her friends told her about the Crystal Ponies when surprised they were by Sombra. He and what had to be his wife both took several steps back.

“You take that money away from me right the now, you hear?” He glared at them, doubled his hands into fists. “I wouldn’t have any part of Levi Brett or his money when he lived, and I’ll have nair part of it now that he’s dead. You and that poor young lady are purely a-rotting away inside from the sins you took on yourselves.”

“Please, young sir, miss,” his wife stepped up beside him, laying a hand on his arm. Pity warred with fear in her eyes. “I nair thought to turn away a hungry soul in all my born days. But I won’t have air thing that Levi Brett touched or used in my house. You’d best go away from here, to some other place where they don’t know what you carry on you. I sorrow that I can’t do more than that for you.”

“Is this the hospitality John told me about?” Twilight snapped. She looked up defiantly at the two humans, who gave her the same angry-scared looks they’d given John. She snorted. “Turning hungry ponies, er, I mean people, away?”

“If you knew what Levi Brett did, you’d nair have touched the least little penny of his money,” the man rumbled at her. Twilight rolled her eyes at this. This was almost as bad as Ponyville when Zecora first came to town! But before she could say anything, somepony cried out in a shrill voice.

“Look! See what Levi Brett’s critter is doing!”

Twilight turned and saw that the dog she’d seen by the casket was rising. It looked at her and John, with nasty clever eyes that made her think of a sewer rat. Then it loped over to them, too-long skinny paws slapping the dirt. It didn’t move like Applejack’s pet Winona, or even like a pony. It moved more like a Diamond Dog forced onto all fours. Like it wanted to stand upright, but couldn't quite manage it.

“That was Levi Brett’s critter,” The anger left that man's voice. He and his wife, everyone in the herd, showed a wild rising fear in their faces; if they were ponies, she’d have expected a stampede in the next few seconds. Twilight began to remember things John once told her about familiars, and the forms he’d seen bad magic-users in his world take on to terrorize others. She wondered if you could feel ill in a dream as the man said, “It came and lay right under his window when he was a-dying in the preacher’s home, and it made sounds like a woman screaming the whole while – you two, just go!” He shrieked at her and John. “It was Levi Brett’s, now air thing that was his is yours, just go to his house! It’ll follow you there!”

The creature, whatever it was, took one more step towards the crowd. Twilight could not say that they ran away, but they walked very quickly. Once they were gone it bared discolored fangs after them. Twilight half wondered if it sneered. Only when they stood alone beside the coffin did it turn and set itself between her and John.

“Hey!” She stepped as close as she dared. “Move it, there, pal! He and I both own you,” she swallowed past a foul taste in her mouth, “remember?”

It looked at her and stubbornly refused to move. John stood beyond it, hands half balled into fists. She noticed him sticking that wallet into his pocket, and making very sure where he kept it.

“John, I’m getting the idea that we’re done here.” Twilight looked back at the townspeople. They were drawing off swiftly, giving them fearful and angry looks as they did. All save three who lowered the coffin into the grave and began spading earth over it. And a small group of human-foals who reminded her all too well of the bullies from her own fillyhood as they pointed and jeered.

“Your soul to the devil,

Your soul to the devil,

Your soul to the devil – devil – devil…”

She snorted at them and they scattered with mock cries of fear and jeering laughter.

“Nair mind them, Twilight,” John nodded at the whatever-it-was, that beast from the coffin. “I begin to mind me more how this all went. Been a long time ago, else I’d remember the better. Right now I remember that we follow him.”

She saw how the creature looked at her, with a bit of a sneer in those too-smart eyes. That head, like a raccoon in the muzzle but with too much of a forehead behind. She wondered if even Fluttershy could find something likeable about this thing; not even from Thorn’s conjurings or Sombra’s mind-traps had she gotten such a feeling of something indefinably wrong.

“What are you?”

If it understood it gave no response. It merely headed for a trail leading into the woods away from town. It stopped once there and looked at them expectantly.

Twilight followed with a sigh.

“We’re going to be sorry before this is over.”

“All the more reason to get this over and done with,” John answered her as he came along behind. They started heading under the trees, hanging close and low around them, feeling like dungeon walls.

“Just so long as we’re not the ones who end up done,” Twilight muttered, and followed along that dark trail to someplace she knew she wouldn’t like seeing.

Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Twilight followed John up what seemed like a long, rocky ridge, followed the entire way by Levi Brett’s two – friends? – and that whatever-it-was. Its paws padded softly and somehow repulsively on the forest dirt as it trailed them, its eyes never leaving them. The old man and woman kept chattering away the entire time like a pair of malevolent Pinkie Pies, assuring her and John that everything would be explained to them in time.

Both looked like particularly sad specimens to her. Their clothes were near rags and when they smiled, their mouths showed brownish stubs of broken teeth.

“Let them scared-out folks down there huddle together and die of the shivers,” the man said, breathing hard from exertion. Still panting, he said, “We’ll see you to some food. Yep, and shelter as well. That is, we’ll see you both to your own proper house.”

“It was a pure-down kindly thing you did,” his companion stated, a short and squat old woman. She grinned that broken-tooth grin at Twilight, panting a bit herself. “I always say that’s it’s young ‘uns that got true courage and helpfulness in their hearts.”

“Er, thanks.” Twilight knew them for either Shonokin and enemies, or for dream-images without reality, but even so she slowed and saw that John did as well. She didn’t want to chase these two forlorn elders like this. “I wish we had something we could give you…”

“I reckon we kindly do,” John turned to them and held out some of the money from Levi Brett’s wallet to the pair. “Here.”

The two stepped back, like Crystal Ponies about to stampede before the shade of King Sombra.

“No, no,” the old man waved his hands and stood clear of them both. The old woman did so as well. “Why, we’re doing this for love, and gratitude,” he flashed another broken-toothed smile. “You’re one of us, now.”

“You mean part of your herd?” Twilight asked. She wondered how much of a privilege it was to judge by these two.

“Eh, something like that, young miss,” the old woman answered her. “After all, hasn’t Parway taken you up?”

The creature raised its head and looked first steadily at John, and then at her. Twilight forced herself to look back, seeking any trace of a Shonokin presence in that loathsome form. She saw only a cunning beast, or maybe more than a beast. Parway looked away and moved to walk along before her and John.

“He’ll lead you home.” The old man said. “Follow and he’ll lead you home.”

They strode on for a distance more in silence. Twilight wished she dared speak more to John and ask questions about this dream-memory of his. He’d told her that this one frightened him more than almost anything else he’d ever seen, but thus far it seemed less distressing than most of the battles she’d engaged in, both with and without him. But John never struck her as a timid sort. If he’d been afraid when this happened, it was with good reason.

And where were the Shonokin? Either they had yet to reveal themselves, or whatever happened here, this dream held things that frightened even them. Nether thought comforted her.

“So where is Mister Brett’s house?” She asked, hoping to try and get some information from their two speaking guides. Parway ignored her to keep loping on ahead. “It’s on Dravot Ridge. Is that much further ahead?”

Both the elders broke out in scornful laughter, short and harsh like they didn’t dare laugh too long. Twilight frowned at them. She noticed John looked equally displeased with their laughter.

“Oh, begging yore pardon, young miss,” the old woman said. “But Levi Brett’s home isn’t a house. It’s a gardinel.”

She saw how John flinched at that word. Had he mentioned that to her and her friends back when they first met? She vaguely thought so, but right now couldn’t remember.

“A gardinel?” She looked from the old woman to the old man. Both grinned nastily at her. “What kind of a house is a gardinel?”

“No kind at all,” he informed her, “but it can be used like one, by certain people as who know how to plant and raise it and what kind of feed it needs. There’s a sight of them around, though most folks never notice until –” He stopped with a sudden wary look on his face before saying, “Most folks just never notice. They look empty and broken down to the wrong kind o’ folks, but the right kind can see them for what they are. And they see you too, with what look like windows but work like eyes on them.”

“I recollect I’ve heard of them once or twice,” John said, keeping his voice even. “They’re found in old towns, or along abandoned roads. They make theirselves to look like shelter when it rains or gets dark or cold, but if you’re fool enough to go in, you nair come out again.” He tapped the pocket with the wallet again. “Except for folks that look human but aren’t, rightly.”

“Like Sho –” Twilight caught John’s warning look. She amended it to, “Like, er, Changelings and such, I guess.”

“Like what now?” The old man looked at her in confusion before shrugging. He picked up the former conversation without missing a beat. “Mostly, but some human folks can live in gardinels. The ones that know how to rightly ask, and how to rightly serve.”

“Serve who or what?” Nightmares, Windigos, or both?

If those two heard, they didn’t answer. Twilight looked down the trail, wondering how much longer this would take, and saw sunlight ahead. They must be coming up on a clearing.

It took only a few moments more to reach it. The trees thinned out as though pulling back away from the house at the center of the clearing; even the stout branches and old massive trunks leaned away from it. In the center stood Levi Brett’s house.

“How d’ye like yore new home?” The old man asked.

It looked like it had been carved or grown rather than built, but not in the manner of Ponyville Library. The walls and ceiling met in ways that normal support beams couldn’t or wouldn’t, with the angles all set wrong to each other. Shutters and sills showed by the windows, a pale fungal gray, looking almost leprous. The entrance showed no sign of a door, only an oblong hole opening into darkness. Two windows were set in the front, looking out like the eyeholes in a skull.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Twilight forced cheer into her voice, before muttering, “And I hope I never do again. It looks like Chrysalis’ summer home.”

Parway slipped past her – how had he gotten behind when she’d last seen him in front? He barely brushed against her flank as he did, and she bit down on a startled whinny. His hide reminded her of Spike’s after a molt, soft and slippery. John went to stand close by.

“Did the real house look like this?” She whispered to John. Within, she saw a pale reddish light begin as Parway entered. It reminded her of glow-gems from back home, that same soft steady glow. She could have done without the thought that it made the entrance look like a bloody mouth. Or Thorn’s netherworld from his grimoire. Or his throne room in Sunnytown…

“Kindly like it,” he answered her. She looked at him, wondering how even a much younger he could have entered here. Her wonder must have showed, for he said, “I was desperate and hungry right then.”

“You must have been,” Twilight responded as she preceded him to the door and entered she knew not what to expect.

Beyond its being mortally dangerous, of course.

“Oh, what is happening to Twilight?” Fluttershy circled her friend, looking in from outside the containment circle on the floor. Twilight twitched and groaned, but thankfully she didn’t show any signs of violence. Bandages covered her injuries. Fluttershy shook her head at them.

“Something wrong, sugarcube?”

“Only that I wish those bandages on her wounds weren’t so tight,” Fluttershy said back to Applejack. “If they’re on too long they might aggravate the wounds.”

“It was Princess Celestia’s own doctors that did them,” Applejack responded where she stood by one of the windows, looking out into the sunny Canterlot day in the direction of Ponyville. She glanced at the doors. “Ah reckon they knew what-all they did. Ah kinda wish they’d come back from rushin’ off after that book they mentioned.” She trotted away from the window and stood beside Fluttershy. “An’ that Dash would get herself here.”

“She will,” Pinkie Pie trotted over, not bouncing, but still smiling. “The Guardsponies just gotta find her first, but when they do, she’ll come whooshing in the way she always does.”

“I just hope she does it soon,” Rarity added from the other side of the room. She’d been examining some old tapestries hanging on the walls. On them, images of night and full moons and a proud and elegant dark Alicorn Major predominated. In many, she reared in defense of ponies under attack from shadowy beings. “Just measuring them against the ones in the Castle of the Sisters. Much the same material and cut, really.” She pointed at the ones showing Luna protecting ponies. “I do hope that’s a good omen. At least Twilight isn’t bleeding or in a panic any more. What do you suppose was happening to her?”

“Nothing good,” Applejack looked down at Twilight where she lay inside the circular ward. “’Leastways she can’t get hurt again the way she was when we first came here. Ah wonder why she didn’t tell us ‘bout findin’ John again after all this time?”

“She wanted it to be a surprise?” Pinkie said, sounding doubtful. She shook her head. “Naw, that’s not like Twilight. She’d come running and tell us all and be all excited and ask me to get some party goods together for the ‘Welcome Back John We Missed You’ party and I’d tell her that I got those together a long time ago, you silly filly, and I’ve been waiting for what feels like years to use them, and then she would get that funny look on her face she always does when I talk like that and –“ Pinkie immediately fell silent at the looks on her friends’ faces.

“Sometimes Ah wonder if you actually do breathe, Pinkie,” Applejack snorted. “Ah want ta meet John again ma own self, he was a good feller, but not if Twi gets hurt.”

“We trust she will not,” Luna’s voice came from the doors as she entered, Celestia with her. The horns of both Princesses glowed as they bore books with them. The tomes looked ancient, bound in wood and leather with dark iron hasps on the spines to hold them together. Luna set her book down on a nearby table, as did Celestia. She looked at Twilight, and the grimness in her eyes softened before she looked away. “We, I, will do all that can be done to save her and the human.”

“His name’s John,” Pinkie said as she bounced over to look closer at the book.“Can’t we use his name? And what book is this it looks old and kinda reminds me of that one meany-pants Thorn used on Twi.” She reached out to touch it and gave a whinny as she suddenly shot into the air and away from it.

“My apologies, Pinkie Pie,” Luna said, setting her gently back on her hooves. “But these tomes are not lightly touched.” Luna looked at them. The gathered Element Bearers did so as well and noticed how shadows seemed to almost ooze from them. The part of the table they were on seemed darker than even the rest of the room. “They come from the Sealed Archives; my sister and I set warding spells on them long ago, to keep them from the hooves of the unwary and the power-hungry. “

“Oh, dear,” Rarity walked close to the table, but not too close. She gave a shiver. “Uuugh! It feels like insects crawling on my coat! That’s the warding spell?”

“No, that is their contents reacting to a basically decent nature,” Celestia said. She looked at the books and frowned. “These are the darkest magic left in Equestria, sealed away in the Archives. I dislike handling them myself, let alone using their contents. Unfortunately the wards set on them are imperfect. They did not stop Sunset Shimmer,” she sighed, “or my sister when she –” Celestia stopped and looked at Luna.

“When my envy consumed me, sister,” Luna said where she already examined the spellbook in her magical grip. She frowned and conjured up a small area of darkness around herself. A faint glow seemed to start on the pages hanging before her gaze. An inky blackness seemed to roll over her face, and her eyes looked green and draconic, before she was normal again. “Thou canst say it. I know better than any what my deeds were.”

Rarity drew close to Applejack. They noticed how Fluttershy drew close to Celestia in the still lit part of the room, and Pinkie stayed close by Twilight.

“Dear,” Rarity said, her voice a whisper, “when Princess Luna looked into that book, did it remind you of anything?”

“Yeah,” Applejack shifted uneasily. Her hooves clicked lightly against the floor. “Kind o’ what John said ‘bout that Cold Fire book, and what we saw o’ it. Letters and pages ya can’t read except in the dark. Ah got ta wonder how Princess Luna would know about them.”

“Maybe that human sorcerer who summoned her, ahem, other self, taught her?”

“Maybe,” Applejack said. The light shining from the page grew brighter. Luna’s eyes seemed to glow in it. Applejack shivered like she felt the first chill promise of winter.

“Hah!” Luna said. She slammed the book shut. “I have it, sister!” She took the tome in Celestia’s grip and set both books on a high shelf, out of normal reach. Both Applejack and Rarity noticed they were set on the opposite side of the room from the corner where Twilight lay.

“You can awaken Twilight?” Celestia’s hopeful look fell as Luna shook her head.

“Nay, but I can take other ponies into the Dream Realm with me,” Luna walked over to the circle. Twilight seemed to twitch. She gave a little fearful whinny. The rest of the Elements were close by in a moment as Luna said, “Once there, we can aid both Twilight and John against their attackers,” she pinned her ears and snorted, “those other strange humans that sought to control me.” She looked at Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy and Pinkie. “Thy presence, my friends, should be enough to maintain my self-control, and if not,” she scraped her forehoof against the floor, “then all the Elements together should prove enough to restore my true self.”

“Wait, all the Elements?” Fluttershy looked from Luna to her friends. “But Rainbow Dash isn’t here yet.” Twilight made another groan and kicked lightly. Fluttershy almost went to her side, pressing against the invisible dome of the containment wards. “Poor Twilight and John. How much longer can they hold out?”

“Twilight at the least should be safe,” Luna said. “’Twas part of the reason for the containment circle. Whatever besieges her in the Dream Realm cannot reach past it to the physical world of Equestria, and it should give her some protection in dreams as well.” She looked thoughtful. “At least ‘gainst whatever evils are dredged up from the human John’s dreams. If his attackers find a way to use her memories against her…”

The Element Bearers and Celestia cringed at the worried look on Luna’s face.

“John?” Twilight said softly to her friend, now that they were finally alone in the weird house – or gardinel. “What do we do now? Rather, what did you do now?”

“Right now, I recollect looking for some food,” John said. “But I wasn’t such a gone fool as to take airy meal such as these folk offered.”

Twilight nodded as she looked around the inside of the room. The inside of this house was no more reassuring than the outside. The walls were curved outwards slightly, like some growth, and the beams and rafters reminded her of the skeletons she’d seen in books on anatomy. Grown instead of built, like the Library tree. If the Library tree had been grown and shaped from fungus by Thorn instead of from oak by Unicorns. A table rested in the room, looking twisted and gnarled on its one leg, with papers resting on it. At least she thought they were papers. They had a wet grayish look to them like skin from some unknown animal.

Twilight thought back on what happened since they’d entered Levi Brett’s house. First meeting that man Dravot, in his gray robes and with his mane pointed at eyebrows and over that low forehead, reminding her of a seedier version of Thorn. His effusive welcome and trying too hard to be mysterious as he spoke grandly of the way they would join them in spreading Levi Brett’s glorious truths, of working wonders to bring others to their service. Twilight shook herself as she remembered similar words from Thorn, in the Town Hall as he tried to win over all of Ponyville.

“Have you noticed a strange thing?” John walked to the wall, reached out to touch it and stopped. Twilight didn’t blame him. In the harsh white light that came from a tar-black candle set into a wall sconce, that wall looked damp like it sweated. The smell didn’t help, a close and harsh odor that reminded her of unbathed ponies.

“I’ve noticed a lot of strange things,” Twilight said. She trotted to stand beside him, wincing a bit at the feel of that floor underhoof. She wondered if she only imagined that it gave slightly, like pressing on a living – or rotting – thing.

“I reckon we both rightly have,” John smiled, and she returned it. Then he knelt beside her. “What I mean is, where are the Shonokin? They should be somewhere around here and looking to be making more trouble.”

“Maybe they gave up and left?” Twilight didn’t believe it even as she said it.

“Maybe,” John said, sounding as unconvinced as she felt. “More like, someone or thing’s keeping them at a distance right now. And I reckon it must be you or your Luna friend.”

“What?” Twilight looked around and at herself, checked with some low-power detection spells. “It can’t be me. They didn’t fear me before. And they,” she gulped, “they scared Luna away. I’m hoping she finds a way to get back in here and help.” She looked around hopefully, but all she saw was that nasty house. At least that creepy Parway was staying away for the moment.

“Maybe she did something back in Equestria?”

“Maybe.” Twilight blinked. She checked again with her detection spells, and found something at the edge of her perceptions. “Yes! She could have done a containment circle. Like that ward you set when we were in Zecora’s hut? It could keep outside magic at a distance as long as it’s unbroken, like say by someone giving a channel to the Shonokin.”

“What-all do you mean, a ‘channel’?”

“Like if they, well,” Twilight flicked her tail as she sought an explanation. “Like if you were to think of that battle again, or something equally traumatic or frightening. That could allow a pathway of attack.”

“Let’s hope it stays unbroken then,” John said. As he did Dravot re-entered the room. John rose to face him. Twilight set herself beside him, facing Dravot and, ugh, Parway as it slunk into the room and eyed her with those too-wise eyes in that not-human-enough face. It snarled, or maybe just leered at her.

“I trust you have had the time to consider my words?” Dravot said. His soft voice never reached those hard eyes. “You took Levi Brett’s sins on yourselves. The knowledge and wisdom of those things, the knowledge and power of those things. There is more of his knowledge contained there,” he nodded towards the papers on the desk, “and even more contained in the walls and structure of this gardinel. Rest here. Sleep here. Let his power become part of you that he will –” Dravot stopped as though about to say too much. “I mean, that you may become part of us.”

“I reckon that Twilight and I have thought on all you said,” John answered. Twilight noticed how he set his feet firmly and held his hand sat his sides, doubled into fists. Dravot’s smile turned into a near pout as John said, “We thought on it, and we want nair part either of it or of you and yours. We’ll be going on our way.”

“You may not find that easy,” Dravot said, scowling. “It may be harder than you think to leave from here. And what of her?” He looked at Twilight. “Does this young lady agree with your foolish decision?”

“It’s not foolish,” Twilight said, “and ‘she’ does agree with it.” Parway bared triangular teeth at her, like a shark’s, if a shark had teeth that looked lead-gray and poisonous. She took several steps forward. To her dismay Parway didn’t back away. Forcing herself to ignore him, she looked up at Dravot. “We’ll both be leaving. Nothing that Mister Brett had is of any interest to us.”

Soft mocking laughter came from outside. Twilight didn’t need to look to know it was those two wretched elders. Dravot joined in on it.

“Young woman, are you really this foolish?” He pointed at the table. “Brett’s thoughts there will become yours. You will share in what we know, bring our truth to more worlds than we can guess.”

Just like Thorn… Twilight shivered at a nightmare image she’d once had, of a Nightmare version of herself spreading Thorn’s dark “magick” across Equestria. John reached down and set his hands reassuringly on her withers.

“And if we refuse?” Twilight said. She rose on her hind legs to look Dravot in the face. John raised his fists beside her. Dravot stepped back and Parway moved between them, teeth bared and paw-hands raised. Short sharp claws showed at their tips. She gulped but held her ground. “Besides, this could be some trick for all I know.”

“You cannot refuse what you have freely accepted,” Dravot responded. Twi shivered as the familiarity of those words began to sink in. “Do not be foolish. If this is a trick, what of Parway?”

“A freak or mutation of some sort,” Twilight said. Parway glared. Dravot chuckled.

“Parway is not flattered, nor can I blame him. Have you never heard of familiars?”

“I have, thanks to John,” Twilight said, backing towards the door, her horn glowing. John went along with her. “And everypony here has been more than familiar enough and – DON’T TRY IT!” Parway and Dravot both froze as she fired a spell-blast from her horn into the floor before them. It was barely enough to leave a scorch mark, but it seemed to impress these two. “John and I are leaving!”

“But you,” Dravot said, looking confused now. “Mistress, I didn’t know you already had some knowledge. I never would have, I mean…” He stepped forward, stopped at another warning shot. From the fading yells those two outside had seen what was happening and were running off. “Please but look at what Levi Brett left, I beg you.” He pointed at the table and the papers on it.

“I said no,” Twilight began, when suddenly the papers flew off the table despite a total lack of a breeze and flew at her face. “HEY!” Flying books now? This was starting to remind her of Thorn’s gift and the Letters of Cold Fire.

No, no, remember what you told John, don’t even THINK about that! But she couldn’t help it. The spell seizing hold of her mind. Her chanting her way through the invocation as something forced her to call on those names, many still unknown and some like Sombra and Tirek sadly all too well known to her now…

Something in her mind seemed to go, Hah!

On the page forced over her eyes, feeling wet and slimy like some worm crawling through her coat, words began to appear. Reject not the gift you have freely accepted, Twilight Sparkle. Holaha, Eroyhe, strong Alector, Somiator, sleep ye not, I call to you, Mikaded, Tuma, Tumch…

She heard John yell something, followed by Dravot, and something like a moan from Parway.

…Mighty Tetragrammaton, Molech of the Flames, Ba’al-Zebul of the Flies, Lillith Killer-of-Foals, Bloody Asherah, Asmodeus, Athe, Stoch…ARIOCH! GROGAR! IBLIS! JADIS! LEVIATHAN! SOMBRA! TIREK! TASH!

And then everything faded in a wild equine scream of terror as she forgot everything Luna and John alike had warned her of and hurled the wildest spellblast she’d used since her fight with Tirek.

And her world became fire before everything around her, the house and the table and the paper with those names and even her friend John, seemed to whirl away into nothing.

“Doggone ya, Rainbow Dash,” Applejack scraped her hoof against the floor, like she was ready to charge. “What’s takin’ ya?”

Beside her Pinkie suddenly twitched.

“Oooh! Triple left ear flick, a pinch in my dock, and a shiver in my left cannon?” Pinkie lashed her tail and shook her left rear leg. She smiled at the confused looks all around her. “Dashie’s almost here!”

They raced to the nearest window and looked at the horizon. Behind them, unnoticed, Twilight’s eyes shot wide open, seeing nothing in the physical world. Her ears pinned back and she tucked her tail close in panic.

“There she is!” Rarity pointed at a blue speck growing in the sky, trailing rainbow. Applejack snorted beside her.

“Took her long enough. Who knows what coulda happened?”

An equine scream tore through the room. “AHHHHHHHH!”

Everypony there wheeled to see Twilight. Her eyes wide and unseeing, ears pinned, sweat streaming down her sides, legs twitching.

“NO!” Twilight shrieked. Her horn and eyes glowed like metal in a Fillydelphia blast furnace; the containment circle glowed back. “Not again! Not that again!”

“Oh, Twilight!”

“Twi! We gotta get her outta there!”

A dome of light began to form over the purple Alicorn Minor. Now her eyes and horn were bright as the sun and getting brighter.

Casting shadows on the walls, her friends hurried forward only to stop at a cry from Luna.

“No!” She snatched them with her magic and fell back by her sister. “Celly! Ward Major! Full Power, with Diversion Channel! NOW!” Both Alicorns Major's horns glowed in unison, sun-gold and moon-silver.

“Princess Luna!” Rarity twisted to get away from her. “What are you doing –“

And a blasting spell that would have rocked Tirek back on his hooves exploded out from the spell circle, through the containment wards, struck and flowed against the shields raised by the Princesses, and blasted through the outer wall with a BOOM that echoed across Mount Epona, raining shards of stone and wood down the mountain slopes.

Twilight groaned and shook herself. She ached in every bone. The floor beneath her hooves felt odd as she rose. No texture to it, it didn’t feel like dirt or stone or carpeting. It was just there.

“Okay,” she groaned, “where did everypony go?” She forced her eyes open, expecting to feel pain when light hit them.

Nothing. She just looked and saw a sort of gray emptiness all about her. The gardinel was gone, that awful Parway too, and so was – “John! Are you there? JOHN!”

Twilight spread her wings to take a quick aerial look and blinked, Wait, my wings are back?

They were. She felt the pull of her wing muscles as she stretched them out. She felt relief and had to smile. Despite doing very well for most of her life without them, she’d felt maimed to lose her wings, even if harmlessly due to John’s dream.

Wait, John? Where IS he?

She looked around. Nothing anywhere, just that emptiness. She remembered that mighty spellblast, and gulped to remember something else. What Luna told her. We must be wary with our spellcasting in the dreams of others. What befalls there can affect their waking selves, destroying the dream or even their minds.

“No! John?” She looked all around, saw only this emptiness in every direction. “John! Please be okay! I’m sorry I –“

A log-walled room appeared around her, the wood dark from age. She felt things again, fire-warmed air against her coat, the fur-carpeted stone-flagged floor underhoof, smelled something hot and spicy like some exotic seasoning or herb. And more, she heard somepony clear their throat behind her.

“Thank goodness.” She sighed and turned to face John. “I thought I’d killed you. I’m so glad you’re alright.” She would have said more, but when she saw who sat in that carved high-backed almost throne-like seat, she froze.

“Young lady,” the Shonokin leader said in that voice that whispered like dry leaves blowing over gravel as he leaned forward, his dark eyes sharp and hard on her.

“No.” She stepped back, tried to call on her magic but nothing happened. A glance at the floor showed something like John’s long-ago protection-ward circle. Only turned inward.

Against her.

“Young lady,” the Shonokin who’d tried to kill her and John several times already today repeated as he steepled his long talon-like fingers before him. He smiled those sharp white teeth at her, a predator’s humorless smile.

“We need to talk.”

Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Rainbow Dash arced over the clouds towards Canterlot, wings pumping, airflow roaring in her ears. Behind her, sunlight glimmered off a Pegasus chariot vanishing in the distance.

“Yeesh, and you guys wondered why I decided to fly myself here!” the blue pegasus snorted and set her head down, the fairy-tale city set on the side of Mount Epona growing larger with every wingbeat. Banking left, she aimed for the north end of the city, where the Sun Palace shone like its namesake over the waterfalls of Epona’s Tears. Golden roofs flashed in the morning sunlight; banners and pennants flew from every spire. And above and around the riot of marble and alabaster and faience, flocks of armored pegasi.

“Wow, gotta be something big if they’ve got Guard patrols out –“

Something flared from the side of one of the palace towers, and its outer wall flew at her in pieces with an eardrum-popping BOOM!

Dash dodged aside, going for altitude as the blast of debris passed below her, raining stone down the side of the mountain; Pegasus Day Guards scattered in all directions away from the rain of debris.

Okay, she decided. No more wasting time!

Dash called on the magic that was still uniquely hers and split the air with a Sonic Rainboom, aiming for the opening behind the roiling dust cloud. The crack and boom of the rainbow raced across the sky behind her as the palace swelled in her vision, growing larger and larger by the second.

The shockwave being forced ahead of her split the dust cloud, revealing a ragged hole in the white stone wall. She aimed for it, letting the shockwave clear the opening. Crashing the windows in Twilight’s library was one thing, the Sun Palace was something else again.

Yells and whinnies came from inside.

Hah! Dash reveled in the thought as she raced through the opening, her wingtips barely brushing its sides. Who says I’m all speed and no grace? I’d like to see any Pegasus do half as well as –

“RAINBOW DASH!”

Dash pulled back and braked in midair just in time to avoid hitting an ebon-wood shelf of books, shooting up towards the dark-painted ceiling studded with diamonds for the stars of the night sky.

Before she collided magic seized her and dragged Dash back down to the floor. She found herself eye to eye with an annoyed Princess Luna, glaring at her.

“Rainbow Dash! Dost thou seek to kill thyself?”

“Oh, come on,” Dash said. Luna scowled even harder. “I mean, er, beg pardon your majesty. But I was told that Twi was in trouble and – yikes!” She flew over to the weird shiny circle on the floor. Within it lay Twilight. Sweat stained her coat, mane and tail, and so did – buck, was that blood?

“Twi!” Dash flew to it. A faint shimmer in the air around Twilight warned her not to try flying directly over it. The rest of the Elements stood around it. None of them so much as glanced at her. Their entire attention was focused on Twilight. “Wh-what’s happening? What’s going on with Twilight?”

“Sleepcasting,” Luna and Rarity both said at once.

“Huh? What?” Dash flew around the circle. She noticed that the downdraft from her wings stirred Fluttershy’s feathers and everypony’s mane and tail, but nothing within the circle. “You mean like sleep-flying?”

“Aye, but more dangerous,” Luna said. Dash went to hover by her, keeping a worried eye on Twilight as Luna explained further. “She is within the Dream Realm, facing something dangerous. Very dangerous. Enough so that she cast a very powerful spell against it.”

“Yeah, real powerful,” Applejack said as she looked up at what remained of the outer wall. A massive hole showed in it, with a cloudy sky beyond aswarm with pegasi, their Day Guard barding glinting in the sunlight. Celestia flew among them, giving orders to judge by the way the Guardsponies raced off after speaking with her. “Last time she did anything like that, she was facin’ Tirek.”

“WHAT?!?” Dash’s yell made everypony jump. She thrust her hoof at Twilight. “She’s facing someone as bad as TIREK? Wake her up! Get her outta there!”

“We would if we could, Rainbow Dash!” Rarity stepped around the circle, the long way around to avoid Twilight’s still sparking horn. She scowled into Dash’s face. “Twilight can’t be awakened, that was tried and it failed! Whatever has her in there, it, well,” Rarity looked at Twilight and her voice softened. “It has her trapped and unable to awaken. Not without hurting or possibly killing her and John.”

“John?” Dash blinked. “Wait, that guy with the guitar from a couple years ago? How’s he involved? I don’t even see him.”

“He’s not here.” Fluttershy winced when Dash looked at her, but only for a moment. “Princess Luna found him in the Dreamlands, and when she sent word to Ponyville she reached Twilight first and –“

Pinkie cut her off. “And Twilight came here and Princess Luna magiced them both into the Dreamlands like she does every night with ponies and,” she looked at Twilight and her mane and tail partly deflated, “and some meany-pants guys like Thorn chased her out and kept Twilight there and… we don’t know how to help her and John.”

“Huh?” Dash blinked. She looked around at her friends and finally faced Luna. “What do they mean ‘can’t help them’? You took Twilight in there to meet John, what about all of us?”

“’Tis not that easy, Rainbow Dash,” Luna’s aura set a heavy wooden table back upright, replacing the fallen books on it. Except for one, thick as a volume of the Encyclopedia Equestria, which floated up to the Elements. Dash saw lots of weird circles with funny writing in them that reminded her of Thorn for some weird reason. Two of the circles were big. One had the stylized image of a bipedal muzzle-less, tail-less, earless something in it, while the second bore the familiar image of a pony.

“There are indeed ways between our world and thy human friend’s in Dream, and I know them…”

“Then let’s get goin’ already!” Dash dropped to the floor and stomped her hoof. Behind her she heard Celestia drop back into the room, ordering the Guards to keep everypony away from this part of the Palace.

“And bring some Spellguard close by, but not in the chamber, with orders to prepare binding and shielding spells. So they may be summoned if needed.” A bit of marble crumbled from the shattered wall. Celestia gave a short snort and said ruefully, “Perhaps alerting the palace repairponies that their services will be needed later would also be useful.”

Dash returned her attention to Luna as the Moon Princess spoke.

“Dash, all of you, LISTEN!” The last word blasted out in the Royal Canterlot Voice. As Dash shook her head to clear her throbbing ears, Luna said, “Twilight and I encountered them in the Dream Realm. A herd of human warlocks like Thorn, working as one – like ye bearing your Elements. I counted thirteen,” The Moon Princess looked towards the blasted-out wall. “They might be fewer now.”

Fluttershy eeped; Luna continued.

“They walk Dreams almost like myself, and fight upon ground more familiar to them than to me. It gives them an advantage. They,” Luna swallowed, fear passing over her eyes like a mist before clearing. “They almost forced me to resume the form of Nightmare Moon.”

“What!” Dash heard her friends echo her, but Fluttershy asked the pertinent question.

“Oh, dear! But Princess Luna, shouldn’t that be impossible?” Luna looked at her and Dash saw her friend blush. But Fluttershy didn’t look away or stop talking. “We cured you years ago, and it was Equestrian magic that changed you, so how could these human warlocks do it?”

“In Dreams, much that cannot be happens,” Luna continued, seeming even more shadowed. “They conjured a – thing of Nightmare – and cast it upon me. It latched upon my memories of being Her, and forced me to become Her again. By their will, at their command, within Dream and possibly without as well. Like Sombra could command crystals, they would have attempted to command me. As Her.” Luna shook herself, tossing her mane. “I am Princess of the Night, Walker of Dreams. I will not be geased by the command of beings I know not!”

“But we still haveta help Twilight!” Dash looked at her friend. Twilight laid still and quiet in the glowing circle, with only the slightest rise and fall of her chest showing signs of life. “You took her along, take us!”

“You know not the danger.”

Her friends chorused in.

“Yore Nightjesty, we gotta save Twi’ an’ John!”

“Please, Your Highness, we owe them both so much, and they’re our friends!”

“I know I’ll be scared, but we have to help them! And besides, you’ll be there with us.”

“I never got to give John my ‘we-saved-the-day’ party! And I already planned Twilight’s next ‘You-saved-Equestria-again’ party! What?” She looked around at her startled friends and Luna. “I can plan ahead, you know.”

The dark Alicorn Major looked around at them all. She opened her mouth to make one last argument, and closed it. She nodded once, trotted to a table set against the other wall covered with those bottles and little whatevers that Twilight used in her lab, and raised one of them filled with something colored the pearly yellow-white of rich cream.

“Sister,” Luna turned to Celestia. “Aid me in preparing another, stronger containment circle.” She looked at the Elements. “One large enough for six ponies, with wards strong enough to give Tirek pause. We go as soon as it is done.” She shook the funny-shaped bottle in her aura and the contents sloshed.

Dash pumped her hoof. We’re gonna save Twi and John!

Her smile faded as Luna said one more thing.

“And prepare lest only one pony returns, and she a Nightmare.”

#

I reckon I woke myself up with the worst headache I air did know. Maybe a second or so long I nair knew where I was or what I’d been about, and then it all came a-crashing back down on me.

“John!” said one voice I knew right alongside me, and another I knew said right after, “Evadare, be careful right now. The way he was tossing and behaving, something bad could have happened. A stroke, or –”

My love Evadare, for she’d been the first to speak, didn’t pay any heed to what wise old Reuben Manco was a-telling her. She just threw her arms round me tight like she thought something was coming to yank me right out of the room. She might could have been right, now that I mind me. Past her I saw the sun slanting down more along the wood and stone of the wall then afore Manco put me under. A pot hung on the stove, one of Evadare’s half-done quilts was on the loom and two more hung on the wall aside it, and I felt the bite in the air from late winter up here in the mountains even through the quilt and blankets atop me and the warmth from the fire. And my old guitar, its strings gleaming, hanging right on the wall. It all felt right good and real to me then after the things I’d been a-seeing. For all I knew I needed to be helping Twilight whereair she was, I just took a moment and loved the sight of Evadare and my own home place.

“John,” Evadare said again, “are you alright? You were a-talking and a-acting strange there for howair long you were under Mister Manco’s spell…”

“A little over two hours, or so my watch says,” Manco showed me that big fancy watch he’d used to put me under. I must have goggled at him. He smiled and nodded me back. “I relish seeing you awake and with your wits about you, my brother. I half wondered if I’d sent you to your death by what I did.”

“Not me, though not for those Shonokin’s lack of trying,” I responded him. Evadare looked confused, but Manco stiffened right up. “But there’s someone else back there, and she’s in bad trouble, killing bad trouble, unless I get back and help her.”

I was nair so tired right then that I didn’t notice how Manco and Evadare looked at each other.

“John,” Manco said, making his voice calm and steady, “what you saw was a dream. I know how intense your dreams can be and what kind of messages they can convey, but whoever and whatever you saw was nothing but a fantasy.”

“No, Chief,” I shook my head at him, “You’re pure down wrong for once.” He frowned at me. I don’t like disagreeing with friends, but right then I needed to. “The things I saw and felt, they were real in there to me, and if you saw them you’d know they were real. And there’s someone I have to be a-helping, right now.”

“John,” Evadare said like she half-wanted to argue. I reckon the look on my face must have told her this was me being stubborn again. She just nodded and said, “I’ll fetch us all something hot to drink. Then you tell us what you saw and who you have to help.”

“And,” Manco said as Evadare fetched us all some coffee and three tin cups to drink it from, “about the Shonokin. What little I know of them from what my mentor told me and from men like yourself and John Thunstone makes me glad I never fought them.”

I waited for the coffee Evadare fetched from the pot on the stove. It was the way we both liked it, black and stout and strong enough to float an axe-blade on. I took a good strong drink and let the warmth from it go right through me from my mouth down to my toes, and then I started to speak.

“You both recollect what I told you about a couple years or so ago, when I went missing those three days?” I saw them a-giving me those funny looks again, but I made myself go on. “When I was with those little horse-folk.”

“We both do,” Manco said. He smiled short and quick. “It’s not a story you soon forget. But you were talking now, John.”

I told them swift and true as I could what I recollected from the dream Manco sent me in to. If they didn’t believe they showed no disbelief. I wondered myself if maybe I’d just dreamed it, was so pure-down sick and tired of my dreams about Korea I made myself dream of a friend. But that made no sense. I’d nair want to see a friend in the sort of trouble Twilight and I went through.

“She screamed and made a blast of light,” I told them both, “and when airything cleared I found myself here again, and awake. Now she’s back there with those low-flung Shonokin, and I nair want to think what they might be a-doing to her.”

“The way you speak of this young lady, she sounds able to be defending herself,” Manco said back to me. He finished his coffee and gave a shiver. “Were it not for this, I might wonder if I were dreaming right now. I know the stories of my own folk and many others, both New World and Old, and like both of you I’ve seen things that you won’t learn about in a Dartmouth classroom, but John, if any other soul living told me about this, I’d call him a madman to his face.”

“John’s not crazy,” Evadare said, maybe the least bit nettled. She shook her head to say it, and her golden hair tossed like Twilight’s mane right then. “And he’s no liar. If he says he met this Twilight girl, and that all those things happened, then they rightly did.” She set her cup down and looked at me. “But you said about a-helping her. Howair can you do that, with you awake and her back in whatair dreams you were a-having?”

“There’s just the one way I can be seeing,” I told her and Chief Manco back. I could see they knew what I was about to be a-saying. Too, that nair of them liked it the least it more than I did.

“Chief Manco here has to be sending me back into those dreams, to find her and face the Shonokin down afore they kill her dead.”

#

“You!”

Twilight backed away from the Shonokin as he stared at her. She tried calling on her magic, and felt something respond, but not nearly as much as she wanted or felt she needed. Still, her horn glowed fiercely. Maybe she could bluff her way out?

“Young woman,” the Shonokin said. She stiffened as he raised one hand. She noticed the velvet glove on it, that third finger longer than the others. “Young woman,” he said again, his voice politer than when she’d heard it last, “Miss… Twilight, is it not? Please do sit down, and do not try your magic again here.” He waved his hand around grandly. “This may be only a place of dreams without physical reality, but it is one formed from memories of my home. I would prefer not seeing it idly destroyed.”

Twilight kept one eye on her captor and gave the room a quick once-over. As she’d noticed, it was a log cabin like those in Whitetail Woods, the beams old and dark and looking iron-hard. Wooden shelving set against the walls, many of them containing books with titles in scripts unknown to her. On others sat small statues, many of them with the dull yellow shine of rough-worked gold. The windows were closed and shuttered; the only natural light came from above via a smokehole in the roof. A stone chimney sat against one wall, massive and squat, the coals low and sullen red.

A Memory Palace! Twilight had read of these, once used among scholars when literacy was a rare skill. They assigned images to memories, sometimes hundreds of pages’ worth from a book, or entire songs and ballads, images that recalled the entire work to their mind when they needed it. She’d wondered if humans needed the skill given their easy access to books. Maybe not humans, but Shonokins definitely did.

“You admire my home,” the Shonokin said, a faint tone of pride in his voice. She looked back at him, noticed the dark suit that looked made to fit him and white shirt underneath made from some unknown material with a faint sheen to it. Certainly not cloth. “You should,” he said again, his hand rising to stroke a ruby amulet hanging against his chest from a golden chain. “It contains my treasures, the treasures of the Shonokin people.” His voice hardened. “Such treasures as our enemies have left us.”

“Your enemies?” Twilight said. She sat down at the table, found it set at the right height for her to eat and drink from comfortably. “What enemies? John and me? I never even knew of you before today, and I can’t see John as a pony, er, man who enjoys making enemies.”

“He may not enjoy making them,” the Shonokin said, his voice still hard, cutting out the words as though with a knife. “But he has made them of us. Leaders of our people have died at his hands, or at the hands of others who he helped.” His voice turned warmer or at least politer. “I do admit that we behaved wrongly with you and your friend, young miss. I would rather that we made amends for our reaction to your friend’s aggression.” He offered her a cup on a dish such as he drank from. “Do take this,” he commanded more than offered. She accepted it warily. He chuckled. “It is no cursed potion, I assure you. Merely a few herbs that we Shonokin know of, brewed and steeped until their potency is brought forth. It sharpens the wits and refreshes the body, even here.”

“Uhh, thank you,” Twilight said as she took the drink. It looked like any cup of tea she’d shared with Rarity, but the smell was sharper, like that Yerba Mate from the south she drank once. Only once. She’d gone without sleeping for three days afterwards. She sipped lightly, very lightly, and set it aside. “Why did you attack Princess Luna and myself? We were only searching for our friend John in the middle of that nightmare.”

“We thought you were allies he conjured to aid him against us,” the Shonokin replied. He drank lightly and said, “By the time we knew the truth, we were forced to strike against your ally. We used her fears against her and she fled, and you ran.” He smiled in a way that made her hackles rise. “You ran very swiftly.”

“I was being shot at,” Twilight responded. “That makes most ponies run very swiftly.” She waited for him to drink and said, “You ran too when John killed the Shonokin who was trying to kill me.”

The Shonokin’s eyes shot wide and he surged to his feet, towering over her like Thorn had towered over the herd that night at Ponyville Town Hall.

“He did not kill one of us!” He spat, face darkening in fury. He raised his hands, those long fingers held out and crooked like claws, ready to tear. A beast ready to kill towered over Twilight. “Our, our kinsman was – hurt, and fell down. Yes,” he sat back down, his face clearing and voice calming. “He – fell down, and has not moved again since. He was foolish and he suffered for his foolishness. When he moves again, he will remember, and be better for it.”

Okay, no questions about funeral arrangements, Twilight told herself. “I apologize for hurting your friend,” she bowed her head to the Shonokin. “I’m sorry he – fell down. Wait, what is your name, anyway?” At his sudden wary look, she said, “I don’t like thinking of you as just ‘the Shonokin’.”

Again he stroked the amulet on his chest; it sparkled like a fire ruby.

“We do not trust you quite so much yet as to give you our names,” he answered, smoothing his clothes from his outburst. “Names have power. They should be kept safe.” The Shonokin smiled again; his teeth were that of a carnivore. Twilight twitched; that smile reminded her too much of Queen Chrysalis, or Thorn, or Discord.

The Shonokin said, “Perhaps once you have proved your trustworthiness to us, you can be allowed to know my name. For now simply know that I am a – leader, among my folk. I command, and they obey.”

“Okay,” That bit about names – like Thorn’s incantations, calling out the names of Nightmares and Windigos. John said in his world’s magic – the parasitic kind – sorcerers use proper names to command and control others. She swept her hoof to take in the room. “You were saying something about the treasures your ‘enemies’ left you? What enemies?”

“Humanity,” he said, making the word a curse. He looked up at the bookshelves, stroked his amulet; a heavy tome floated off the shelf and set itself down before her.

He opened the book, Twilight an old decorated map. Odd creatures danced in the margins, a dog-headed thing there peering out from a tomb with something in its moldering paws she strongly suspected to be a body, a thing like a man-fish here with an ornate golden crown on its head. But the land mass in the map was mostly familiar, vaguely similar to Equestria with its Frozen North extending far to the south and a sort of bridge connecting it to another landmass at the upper left, where the northernmost Griffin lands would be in Equestria.

She looked at the Shonokin.

“This is where John comes from?” She tried to remember his name for the continent. “’North America’?”

“That is the name given it by the thieves who inhabit it now,” the Shonokin said. He stabbed one long gloved finger at it. “We Shonokin gave it another name, when we first came here from – elsewhere, when we used our wits and our – knowledge, what some would call sorcery or witchcraft, to slay the mighty beasts that lived here. Once we ruled all of this,” he almost caressed the page with one gloved hand, his voice remorseful, his amulet sparkling. “We raised our stone cities and forts to the sky, delved deep into the Earth. We studied the ways of the seasons and stars, the patterns of life and death.” He looked over at another part of the wall. Twilight’s gaze followed his, and she shuddered at what it landed on. An ancient painting like paleo-Griffin cave art, of almost-human beings with clawed hands and long spears, standing around a pair of ponies – no, ‘horses’, that was what her Canterlot High friends called them – that both bled freely from dozens of wounds.

“We lived, we hunted, we learned, we defended our lands,” the Shonokin said, as solemn as a pony reciting a hymn to Celestia. His gaze shifted and so did Twilight’s. She gulped to see the next piece of cave art showing the clawed hunters from before driving their spears into another pair of animals. Only these animals stood upright. One had a long mane, and both tried shielding each other. The short-haired one lay dead and bleeding in the next picture as it was butchered, and the long-maned one was being dragged away on a lead. Twilight wondered if she heard echoes of screams and mocking laughter. “I imagine we lived much as your people do.”

“With some differences, of course,” Twilight said in a nervous tone. As the Shonokin frowned at her, she said, “Heh, so when did these ‘enemies’ come in?”

“Across the great land bridge,” he said, and another piece of art appeared on the table – a sort of carving, looking to be of old and well-kept ivory by the smooth cream color. On one end were images of the clawed beings, the Shonokin, half raising short throwing spears and the other half dipping the points into small jaws they held. Facing them were other men, ones without clawed hands but using odd sticks to help throw their spears. One or two of them had those short Shonokin spears in their legs; they lay flat on the ground, as though dead. From such small wounds? Twilight wondered, poison, maybe? “They bore new weapons. They reproduced more swiftly than we could, like rats, like thronging vermin. They cast down our towers and destroyed our knowledge.”

“John’s people?”

“Others,” Another book floated off the shelf, set itself before her. The author and title were in some alien alphabetic script she remembered from Thorn’s grimoire.

The Shonokin leaned forward, setting one hand on the book; the other fingered his amulet.

“The title is ‘Myths of the Cherokee’. It speaks in there of us, or of what the first savages learned of us,” the Shonokin said, his voice once more going harsh. “The names they gave us – the Night Goers, the Moon-Eyed People, witches and sorcerers who killed with witchcraft and poison and who bore women away.” He sniffed and spoke in bitter tones. “What else did they think they deserved, those thieves and robbers? For every ill thing we did to them, I but wish we had done a thousand more.” He looked at her. “Have your folk ever been robbed, been forced to hide, been driven from all that was theirs by right, when all they asked of their inferiors was a few lives now and then?”

“We’ve had our enemies,” Twilight said, wary. Some of his words sounded true, but others reminded Twilight a little of some few pegasi and Earth ponies and even unicorns when they spoke of the ‘better days’ before the coming of Discord and the Princesses, before even leaving the First Land and coming to Equestria. Back when they didn’t need to share anything with anypony. “I and my, my friends helped to defeat some, and we made friends with as many as we could.” She looked at him. “Can your folk try that? I’ve met John, and not all humans are evil.”

“It is not their being ‘evil’ or ‘good’,” the Shonokin leader said. He tapped the book with his hand and it vanished. From the corner of her eye Twilight saw it reappear on the shelf. He looked at her and smiled, his eyes cold above those bared carnivore teeth. “We Shonokin have no use for such terms, invented by other and lesser creatures. What is good is what serves our ends; what is evil is what opposes them. As for making friends?” He laughed then, and his soft laughter mocked her as words never could. “What use would that be? The humans are less than we are. We want nothing to do with them. They have no right to live where once our folk did. When we regain what is rightfully ours –” His other hand clenched his amulet; Twilight backed away from the table, uncertain. He looked at her. “But I am a bad host. I speak too much of myself.” He sat back and smiled; Twilight felt his eyes on her the way she’d once looked on a dead frog to be dissected.

“Tell me of your home and yourself.” He waved his free hand and a new book appeared before him, metal clasps on a leather cover, the pages colored a creamy yellow, parchment or vellum. A pen hovered over it with a bird’s claw at the end. “Of your folk and their enemies who you have made friends with.” Mockery there at the end, and maybe just the slightest emphasis?

His amulet flashed as he fiddled with it; Twilight felt her eyes drawn to the crimson sparkles.

“Well, okay, I guess.” Twilight wondered if this was how John felt when she’d asked him about his world. Part of her wondered how much she should say; the Shonokin had already shown themselves to be enemies to John. But so was Nightmare Moon, and we cured her. She looked at him, hopeful now, and drew herself up. You are the Princess of Friendship, remember? Maybe I’m going to make these Shonokin realize how wrong they’ve been about humans like John, and they’ll make peace with them!

“Well, it all started with me researching an old legend about Nightmare Moon…” Twilight couldn’t remember how long she spoke, but she gave a good basic idea of both Equestria, the Princesses, and her friends and what they’d done. She downplayed some of it; she didn’t want to be a braggart.

The Shonokin listened, and if he didn’t believe, he showed no sign of it. She did feel a little uneasy a few times. When it came to their defeat by Discord, he asked many pointed questions.

“So he defeated you, at first? And changed your world into – something else, and later brought someone from our world to aid him against you?” The Shonokin’s pen scratched wildly across the vellum, like claws. “But in the end, you defeated him, did you not?”

“Eventually.”

More talk and questions, with the amulet ever-sparkling. Queen Chrysalis, King Sombra, Tirek, the other nameless horrors yet locked away in Tartarus. The Shonokin leader leaned forward, his dark eyes glittering, as Twilight spoke of Sombra’s sending the Crystal Ponies away off into some timeless limbo and so filling them with fear that even after their return they shuddered in terror of him. “A great mind there, yes, one who understood how to deal with one’s enemies. A power great enough to be served if he granted us his gifts. A pity it is not possible to speak with him. Perhaps in the future if we learn more of your world?”

“Maybe, but I doubt Sombra would be willing to chat.” Twilight tried to imagine Sombra discussing black magic and warlockry with someone like the Shonokin, and shuddered at how easily the thought did rise. He’d been dangerous enough. “Besides, he’s dead, and Queen Chrysalis is in hiding. Tirek’s drained of power and locked under even stronger wards in Tartarus than before.” Twilight raised one hoof to her chin, stared at the crimson amulet. It fascinated her so, the way it shined and shimmered. “And Nightmare Moon, well, Luna’s still around but after what happened the first time we met,” she shuddered to remember that battlefield, “I doubt she’ll be very happy to see you again. Not that she’d be, be violent, or anything like that!” Twilight reassured him. “Once I explain everything to her, I’m sure she’ll understand and forgive.”

“Yes, you creatures forgive even the worst of your enemies, don’t you?” The Shonokin said, the mockery back in his voice now. “Even when they betray you and prove your trust was misplaced in the first place.” He looked thoughtful. “I suppose you would even forgive us for what we have done to you and your Princess Luna.”

“We can, yes, if you show any remorse or regret for what you did.” Twilight said. She indicated the wall paintings of the humans being slain by the Shonokin. “We’d be willing to intercede for you with humanity, or grant you someplace to live in if that was impossible. We could learn from each other.”

The Shonokin tucked his amulet inside his shirt and smiled at her. Then his grin turned to a sneer.

“Learn what? How to forgive insult and injury, again and again? How to let our enemies profit by their stolen victory and keep what was never theirs?” He rose from the table, thrust one long finger at her, accusing. “You creatures can afford to forgive and forget. You lost nothing to invaders. Not yet, anyway.”

“Not yet?” Twilight stepped back, shaking a sudden fog from her head. Did they listen to anything I said? ”What do you mean, not yet? We’ll help you, I promise we will!”

“You would show us charity,” the Shonokin spat, “out of the pity of your hearts. Us! The First Folk! You give nothing, but we will take what we need from you.”

“Like what?” Twilight looked around the room. There didn’t seem to be anypony or thing nearby, but if they were still in the Dream Realm it didn’t matter. He could send anything at her in his own little corner of it. “You can’t reach Equestria except through dreams, and Luna will never permit you to enter our world.”

“Luna, yes,” the Shonokin lightly drew his fingers along that long chin as he towered over her. “The one with you? The blue winged horse?” His voice turned gleeful and cruel. “The one we drove away by showing her visions of herself she did not enjoy?” He picked up a small carved figurine from the table of a saddled and bridled horse. “What if we could make those visions true again and restore the Nightmare?”

“You can’t!” Twilight flew towards him. He raised those hands as though to claw at her, and she hovered just back out of reach. “Luna would never let that happen, she hates what she was! She loves her people and Equestria too much to let that happen.”

“She hates the Nightmare, yes,” the Shonokin nodded. “Hates it enough to give that image of herself life in her own mind. A life as strong as hers. We Shonokin understand Hate. Hate is Strength, Hate is Power. Love is weakness. Love can but plead, while Hate commands. And…”

He snapped his long fingers, like Discord casting Chaos magic. Another book appeared before him. Older than the first, leather bound with metal hasps on the cover. It flipped open to show her the picture of an equine figure rising within a containment-ward circle. Two robed humans faced Nightmare Moon from within another circle.

“I thought that I read of her before,” the Shonokin leader almost purred. “She was called to our world once long ago. John Dee’s books were almost completely lost when his library at Mortlake burned, but some were spared,” he gently caressed the cover, “and this eventually made it to us. We shall summon her to us. The Nightmare will serve us as our gods once did, and she will slay our enemies.”

“She’d as soon kill you,” Twilight said, pleading. She pointed at the book. An illustration on the next page showed the Nightmare with one of the robed men, the bearded one, confronting a man in royal raiment. He was being forced to his knees before her. Outside the window, a full moon shone in the sky with a skull-like face on it. “She’s – Nightmare Moon was Luna’s dark side, her envy and resentment of Celestia given form! She didn’t care about anything but forcing everypony to adore her Endless Night! Don’t you know what that would do to your world?”

“I care little what it would do to what was once our world,” the Shonokin leader said. He walked over towards the wall. Twilight blinked to see a door where none stood before, set at impossible angles. “I care what she would do to our enemies. She will aid us if we aid her in her revenge, especially if we bind her the way Dee was able to. She must obey us then.”

Twilight felt cold sweat along her flanks. Nightmare Moon returned, a weapon in the hands of these beings? Even if it was all happening to another world, how long before the Nightmare showed them how to cross the worldstreams? That man Dee was able to summon her in the first place. She remembered the mirror gate and those other unused mirrors, that led into still more worlds. What if John’s lay behind one of them?

The image went through her mind: a vast and bloated moon rising above a ruined Canterlot. No more ponies in it or Equestria, only silent and shadowed figures with slit-pupil eyes that used poison and warlockry to slay for sport.

“I won’t let you,” she said. Twilight took a breath so her voice quavered less. “I won’t let you do that to Luna, or John’s world, or mine.”

“ANIMAL!” the Shonokin set one clawed hand on that massive door, “what makes you think you can stop us? You were foolish enough to tell us of your world, your memories,” Twilight gulped. That amulet! A geas! Like Sombra’s mind traps! “We will use them to defeat you in your dreams as we will Silver John. You will die here by our Will, both of you, and none of your worthless friends will be able to save you.” He began to open the door.

“You will die as easily as this.”

Twilight flew at him, desperate to stop him, to say something, to make him realize that he didn’t need to do this.

The heavy door flung open, sucking her out into the Void.

And the world about her fell apart.

Again.

Chapter 9

Realms Undreamed Of

Chapter 9

“So this is where we go when we dream, every night?”

“Aye, fair Rarity,” came Luna’s voice from above.

Two ponies flew and four galloped on nothing amid the myriads of tiny dream-worlds swirling around and below them, an ever-changing sea of multi-colored spheres. Six silver cords trailed behind them into infinity, like flowers in Mistmane’s legendary wake. Far below, a soft brightness like Celestia’s sun sparkled like millions of fireflies.

“An’ that’s the dreams o’ every pony and critter in Equestria, down there?”

“It is, Applejack.”

“Woah, Nelly…”

The light from Equestria’s dreams fell behind them; a warmth and comfort the five mortal ponies never knew they’d felt all their lives slowly faded. Darkness surrounded them, with other brighntesses faint in the distance. A beam of moonlight gleamed down from Luna’s horn; where it struck, a seventh silver cord stretched into the void before them.

Rainbow Dash flew, Fluttershy meandered, Rarity sashayed, Applejack galloped, Pinkie trotted with a small moon made of green cheese underhoof. None pulled ahead of the others or fell behind. Luna sensed their confusion and smiled.

“Tis the Realm of Dream,” the Moon Princess whickered. “Not the waking world. Have ye never tried to flee a nightmare, only to find thyselves at a snail’s pace? Or raced ‘round the world in a moment?”

“I do that when I’m awake,” Dash smugly tossed her head. Luna snorted.

The six raced through the darkness between Dreams, the five mortals remembering the briefing before they quaffed Luna’s potion:

“A herd of warlocks, of a race similar to John’s; they called themselves ‘Shonokin’. All appeared male, at least in their dream forms; I counted thirteen when they attacked us, casting in unison as if bearing Elements of Disharmony. Their lead stallion wore a red amulet, apparently a spell focus carried over into Dream.”

The Princess’s horn gleamed with moonlight, light which formed into an illusion image of a creature much like John. Except darker, with a lank black mane and coatless bare skin the shade of Celestia’s tea with a hint of roan, wearing more clothing than even a Diamond Dog – form-fitting like Thorn’s, topped with long black frock coat and wide-brimmed, high-crowned hat with beaded band. All black as Nightmare Moon except for an ivory blouse peeking through the open coat secured at the neck with a string tie such as stallions wore in the Far West. Dragon eyes blazed in its face as the image extended a hand outwards, five fingers like John’s but tipped with short sharp claws, the third from the thumb unnaturally long.

“Note the unusual finger; I saw none other like it during my time in John’s dream. I believe it to be unique to them.”

“They speak in voices like whispers, they walk Dream like Sombra walked Shadow, and their sorcery is potent.” Luna shuddered. “Dark Magic; much like Thorn’s, according to Twilight just before we – were separated. As I told my sister and ye, they near did force me back into the form of the Nightmare, within the Dream Realm if not in reality. If they knew the proper dark magics, they could have bound my darker self in a geas as Dee and Kelley attempted; and command her – me – as a puppet.” Luna shook herself, then started at a gentle nuzzle against her withers.

“We won’t let that happen, Princess Luna,” the Element of Kindness’s voice reassured her. The Elements of Honesty and Generosity joined in; “We’ll protect you as you will us.”

Ahead of them, another brightness grew; larger than Equestria’s, colder in some ways, but not unwelcoming. Gleaming in Luna’s moonlight, Twilight’s silver cord led directly into it.

“If attacked or in emergency, do what ye must. Stay together as a herd; we go into danger. If separated, follow thy silver cords back to thy real bodies. And be careful that other beings do not track you back.”

“Ah reckon we will. Don’t reckon we need any more crazy warlocks or monsters invading Equestria.”

The glow ahead was closer now, resolving into a myriad of individual points of light within the greater incandescence. Swarming fireflies, a whirlwind of lights circling a greater, brighter core.

“Where are Twi and John, anyway?” Pinkie piped up, twitching with Pinkie Sense. She rubbed her mane, and what looked like broken springs fell out. “I can feel them around, somewhere, like my Pinkie Sense is twitching but I can’t figure it out. Wow, but dreams are weird.”

“They are, Lady Pinkie.” Luna smiled, for the first time since they entered Dream.

Twilight’s silver cord led directly into the maelstrom, one of the swirling storms outside the core. Luna’s horn pulsed moonlight; the cord pulsed in response, bearing a feeling of libraries and friendship and worry. “She is there,” Luna pointed her horn, “or at least her cord is. Concentrate on getting there and on thy memories of her; ‘twill aid us in reaching her.”

“More than we already have?” Dash grumbled and rolled her eyes. “Geeze, okay, libraries and Daring Do and beating baddies and me teaching her how to fly – Hay!”

The world seemed to swirl around the ponies as in one instance they stood outside the swirling sphere of lights and the next were within it. The ponies shook themselves, with Dash and Applejack checking as though they expected pieces of their anatomy to be missing. Small lights circled them, some coming closer and others drifting away.

And before them, Twilight’s silver cord led to a vaguely-familiar image shimmering like summer heat – a vast ruined castle, overgrown by a dark and fell forest, stretching into the distance under a full moon.

Luna landed on nothing, folded her wings; Rainbow Dash hovered above, the castle below her like a playset on a table. The other four spread out, viewing it from different angles.

“Wait… Is that Equestria? The Everfree?”

“And the Castle of the Sisters?”

“Gotta be!” Dash whinnied from above. “There’s that rope bridge where the Shadowbolts almost tricked me!”

“And when you look at it differently, you can see Ponyville in the distance.” Fluttershy pointed with a forehoof. “And the river, and Red Dragon Peak, and the Eponas, and Canterlot.”

“Maybe some foal is playing with her figurines?” Pinkie piped up; everypony blinked at her words. “Hay, I do it with the Cake Twins all the time – they made all those brushable figurines of us after the Day of Discord and the Royal Wedding and they were in all the stores –”

“Whatever’s goin’ on…” Applejack looked at the shimmering castle before her, “Why’s Twi dreamin’ about when we first met? Ah mean, it has to be her dream – John never saw the Castle.”

“Maybe she wants to show him how I and the rest of you saved Luna and everypony else?” Dash’s voice came from above. “He told us about his world, and Twi would probably want ta show him about ours.”

“When she was being attacked by those awful Shonokin?” Rarity shook herself. She caught her reflection in the surface of the sphere, preened a second, and caught herself. “I cannot believe Twilight would be that reckless, Rainbow Dash. Not even you would be that foolish.”

“Uhhh, Maybe she and John beat the Shonokin?” Fluttershy suggested. “Maybe they’re waiting to meet us.”

As the five whickered, the Alicorn Major with them walked on nothing around the image, examining it from all angles, like Rarity examining a new dress or Pinkie Pie a new pastry. Luna’s horn glowed as she cast spells, one after another. Their energy washed over the castle, disappearing as each touched the surface of the dream.

“A memory of Twilight, but not made by her magic.” Luna rejoined the others, gazed into the dream. It reflected her image, subtly distorted, giving her longer legs and a darker coat. “A trap, perhaps? But then why use her memories?” The Moon Princess drew herself up, stars sparkling in her streaming mane and tail; her horn began to glow with another, brighter spell.

“More talk will do no good; she was in great peril when I last saw, and if she is still in danger…”

Moonlight flashed from Luna’s horn to the dream-image – and a blinding flash of lightning shot back along its path. An ear-pinning equine scream that made them all cringe, and the Princess was gone. Now two faint silver cords led into the dream.

“IT SUCKED HER IN!” neighed Dash from above. “WE HAVE TO SAVE THE PRINCESS!” Then a cyan streak dived into the dream-image and vanished, leaving a third silver cord.

“Aw, horseapples!” Applejack neighed and reared to charge, then both her and Rarity charged in and disappeared. Five cords now.

Fluttershy stood there, eeping in shock, shaking like on the way to Red Dragon Peak. She’d seen Luna pulled into the dream, glimpsed an instant of her coat going blacker than black, mane and tail dissolving into Nightmare Moon’s as she vanished.

“Come on, Flutterbutter!” A pink equine blur tackled her and leaped in after the others, dragging a screaming yellow pegasus with her.

#

I reckon I felt my eyes go wide as I saw what and where I was. Had you been there I imagine you’d feel the same. Night, chill and dark all around. Moonlight turning it near bright as day, almost; as bright as airy night you’d see in the mountains at least. Stone buildings all about, gone into ruin til hardly any stone was standing upon another. Like those old-timey ones you can see in books of what used to be castles over the seas. Stones covered with carvings of little horses, some with horns and some with wings, grown all over with twisted elms and oaks and willows and other trees I knew would look darker in the daytime than they did at night. It minded me first of an old poem I’d heard once from Lee Cobbett.

“Elm he grieve,

Oak he hate,

Willow he walk if you stay up late.”

Then of a mountain song near as old, the one about the Ancients and their old mines in the high hills of Rebel Creek country.

“In the pines, in the pines,

Where the sun never shines,

And I shiver when the wind blows cold.”

I reckon I just frowned then and stopped. This didn’t seem to be air place that made you think pleasant thoughts.

First thing right off I checked myself. My usual old clothes and army boots and thank all that was good, my silver-strung guitar in my hands. Not my real one, Reuben Manco told me what I could expect, but the one I had in my head and memories from all the long years of a-carrying and a-playing it. I ran my fingers over the strings and felt right glad to hear the music they made.

“Chief,” I said to Reuben Manco where I thought him to be, “this is Equestria, or a dream of it, sure enough. How you reckon on us finding Twilight here, though?”

When he didn’t answer my inquire I turned to look and I saw something that didn’t make me the least bit happy. Wise old Reuben Manco wasn’t beside me, or airy other place I could see.

I looked all around, hoping my best that I’d see him somewheres nearby. No such luck. I remembered what he told me about the Shonokin, how they knew ways to use this sort of dream-magic that not even a wise old medicine man of the Cherokee, what educated folks call one of the Five Civilized Tribes, knew. I nair thought they’d know so much they could yank him away from me and send him of somewheres I might nair see him again. That thought gave me a turn and more than a turn.

I felt mighty low there a moment. And then I heard something like the sounds horses make, way far in the distance. I slipped as quiet as I could among the broken stones underfoot and from the deepest shadows, using all the cover I could, just like I’d learned back in my Army days. I wondered me as I did why I needed to be a-doing it thisaway. If this was a dream, then couldn’t I just make myself appear close by and howdy them, just for a-wanting it? But I couldn’t. Maybe I didn’t have the imagination for it, and maybe if I could then those sneaking Shonokin could go a-doing it too. I didn’t want a one of them jumping right up beside me, maybe with a knife in their hands.

One of the towers still stood. Or at least it wasn’t as gone to ruin as the others, standing two-three stories tall. I made for it, keeping to the shadows, whispering that charm from The Long-Lost Friend I’d said aloud while Chief Manco was putting me under.

“I, John, go on a journey to-day. I walk upon God’s way, and walk where God Himself walks… I pray that no wolf bite me, no beast tear me, and no murderer secretly approach me…”

#

Two earth ponies, two pegasi, and one marshmallow unicorn picked themselves up from a floor of broken and crumbling stones overgrown with weeds, blinking at the lack of light. A mareless Moon rode high in the sky, shining a sickly silver glow over the shadowed ruins surrounding them; a chill night breeze ruffled five pony coats. And the silence – the sudden oppressive quiet of that long, long night almost five years before.

Rainbow Dash recovered first, spreading her wings as the other four looked around at an Everfree Forest of crumbling black stone. Rarity stopped to brush herself off and get her mane and tail presentable, sapphire aura dancing around her horn.

“I’m gonna take a look around.”

“No, you’re not!” Applejack whinnied in a low voice, grabbing the pegasus to keep her from taking off. “We don’t know who might be out there!”

“And if they’re sneaking up on us? Look AJ, I’ll stay real low, now leggo.”

“Girls?” Rarity turned around as Dash took off into a low hover; the other four huddled, facing outwards in primeval equine instinct. The aura of the unicorn’s horn burst into light that played over the broken wall of an old dry pool, illuminated wall frescoes in cracked obsidian and ivory of two rearing Alicorns Major, showed the plunder vines and twisted trees of the Everfree forcing their way through the paving stones. “Is this really the Castle of the Sisters?”

“It is,” Applejack answered. “This is where we helped Twilight save Luna an’ Equestria.” She looked around and snorted. “Those Show-no-family fellers are gonna be sorry they tried usin’ this memory against Twi an’ us. We won.”

“Unless they try changing it so we don’t?” Pinkie’s grin turned faded, a little, as her friends gave her horrified looks. “I mean, Luna said those meanies could try and make dreams turn out different. Maybe they want to make sure that Nightmare Moon gobbles us up like Nightmare Night candy this time?”

“Okay,” Rainbow Dash said as she hovered above them, keeping her eyes roving around. “If that’s their plan, where the hay are they?”

Pinkie started vibrating, cotton candy mane and tail twitching every which way.

A sound broke the total silence – a soft, almost whispering voice.

“John?”

Fluttershy eeped; Dash shot up above the ruined walls, pointed with a forehoof as the others spun around – “There! In the shadow!”

The light tipping Rarity’s horn narrowed like a bullseye lantern, illuminating an upright figure twenty lengths away. It froze where it stood, where it had been moving in the shadow of a half-tumbled wall – a biped John’s height, John’s human shape.

But not John.

A sharp-featured face, the color of weak tea with a hint of roan or sorrel; straight shadow-black hair tied back to cascade like the crest of a pony’s mane without the forelock, one hand brushing against the stone wall as if it had been using it as a guide in the darkness.

Applejack and Dash focused on the small single-bitted axe in its free hand.

Rarity inventoried its wardrobe – leather pants and beaded slipper-like shoes, a decorative feather hanging from its mane-tie; no long frock coat, but a shorter jacket with shawl lapels, held by a waist-belt of Buffalo-like beadwork with matching knife sheath. An amulet hung against its chest, jade-green against the light-colored underblouse. Overdressed…

Dark eyes went wide; the human or Shonokin began a low rhythmic chanting that sounded almost – Appleoosan Buffalo?

“HE’S SPELLCASTING!” Rarity’s voice echoed around the ruins like she were channeling Luna.

“GET HIM!”

And with wild whinnies they charged.

#

The floors atop the tower could hold my weight; like I was taught in the Army, I peeked around the sides of the stones instead of over the tops, never looking out past the same one twice. No sign of Chief Manco, but…

To one side that dark forest stretched away forever, a rickety rope bridge still hanging over a chasm that looked so deep, it could reach down into Hell itself. To the other, a big hall still standing, looking like a temple or cathedral towering over the ruins. Beyond that more black tree-line and way beyond that, so far off I could just make it out, the lights of a city I’d seen once afore, set astride a mountain like it grew there.

I looked around another corner. Down below in some sort of courtyard, I saw six little horses by what looked to be an old fountain, with what looked to be the statue of some kind of fish-pony atop it made like to spray water up. No water now, of course, nothing but dust and moonlight and six ponies I knew a-standing about it. I won’t lie, I felt better to see them there. It’s always good to see friends.

Twilight went up to Applejack and hugged her horse-style, craning her neck around the little palomino.

Applejack stood kind of stiff, I thought, and so did the others – kind Fluttershy, ladylike Rarity, Pinkie Pie not bouncing all over for once, and Rainbow Dash right down on the ground on her all fours. I wondered me what happened to them beyond what Twilight told me to change them like this, or maybe it was just my eyes a-playing tricks.

I stood up, cupped my hands to my mouth, and howdied them. If they heard me, they made no sign.

I howdied them again, louder. Still naught.

Fluttershy whipped up her tail and snorted, all angry horse. Twilight looked around at them, said something I couldn’t hear, and the rest of them all glanced at each other. I wondered me why they were acting so stand-offish.

Rarity raised one leg and shook it like it hurt her. I saw Twilight lower her head to look at at it, and Rarity set it down right quick. All silent as the inside of a coffin, not even a word or whicker. Like I could see them but not hear them, and they couldn’t see or hear me.

The more I thought on it, the less sense it made to me.

Twilight turned and headed for that big hall I’d seen, going at a trot. Her friends followed her, as silent as shadows.

I began to start down and follow them. Because for all I couldn’t say what, something was deep-down bad wrong here, and I knew down in my bones one or maybe the all of those ponies would be needing my help as much as I was a-needing theirs.

#

“Girls, are you positive you’re okay?” Twilight looked around at her friends, walking around her as they did, keeping her in their midst. Not for the first time since leaving Canterlot last night or however long it’d been before, she wished she’d stayed an Alicorn Minor and kept her wings. She could have flown around briefly and taken a look at the ruined palace for any hiding places. Twilight felt some amusement to consider that she’d gone most of her life without them, but after a few short months of flight she felt almost trapped without it.

The quest for the Lost Elements of Harmony, over four years ago. When this all happened for real, I was still a unicorn. Figures…

“For the last time, Twilight,” Applejack said, pinning her ears back, “we’re all right. We just,” she looked thoughtful, “just want to get this all over and done with.”

“To help you meet John again,” Rarity half whispered the words. “We’re all so worried about him.”

“And find Nightmare Moon before we lose her forever,” Rainbow Dash chimed in where she walked along behind – doing the rearguard, she’d said when Twilight asked why she didn’t fly.

“Yes,” Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie spoke as one, sounding so similar Twilight couldn’t tell them apart.

“O-kay,” Twilight said. She wondered at their behavior, but this was a pretty scary memory they were in. She remembered the versions of the story she’d read that were meant for little fillies and colts, making it sound like the defeat of Nightmare Moon took just a few hours and involved only Ponyville and Canterlot rather than several days. Making the Nightmare a lot less terrible than she’d been when they faced her, too.

She felt relief that John wasn’t here, she thought; he knew how to handle the monsters and sorcerers of his world, but she doubted he’d be able to handle Tirek or Chrysalis or Nightmare Moon. Yeah, she dryly reminded herself. He’d do as well as you have with those Shonokin. Where are they anyway?

She looked up as they passed through what once was a wide entryway, the sides carved with images of ponies on their bellies before the princesses. Before Princess Celestia, anyway; every still-intact image she’d seen here, like on that long-ago night, showed a single Alicorn Major on a single throne, rather than the twin thrones Celestia had insisted be set in the Sun Palace in Canterlot after Luna returned. Hooves clip-clopped lightly over broken stones beneath, and the sound of their hoofsteps echoed off of the ruined bas-reliefs carved into the walls and the vaulted ceiling high above.

A sudden impulse made Twilight go over to the nearest such relief. It showed unicorns and pegasi and Earth ponies bowing low before a majestic Alicorn Major, her body and wings worked in ivory, traces of gold foil still shining faintly from her Royal Tiara and on the peytral about her neck and from the small sun shining at the tip of her horn. Head upheld, muzzle tilted back, even in ruin she looked majestic, almost haughty, as she permitted her ponies to bow and scrape at her hooves. It made Twilight shift uneasily. Is it just my imagination, or did nopony realize how arrogant they made Celestia look?

She glanced away and froze to realize that Luna wasn’t entirely forgotten in here, after all. Her form was worked in obsidian and sapphires, diamonds for the stars shining in her midnight mane, but she was definitely Luna. They even had some of her Night Guard thestrals with her, smaller than her but standing. The long-forgotten artist showed Luna glaring at her elder sister with a hatred and envy so intense and realistic Twilight wondered why she didn’t hear a hiss of spite. Her eyes were jade, her pupils merest slits as with her flanking bat-ponies, the fangs showing at their lips as though they lusted to hurl themselves onto the ponies around Celestia.

“Poor forgotten and betrayed Luna…”

“Gah!” Twilight turned and saw her friends looking at her and the carving. Despite their sympathetic words, they looked coldly intent. “Girls! A little warning next time?”

They looked at her coldly. Twilight shifted, wondering if she needed to use her magic. Then they relaxed and so did she.

‘Sorry, Twilight,” Rainbow Dash said. She nodded first at her friend and then at the fresco. “I guess we’re all just a little worried because of those Shonokin-guys. They might be doing something to Luna while we stand here.” She turned and looked out the door. “I’m kinda wondering if they’re following us right now. I thought I heard something back in the dark.”

“Maybe you better go and check then, Dash,” Applejack said, switching her tail off towards the darkness outside. “We don’t want to be getting any surprises when we blast Nightmare Moon again, do we?”

Dash got ready to fly back, but Twilight spoke up.

“Dash, I think it’d be better if we stuck together for right now.” Twilight looked at the chamber ahead. “If I remember right, this is where we met Nightmare Moon, anyway.” Twilight trotted forward, heading for the shadowed chamber just ahead. “The Elements were there, remember? If the Shonokin are anywhere, they’ll be there.”

“You’re probably right, Twilight,” Fluttershy said from behind her. “It is better we stick together right now. We want this mess to be ended quickly, don’t we?”

“Yeah,” Twilight said as she entered the chamber. There they were before her, the stone spheres that contained the remains of the Elements as they’d existed in the days when the Princesses bore them. Another fresco carved into the far wall made her glance towards it as she said, “But we really have to heal Luna. Then, with her help, we can save John and get rid of those Shonokin before they cause more trouble and –“

And a fearfully familiar blue mist slithered into the chamber to stand behind the stone spheres containing the Elements. It rose up and solidified, becoming an ebon alicorn mare the size of Celestia, silver barding sparkling, green dragon-eyes glaring down at Twilight and her friends.

“Foals!” Nightmare Moon spat. She spread her wings and let her nebular mane and tail flare up, rising to the ceiling like twin bonfires, looking even darker and more terrifying than Twilight remembered. “You dare confront me here, in mine own castle? You have but one choice; serve me, or be destroyed!”

I don’t remember her saying any of that! Twilight shook her head and stepped forward. “That’s where you’re wrong, Nightmare Moon – Princess Luna!” The Nightmare sneered at her words, fangs showing. Twilight said, “My friends and I are going to free you from your madness. Nopony here is going to serve you.”

“Speak for yourself, Twilight.” Rarity almost purred behind her.

What?!?

Twilight tried to turn, preparing a spell, but Applejack and Rainbow Dash were on her, driving her into the ground before she could move. A hoof cracked against her horn, disrupting any spell before she could cast. She tried to yell, to demand an answer, but as soon as she opened her mouth Pinkie Pie stuffed her hoof into it. Fluttershy flew – no, leaped – into the air and brought her hooves down hard into Twilight’s barrel, knocking the breath out of her.

The castle, the world, the dream exploded into a Luna’s mane of stars, spiraling down into blackness; Rarity watched from nearby, a cruel smile the real mare never could have borne on her lips.

And all of them showed those dragon-eyes of the Shonokin.

#

I hopped right down from that ruined tower. After what I’d been seeing, I knew I needed to be getting to Twilight right that moment. There was something mighty wrong with Applejack and Fluttershy and the rest, if it was even them she was a-speaking to.

Right as I dropped I felt something wrap around both my legs. Something that felt almost scaly, like an almighty big snake. I looked and wished it were a snake.

It was a thing like a long black vine coming up between the stones of the pavement, all set with sharp blue thorns. It hugged me the tighter and I felt those thorns bite deeper. They were a-hungering for my blood, thirsting for it.

I snatched my guitar around fast and played the strongest song I knew, the Last Judgment Song old Uncle T.P.Hinnard taught me when I was a tad.

“Three holy Kings, four holy saints,

At Heaven’s high gate that stand;

Speak out and bid all evil wait

And stir no foot or hand…”

Even as I played it, I wondered me if it’d work. It was strong against evil in the world I knew, and also two years ago in Equestria, but what about here?

Those vines had nair feet nor hands, but they drew back from me and let me move. I looked to see more of them afore me, growing from the cracks in the paving, twitching and clutching.

Still singing and playing my old guitar, I went right on ahead, one step at a time. It was slow going, mighty slow, but I had no other choice right then unless I wanted to sit down and let them be a-killing me or run off and leave Twilight to whatair end someone planned for her.

“The fire from Heaven will fall at last

On pride and wealth and power;

We will not know the minute,

And we will not know the hour…”

#

“What is this?” Nightmare Moon’s voice rang in Twilight’s ears. “Why do ye betray each other?”

“No betrayal, great spirit,” Rarity said, her voice changing in mid-whinny to the whispering voice of the Shonokin leader. “We are – not as we appear.” The hooves pinning Twilight to the floor shifted like a Changeling into clawed hands. “We are beings of another realm, seeking aid from one we can serve –”

With a snort, Twilight squirmed in their grips, mentally prepping a spell to throw them all off her – only to get stopped in mid-prep by another disrupting blow to her horn.

“Be bound,” that voice whispered in her ear, echoed by four – no, ten – others. “Be bound, be bound. Be still and silent. Until you can count the stars in the sky and the drops of water in the sea, be bound by my will.”

With a cracking of stone, plunder vines burst through the pavement to coil around her and tighten, thorns digging into her coat, binding her forelegs, hindlegs – and wings. Wings?

They’ve broken the script, it’s no longer that night, so now I have my wings back. Great.

More plunder vines bound her, stinking of the dark magic she’d felt in John’s nightmares. She opened her mouth to neigh, to scream…

The Shonokin leader stood upright in black hat and frock coat, stroked his amulet as the other four held her down.

“Silence.”

Another plunder vine shot across her mouth, through the equine gap between foreteeth and molars, coiled around her head and tightened into a thorny, woody, acid-tasting gag. The other Shonokin let go of her, the vines tying her to the shattered floor, and stood before Nightmare Moon.

“As I said before this beast interrupted,” he set one booted foot on trussed-up Alicorn Minor, “We are beings of another realm, seeking one we can turn to for aid. ‘Serve those Above in rejoicing, serve those Below in terror.’ You are the shadow of She we hoped to encounter…”

“The horror that haunts the blue horse,” the Nightmare replied. “A shadow of what I was, separated and given pseudo-life by the Tantabus you conjured and set upon her. A ‘tulpa’ or ‘egregore’ would be the word in your realm. A thought-construct or dream-sprite that has gained independent existence.”

“Yes, we are familiar with the concept, though this beast,” the leader gave Twilight a scornful kick, “seems ignorant.”

“I doubt it not,” Nightmare Moon grinned wickedly at Twilight, a grin of sharp fangs like a snake or Shonokin. “Such magic is little-known in their world; even my sister knows little of it. My other self was the Alicorn of Dreams, not her. I planned to strike at her later, but now?” She whipped the sparkling vapor of her tail in a gesture of contempt. “I may as well use the allies fate hath delivered unto me.”

The dark Alicorn Major returned their predators’ smiles with her own; the crash of sabatoned forehoof on stone echoed through the ruined hall.

“IF they can prove themselves loyal.”

The Shonokin leader just nodded once, gravely, then spoke.

“Let us show you how loyal we are,” He pointed at Twilight bound on the shattered floor. “We will give you the first of many sacrifices. Once back in our world, we will offer even more of our enemies to you. Does not the thought of blood please you, Nightmare?”

“Blood,” Nightmare Moon softly breathed the word out. Her turquoise dragon eyes drifted half shut. “Yes, the blood of mine enemies doth please me.”

Twilight struggled against the spell-vines binding her, mentally running through counters and dispels as the remaining Shonokin closed in.

#

“GET HIM!”

Rainbow Dash crashed into the pavement where the figure had stood an instant before.

“Wait! Where’d he go? AAAAAA!”

The blue pegasus shot back up into a low hover, the plunder vines that had reached up for her falling back against the broken stone.

Applejack leaped up onto the half-tumbled wall, looked around in the light from Rarity’s horn. Outside that glow, light from the fullest moon ever seen in Equestrian history cast shadows deep enough to hide an army of Show-whatevers.

“Ah can’t see him neither,” the palomino pinned her ears and looked around. She caught not even a hint of movement in the shadows. “He’s gotta be here somewheres, though. He can’t just vanish away.”

“Thorn did,” Rarity said as she joined Applejack by the ruined wall. If anything moved, they stayed out of her light. “If he can do what Thorn did, we might be in trouble here.”

“Yeah, but this is a dream,” Pinkie Pie added. Her friends blinked – once – to see her balancing on top of a standing pillar. She dropped over the side, ignoring their frightened gasps, only to bounce to her hooves when she landed on her poofy mane and rebounded to stand before them. “I mean, you can’t really get hurt in a dream, right?”

“Ah ain’t so sure o’ that,” Applejack frowned as she looked around. She trotted back out into the middle of the square, noticing that Dash stayed clear of her as she flapped around, making sure that even her soft wingbeats didn’t interfere with AJ’s hearing. “Princess Luna was mighty scared, an’ she’s th’ Alicorn of Dreams. If she’s scared, then maybe we oughta be worried a mite ourselves.”

“But are we sure he’s bad? I mean, I’m sure you all have very good reasons to think why you do,” Fluttershy turned away from one corner of the courtyard where she’d been looking. Noticing the looks Dash and Applejack gave her, she half hid her face behind her mane. “He didn’t do anything, he didn’t even threaten us. I wonder if he was scared to see us here. John was surprised by us when we first met.”

“That young lady speaks correctly.” The ponies froze as a voice spoke from the air around them. “If you are the – ladies, John the Balladeer told me about from that time he went missing a few years ago, then I think that perhaps we have some things to say to one another.”

“You know John?” Dash looked around the courtyard from above, scanning the ruined walls and deep shadows.

“I said I do,” that voice responded – wary, but not frightened. “We have been friends for many years. He has saved my life and I have saved his. Any friend of his is a friend of mine, if you can prove you are his friends.”

“Prove it?” Rarity seemed to smile with her voice as she spoke. She also kept her horn alight, looking around. It did no good. That voice came from everywhere and nowhere, echoing off the walls. “My good sir, John told us something of his world. Just how many talking ponies do you think know his name?”

“Before today, I would have said none,” the answer came back to them, dry as dust. “But this is the Dreamlands. My folk know something of the evils that can lurk behind fair faces, especially in dreams.”

“Evil? Us?” Dash flew around the pillars and statues, standing and fallen, looking behind them. “Hey, buddy, how do we know we can trust you? You might be one of those Show-whatevers that chased Princess Luna away, and that snatched her again for all we know. You sure look like one.” She paused and rubbed her mane. “Hey, how can we even speak to each other without magic?”

“If you had ever really seen a Shonokin, you would know better than that,” that voice sounded slightly insulted now. “The Night-Goers, the Moon-Eyed Ones. They have been enemies of my people from the beginning. Not only enemies, but ansigina. Monsters.”

“As for the speaking, your guess is as good as mine. This is the Dreamlands; things always work differently here. And you are right about trust. Very well then – how do we prove ourselves to each other?”

The ponies looked at each other and read confusion on each other’s faces.

“That’s rather a good question, dears,” Rarity said.

“Huh, yeah,’ Rainbow Dash looked uncertain. She dropped to stand by her friends. “Ask him more questions about John?”

“How much do we know about him?” Applejack said. She trapped her right forehoof against the stones as she ticked them off. “He plays a guitar with silver strings, he’s a human, he’s male, he’s a good sort o’ feller, he comes from the mountains in his own world… Anything else?”

“He sings those good songs,” Fluttershy said in her soft voice. “He told us about them, and we used them together –” The mares looked at each other. They conversed hurriedly and turned to speak to their questioner.

“Hey, Mister Hides-in-Shadows Guy!” Dash yelled. “You know about those songs John sings, right? The ones he uses to chase away monsters and bad magic?”

“I do.” The Element Bearers wondered if the speaker sounded a little warmer now. “I heard him use them many times. Why?”

The mares looked at each other before they nodded at Applejack.

“Okay,” she said, stepping out in front of her friends. “If y‘all know this song, let’s hear ya sing it.” She took a deep breath and with her friends joining in, sang that song John used to help keep them safe that long-ago night when they faced down Thorn.

“Three Alicorns, four holy saints,

At Summerland’s gate that stand.

Speak out and bid all evil wait,

And stir no hoof or hand…”

After a moment they heard the voice join in, singing the words along with them. The mares wondered if the night around them seemed less chill and the shadows less deep as they sang.

They let the tune fade away, and as they did the voice responded to them.

“You sing as beautifully as John said you did.”

Movement came in the shadows before them, and that lean figure stepped out into the moonlight, small axe now tucked into his beaded belt. He came closer, his movements cat-quiet and his dark eyes never leaving them. He stopped just out of their reach. The four ponies snorted and shifted uneasily at the sight of that, tails lashing the air as the fifth hovered above.

“And if you know of the Shonokin, you know about their third fingers.”

He held up his free hand, his palm towards them; his fingers were the same length as John’s, without the extra-long one from Luna’s briefing.

Lowering his hand, he looked them in their faces. His eyes were like John’s but darker. Not Shonokin.

“My name is Reuben Manco, a medicine man of the Tsalagi and a mutual friend to John. I came here with him to help him, and a young lady he called Twilight. Do you know her?”

They just started at him, and the next thing anypony knew the man was giving a yell as five excited ponies all but knocked him down.

“Twilight! Do ya know if she’s okay?”

“Ya mean John an’ her was in here?”

“Oh, Mister Manco, we were so worried about her!”

“Oh, good sir, please tell us that Twilight is alright!”

“Ooh, can I be ‘it’ the next time?”

“What?” Manco blinked at that last comment. Then he smiled. “Pinkie Pie, isn’t it? Well, I can see John didn’t exaggerate about you, at least. As for the rest of you, no, I’m trying to find John in here.” He looked around and frowned. “Something separated us as we entered. I know something about dream realms and dreamwalking from my studies both as a medicine man and scholar, but this is far beyond anything I’ve ever seen before.”

“Dang,” Applejack frowned and stomped one forehoof. “We were kinda hopin’ ya could tell us where Twi an’ John were.”

#

Twilight lay still in the plunder vines, mentally running through counters and dispels. Magic like Thorn’s, without the acculturation to Equestria – different enough that Equestrian magic won’t have an effect… John’s spells and songs have to be sung or spoken aloud… Come on, you’re the Element of Magic! There has to be something!

Six Shonokin crouched in a semicircle behind where she lay bound in the vines, facing Nightmare Moon. The leader and four others – the five who had posed as her friends – stood between her and the Nightmare. The leader was as he’d appeared in his memory palace, except for a larger and brighter amulet – and a long stone knife in his hand. Twilight’s eyes widened as she recognized the knife. It came from the Shonokin leader’s memory palace, from that wall art of the Shonokin butchering beasts and men for the old powers they venerated.

The other four wore bad Nightmare Night costumes. One a tinfoil helmet and breastplate, a cheap toy sword in his hand. One a long robe and mortarboard hat with tassel. One a tailcoat like a Canterlot noble at the Gala and a top hat like some Appeloosans in the Western Desert, leaning on a gem-tipped cane. And one an elaborate robe and tall mitred hat with an equally-elaborate long staff ending in a spiral tip.

Beyond them, Nightmare Moon watched from atop the dais.

What did John tell me so long ago, that one counter-charm from his world? She began working it over in her memory as the five Shonokin conferred with the Nightmare.

The cross in my fore hoof, umm…

Twilight tried flexing her forehoof, mentally envisioning herself in the form she’d bore beyond the mirror.

That I may be blessed, and safe from every wicked man or beast…

No good. She didn’t remember enough of the spell.

“Hold.”

All froze as Nightmare Moon trotted over to stand over her as if she were a Nightmare Night candy offering, dragon – or Shonokin – eyes gleaming. Twilight winced at her breath, not sweet like most ponies but with that undercurrent of rot from a predator. The black alicorn smiled, displaying the tips of her fangs.

“I remember this one. She defeated me when we first met. I will enjoy watching what happens here.”

Twilight shuddered as she remembered a picture from one of the Daring Do books, of the Pegasus adventurer looking up at hungry monsters as they got ready to eat her.

Come on, she got out without magic, you can too! She remembered old Professor Ink Well’s classes at Celestia’s School. If all else fails, sometimes repeating the verbal element of a spell but changing it can aid in weakening its effects.

The Nightmare returned to her dais with a snort; Twilight began going through the Shonokin spell in her mind.

Be bound, be bound – no, “Be free, be free”… She wondered if she felt her left cannon twitch. She tried moving the hind leg again, was sure she felt a shiver run along it. And the vines seemed to give. A little. Not enough.

Be free, be free… No stillness, no silence…

“This creature.” One of the Shonokin crouching in the semicircle interrupted the others’ soft whispering chant. “She moved.”

The others scowled at him, as did Nightmare Moon. “So what if she did?” Their leader said. “All her movements will soon be at an end. You make our guest impatient.” He nodded at the Nightmare.

“Continue.”

Gaudy Robe with the long crozier-staff stepped forward and faced the other three; Top Hat, Tin Helmet, and Flat Hat all dropped to one knee. He made some sort of spell gesture with his free hand, the long Shonokin finger extending farther than the others, and repeated some sort of chant:

“End without World…Forever and Now…Be shall ever it as…Beginning the in was it as…Glory the and Power the…” It made very little sense to Twilight, sounding all twisted around. She focused on her own work.

For I have counted every star in the heavens, and every drop of water in the sea…

She definitely felt the vines loosen, this time along her wings. Just a few moments more and – she’d be loose with almost a dozen Shonokin and the dream-version of Nightmare Moon.

“HOLD!”

Again, all froze at the whinny of Nightmare Moon.

“This ritual is an old one,” the black alicorn said. “Old in your world, anyway. I remember it from the time Dee called me there. Was it not called the Mass of Saint Secaire?” She looked at the Shonokin and snorted. “A mockery used to flatter – and control – corrupted spirits? As Dee and Kelly attempted! THIS is how you say you will honor ME?”

The Shonokin shifted, almost rustling. Twilight wondered if they looked suddenly uneasy. Their leader stepped forward.

“We use the ways of our enemies to destroy them,” he said. He set his hand on his amulet, bowed his head towards the Nightmare, raised the knife in a ritual salute. “Once we are returned to our proper realm, we will show you true rituals of our kind. You will see how we will serve, and how you can serve us.”

“I think not,” Nightmare Moon said, taking several steps back, ears flattened and pinned. At the same time the Shonokin fell back before her.

“Creature,” the Shonokin leader said in a wary voice, “what are you doing?”

“THIS!”

Nightmare Moon reared and gave the scream of a pony in full battle fury. Her horn and eyes blazed like they had that night five years before; her wings flared. The Shonokin fell back in terror as she neighed, “Ye seek to use night and darkness and dreams against ME? Ye creatures only hide in the night – I AM THE NIGHT!”

And a blast of chain lightning lashed out from her horn to envelop the Shonokin. The four in those ridiculous Nightmare Night outfits fled shrieking, their costumes ablaze. The rest of the Shonokin followed them like leaves swept up by a whirlwind, dashing down the hall and away from the chamber. Waves and ripples of their dark magic vanished like sound through a slamming door, and they were gone.

They’re gone… Then she realized she was alone in the hall with Nightmare Moon, still bound in the plunder vines.

“MMMMMMMPH!”

The vines holding Twilight began to fade – not fast enough. She started squirming, feeling thorns pierce her coat and inside of her mouth as Nightmare Moon stepped towards her.

“HFFF HFFGRRPH!”

#

I felt like I’d been playing and singing near forever and airy place I looked, more of those ugly vines came towards me moving and wriggling like a snake someone cut in half. I was wondering whoair or whatair was a-running this show just meant for them to kill me or just tire me down. Right then, a voice like God on Judgment Day spoke out.

“I AM THE NIGHT!”

And the whole world around me went bright white like the world’s almightiest thunderbolt came down aside me. That voice sounded like thunder, too, you felt it echo inside your head. The only time I air heard its like was the one time I heard Twilight’s Princess Celestia using it on Thorne and his haunt helpers.

When I could see and hear again those vines were gone like they’d been burned off by a lightning strike. I wasn’t sorry to see them gone.

Right afore me I saw where that lightning had come from, striking up into the sky rather than down from it. From the tallest hall where Twilight and the others had gone. Lights came from the windows on it, sudden flashes like someone set off a whole hobby of fireworks at once. Yells in with it too, some of them panicked, and what sounded like an almighty angry horse.

I ran for the hall, guitar in my hand like my rifle in Korea. Something told me Twilight was going to be in the middle of it all.

#

“I AM THE NIGHT!”

The Royal Canterlot Voice echoed through the ruined courtyard as a blast of lightning lit the sky, blinding and deafening five ponies and one Cherokee.

Rainbow Dash was first to recover, spreading her wings and shooting into the sky while Fluttershy cringed. She hovered for a moment about thirty lengths up, then dropped back to a low hover, wings spreading dust devils on the broken pavement.

“It’s coming from the old Throne Hall, where we zapped Nightmare Moon!”

“Whatever is happening there, I doubt it’s anything good,” Manco said in a grim voice. He looked at the five ponies. “I don’t know about your friend Twilight, but John is likely there or nearby.”

“If John’s there, like as not Twi is too,” Applejack whinnied agreement past the ringing in her ears. Then Pinkie shot past her at a bouncing gallop.

“WhatAreYouWaitingForLetsGo!!!”

Dash shot ahead; Fluttershy followed her a moment later, airborne for once. The others broke into a gallop after them.

“Come on, girls! You too, Mister Manco!”

“I agree, young miss,” he said, and then saved his breath for running as he followed the ponies towards the tower and whatever waited inside, tomahawk and medicine-bag amulet at the ready.

#

Twilight cringed as Nightmare Moon towered over her, looking down with furious blue eyes. Blue pony eyes, not turquoise dragon eyes.

PONY eyes?

“Twilight Sparkle! Do not move!” The Nightmare’s horn glowed again, and the vine gag lifted from her mouth. She spat blood where its thorns scraped her mouth and tongue. “Are thee wounded?”

Twilight looked up at the Alicorn Major.

“P-Princess Luna?”

The Nightmare’s face relaxed. “Be still, Twilight Sparkle. We shall have thee free in a moment.”

The dark alicorn bent over her, biting through the remaining plunder vines; they disintegrated at the touch of her teeth. Hooves but not hooves sounded in the hall, like a single Shonokin returning; the Nightmare’s ears perked up at the sound, then her head snapped upright.

Just in time to get a face full of silver-strung guitar.

KA-BONG!!!

Chapter 10

Realms Undreamed Of

Chapter 10

“JOHN, DON’T! SHE’S A FRIEND!”

“Her?” I stepped maybe one or two steps back, keeping myself between Twilight and that devil-horse, the one that minded me more than I liked of Thorne from when we’d first met. She gave me the meanest look where she rose up over me, big as any real horse you’d nair care to see. I just made sure to be a-holding my silver-strung guitar out atween us to keep her back. I said, and reckoned on how stupid I must be a-sounding, “I thought you told me those Nightmare ponies were no friends to air soul.”

A wind blew from behind, and another little horse leaped over me; Twilight – with wings like Rainbow Dash? I must have gopped at the sight as she landed to stand wings spread between me and that big devil-horse in silver armor with the ebon coat and purple-lidded blue eyes and mane and tail that looked like the clouds scientist fellows tell us are out somewheres in space, where new stars get theirselves a-born.

“Stand aside, Twilight Sparkle!” She snapped those words out. I saw how the teeth in her mouth clashed together as she said them. They looked sharp and gleaming like new-made knives, like they belonged in the head of some wolf and no horse. Her wings made to ruffle themselves up like some old rooster getting hisself ready to fight. “I have already faced some of thy enemies from this world, and if this one seeks to aid the Shonokin against us as well –”

“Now you hold on there, whatair your name is,” I responded her, not very polite. She maybe settled the least little bit as I said, “I’m noways a friend of those lowflung Shonokin. I came in here from outside, and I saw you a-standing over my friend Twilight and a-looking ready to eat her for all I knew.” I swept my fingers along the strings of my guitar. That Nightmare just looked a little more settled at their sound. “I came to defend a friend of mine. If I’ve made a mistake, then I ask your pardon, whoair you are.”

She looked from me to Twilight, cocking the one eyebrow like any human woman who wonders at what a man says.

“Twilight, is he indeed the human you spoke to me of? The one called John?”

“He is,” Twilight slumped like she relaxed. She turned to me, pointed her hoof at the Nightmare. “John, this is Princess Luna, Celestia’s sister. She’s the one who brought me into your dreams in the first place.”

“I remember on her now,” I told Twilight. I’d seen her Princess Celestia once, an angel-horse white as snow, bright as day as this one was dark as a moonless night. Still keeping a wary eye on the Nightmare where she stood aside that broken altar, I said, “But I thought you told me you and your friends took the evil out of her?”

“They did in truth do that,” The Nightmare, or Luna I reckon, said to me. “It was the first great heroic deed Princess Twilight did, to my relief.” I saw how Twilight’s cheeks flushed. Luna said, “I resumed this form against my will – ‘tis a rule of Dream – as I led her fellow Elements into this realm again, seeking to aid both her and thee, John. I did not know they had turned from using thy dreams as their weapons to using hers.” She looked down the way those Shonokin had run and snorted, her ears pinning back. “Those creatures thought they could deal with the part of me that remembers being the Nightmare. They offered me – her, flattery and veneration in exchange for gifts of power. I forced myself to regain control and drove them away.” She looked at herself and made a frown. “The rules of this Dream keep me in her form.”

“Might could be something those Shonokin did,” I responded her. “They’ve been a-hunting and hounding Twilight and myself through one nightmare of mine after the other.”

“True,” she said, sounding thoughtful. “Yet if I am one again myself in mind, I should be myself in form as well…” She looked at me and bowed her head. “At any rate, on behalf of Equestria and my own self, I thank thee for what thou has done to aid Twilight.”

“She aided me more than the once,” I answered her, nodding my head back all my politest. I patted Twilight on her withers, between her wings. “I reckon I’d be dead for certain more than the once if she hadn’t been with me here.”

Twilight blushed again. “Thanks, both of you, but I’m sorry I wasn’t able to control myself back in that house. When I saw the Letters of Cold Fire again…” She shuddered. I gave her another pat, and Luna set her head down on her long neck and nuzzled her like a mare with her little filly. “Anyway, after that dream fell apart, I found myself in with the Shonokin leader. He wanted to talk to me about what he said were the real rights and wrongs of all of this.”

“Wait, before you speak, Twilight Sparkle,” Luna said. “Better this should be told to us all at once, thy friends and John and myself.”

Twilight blinked. “Okay, but where are they?”

“And where-all is Reuben Manco at?” I wondered myself. I saw how Twilight and Luna looked on me, so I explained, “He’s an old friend of mine who was helping me with those nightmares afore I met Twilight again. He came along with me to help, but when I found myself here there was nair sight nor sound of him.”

Then we heard some mighty angry neighs. And soft at first and then stronger, the sound of the world's biggest wings beating and hooves a-pounding that stone floor. If Twilight was here, I reckon I could lay certain money who was doing that flying and galloping.

Right the next moment I saw myself to be right when a blue streak with a rainbow mane and tail flew into the room. Dash stopped when she saw us a-standing there. Right behind her there came in the rest of them, laughing Pinkie and elegant Rarity, Applejack who was the first friend I made in Equestria and shy little Fluttershy a-bringing up the rear. And aside them a fellow I didn't know, a man dressed like wise old Sequoyah of the Cherokee with thick black hair long in back and feathers hanging from his hair tie. He looked right familiar to me.

“Twi! John!” Dash smiled to be seeing us. “Boy, are we glad to see you guys! We came here with Princess Luna, an' she vanished, an' –” The smile ran away off her face when she looked past us. “NIGHTMARE MOON!”

She shot right for Luna like a bullet from a gun. Luna stepped back with those cat eyes going wide. Maybe she meant to be doing some of their pony magic, but before she could a purple streak flew up and hit Dash enough so they both went tumbling through the air.

“Twi, are you nuts?” Dash tried fighting herself free. Twilight just held on to her. “That's Nightmare Moon! If Luna went nuts again we gotta stop her!”

“That's just it, she didn't!” Twilight held her back. “Dash, listen!”

Dash didn't look to want to be listening right then. Neither did the others. Soon as they saw Luna there they charged right for her, Applejack and Rarity in the front, Fluttershy a-looking scared to death but following right behind. The Cherokee man stayed close by, one hand clutching a tomahawk and getting ready to be chanting something.

“Mister John! Get away from her, quickly! Nightmare Moon is dangerous!”

“Rarity Belle! Applejack!” Luna cried aside me, something like sparkling purple mist gathering along her horn. “Listen! The truth is other than it appears!”

I got between them and Luna, hollering for them to stop while they came at me like a freight train. Applejack added her voice to Rarity's. “John! Run for it! She ain't like other ponies, she's mean as they come!”

I jumped when Pinkie Pie popped up from the ground afore me, right in front of Applejack and Rarity.

“NO SHE ISN’T!”

Rarity dug in her hooves and squealed to a stop, just in time for Applejack to bump into her from behind and send them both rolling head over teakettle. Pinkie ignored them and bounced past me and up to Luna where she stood, big and black and still scary to look on.

“Hi Princess Luna who looks just like Black Snooty!” Pinkie bounced up and down, maybe just the least bit higher than she did in Equestria. “I don't know why you look like Nightmare Moon when you're not her! Besides the show usually only does that once a season!”

The Cherokee man caught up to me and, “Brother John,” he said, friendly and polite.

“Chief Manco,” I greeted him back. When he looked at me with surprise, I added, “Who else would you be? I see you met the ladies here.” I pointed to the ponies. Pinkie was still bouncing between her friends as they got up, and Luna where she settled herself. Twilight came back down from above with a shamed-looking Rainbow Dash beside her. Twilight looked ready to say something, but then her friends just all piled on her, hugging her and a-telling her how worried they'd been.

“Brother John,” Chief Manco said again and smiled on Pinkie Pie and the rest. “I almost did not recognize you. It seems this dream-realm is better than those Hollywood surgeons for turning the years back.”

“The same here, chief,” I said as I looked on him. He looked younger, with face unlined and hair black instead of silver and hanging long in back and short before the way the old Cherokee did. His clothes matched what I've seen in old pictures too, a fine jacket secured with a beaded belt, pants that looked to be made from deer hide, Holly Christopher's elephant-head amulet hanging on his chest and that fine tomahawk of his in his hand. I took his other hand in mine and shook it. “I've rarely been as powerful happy to see air man or woman as you and these ponies right now.”

“That I can believe,” he said. He slid the tomahawk back into his belt and nodded to the ponies. “Perhaps we should see what these ladies know about this, share our knowledge. Sit down and have a pow-wow, like they said in the old movies.”

Twilight was talking to her friends, explaining what-all happened since the last she'd seen them. She waved one hoof at Luna where she stood.

“It IS Princess Luna, she just looks like Nightmare Moon in this dream! She scared me, too!” Twilight looked back at that big black mare. “Er, maybe you can change back?”

“I cannot,” she said with a shake of her head, that mane of hers billowing like the Milky Way caught in a breeze. “As long as I am in this dream, I must assume her form. Tis a rule of Dream.”

“When entering a dream, I enter along a ‘path of least resistance’; I must become a part of the dream to fully manifest as myself and interact with the dreamer. If the dream already includes me, that path leads to that dream-version of me, and I enter as that dream-version. Yet if they dream instead of Nightmare Moon…” She bowed her head with that long horn, “This causes problems. Like in the nightmares of colts and fillies after Nightmare Night, dreaming of the foal-gobbling monster of that festival.”

Twilight looked ready to ask questions, but afore she could her friends near about tackled her. They all started a-talking at once, and I stepped back to let them tell her how sorry they were and what call did she have to go a-worrying them like this?

“Well, John,” Chief Manco said to me, his voice deep. “I imagine I owe you an apology.” He looked at the ponies where they talked, and at Princess Luna where she stood right by us. His eyes went a little wide, but he didn’t act the fool the way I did when I first saw Rainbow Dash or Twilight. He nodded and said, more like to his own self than me, “I’ve seen some strange sights in my life, but few to equal this.”

“Nair mind any apologizing, Chief,” I told him. I took his hand in mine and pumped it, and I felt right down happy to be a-doing it. “I’m just powerful pleased to be seeing you again. I wondered me if I’d ever see you again.”

“I wondered myself,” he answered me. He chuckled at what he saw. I looked and saw Pinkie Pie and the others scooped Twilight up and tossed her like they do sometimes at play-parties. “They seem like children in some ways.”

“My, I mean, my sister’s folk and mine are innocent by the standards of many worlds,” Luna said right then. Her eyes looked to burn in what little light there was, and I saw Manco’s eyes light up a bit as she said, “But they are not foals. We have a wisdom all our own, hard-earned though it has been at times.”

“’Gentle as doves and yet crafty as serpents’,” Reuben said, giving me a nod. “I seem to recall that’s how your holy book puts it, John, and it seems good advice to follow. Ah, I beg your pardon, madam,” he nodded gravely at Luna. “I mean no disrespect by staring, or by my words. I do admit I was highly surprised to see that everything John said about this place was true. I thought he’d been pulling my leg.”

“Pulling your leg?” Luna just looked confused. She shook her head and that star-gas mane of hers rippled like water. “It is of no import. When our friends are done, I fear we must decide how to deal with the Shonokin.” She snorted and looked like any angry horse. “They have dealt me and Twilight, and thy friend John, injuries that I would demand satisfaction for.”

“I doubt you’ll get it for the asking,” I told her. “I’ve dealt with these Shonokin aforetimes, and I was happy to think I’d nair see them again.”

“Me too,” Chief Manco said. “They fought me and my people, first with poison and witchery and murder in the dark, a long time ago. These days they prefer to use dishonest law courts and bad men that take money from anyone. But sometimes,” and he looked on both me and Luna, and I remembered how he wasn’t just a wise old man and a scholar from Dartmouth and a good friend, but a medicine man of the Cherokee, “sometimes, with other ways I’ve had to counter. Such as here.”

Afore he could say more I heard four sets of hooves and one pair of wings working, and I found myself surrounded by those other friends of mine I told you all about aforetimes. I set myself down to hello them and found them a-standing up to hug me. I tried to say something but for two-three moments long I couldn’t have gotten a word in edgewise.

“John! It’s great ta see y’all again!”

“Oh, Mister John, we missed you!”

“This time I hope you can stay for the party…!”

“Good Mister John, there’s been so much since we met last; and thank you for helping poor Twilight!”

“Heh, great to see you still got that beat-up old guitar with you, maybe we can hear more of it this time.”

“Ladies, I’m rightly happy to be seeing all of you again,” I saw how Reuben Manco smiled like he wanted not to laugh. “But I think right now we got some worse things to be a-talking about.” They all settled themselves down. I nodded at Twilight. “You said you spoke with the Shonokin leader, and that you thought what he said ought to be heard here.”

“That’s right,” Twilight said, stepping forward right into the middle of us all. I squatted down to listen, and I saw Chief Manco seat hisself with his legs folded, the way Indians do in the movies. Luna sank down on her belly like any normal horse you’d care to see. The rest of Twilight’s friends just stood there, a-looking at her, listening right careful to air word she had to say. And none of them were what you’d call good or happy things to hear, but they needed to be heard.

#

Twilight wished she could go into more detail about what she’d seen, but right now they needed to hurry. She kept it short, telling them about the Shonokin’s claim to be the first people in John’s homeland; how it was stolen from them, first by Chief Manco’s people and then by John’s; and how to the Shonokin justice demanded that they reclaim all that was taken from them by killing or trampling down every invader of their home and anypony and everypony who helped any of those invaders.

“Like me,” Twilight shivered as she remembered what she’d already been through of late. “He warned me to either abandon John, or else I’d suffer the fate they planned for him. I told him no and was able to escape.”

“Unless they allowed thee to escape,” Luna said. Twilight gulped as the Night Mare added, “Thou didst tell them much of Equestria, Twilight Sparkle. Perhaps enough to find it through the realms of Dream.”

“I did, didn’t I?” Twilight looked down at her hooves. The cracked stones of the street looked almost like pony bones. She shivered at the implications that thought raised in her head. “I’m sorry, Princess Luna, John, everypony. I just thought that if I could convince them to make peace the fight would be over.”

“It was a good thought you had,” Chief Manco said. She looked to see him watching her intently, “You are a decent young woman, but they used that against you. Now all we can do is to contain the damage they intend to inflict, both on my friend John and on your folk.” He looked thoughtful then. “But he did say you and your folk could go free from this if you left John and me to our own devices. Have you considered just doing as they said?”

Twilight blinked in shock. She heard her friends gasp behind her.

“What? No!” Her friends’ refusals joined hers as Twilight walked up to Chief Manco to look him directly in the eyes. “John’s our friend, we can’t leave him without even trying to help! And besides, even if we did, the Shonokin would hurt his people and yours too if we didn’t stop them.” She looked around at Applejack and Fluttershy and all the rest and saw them nod approval. “Our friends and innocents would be hurt if we didn’t help, so we don’t have any choice.”

Chief Manco looked at her, his eyes a little wider now. Then he relaxed and laughed softly.

“Young lady,” he said patting her on the withers, “I don’t know if all your folk are like you, but I wish more white men were. More of any kind of men, to be honest.” He looked at John. “Brother, tell me. Do her words sound right to you?”

“All that Twilight ever said sounds like the right thing to me, Chief,” John nodded agreement. Twilight blushed a little. He added, “What she just said sounds like airy thing Brooke Altic told me the one time we talked,” John added. He lightly strummed his guitar the way some ponies would scratch their chins when they thought. “How the Shonokin were the first owners of all the Americas, and airy thing other folks had were stolen from them.” He reached over and patted Twilight lightly on the shoulder. “I’m right happy that you didn’t get hurt worse, and that we found you again.”

“Thanks, but there’s more,” Twilight finished with the last part of the conversation she and the Shonokin leader had. “…And he finished by saying that they were going to kill John and everypony else that ever fought them.” Twilight let her friends gasp. Fluttershy and then Pinkie went to John, giving him reassuring nuzzles. He looked more embarrassed than anything else. She got the idea that John’s friend Manco was amused, but he simply kept a calm stoicism. Twilight directed the rest of what she had to say to the ebony alicorn. “And, Princess Luna, this part is almost as bad. He said that they would try to come to Equestria, even if just to find allies.”

“Allies?” Pinkie interrupted. She scratched her head and then gasped, her eyes going wide with joy. “Oh, you mean like new friends! Well, gosh, why is that a problem? I like making new friends.” She spun in place and when she stopped she held a banner reading WELCOME TO EQUESTRIA in her hooves and had a small cake sitting before her.

Behind her Chief Manco blinked. Pointing at the banner, he said, “Wait, how did she do that?”

“Chief,” John said, sounding amused himself now, “It’s no ways useful to ask how Pinkie Pie does air thing she does.” He clapped his friend on the shoulder. He turned back to Pinkie Pie. “But I don’t think the Shonokin would like the kind of parties that either you or I do, Pinkie.”

“They wouldn’t?” Pinkie looked sad, for a moment. Then she brightened again. “Okay, then I’ll just have to do another ‘We Beat The Bad Guys’ party when it’s over.”

Twilight’s smile joined those of John, Luna, and Chief Manco as her other friends whickered laughter behind her. Pinkie looked delighted.

“I doubt myself that they seek friendship,” Luna shook her head. “But thee, Twilight, said they sought ‘allies’.” Her gaze was cold and stern as Luna turned it on Twilight

Twilight lightly scraped one forehoof against the stones.

“I…told them about Tartarus,” she looked away, unwilling to see the disappointment she felt sure to see in Luna’s eyes, and maybe those of the others as well. “The Shonokin leader said something about being able to conjure dead and evil spirits – like Thorn. And,” she looked at Luna, and as she spoke, she saw her eyes going wide with shock. “And, to prove it, he showed me a book from the human world, or the one that existed in his memories and, it showed a picture of you as Nightmare Moon. Princess, didn’t you once say that you vaguely remembered that as Nightmare Moon you were pulled into another world? Could it have been John’s?”

Luna looked all around at the ponies and two humans with her. She seemed to be wrestling with some decision, and finally nodded.

“’Tis true as I said, Twilight Sparkle. Once, long centuries before I was truly freed from my curse, I was called into a world of humans.”

“Like Twi an’ that mirror gate she’s got?” Applejack asked.

“Nay,” Luna shook her head. “That was done by magic of Equestria, and subject to the laws of such magics. What I speak of was a conjuring from their realm,” she inclined her head slightly, pointing her horn at John and Chief Manco. “As I told thee before, Twilight Sparkle, but not these others, I was called by the human named Dee and his ally Kelley.” Her horn glowed and the mists from her mane swirled together to show them a pair of humans. One was tall and lean, with a long white beard that put her in mind of Starswirl, robed and trying to look controlling. Beside him stood another, stouter and younger with a shorter dark beard, dressed in clothes with puffs and lace and a hooded cap that completely covered his ears. The look in his face reminded her of those two swindlers Flim and Flam. They stood within one circle, and in another larger one Nightmare Moon faced them, angry and rearing inside the dome of a containment ward. She tossed her head and glared. Twilight wondered uneasily if she somehow saw her present company and it angered her.

“John Dee and Edward Kelley,” Chief Manco said, a tone of awe in his voice. They all looked at him as he rubbed his chin and looked thoughtful. “Probably when they were both in exile at the court of Rudolph of Bohemia, experimenting with conjuring angels. You remember, John, I told you about this back in our world. The legend was that he summoned a demon or angel in the shape of a winged unicorn, black as night.” He laughed and bowed his head politely to Luna. “Not that I ever expected to meet the lady in question.”

“I remember it, Chief,” John answered. “I also mind me that you said she got chased away off back into her own place by that Puritan fellow, Abel or the like?”

“Yes,” Luna said. The illusion changed. Now the Nightmare stood with those two humans behind her. Before her several other men sprawled bonelessly on the ground. Above them and facing her stood a tall grim man, a bloodied rapier in one hand and in the other a wooden staff tipped with a cat’s head that reminded Twilight of some of the things she’d seen in Zecora’s hut.

In the vision, the Nightmare snorted and whinnied, charging the grim man. He dashed first to the side, not quite swift enough to avoid Nightmare Moon’s horn as it gashed him. A wince of pain flashed over his face, but his eyes only hardened. Twilight heard her friends echo her gasps as she saw the Nightmare attack him again, sending the staff flying from his hands with her hooves, rearing and plunging to grind him into the wooden floor beneath him. He thrust upwards with the blade in his hand, and Twilight cringed to see it drive into Nightmare Moon’s chest as she plunged down.

The Nightmare retreated in the vision, tossing her head, her cries of agony mercifully unheard. The grim man turned from her and ran to the staff. The older man in the robes held back, but the younger and heftier one ran to stop the grim man. His reward was a punch in the mouth that sent him crashing to the floor.

Behind them both, Nightmare Moon’s horn glowed and she slowly and painfully withdrew the sword from her chest. It clattered to the floor. She wheeled, her eyes blazing, and took to the air. Twilight heard Fluttershy’s gulp, and she set her wing over her to comfort.

“She shoulda stayed on the ground,” she heard Dash mutter. “Too cramped in there to fly right. No room to maneuver…”

“Dash, shush,” Rarity said. Twilight heard the blue Pegasus mutter an apology as the fight went on, with Nightmare Moon diving at the human as he scrambled for the staff.

Nightmare Moon charged the grim man as he rose back up, holding the staff reversed like a spear. Twilight saw now how the bottom end of it came to a point, capped in metal. She came on, and he dropped to one knee and braced the staff against the floor. The Nightmare pulled up short, not to be taken by the same trick twice. The man rose and grabbed at her near foreleg. The startled Nightmare rose anew as he clung like grim death, trying to bring the staff to bear. Finally he brought the head around and smashed it against her wing. Nightmare Moon shrieked in the vision and fell, and as she did, both human and Nightmare rolled across the floor. The grim man, battered and torn, raised the staff and brought it down like a spear thrust. And the vision ended.

“Hey, what happened next? Er, I mean,” Dash tried and failed to look innocent as everypony glared. She looked at Princess Luna. “What happened with that tall guy, and how did you live through it?”

“And why didn’t you use more magic?” Twilight asked, wondering now. “Does that world have less than Equestria’s, like the one through Star Swirl’s Mirror?”

“To answer thee first, Rainbow Dash, I survived but barely,” Luna shook herself, as at the memory of an old pain. “I know not what became of Dee and Kelley, or of the human Kane. I hope Dee and Kane did well; the former was but a foolish if well-meaning old man, and the latter did what he did to save others from my madness. As for Kelley,” her eyes darkened, “few ends would have been bad enough for him.”

“I can answer you there, your majesty,” Chief Manco said. “No one knows about Kane, but Dee finally died back home with his family and Kelley was killed after he tricked the wrong person.”

“Those words are good,” Luna returned to the previous subject. “As for magic, their world utterly lacks the flow of natural magical energy which permeates all Equestria. I retained only what intrinsic power I bore within myself, from my nature as an Alicorn Major. With no surrounding background magic to tap, my strength weakened to that of an Alicorn Minor at best.

“Had I possessed my full power as I would in Equestria, I would have used it to bring about the Endless Night there as I wished to do in Equestria, and slain any who did not worship me.” She frowned. “It did not please me, and I fear Dee and Kelley were not the least to suffer my anger over it.” She pointed back at the illusion. Twilight felt surprise to see that the ‘other’ Nightmare Moon still stood there as though watching them. The purple Alicorn Minor told herself that that vision did not have a look of sly craftiness in her eyes.

“I regret not my defeat there any more than I do the one I took upon my return to Equestria. Both were for the best. I would have done great evil were I not stopped, so consumed was I by rage and envy towards my sister’s Day. I thought only of subjugating that world and raising an army to take Equestria back from my sister.” Luna stopped talking; Twilight wondered at the sudden wary look in her eyes, like she’d been about to say too much.

“It’s good to mind your mistakes,” John said, “so long as you don’t think they’re airy thing you ever did.” Twilight wondered if Luna flinched at John’s words. “But if I may ask, Chief, ladies, how do we get out of here to see about stopping the Shonokin?”

“We must follow their trail.” Luna rose from where she lay and walked out to stand before humans and ponies alike. “But before we can do that, this dream must end. And for that, I need the help of thee and thy friends, Twilight Sparkle.” She nodded at Twilight and the other Element Bearers.

“O-kay,” Twilight looked at her friends. The uncertain looks on their faces mirrored hers. “But how?”

The ebon Alicorn Major blinked in surprise. :”How else? As it ended before, in reality.” She walked several lengths out away before she turned to face them. She suddenly flared her wings out to either side, her eyes glowing. Twilight heard Fluttershy’s startled eep. Behind her, she caught John reassuring Chief Manco. “Thou must cleanse me with the Elements.”

“Sheesh, we already did that,” Dash hovered over Twilight. The blue Pegasus rolled her eyes. “An’ you’re not Nightmare Moon anymore! Can’t we just leave?”

Nightmare Moon, Luna, snorted and pinned her ears back. She almost looked like her old evil self for a moment.

“Do you not think I would have done that if ‘twere possible, Rainbow Dash?” She stomped one hoof, and stone cracked under it. Twilight felt wonder that even in a dream such small bits of reality were felt. Luna calmed herself and said, “This dream was done as a retelling, formed from Twilight’s memories of that night and used by the Shonokin. It cannot end until events go the way they normally do in her dream.” Twilight flinched and smiled nervously as everypony glanced at her. “Strip me of the Nightmare as ye did then and this realm shall fade. And we can track down the Shonokin before they do more wickedness to either John’s world or ours.”

Twilight sighed and stepped out in front of Nightmare Moon. Her friends gathered to either side, as they had that long-ago night. She looked behind her to see John and Chief Manco stepping back to stay clear while still watching intently.

Twilight blinked. Was it just the dark and her tiredness, or had she seen something moving in the shadows by the far wall of the old palace? Something that – she shuddered – slithered like a snake along the wall?

“Twi, you okay, darling?”

“Okay,” Twilight said. She closed her eyes and concentrated to remember. Now what had she said?

She looked directly at the expectant Luna. That thing she’d seen? Probably nothing.

“You think you can destroy the Elements of Harmony just like that? Well, you’re wrong, because the spirits of the Elements of Harmony are right here!”

#

“Princess Celestia!” Spike’s voice called from within the dome of the containment wards; the little dragon had entered with the last medical team, when Twilight had last convulsed with phantom puncture wounds. Since then, he’d remained inside, dividing his time between Twilight and Rarity, holding them, rearranging their cushions, stroking their manes, wiping the trickle of blood that still dripped from the former’s mouth. “What’s happening to them?”

Celestia looked in through the faintly-shining dome; the six Element Bearers twitched in unison, then Applejack’s mane and tail began to change, fluffing out, rainbow stripes like Dash’s overlaying its natural colors. The rainbow effect spread to the palomino’s hooves, then began to creep up her legs, shimmering over her coat.

Then Fluttershy followed suit.

Then Pinkie Pie.

Then Rarity.

Then Rainbow Dash, except her already-rainbow mane and tail only fluffed.

Is this good or bad? Facing down the enemy who did this? Or going down themselves?

“The Elements of Harmony, young Spike.” Celestia kept the wariness out of her voice. “They’re being awakened.”

#

I listened right careful while Twilight and her friends did what they’d all said that time afore that they’d told me of. She stood strong and proud, they all did, as they looked on Nightmare Moon. And I reckon she just looked like she wanted this over and done with so we could go and deal with the Shonokin who’d trapped us all like this. She was tapping her one forehoof against the stones all impatient-like, air way.

“Applejack, who reassured me when I was in doubt, represents the spirit of Honesty!”

I saw how my old friend Applejack seemed to grow a thicker mane and tail and turn even brighter colors as she started to a rise right up off the ground, like what some science folks call levitation or maybe telekinesis.

“I have to admit,” Chief Manco whispered to me, “this looks highly impressive. I know one or two scholars who I wish were here right now to maybe shed some more light on what we just heard.”

“I’m right proud you’re here, Chief,” I whispered him right back. I don’t know why I didn’t speak right out. It didn’t feel right then, some ways. It would have felt kindly like having a palaver during the Sunday sermon. Maybe just impolite, maybe worse than impolite. “I figured you for the one person I know who could make sense of this to me.” I looked around as I said it, seeing how sweet little Fluttershy and bouncy laughing Pinkie Pie followed Applejack into the air, all turning rainbow colors like she did. And I frowned.

Chief Manco caught that look on my face right off. Like the wise old hunter and woodsman he was, he didn’t say nair word. He just let his gaze follow where mine was a-pointing. I saw how his eyes went hard.

“Do you see that there, Chief?” I asked him as quiet as I ever asked air thing.

“I believe I do,” Chief Manco said. He nodded. “It looks rather familiar, doesn’t it?”

“Rarity,” I heard Twilight call out, and from the corner of my eye I saw Rarity go up like the others, “who calmed a sorrowful serpent with a meaningful gift, represents the spirit of generosity!”

And as she did, that thing Chief Manco and I saw started to move itself. It looked like a shadow, all long and pulled out of shape like the image in some funhouse mirror at the state fair. But not rightly like them either, as I saw how it slunk forward like it didn’t relish being seen, a-going from one dark spot to the next. Those reflections are just you, after all, stretched and squashed and made funny-looking, but just reflections. This was like one of those reflections that became its own self, I reckon, one just as twisted and turning and crooked inside as out now.

And it looked to be creeping closer air second to where Nightmare Moon stood waiting to be saved by Twilight and her friends.

“Rainbow Dash, who refused to abandon her friends for her heart’s desire, represents the spirit of loyalty!” They all rose into the air now, and all of them a-looking at Nightmare Moon and nair other. And she just looked on them, shifting herself from the one hoof to the other like any impatient horse. And I saw how that long shadowy slithery thing crept nearer as Twilight said, “The spirits of these five ponies got us through every challenge you threw at us!”

“John.” Chief Manco took me sudden hard by the arm. He pointed at Nightmare Moon. The shadow went closer. “I strongly suspect we need to be stopping what’s going on here.”

“I reckon I think so too, chief,” I said, and I slung my guitar from my back and set my hand on its silver strings. I hurried myself right forward, Chief Manco close behind, as we both heard Twilight finish.

“You see, Nightmare Moon, when those Elements are ignited by the spark, that resides in the heart of all, it creates the Sixth Element.” I caught how Luna’s look went from eager to confused as we hurried to put ourselves betwixt her and that shadow-snake-whatair that raced for her like some hoop snake a-ready to strike.

“John! Chieftain Manco! What madness do you assay –” Then she caught sight of that thing, whatair it was. Her eyes went wide and she whinnied panic like a horse about to go over a cliffside. “TANTIBUS!”

I doubt me they even heard her as Twilight called out the last of those words.

“The Element of Magic!”

And that long shadow slithered over us both and struck right at Luna just as that warm rainbow of light I recollected arched over and swept right down on her.

I heard Chief Manco start in on one of his medicine songs, the ones he knows as a wise man of the Cherokee. I started a-playing and a-singing a strong and good old song that helped me many the time afore.

I just hoped it’d work now as well.

#

Inside the containment ward, Luna jerked upright and SCREAMED, eyes wide and unseeing. “TANTIBUS!”

“AAAAAAA!” Spike shot half a length in the air without moving a single muscle; a belch of dragonfire splashed against the dome of the containment ward.

Golden sunlight danced on Celestia’s horn; the ward dispelled.

“Spike! Get out of there – NOW!”

The sunlight reached out, grabbing the little dragon before he could hit the floor, flinging him outside the containment circle as the Sun Princess rushed to her sister.

“LUNA!” The Moon Princess twisted in convulsions, shrinking before her eyes, her Prussian Blue coat losing its luster, her main and tail its nebulous nature. Around her, the six Element bearers slept, the rainbow effect of the Elements rippling along their coats.

Her horn lit up the room as Celestia cast another containment circle, probed with her magic, felt something she’d felt only once, two years ago – other, darker, alien “magick” like but not like that of Thorn, that Discord-charged warlock from John’s world. Feeding on Luna’s magic, leeching away her Alicorn power to who knew where. Like Tirek…

And braided with it, another, more familiar magic she’d last felt four years ago on that fateful Summer Sun Celebration – her sister’s memories of rage and jealousy. Nightmare Moon…

Wings flaring, Celestia thrust her own Alicorn magic into stopping the leech, blocking it. The dark magic split, flowing around her like she wasn’t there. She looked back, to where Spike squirmed in the auras of two Spellguard unicorns.

“Mages – to me! A Dark working steals my sister’s power, and it doesn’t need any more!” And is whatever is doing this trying to backtrack and enter Equestria?

The Spellguards dropped Spike, handing him off to Raven, and poured their own power into their Princess’s link. It wasn’t enough.

Luna began to shrivel beneath her, royal barding hanging loose on her shrinking body, the shadows of Night which had cloaked her since she regained her power dissipating.

Celestia remembered Twilight’s after-action report analyzing Thorn’s “magick” and how to counter it. The white Alicorn Major’s ears pinned, her cutie mark blazed, her mane and tail turned to sunfire as she brought that knowledge to bear, becoming her pupil’s pupil. The smell of ozone filled the room; the power that commanded Equestria’s sun to rise and set focused on stopping that magical leech draining away not just Luna’s magic, but her life.

The flow of magic slowed but didn’t stop.

“LUNAAAAA!”

Then through the link with her sister, she heard a song.

“Three Holy Kings, Four Holy Saints,

At Heaven’s high gate that stand,

Speak out and bid all evil wait,

And stir no foot or hand…”

Celestia felt other magic braiding into hers, a silver-strung guitar she recognized as John’s from the one time they’d met, braided with a rhythmic chant that sounded like but not like Buffalo. She recognized the feel of protection wards, and the flow of Alicorn magic from her sister slowed to a trickle.

Over two years ago, Twilight had written how she and John had jointly set a ward that night at Zecora’s hut, weaving her Equestrian magic into his alien warding. Now Celestia did the same. She braided her magic into the new wards’ alien structure, reinforcing them, singing the song of power within them, and the outflowing stopped. Luna dropped like a puppet with cut strings and lay still, flanks heaving and coat frothed with sweat.

#

Maybe it did the least something, or Chief Manco’s words did, or maybe it was the neither of us. But that rainbow wrapped her up like in a whirlwind and tore all that wicked-bad magic she’d used as Nightmare Moon away from her. I saw what looked like a little filly staring at me out of it with wide frightened eyes.

But that wasn’t what I paid my best attention to right then.

I saw how that magic, twisting and swirling in on itself, streaked purple and black and blue like some bad witch’s cauldron full of poison, raced to that shadowy thing like it was a lost child a-running home.

It gathered around that shadow, and a laugh came from it. Not a nice laugh either, but the kind you figure those two children in the story about the gingerbread house might could have heard.

I gopped, Chief Manco yelled. The poor little blue filly dropped, looking pure down tired to death. I heard how Twilight and her friends yelled as a hole opened itself up. The Shonokin leader stood on the other side of it.

“Come to us!” He called to that nasty cloud. “Come and accept the offer we made to you, O Terrible One!”

And afore I or Twilight or air other soul there could do a single blessed thing, it ran through that hole like some sort of nasty stream of water and was gone.

#

Palace medical staff rushed in to examine the Princesses.

“I am well enough,” the Sun Princess whinnied, wishing her voice were stronger. “I have lost far less than my sister or these Mages.” She spread one white wing to indicate the Spellguards who swayed on their hooves, heads hanging low. “Aid them first while I see to Luna.”

Another two medics started checking the Element Bearers, who’d stopped rippling rainbows. Spike accompanied them, wringing his claws and rapid-firing questions.

Celestia lay down beside her sister, extended a wing over her and pulled her close. Luna still twitched, but far more gently, her form returned to what it had been four years ago when The Mare in the Moon had returned and been defeated, drained and healed by the Elements. Small as a mortal pony, her coat a paler blue, her mane and tail sky-blue natural hair instead of ethereal night sky, hanging still like the other six sleepers’ instead of billowing in an unseen breeze.

“Luna…” The Sun Princess nuzzled her younger sister, once more visibly her little sister. Just what in that other realm could have drained her so, cost her sister so much magic that it began feeding on her life force? Enough to almost kill an Immortal. Not even Tirek drained her this badly.

“Luna, Twilight, all of you,” she whickered, “be safe wherever you are.”

Chapter 11

Six equine gasps went through the moonlit courtyard as they saw Princess Luna’s power tear away from her. They rose into whinnies of shock as the alicorn dropped, shrunken, small, and pale.

Applejack spoke first.

“What th’ hay just happened?”

“I, I don’t know!” Twilight tried running forward to Princess Luna. Her hooves flailed at the air until she set back down again. Only then did she race to the side of the fallen Moon Princess. John and his friend Mister Manco stood over her, looks of dismay on their faces.

“Young lady, be careful,” Mister Manco began, but ceased when John took him by his arm.

“Chief,” he said, “I reckon this is more their line than yours or mine.” The two humans took several steps back, clearing the way as the other five ponies galloped over. Twilight nodded thanks at them and turned to Luna.

A Luna she recognized.

“Huh?” Rainbow Dash hovered overhead. She dropped to the ground and leaned forward, her ruby eyes wide. “That’s not Luna, is it?”

“It is, dear,” Rarity said. “Rather, it’s the Luna we saved, if you remember.”

That was indeed who lay before them. Princess Luna, but not the Luna she’d been, the Alicorn Major only slightly smaller and less powerful than Celestia. But the pony-sized alicorn they’d first seen four years ago, lying amid the shards of the Nightmare – coat washed out, mane and tail natural hair and pale blue, a cute little filly instead of the millennia-old Mare in the Moon.

“Poor Luna.” Fluttershy pushed forward, slipping past Twilight to nuzzle the unconscious Night Princess. As Luna began to stir, Fluttershy spoke to Twilight. “Did, did we do this to her? Because of how the Elements have changed?”

“I don’t reckon that was it,” John said. He looked around the courtyard as he spoke. “Sorry to be interrupting, Twilight, but I saw something snakey come slithering up right as you and your friends blasted Luna there with your rainbow. The power that it peeled off from her went right to it.”

“And that’s not all,” Mister Manco had one hand on the tomahawk in his belt. His eyes were bright and alert as he kept lookout. “The leader of the Shonokin was right there.” He pointed at a nearby archway, an old gate by the look that now opened on nothing. “He called to it, said for it to come to him so they could ‘fulfill their promise’, and away it went.” He looked at Twilight, and the worry was stark in his face. “I have to say, young lady, I’m not eager to learn what sort of a promise the Shonokin made to – whatever that was.”

“Tantalus, I reckon Luna called it.” John said. He shook his head. “I know him from the old-timey Greeks, kindly, but not very well. Didn’t he do some wickedness and end up in the baddest parts of Hades for it?”

Before Twilight could ask what was going on, Luna spoke.

“You are almost right,” she said as she tried to rise to her feet, awkward and weak as a newborn foal. Her voice was that of the filly who four years ago had sobbed into her sister’s mane instead of echoing with the power of the Royal Canterlot Voice. Fluttershy and Applejack came alongside her, supporting her to where she could stand. The Moon Princess snorted in annoyance, but she took the help. “It was a Tantabus, the essence of bad dreams, a conjuration of nightmare and fear. The Shonokin conjured it and set it upon me… as I did to others as the Nightmare. Including that human king when he demanded I bend the fetlock to him. Snort! Dee must have written down my working, for all posterity to read!”

“Oh, Princess,” Fluttershy set one wing over Luna’s withers. “I’m sure you didn’t mean for this to happen.”

“I’m sure she didn’t either,” Mister Manco nodded. He and John walked closer to drop down and squat on their heels by Luna. “But whatever was meant, what’s been done is what we must deal with. Perhaps Luna can be kind enough to tell us what that is.”

Luna looked around at them all, as thought she’d rather be anywhere else. Twilight just hoped she looked as supportive as she wanted to feel. Her friends looked concerned. John and Mister Manco seemed perhaps more worried than concerned, but they paid attention.

Luna sighed and nodded her head.

“Very well.” Luna shook herself. “I will explain all I can, but first we must be gone from this place.” She pointed her horn skywards. Twilight looked and gulped to see how the sky was changed from the vivid night sky she remembered to something like a poorly done painting, with the stars and moon nothing more than splatters of paleness against it. “This dream realm has served its purpose, for our enemies more than us unfortunately, and unless we wish to be scattered across the Dream Realms of both Equestria and thy Earth,” she said to John and his friend, “we must be going.”

“Okay,” Dash said, taking to wing again. Twilight noticed how the air from her wingbeats no longer kicked up any dust. In fact the stones underfoot no longer felt like stones. They didn’t feel like anything else, either. They were just – there to be stepped on. “How do we do that?”

Luna said nothing. She merely stepped towards the archway Mister Manco had pointed at. They followed her. Once she reached it she looked at the empty space within it closely.

“This is in truth the place where thou saw the Shonokin, good Chieftain Manco?”

“Right here,” he said. He stepped up and pointed one brown finger at the spot. “The air, I suppose we can call it, was torn open and he stood there. He waved to the Tantabus, you called it, and it slipped through and the hole closed behind it.”

“My thanks,” Luna said. She furrowed her brow in concentration and her horn began to glow, sending a moonlight aura over that empty space.

“Twi, what’s Season One Luna doing?” Pinkie Pie asked. She closed one eye and opened the other wider than a normal pony should be able to. After a second she closed it and shook her head. “Oh! Oh! Is she looking for the space where I normally keep my party cannon? Because if she is, then she’s looking in the wrong spot.”

“I doubt it, Pinkie,” Twilight said, wondering if she dared to ask just where Pinkie Pie kept that arsenal she liked to carry around. Raising her voice to be heard by John and Mister Manco as well as her friends, she said, “That’s a detection spell, but I can’t tell for what precisely kind of magic.”

“Nor would you, Twilight Sparkle,” Luna responded. This is a spell that hath gone unused in Equestria for over a thousand years –“

A sudden crash cut her words off short. Twilight looked and yelled.

The great palace, the Castle of the Sisters, was collapsing in on itself behind them, the rear wall of the Throne Hall crashing down. Twilight blinked to see the dust cloud billow up from where the wall had been. No, not dust, for dust didn’t swirl in a dozen different colors, some of them unidentifiable.

“That just can’t be good,” Applejack said, worry in her voice.

With a roar, the next bay of the hall collapsed; more dust exploded to swirl around them.

“As I said,” Luna’s horn glowed brighter than ever, “this realm is no longer needed by its makers, and thus it collapses.” More of the palace fell, but when it hit, it seemed to smash through the stones beneath to expose a swirling darkness. Twilight tore her gaze away. It seemed to scratch at her eyes when she looked at it.

Then the next bay came crashing down.

“And us with it, should we stay!” Luna turned and poured even more power into her horn. Sweat streamed down her brow. Twilight hurried to her side and poured her own magic into the spell, scanning wildly for – “What are we looking for again?” she yelled, as both the palace and the world about them began to crumble.

“The way through to thy human friend’s world, or at least the Dream Realm of it!” Luna whinnied and bent herself again to her task. Her words came in gasps as more of the realm fell apart into that void. “We do need – a key! Something of – that realm!”

“But you got us here all by yourself earlier, Princess!” Rarity called behind her, mane and tail blowing straight out behind her. A roaring wind began to whip at them, trying to pull them back towards the void behind and beyond them. Another bay and side hall crumbled, the stones and unnatural dust sucked into the void instead of falling.

“Can’t you just – retrace our steps?”

“Nay, much of my power hath gone with the Tantabus!” Luna braced herself against the wind. John dropped down by Twilight and Luna, and Twilight saw his friend Manco drop to his knees, clutching at Applejack’s neck for support. AJ snorted and dug her hooves in, bracing herself as another side hall disintegrated. Even Rainbow Dash was on all fours now, grimacing as she fought against that pull. Luna cried, “I need a link to that realm to relocate it!”

Twilight blinked as she caught a glimmer go along John’s silver-strung guitar.

“John!” He turned as Twilight tapped his guitar. “This! Your music! It helped you get home last time, maybe it can help us now!”

“It’s worth the trying.” John said as he took his guitar from his back and braced himself in front of Applejack and Rainbow Dash. They formed enough of a windbreak to let him focus on something other than fighting to hold on. Fluttershy and Rarity were hanging on to Pinkie Pie, whose smile began to look a little forced as her hooves sank into the dissolving stones beneath them. Then John began to play and Twilight made herself pay attention to Luna’s casting.

“Focus on the words, the feel of his music,” Luna turned her ears towards John. Her horn began to glow again, casting the detection spell. “We have little time to make another effort!”

Twilight began putting her own magic into it, letting her inborn talent work with and through the magic of Luna’s spell even as she paid attention to the words John sang and the magic within them as well.

“Lights in the Valley outshine the Sun,

“Look away beyond the blue!”

Twilight felt it then, the dim thread of his world scattered among so many others. It was like trying to grab a straw in a whirlwind, but she forced herself to think only of the song, of the spell, and of the fact that this was the dream realm where anything was possible.

I won’t fail my friends. I won’t!

As she did John sang more, the words aiding her focus:

“Head for the gate and I’ll follow you,

Head for the gate and I’ll follow you,

Head for the gate and I’ll follow you,

Look away beyond the blue!”

It blazed before her, feeling so like both John and that other world beyond Starswirl’s mirror. Hard and almost mechanical, a machine being constantly added on to where Equestria was more like a perpetually growing tree going in all directions, But a song, a rhythm to it as well, harsh at times but hopeful all the same…

Something burst open before her even as something chill and hungry scratched at her fetlocks and she felt herself and her friends tumble through as the dream realm of Nightmare Moon’s defeat tumbled into ashes behind them.

For a moment Twilight just exulted in the feel of the ground beneath her and the air around her and the distant sharp birdsong among the trees. She let her heart calm its beating. Only then did she focus on what her friends were saying.

“Eeep! What happened to us?” Fluttershy’s panicked cry was followed by Rarity’s.

“Oh! Oh, dear! Twilight, did this happen to you?”

“Huh? Did what happen?” Twilight reached up to push her mane back and froze. She didn’t see a familiar hoof.

She saw a hand. Not one of the normal light violet shade from beyond the mirror, but one of a light earth color. And she was upright, on her hind legs. And couldn’t feel her horn. Or wings. Or tail. Just two weights on the front of her chest.

“What!” Twilight wheeled and looked at her friends, saw the five she remembered from Canterlot High but with skins of similar pale earth color instead of echoing their pony coats.

A tall muscular blonde mare – no, the word was ‘woman’ for humans – clothed similar to John but topped with a Stetson clutched a tree trunk for support. A lean wiry one hung onto the other side of the trunk, her short hair a rainbow, free hand feeling over her dark shoulders in horror. A smiling and pudgy girl with puffy pale red hair stood unsteady, checking out her lack of a tail. Two more clutched another tree to stay upright, one looking terrified from what Twilight could see under the long pink mane half-hiding her face, the other with near-alabaster skin and long amethyst hair examining her forehead in horror.

Twilight checked herself and felt utterly unsurprised, if dismayed, at what she didn’t find.

“Where’s your horn!”

“Where’s MY horn?”

“My wings!”

“Yore wings? Mah hooves!” Applejack looked down at her feet. Her toes wiggled and she shuddered in disgust. “This here better be temporary, is all Ah’m sayin’!”

“I strongly imagine that it is.” Twilight looked to see another woman, younger than the rest, barely out of fillyhood – no, girlhood – her hair midnight blue beneath an obsidian Royal Tiara. She folded her arms over Luna’s crescent moon peytral-turned-necklace on her chest, the long night-black dress she wore trailing to the ground as she stepped up to set a comforting hand on both Applejack and Rainbow Dash as they struggled not to fall over. “This is but another dream realm,” Luna said. “One far closer to thy human friend’s world than our own. Shifting from ours to his the way we did, it altered us to fit itself.”

“At least it gave us clothes,” Rarity said as she examined the outfit she wore of blue cloth pants that fit snugly and looked sturdy and a fine light blouse. She looked at the farm clothes that Applejack and Pinkie wore. “Though something more fashionable would have been appreciated.”

“I’d say I’m right glad it gave you ladies something to wear, myself.” John spoke up from where he stood. “It’d be right embarrassing, else.”

“Why?” Several formerly equine voices said at once. Twilight had to smile at how John was trying to frame the concept before she spoke up.

“I’m guessing this place has a nudity taboo, like Canterlot High.” She patted her hips. “I do admit, pockets are a pretty good thing to have.”

“They sure are!” Pinkie Pie reached into hers as she stood unsupported but unsteady, removed a variety of objects ranging from a whistle to a brush to a small plastic statue of her pony self. She looked at the latter. “I wish they’d get my mane right, and where’s my party cannon?”

“Her what now?” Manco said, sounding confused. Twilight saw John take him to the side and try explaining as much as he could about Pinkie Pie again as she looked around where they stood.

It looked like the woodlands they’d been in before. Trees all around, tall and strong, old growth rivaling the Everfree Forest. They seemed to come together to form a canopy overhead that let only a dim shadowy light through. The ground was spotted here and there with sickly grass, as well as with some odd-looking flowers. Very odd looking – their petals seemed almost fleshy, and they were the pale pink of blood-drained meat. Nearby were other flowers. Twilight took a few steps towards them, only to stop when John took her gently by the arm.

“Be careful about those plants, Twilight.” He pointed at them where they grew by and on one of the trees. Leaves showed dark and shiny with wicked promise. “That’s nightshade. Deadly nightshade, some folks call it. Poison. You don’t know what you’re a-doing, it can kill you dead.” He frowned at some others nearby. Twilight noticed that her friends were paying attention as well. “Those mushrooms look unchancy, but I don’t recognize air one of those others.”

“I’m not surprised,” Mister Manco nodded and rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “Many of these aren’t native to the mountains, and those are the plants you know best, John. Some of these others as well,” Mister Manco frowned as he looked at another patch nearby. Dark red berries clustered thickly together on one parasitic vine. “Those berries are deadly dangerous, and some of those vines look like poison oak. Bad to touch, worse still to inhale if it’s burned. Many of these plants don’t belong here in the mountains at all. Not in the real world, anyway. I think I can recognize mandrake as well.”

“Mandrake. Nightshade.” John frowned. “I recollect how some books said those were plants used in witching people.”

“They were,” Mister Manco said, nodding and looking grim. “Among other things. But for right now, I recommend we move along until we can find a place to hole up and get our wits together.” He pointed at Twilight’s friends; Rainbow Dash let go of the tree, fell flat on her face with a yelp. “It seems your friends need some time to get used to being bipedal, young lady.”

“Yeah.” Twilight winced to see Applejack let go herself and go over to the fallen Rainbow, crawling on all fours. Fluttershy eeped and clutched her tree all the tighter. Luna and Pinkie Pie to the contrary, the rest didn’t look to be doing any better. “Wait – if this is a dream, then why can’t we just become ponies again? I was a pony the first time we went to ‘your’ dream realm, John.”

“I think I’d like that,” Rarity said, sounding miserable as she clutched a tree for support. “But how?”

Twilight looked to Luna for an answer. Luna just smiled before she turned and spoke to the others.

“Remember the sensations ye felt as ponies,” Luna tapped a finger against one palm, pointed at her feet. “Earth under thy hooves, air beneath thy wings, magic flowing through thy horn. Ears that could turn to catch every sound. Mane streaming in the wind, your tail whipping behind you, the magic of Equestria flowing through you.” She turned to Twilight. “Do not do this, Twilight. For now, let us keep these forms. I will explain in a moment.”

Twilight watched as her friends focused their attention, brows furrowing and eyes shut. Their forms shimmered for a moment, then shifted like Changelings and were pony once more.

“Phew!” Rainbow Dash flew in a circle, flicking her ears and twitching her tail. She spread her wings wide, their blue feathers catching at the air. “Never thought I’d be so happy to see all this again! Lyra can keep the hands. Uh, sorry, John.”

“It’s kindly alright, Rainbow,” John responded. He looked at Twilight and Luna. “But why don’t the two of you turn pony again with the rest?”

“I’m wondering that myself,” Twilight wiggled one hand. Odd to see her form here, so like and yet unlike the one she wore at Canterlot High. “Princess Luna, why did you suggest that we stay human?”

Luna blinked at her, surprised.

“Why, to hide our true selves from the Shonokin, of course.” Luna stepped forward, heading out on a trail that ran under those dark-looking trees. Twilight noticed now that it couldn’t be natural. At the very least, it shouldn’t have been lined with stones that shone a soft white in this half-light. “They will expect us to follow them, but they should be looking for two humans and seven ponies, not nine humans.”

“Then why have our friends turn back into ponies?” Twilight asked as she stepped after Luna. She heard John and Mister Manco hurry behind her, and following them the sound of hoofsteps.

“They know not how to speak and move as humans do,” Luna said. She moved forward steadily, paying no heed to the way the nasty-looking vines on those trees hung down low, like – Twilight shuddered – serpents ready to strike. “Thou and I have some experience in this, though thine is more recent then mine. And we must learn what these beings mean to do,” Luna gave a shudder of her own. “Are they but opposed to thy human friend, or do they seek to work evil ‘gainst Equestria itself?”

“So.” Mister Manco said behind her, his voice deep and thoughtful. “A war party, then. Scouting the enemy. A good idea if we can keep hidden from them.” Twilight didn’t think that either he or John would have trouble with that. They moved through these dark woods as quietly as cats on the prowl.

“Like I did in Korea betimes,” John spoke up, sounding grim. After what she’d seen, Twilight couldn’t blame him. “Reconnaissance, the officers called it. You go and see what the other fellow is a-planning to do, and hope he doesn’t catch you at it.”

“Exactly,” Luna said, and with such satisfaction in her voice Twilight wondered if she smiled.

By now they’d reached another small clearing. Luna entered it and turned to them. Twilight moved to stand facing the trail, and waited beside Luna until everypony stood before them. Luna nodded at how quietly they moved. Twilight felt a twinge of annoyance to realize that between her, John, Mister Manco, Luna, and her friends, she was making the most noise. Luna seemed to glide over the ground like a wraith.

She stood and waited until they’d all entered the clearing. Her blue eyes wide on them all, she spoke.

“Ere we go further, tell us, Master John, Master Manco. What know ye of these Shonokin? From Twilight’s account, they seem hostile to all other than themselves. Do they dare open battle, or strike from ambush? Can they be reasoned with? My sister calls me overly eager for battle at times, but if we can talk with them…”

“Forgive me for interrupting, Princess,” Twilight gulped as she remembered the talk she had with the Chief Shonokin, “But I doubt they’re willing to discuss anything. The Shonokin chief spoke several times how all John’s homeland belonged to them, and how we’d help them whether we wanted to or not.”

“That don’t sound any too friendly to me,” Applejack muttered.

“Not to me either,” John said. “I’ve fought these Shonokin a time or two afore this, and airy thing Twilight just said sounds like airy thing they told me when they wanted me to be a-joining with them. They tried to act friendly like, but once they knew I wasn’t to be tolled over to help them they got killing nasty about it, right fast.”

“These creatures...” Luna walked across the clearing and back, chin in one hand. She looked at John and Twilight, worry in her eyes. “What are they? Whence do they come? If they were willing to treat with us in civilized fashion, I and my sister could perhaps find a place for them within Equestria, as we did for Buffalo and Griffins and Minotaurs. But from what you have said and I have seen, they cannot be trusted.”

“No, madam, and my pardon for interrupting,” Mister Manco said as he rose from his crouch. “I’ve had to deal with the Shonokin myself, and my people once fought theirs a long time ago. I also know of others who faced them, like John Thunstone up in New York City, and what they all told me was exactly what we’ve heard and seen here. They want revenge, and the power to gain it with, and if they tried to treat with Miss Twilight, who may have trusted just a bit too well when she talked to them…”

Twilight blushed.

“It was because they saw a chance to use her, and the rest of your folk, to their own ends. As to their origin?” He looked thoughtful, and when he spoke again, his words were deep and carried around the clearing. “No one knows, maybe not even the Shonokin themselves. Thunstone thinks they may be some sort of almost-human offshoot that split off from true humans a long time ago…”

Like Donkeys and Zebra from Earth Ponies?

“…maybe as far back as Neanderthal man, maybe further. My folk always saw them as spirits.” He looked at the ponies and chuckled. “Perhaps much the same way we’d have seen you ponies if we knew you back then.”

Twilight wondered why John and now Mister Manco kept thinking of ponies as nature spirits of some sort. They were perfectly normal beings in whom Equestria’s magic flowed, who used that magic to aid and guide nature in its proper course, and there was nothing strange about that. But Mister Manco was speaking, and his words were interesting.

“…Or evil witches like the Night Goers and Raven Mockers,” he nodded at John. “John might be able to tell you things about similar beings that his ancestors knew, like the Fair Folk, living down under the mounds.”

Like Diamond Dogs? At least the feral tribes?

“A hidden race, living alongside and sometimes preying on humanity, but never truly a part of it.”

“I rightly do remember some I heard from my old granny, and more I read,” John nodded, and lightly strummed his guitar. “Stories about old, old folk who hid theirselves away and did all sort of nasty sneaky things to people.” He looked thoughtful and began to recite, as though quoting:

“Up the airy mountain,

Down the rushy glen.

We daren’t go a-hunting,

For fear of little men…”

“Yeah, well,” John and Mister Manco both took a step back as Rainbow Dash flew to hover between them and Luna. “This jawing really ain’t doing us any good. If these guys stole Luna’s magic and want to use it to try and hurt John’s friends, then we gotta stop them. End of story. An’ what do they need Luna’s magic for, anyway?”

To judge by the looks on her friend’s faces, Rainbow wasn’t the only one wondering about that. Her mortal pony friends, anyway. John and Mister Manco both looked at Luna. And Luna just looked worried.

“I fear I know what they wish with it,” Luna said. She swept her arms out around her, taking in the shadowy clearing. “Twilight Sparkle, John, you were in the Dream Realm as manipulated by the Shonokin before this. Does this feel the same as it did then?

“Why of course –” Twilight stopped. She felt, carefully, with her magic as well as her senses. Her surroundings didn’t feel the same as before. There was no longer that ‘unreallness’ to them. Now it felt to her like something else, something nastily familiar now that she thought of it.

“It’s kindly different,” John said. He raised one hand as though trying to take hold of the atmosphere around them. “It minds me of one-two places I’ve been afore, and none of them good. You should know the one, Chief; the time we went up on Wolter Mountain and found the Raven Mocker village.”

“Yes,” Mister Manco said, his voice and face grave. He tilted his head back like sniffing the air. “I know what you mean now, John. Like the air before a thunderstorm, but this feels like scum on polluted water. Like you want to bathe to take the feel of it from your skin.”

“Like what we felt that time in the Everfree,” Twilight said with a gulp. “When Thorn took it over. Scary and nasty and like something in it wants to hurt you.”

“I feel it too,” Fluttershy said, her voice barely audible. She ruffled her wings, feathers splaying before she settled back down. “I didn’t want to upset anypony else by saying it. I thought it was because this was a dream.”

“A bad dream,” John said. “And maybe about to be getting worse. For us and a right many other people. Isn’t that right, Miss Luna?”

“Yes,” Luna nodded heavily, that long human mane tossing like she was still equine. Twilight felt her heart sinking as Luna said, “The Tantabus has not just my magic, but my power, my memories of being Nightmare Moon. It can manipulate bad dreams, make them nightmares, for as many beings as either it or the Shonokin desire. More so if Outside of Dream.”

“Bad dreams,” John looked at her. “How bad a bad dream?”

“Bad enough that peace would be lost to those feeling them,” Luna’s fists tightened along with her voice. “Enough of that, and ponies and humans alike would sicken and die or go mad. Thy enemies would no longer need to risk themselves in the slightest against any enemy, of either Equestria or thy world, good John. They could extort whatever they wish from any being they desire, and my darker self, the Tantabus, would be delighted to aid them.” Her face dropped. Twilight went to Luna and gently nuzzled her as the Night Princess said, “I have done this. Even when I but seek not to forget my past sins, they use me to do evil.”

Twilight wondered what it would be like, two worlds under the hooves of the Shonokin and the Tantabus, and in such a way there would be no chance of fighting back. What could they do? Stop dreaming? She knew what kind of damage that would eventually do… Then what? Give in, let the Shonokin have their revenge on everyone who’d ever fought them, and let Luna’s Tantabus act on every evil whim that once ruled Nightmare Moon’s heart?

She remembered four years ago, when her sedate life as Princess Celestia’s student “got interesting”. Even when she was Nightmare Moon, she still had some Luna left to restrain her…

Twilight looked around at her friends. Human and pony alike, she saw the same fear and determination she felt.

“Then there’s only the one thing left to do, isn’t there, Princess Luna?” As Luna looked her in the face, Twilight said, “We stop the Shonokin and the Tantabus before all that happens.”

She turned and, hoping she looked as sure as she felt, headed for the trail running between the trees and further towards whatever reception the Shonokin had planned. John was beside her in a moment, and the others followed.

“Those were right fine words,” John whispered to her as they walked. “Do you have air idea of how to stop them?”

“I’m working on it.”

Chapter 12

So there we stood under the trees, a-trying to think on what needed doing next. They were cold and dark around us, but they didn’t feel as sneaky as they did in those dreams the Shonokin were a-sending me and Twilight the first time. It felt most like any real day back home, maybe late Autumn or mid-Spring, either right afore or right after the snows were gone for good.

“Okay,” Twilight said, standing next to Miss Luna. “Anypony have any ideas what to do next?”

“Yeah,” Applejack said what I reckon best needed saying right then. “So them Show-no-whatever polecats done stole Luna’s magic and they made their own Nightmare Moon outta it?” She looked at Luna, and she looked the kind of sad you see on folks going to visit some kinfolk of theirs sick at the doctor. Luna just nodded, kind of weak, like she felt sick or maybe just ashamed. Applejack trotted over and gave Miss Luna a nuzzle like to say, we’re friends and we’ll be helping you. “So, how do we get it back?”

She turned and looked on me, then. All those ponies did: Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash, Pinkie and Rarity, Twilight and even poor Miss Luna. Looked at me like they hoped I’d know just what to say or do to make this whole mess better.

I only wished I did. The words I spoke were honest words, but they weren’t the ones any of us wanted to be hearing right then.

“Ladies,” I said, “I’m flattered you seem to think this much of me, but what I saw those Shonokin do was more than airy other kind of magic I air saw, save that one time I visited you.” They all seemed to droop. “I’m sorry, Miss Luna, all of you. I reckon the only ones who know how to fix this are the Shonokin, and they’re not likely to be a-telling us just to be nice.”

“Not even if we told them we’d help them if they did? I mean,” Fluttershy blushed, maybe the least bit less than the first time I’d seen her, “helped them with anything other than hurting you or other innocents.”

“I don’t think they kindly would, Miss Fluttershy,” I answered her, gentle as I could. “More like they’d just do you whatair bad thing they could while they had you there.”

“Princess Twilight attempted to parley with their leader,” Luna bespoke. “They showed themselves to be Utterly, Implacably Hostile.”

“Okay,” Dash said, flying to hover, I guess you call it, right by me. She smelled like any sweated horse, but mixed with that sharp clear scent you get in the air right afore a thunderstorm. “So then we go after these jerks and make ‘em give Luna’s magic back and lay off from you, too!”

“A sound and practical idea, young lady,” Chief Manco said where he stood, a little to my side and behind me. Dash frowned at him as he said, “The problem is, how? From the feel of this place the Shonokin have fled the Dreamlands, and they’re not likely to return and face John and your friend Twilight until they have reinforcements.”

We all looked at each other, ponies and humans, for a moment or three. I could figure on only the one way to do it, and I saw how those ponies figured it the same way.

“There’s but the one way, Chief,” I looked on him and all of them “We go after the Shonokin and fight them where we can catch them.”

“Yeah, but how?” Dash asked. “I mean, they live in your world, right? Not Equestria. And we’re only here because this is some dream. Are we just supposed to go back to Equestria and wait for Luna to either turn back to normal or shrivel up or something?”

“Rainbow Dash!” She winced as Twilight called to her again. “There’s no need to say it like that!”

“It is well, Twilight Sparkle,” Luna said, and her voice sounded different from afore. Not so much you didn’t know it for hers, but like a young woman’s version of it. Which made a right much sense when you thought about it. Dash still flinched when she said, “I have heard worse said about me, and with good reason. For now, we must concentrate on getting ourselves to thy human friend’s world. What?” She looked around on us all, and I wonder me if it was humans or ponies that looked the most surprised. “’Tis where the Shonokin fled with the Tantabus formed of my power. We must retrieve it and ensure they do not threaten Equestria again. Which means we must go to his realm in our physical forms.”

“How?” I said, and heard Twilight and the others echo it. “You-all are here in your dream-selves, Chief Manco and I can get ourselves back just by waking up, but you can’t follow us, can you?”

“The first part is easiest.” Luna stepped over to me. She pointed at my guitar. “My sister has told me of the song you played, ‘Dream Valley’. It is old among us, and it has great power in it, especially when played by a skilled bard such as thyself.”

“Folks mostly just talk kindly of me,” I answered her. She just raised one eyebrow at that.

“Because thou hast given them reason to, Master John. But as I was saying, that song, played by thee and sung by us at the same time once back in our own world, should make the way between worlds plain.” She looked at Twilight and her friends. They just looked on her, heads tilted like they were confused. “’Tis how ye summoned him in the first place. By use of the Elements of Harmony.” I saw how they looked ready to say something, but Luna just said, “I know ye used the Elements, but now, ye are the Elements. If any plan will work, this one will. Besides, I will be with ye.”

You should have heard their gasp then.

“Princess, ya must be plumb loco ta think o’ that!”

“You’re already hurt, those Show-guys would do even worse this time!”

“Princess, please! I’m not sure we can allow you to risk yourself…”

“Oh, Princess Luna, we almost lost John and Twilight, and…”

“We don’t want those big meanies to hurt you more, and Hasbro would get mad if it happened to a fan-favorite!”

Chief Manco just looked at me curious over what Pinkie said.

“I got no more idea than you do, Chief,” I told him. “I mostly just figure that Pinkie is like that.”

“Don’t try to figure out what Pinkie says or does,” bespoke Twilight. “I know. I tried. And I regretted it. Pinkie is Pinkie.”

He just shook his head. “I wonder if this is what it was like for old Indian heroes when they had to deal with the Trickster.” I might have responded him but right then Luna spoke, and it was almost that roar of a voice she’d used afore.

“Enough!” She stepped over to Twilight and her friends, gave them all a look that said better than any words that there was to be no more a-arguing. “This is the only plan we have! And without me it may not work at all. I have visited their world. I have felt it, and know something of how it works.” She drew herself up. “I will accompany ye, and that is an end of it.”

They looked at each other, and air soul could see they weren’t the least bit happy. I saw how Rarity turned to Twilight.

“Twilight, dear, what about Starswirl's magic mirrors? I know you’ve been experimenting with them, carefully. Might not one of them lead to Mister .John’s world?”

“No,” Twilight shook her head to say it. “They’re focused to different worlds, and some of them don’t even work anymore. None of them ever led to John’s worldline.” She gave Luna a nod. “Princess, we’ll have to follow your plan. So, what first?”

“First?” Luna swung her gaze to Twilight. She set her hands on Twilight’s shoulders, leaned close and said in words low and soft to hear.

“Remember the sensations thou felt as a pony. Earth beneath thy hooves, air beneath thy wings, magic flowing through thy horn. Ears that turn to catch every sound. Mane streaming in the wind, tail whipping behind thee, the magic of Equestria flowing through thee.”

Then they seemed to shimmer, Luna and Twilight, kindly like the heat coming off one of those fancy state roads in the summer. Just a heartbeat long, and when it cleared there they stood, ponies again.

“And second…” Luna swung her gaze from Twilight over to Chief Manco and me. “We must send the pair of ye back to thy own home. If ye can be awakened safely, that is.”

“We can, young lady,” Chief Manco answered her. “I put John and myself into a light trance before, and I did it so we could be awakened in case anything went wrong. I’ll send John back first…”

“Hold on there a moment, Chief,” I broke in, not very mannerly. He frowned on me. I just said, “Better if you went first. I have to make sure of that song of theirs afore I go, and maybe if we take some time between us they can see just where to go.”

“Pulled back by your silver cords,” Luna said, nodding. Her eyes were bright on me. “Thou art right, Master John. They will be easier to trace, and we have little time to lose.” She flew up off the ground, or whatair we stood on, and bespoke Chief Manco. “If thou wouldst, Chieftain. I will mark thy trail back to thy world.”

I saw Chief Manco consider over it a second before he nodded.

“Yes,” he said in a deep voice, like how I’d heard him speak aforetimes to his tribespeople when they came to him with trouble and asking for advice. “John, Miss Luna, this plan is good. She speaks like a wise woman, John, her and young Miss Twilight alike.”

Then Chief Manco closed his eyes and began saying words under his breath.

“Sgohi… sunela… tsunela… galiquogi…”

They were soft enough I barely made them out right where I stood beside him, but I recognized them for the Cherokee names for numbers from ten on down to one. His voice got softer and softer, until I strained to hear it.

And he was gone, just like that. He stood amidst us one moment, and the next just emptiness where he’d been.

“I bet Trixie wished she could do that,” I heard Dash mutter, only for her friends to shush her.

Right as soon as he vanished I saw Luna’s horn glow and something like a small spark fly out to where Chief Manco once stood. It circled, once or twice, like some hound dog trying to get a scent, and then it rose up and flew away over those dream-trees.

Luna looked on Twilight, asking the question with her eyes. I saw how Twilight wrinkled up her brow. Her horn glowed and a purple spark hung there on it, like a lightning bug ready to go flying off.

“Okay,” Applejack said, looking after it. “But what do we do now, follow it?”

“No need, fair Applejack,” Luna said, still using that old-timey way of speaking. “I can feel where my spell has gone, even after we leave the Dream realms. When we have once more shared the song with John,” she nodded to me, “between us and him, we shall be able to enter his realm.”

“Er, we will be properly clothed, shall we not?” Rarity looked down at herself. “Twilight told us what it was like for her to visit the world through the mirror, how she turned into a – human, is it, and I trust that when we are changed…”

“Ye will not be changed,” Luna said. I saw how she smiled when Rarity’s eyes went wide. “We shall be equine in his world as well. We would need to expend magic to resemble his worlds’ folk.”

I saw how the ponies didn’t look the least bit happy about this, but whatair other choice did we have?

“Okay,” Twilight said. “Song first, and then let’s get going.”

I got my guitar around, checked the frets and set my hand to its silver strings. “I’m rightly ready.”

She and her friends all started to hum, and then they slowly sang that tune I remembered from the last time we’d met, the tune that first brought me to Equestria near three years gone. Five notes, the same five notes repeated, then five chords in a different rhythm. “Dream Valley” they called it, and it sounded like a dream to hear. Applejack sounding like any young mountain woman, Fluttershy so soft you strained to hear it, Rainbow bold and brash, Twilight smooth and cultured, Rarity like an actress on the stage, and Pinkie laughing near every word she sang. I played with them, wondering when Chief Manco and Evadare were a-going to be waking me.

I saw something else then. It minded me some ways of what I’d seen when we fought Thorne and the Sunny Town ponies, but different too. It was like some light swirled around those ponies. Their manes and tails got thicker and filler, streaked all sorts of colors, and they looked like they shone from inside, like fancy gems that caught sunlight and held it after.

“They weren’t like that aforetimes,” I whispered to Luna as I played. She just whickered a horsey laugh.

“No, they were not.” I caught her own smile as she said, “The Elements have changed form yet again. My sister and I did not recognize them when we went to claim them to use against Discord. We expected a rainbow, we found six gems.” She went silent and I made sure to keep all my attention on what the ladies sang. Their song was easier to remember than to learn the first time, the way most things are.

The song died away, but I had it in my head now. The ponies looked at me, waiting. I saw how their new manes and tails went back to normal, and I reckon they blushed.

“Yeah, we think that’s kinda a lot, too,” Dash said, rubbing one hoof along her neck like to say she was embarrassed. Twilight just rolled her eyes and walked over to me.

“We’ll see you within a couple of hours, John,” Twilight promised me. She came over and nuzzled against my hand. I knelt and hugged her along her neck, feeling the velvet softness of her coat and the roughness of her mane. “I promise. And thanks for helping to keep me alive in here.”

“I should be the one a-thanking you – Wait,” I looked at her and them. “Where will you all be coming through in my world?”

Right as she began to answer I felt something giving me an almighty tug, trying to yank me away. The whole world about me turned misty as I heard Luna say, “We shall appear where thou didst when thou left Equestria, near thy own home! Await us, we shall be as swift as we may! Twilight, trail his silver cord!”

Her last words seemed to echo down after her as I felt a soft mattress stuffed with goose feathers under me and that old quilt atop me. I opened my eyes and I saw nair pony. Evadare looked on me, as lovely as airy time I see her, and Chief Manco stood beside her, old again, those steel-grey braids framing his face.

“John!” Evadare said and she hugged me as tight as I’d ever been. I just held her back and listened while she said, “I was a-wondering if it’d gone wrong again, the way you and Chief Manco were a-carrying on in your sleep. But then he woke up and said to wait for you?”

“Then he said the exact right thing.” I told her, getting up and out of that bed. “Evadare, I’ll explain while we get ready, but right now we’d better start setting things for guests. We still have those apples and that bag of oats in the shed?”

#

“I’ve got it!” Twilight smiled to see the silvery trail leading off through the aether of the Dream realm. She grinned at her friends and nodded at Princess Luna. She took a moment to get the feel of the spell results down right, the faintly musical and reassuring shiver of the cord, joined to earth scent-memories of the countryside around Ponyville and the sense of warmth and trust she felt around and from John when she met him. “I’ll be able to feel this even when we use the Elements back in Equestria.”

“Speakin’ o’ which, ya sure this is goin’ ta work?” Applejack looked at the silvery cord as it snaked away from them. She touched it lightly. It shivered but held.

“It will,” Luna spread her wings wide as she said with a snap. “Provided no overly curious ponies snap the cord.” Applejack blushed and hurried back to her friends as the Moon Princess set her wings above them. “Twilight! Make certain to remember the ‘feel’ of this place and that cord. ‘Twill be our only way to find the place where we must enter John’s world! And now, apologies, my little ponies, but we must hurry!”

“Eh, apologies for what, Your Highness? AAAAAAAAA!”

Rarity’s words seemed to echo in Twilight’s head as Luna’s eyes glowed a pale silver. That glow spread out and took in everything around her, she felt a sudden horrifying dropping as though she’d been tossed off the moon and left tumbling down to Equestria. Her friends shrieked as well, all save Dash who whooped for joy and Pinkie’s loud “Wheee!”

“Princess Luna!” Twilight yelled, snatching uselessly at the air with her wings. “What’s happening?”

“I am recalling us to Equestria by what modern ponies might call ‘the Express Route’!” Luna called back. “We are in no danger!”

“Eeeek!” Fluttershy snatched hold of Twilight. “Can’t we t-take a slower Express?”

And it was over.

Twilight shot up with a gasp, looking around to see Luna’s spell chamber. Or was it? She didn’t remember it being so crowded with ponies, or it being so dark outside, or half the wall gone and the other half scorched. Her tongue hurt; something salty and metallic tingled in her mouth; she spat it out and it was blood.

She blinked to see ponies surrounding her, a mix of Palace staff, mostly Spellguard and Celestia’s doctors, and her stunned-looking friends.

“What the hay was happening while I was gone?” Before she could say more…

A small purple dragon leaped over from Rarity, crashed into her. “TWILIGHT!” She caught the small scaly form as he hurled himself into her forelegs and hugged her like he feared she’d vanish forever.

“Spike!” Twilight breathed as she returned the embrace, taking a moment to exult in the warm and strong dragon-scent. “Spike, I’d love to talk, and I’ll tell you everything later, but right now Luna and I have to take care of some more problems, okay?”

Spike nodded; he looked like he hadn’t slept for days. How long was I out?

Then white feathers that carried their own full daylight enveloped both of them in a wing-hug.

“Twilight, my best student!” Twilight returned Celestia’s nuzzle as her teacher said, “I was so afraid for you and the others. But I trusted my sister,” she smiled at Luna who rose to her hooves amid Palace staff, “as I should have. But what happened to her! And you!”

Twilight stood up, Spike’s clutch releasing a moment after the Sun Princess’s wings. The aches and pains hit her, flanks, horn, tongue – all the injuries she’d taken in the Dream realm, easily dealt with there but less so here. She stretched and winced as Luna spoke. Ouch! Thankfully they’re not as bad as they were when I took them in the Dream realm.

Rarity called Spike away, and the Palace staffers surrounded her as Luna – as she’d been four years ago, small as Twilight herself and without sparkles in her mane or the essences of Night shadowing her coat – came up to her. She wore only her obsidian tiara, the rest of her regalia now too large for her.

“Twilight,” the Moon Princess looked from her to the rest of the Element Bearers. “And ye. Can ye feel the way to the proper place to leave from, that we might reach John’s world?”

Twilight concentrated and grinned. “I can. It’s in the Everfree Forest?” She looked at her friends for confirmation.

“Thet’s right,” Applejack said. She snorted and pinned her ears. “Ah can feel it too. Right by thet spooky village.”

“What? Sunny Town?” Celestia blinked, looked from Applejack to Twilight to Luna as the staff hurried about her. “Luna, little sister, what is going on?”

“Sister, thy praise is welcome,” Luna pushed between Twilight and Celestia, looked into her sister’s face. “However, our task is but half done. Gather for us supplies. Equestria is yet threatened. We must be off at once!” Luna trotted to the door, calling commands as she went that sent the waiting ponies into a flurry of activity. “Mages of my sister’s school, prepare two spell workings! Starswirl’s Universal Translator and a Polymorph Transformation! Twilight, join me!”

“Huh? What? Twilight hurried to keep pace with Luna. Even weakened, the Moon Princess moved quickly and certainly, her forehooves almost striking sparks from the marble floor. “Princess, why would we need a translation spell? Or a transformation?”

“Dost not remember, Twilight Sparkle?” Luna looked at her. “You yourself told me of the difficulties in communication you experienced with John when you met…”

“Uh, yeah,” Twilight blushed. “I guess I did forget about that.”

“And at least one of us should wear the form of the humans,” Luna added. “Unless you think that a talking equine would go unnoticed among John’s folk.” She swept one wing along herself.

“Err…” Twilight blushed to remember her early through-the-mirror experiences. “I kind of doubt it. But why take the time to cast them here?” She flew before Princess Luna and dropped to the floor again; one traditionally did not fly before a Princess unless they were airborne as well. “Can’t we cast them in John’s world?”

Beyond Luna she could see her friends getting ready, being fitted with saddlebags filled with food and other basic supplies for a hopefully short trip into unknown territory. One of the palace medical staff gave a basic medical kit to Fluttershy, and was explaining everything in it.

“…And no eating anything you can’t recognize,” the older unicorn mare said or rather lectured, her caduceus cutie mark looking like it crawled over her green flank. She lifted one bottle from the kit, showing it to Fluttershy. “But if somepony does, here’s an emetic because…”

“’Because there’s no need to discover you’ve just eaten some quince’.” Fluttershy finished with a soft smile as Dash shuddered behind her as at some distasteful memory. As the nurse frowned, Fluttershy quickly said, “Oh, I’m sorry, I’m not trying to tell you your job. But, well, I have studied medicine, and we have done some things like this before…”

“Why, Twilight?” Luna cut off Twilight’s view of her friends. “Remember thy trips to the world beyond the mirror. You said magic was weak there among those human-ponies.”

“At first, yes,” Twilight said. “But it got stronger later. And John told us that magic works in his world.”

“Aye,” Luna nodded agreement. “I remember how well it works.” A shiver ran along her flanks. Luna drew off to the side, and motioned for Twilight to follow. Wondering what this was about, Twilight followed. Luna led her around a corner and out of sight of the others. Luna’s horn glowed and the sounds of their speech became dim. The light from the wall lanterns also seemed to darken slightly. She scowled, and Twilight got why. That spell should have set a sphere of silence and shadows around them both, cutting off all sounds and images going either inside or out. That it didn’t said something about how weak Luna was right now.

“I need to reclaim my stolen power,” she muttered before turning back to Twilight. “Magic, yes, but not magic of Equestria, Twilight Sparkle. It is an alien magic, one we are unfamiliar with.” Luna frowned. “An alien realm, even more so than Dream.”

“Okay,” Twilight said, wondering just what Luna was aiming at. A few more of the palace staff hurried by. Twilight didn’t recognize them through the spell. “But I still don’t get…”

“Twilight Sparkle,” Luna sighed and shook her head. “I know that few ponies would understand, but of thee I expected more.” Twilight jerked her head back, feeling vaguely insulted. Luna went on. “Thou hast visited other worlds, one at least. It is not simply that pony magic will be weaker there. The energy flux throughout Equestria that empowers pony magic will not even exist in John’s world.”

Twilight began to get it. “Meaning we’ll only have what magic we bring over, intrinsic to our bodies. No background magic to tap. We’ll be as weak as foals and fillies, and we’ll keep getting weaker the longer we stay there.”

“Aye,” Luna said with a nod. “Pegasus flight, unicorn magic, Earth pony strength and endurance,” she smiled, indicating Pinkie with her horn, “even The Pink One’s wild talents, all shall weaken. If we are to defeat the Shonokin, we must do so swiftly, before they can use my stolen power against us. ‘Twill be a race against time, Twilight Sparkle – and any spells we will need cast upon us are best cast here, in Equestria.”

Twilight started to panic. On our own, no background magic, on their home ground, getting weaker each time we fly or cast…

“Twilight Sparkle!” Luna neighed. “Of us seven, two art Alicorns Minor, six bear the Elements of Harmony, and one is Pinkie Pie. That should offset some of the lack. But we shall still weaken with time.”

Luna hesitated and added, “And it may be for the best if thou did the most potent spellcasting. I shall assist as I can.”

Twilight thought about it and nodded.

“I will, Princess Luna. Thank you for everything.”

“Thanking me?” the Moon Princess gave a snort. “’Twere not for my finding thy human friend, at this moment neither us nor Equestria would be in danger.” She hung her head. “Even when I seek to aid selflessly, I work harm. I wonder if in truth Nightmare Moon was not the greater part of me.”

“Don’t talk like that!” Twilight leaned over and nuzzled Luna as she would any other pony, remembering when she’d had similar doubts about John, two and a half years ago.

“What if we didn’t summon him, or he’s not the one we did summon?” Rarity and Rainbow Dash’s eyes widened at her words; Fluttershy eeped. “The being we wanted to summon might never have gotten through. And doesn’t it seem weird that we found almost the exact pony for the job?”

And she remembered Pinkie’s reply.

“Wasn’t it kind of weird that you were reading about Queen Meanie right when she was about to break free? Wasn’t it weird that you met the five funniest and most loyal and all-around best for the plot ponies when you first came to Ponyville, Twilight?

“Maybe that’s just the way the Elements work. John was the best pony or whatever on his world to help us stop meanypants Thorn from making everypony unhappy, so they brought him here. Like how we were the best ponies to heal Luna and stop Discord from ruining Equestria and bringing chocolate rain, so they made sure you met us!”

And she knew what she had to say to the Alicorn Major-turned-Alicorn Minor before her.

“John might have died if we didn’t find him; and then what if the Shonokin or something else from his world – like another Thorn, but worse – learned about Equestria anyway? We’d have been unsuspecting and helpless.” Twilight saw the hopeful light in Luna’s eyes and chose her words carefully. “Maybe we found John at the exact right time and vice-versa. Maybe being selfless can get you in trouble. But I’ve never seen how being selfish can keep you out of it.”

“True enough,” Luna’s horn glowed and the sphere around them vanished. “Now, let us to our final preparations and then be off.” She started down the passageway. “For when we find ourselves in thy friend’s world, we will have little more than what we bear with us, as well as our native courage, wit, and strength, and pray it be enough.”

Twilight shuddered at how those last few words carried the sound of a epitaph. They were going to face sorcerers, a world without the background magic of Equestria, and what might well be Nightmare Moon reborn.

No pressure whatsoever¸ she thought, and hurried to keep up with Luna.

Chapter 13

Realms Undreamed Of

Chapter 13

No pony would speak of her
Or their part in her doom;
No pony would speak of her
Or their part in her doom;
But all would be known
To the Mare in the Moon…

Darkness reigned deep within the Everfree Forest. Night lay on the land of Equestria, and honest ponies – and griffons, dragons, minotaurs, and more – were asleep in their beds.

While in the depths of the Everfree, the cursed ponies of Sunny Town repeated their last night alive for over the 366,700th time.

Timber and log houses of a style not seen in Equestria for centuries circled around a village green. The leaping flames of a bonfire lit the green, surrounded by the tables and decorations of an Earth Pony festival. Except there was no aroma of ale or fresh baking or even ponies, just that of a musty graveyard with a hint of carrion.

A small Earth Pony mare, golden of mane and gray of coat, faced two Earth Pony stallions. Fear pinned the ears of the larger and closer, and tears streaked his cheeks; behind him the smaller grey’s face held a lurking sneer. Behind the two of them, wilting flowers drifted from the green mane of a green-coated mare; beside her, a mare and stallion in archaic wedding finery backed away. And in a ring around them, the rest of the herd kept their distance from the small grey mare, who alone bore a Cutie Mark.

“The Pox…” they whispered and whickered to each other, twitching as if they were about to stampede. “The Pox!” Afraid and yet tired and weary, like actors doing a scene for the thousandth upon thousandth time.

Except for the small golden-maned mare at the center of the herd, a new-born Cutie Mark like a small seeing-glass glowing on her flank.

“Father Grey Hoof,” she neighed in a voice mixing grief and boredom. “Three Leaf.” Her ears turned back for a moment. “Gladstone, Roneo, Starlight. Must we do this? Again? Even the accursed dead may know tiredness at feeling their last moments of life over and over—“

“Tis the Pox!” hissed Gladstone in Grey Hoof’s ear. “Strike swiftly, or we are all dead!”

“Nay,” the large grey said, his voice a wondering rumble. “This, this has happened aforetimes... Has it not?” He looked to the others around him, lit by the dancing firelight, their shadows shimmering on the walls of the houses. They returned him confused nods as he said, “I, I do seem to recall... My daughter Ruby found thy lost wedding gift, Roneo...”

“Yes! 'Tis true!” The little mare, Ruby, nodded with a sudden rising hope. “Father, all of ye, do try to remember! Always and always this ends with my death, even the time the one called Thorn came here. He laughed to see thee slay me – Father, remember, and do differently this time!” Ruby stepped forward and leaned in close to her parent.

As she did with a shrill neigh of fury Gladstone reared and brought both his hooves down on her head. Ruby fell, her head crushed. She kicked once and lay twitching.

“Now!” Gladstone turned on the others, frantically scraping his forehooves against the grass as his voice changed to a rasping croak. Their own forms began to wither, turning to shrunken hide and sunken eyes that burned like coals.

He finished scraping his hooves clean, pointed one at the twitching figure lying before him. “To the firepit! She must be burned!”

And the noonday sun came down into the clearing.

A debt to the Nightmare
Sunny Town must pay;
A debt to the Nightmare
Sunny Town must pay;
For killing pretty Ruby
And hiding her away…

“NOOOOOOOO! NOT AGAIN!” the scream rose from the throats of the entire herd, their equine forms melting away into charred bones and rotting burned flesh and empty eyesockets filled with red fire as the buildings around them went to charred ruins. Only the small grey mare lying twitching in her own blood looked freshly dead.

The midnight sun broke through the canopy – a shining white Alicorn Major, the sun on her flank and tipping her horn. Then a spiked iron chariot, drawn by Night Guard ponies winged like bats. Then more Night Guard and other chariots, two of which seemed to burn the Sunny Towners even more than Celestia’s light.

The Sunny Town ponies were skeletons now, shards of stinking rotting flesh and hair clinging to black-charred bones and blazing red empty eyesockets, screaming as the earth itself dragged them down and swallowed them up, back into their graves until the next midnight.

“I hate thee, harlot!” Gladstone neighed as he sank again into death, the dirt seeming to almost recoil from his corpse-form. “May thy sister be torn from thee for another thousand years! I – ” He was gone.

“Daughter! Beloved Ruby!” Grey Hoof whinnied in something like joy. “I, I did NOT strike thee this time! – ” Then he was gone, along with Three Leaf and Roneo and Starlet and all the others.

Except for Ruby, who lay on the forest floor amid gnarled roots and traces that a thousand years ago might have been foundations where a village had once stood.

The first chariot – the large spiked one – grounded.

“Ruby…” the small blue alicorn in the chariot looked down at the still form, already starting to fade. “I did this to thee…” Luna made as to step off the chariot, then settled when a bipedal form beside her set a reassuring hand on her withers.

Ruby and her pool of blood faded to translucent, then to transparent, then she was gone as if she’d never existed.

Luna stared at the spot where Ruby had lain until the hand on her withers guided her off the chariot.

Royal-sabatoned hooves met dirt, followed by those of Night Guards. Spellguard unicorns leaped off chariots as they grounded, light spells streaming off their horns as they backed up the Night Guards establishing a perimeter.

The fell darkness of the Everfree retreated, banished to a distance where shadows with pale-glittering eyeshine moved under the trees and did not dare approach. Night Guard Thestrals and Spellguard Unicorns pinned ears and rolled eyes at the sight, but held their ground as more chariots filled with ponies set down behind them.

Well, mostly ponies. Among them stood one two-legged being unlike any other in Equestria. Tall and lean, long-maned and with bare earth-toned skin instead of a pony’s coat, she stood with the Elements of Harmony next to the two alicorn Princesses.

“Twilight,” Celestia said to her, sweeping the sunlight from her horn through the surrounding woods. “You and the Elements should work the spell quickly. The less time wasted, the better.”

“I agree,” Twilight said, dropping to the dirt of the Everfree forest floor. As she did a long moan came from deeper in the forest. It dragged on for several moments before fading. Despite themselves the ponies shivered.

“Umm, Twilight, not to try and tell you how to cast magic,” Fluttershy moved to stand a little closer to her friend and the Princesses. Full saddlebags thumped against her butter-yellow sides, as with her friends. “But maybe we can hurry it up a little?”

“I have to agree with Fluttershy, dear,” Rarity cringed a little as another groan echoed from the woods. “I have been in more pleasant places than this.”

“I’m hurrying as much as I can,” Twilight said. Luna’s magic held the spellbook before her eyes, containing what Luna could remember of the conjuring circle once used to call her to John’s world. She very carefully used a long stick to recreate them in the earth at her feet. A soft chill wind blew around the ponies, bearing the scent of sweetish stink of decay and worse, a hint of wood smoke. “This would be a lot easier if I still had my own magic.”

“I dunno why ya didn’t just change when ya went to John’s world, like you do with Canterlot High,” Dash said as she hovered just off the ground. An irritated twitch ran along her side.

“Because this is not like using one of Starswirl’s mirrors, Rainbow Dash,” Celestia said, scanning the treeline. “They were enchanted to modify their user to match the main race of the world they went to, as a way to aid explorers in blending in. This other world you go to has no Equestrian magic. Your native abilities as Equestrian ponies will be vastly weakened there.” She looked into Dash’s eyes, and then to the others. “Possibly even useless.”

“My wings? Useless?” The cyan pegasus dropped to the ground, wings frozen in mid-flap.

“I’m not very eager to face the unknown without even basic horn magic, either, dear,” Rarity said, levitating a mane-brush out of her saddlebags. “But Twilight and Princess Luna told us what sort of threat John and his friends face.” Mane properly teased into a curling amethyst ribbon, the marshmallow unicorn returned the brush to her saddlebag. “Even without any threat to our own world, we can’t leave the Shonokin to do whatever they like to John.”

“Yeah, I know, but,” Dash looped in place. “I feel kinda naked without my wings. Like you will without your horn,” she got a sly smile. “An’ Applejack without being able to talk ta plants or whatever it is that Earth ponies get.”

“Don’t y’all start, Dash,” Applejack snorted in mock anger. “Ya know what we get. Next Runnin’ of the Leaves Ah’ll be happy ta show ya.” At Dash’s laugh, Applejack stomped forward, pinning her ears back.

Twilight turned away from the two as they bickered as only old friends can. The Everfree looked almost as dark as those forests she’d seen in John’s memories. Luna’s moon peeked through the trees overhead, full and glorious. Twilight wondered if it looked brighter and bigger than the one in John’s dreams. She shivered a bit at the chill in the air; it felt much colder out without a coat of hair. At least the Polymorph worked. Her new form was based on the one she had through the mirror, with one important difference. From what she’d seen of the humans in John’s dreams, their skins and manes seemed to all be drab earth tones; she’d compromised on a medium one, based on Chief Manco’s dream-form. Rarity had hurriedly sewn a set of clothing for her, based on the ones in the second dream-world.

She could feel, deep within, a sort of uneasiness that the memory of her magical senses told her was her original form trying to reassert itself. It would take at least a day before it could force her body back to normal, and that was with the normal background magic of Equestria. In John’s world without that magical flux, keeping her new form ought to be no problem at all.

And if not, Princess Luna should be able to restore me. Twilight relaxed a little as she recognized the trail from three years before, the one where John had walked out of Equestria and back to his world. “Okay,” she wondered out loud, “and now what? John, I hope you're ready where you are.”

#

The afternoon sun sent shadows creeping and crawling with what looked like long claws over airy thing as I stood on the trail outside my home cabin. I held my guitar in my hands, and I felt right glad to be feeling it. There'd been one-two times I wondered myself if I air would again.

“John,” Evadare said behind me. I looked back and saw her standing aside old Chief Manco before the cabin, stout log walls chinked with clay on a foundation of stones mortared together, like any good mountain house. “John,” she said again, “you sure your friends will know how to let you know when they're being ready, where you and Chief Manco say they are?”

“I think she doubts yet just a bit, John,” Chief Manco smiled and nodded me, his long gray braids bobbing beside his wise old face. “I don't blame Evadare. If I hadn't seen what I saw – but well, now what?”

“This, I reckon,” I told him back. My fingers started moving on my silver strings, and I began a-playing those five notes I'd first heard three years gone. Five notes in a rhythm I nair heard afore, then the same five notes once again, then five chords in a different rhythm as I walked away from the house past Chief Manco’s pickup truck and towards the spot I'd come back on, three years afore.

Did Twilight and her friends hear me where they were, I wondered?

#

A soft faint warm breeze blew through the charnel stink of Sunny Town. Twilight lifted her head to smell it, and as she did, heard five notes on the wind. “Girls! Princesses! Do you hear that?”

Celestia shook her head, but slowly, as though something tugged at her memory.

“I hear naught,” Luna said, “yet I almost do feel something familiar.”

“Ah shore hear it!” Applejack hurried up beside Twilight. Then Dash beside her, and on Twilight's other side Rarity and Fluttershy and Pinkie, bouncing for joy. “Now what do we do?”

“I'm not sure,” Twilight looked down the trail leading away from here, maybe away from Equestria itself. “But I think...”

She began to sing back to those faint notes. Her friends joined in, neighing 'Dream Valley' back to that breeze. Two more voices joined in, Celestia and Luna singing the oldest of Equestria's songs.

#

I stopped my playing and listened my hardest. A new sound along with my music and the wind overhead and the birdsong in the trees all about.

Eight voices singing back to me, six of them that I knew. Brash Rainbow and soft Fluttershy, cultured Rarity and happy Pinkie, Applejack's so like ary mountain woman I knew and educated Twilight's. And two more I nair yet knew, one smooth and strong and minding me of how some folks say the sun dances at dawn on Easter Sunday, and the other softer and lower but just as fine, like a cool breeze under a full Autumn moon.

I minded me of stories of men said to have just up and vanished here-there through the mountains like Sol Gentry, vanished and gone yet folks could hear their voices sometimes a-calling for help but nary sign of them. Was that what I was a-hearing here?

I listened a heartbeat long, and then set fingers back to my guitar and played it back to them whereair they were.

#

“I hear it,” Luna said softly, walking forward to stand beside Twilight. Her voice rose along with the Element Bearers. 'Dream Valley' was coming to them on silver strings, coming from another world entire.

“Celestia,” Twilight dared break the song for a second as her friends began to walk down the trail leading away from Sunny Town. They walked out of the radius of the light spells, darkness closing in around them. “Celestia, good luck.”

“Little sister, my student, my little ponies, all of you be careful,” Celestia called after them before she stared singing again. Twilight nodded agreement and returned to the song herself. Faint hints of rainbows shimmered along and over their coats and Twilight's mane as the Elements awakened. The sound of those guitar strings became louder, more distinct. 'Dream Valley' for certain now, and no mistakes.

#

It was just like hearing fairy-music all about, there under those old trees and me hearing what sounded more like seven voices now, with that dawn-singer going quiet. Loud and distinct, and sounding like they were a-getting closer. I changed the pitch on my playing like that time with Donie Carawan and the Little Black Train. The Doppler effect, I think science folks call it, making it sound like something is getting closer to you.

And this was a-getting closer and louder air second.

#

“Oh, dear!” Rarity seemed to flinch. “Darlings! Does it feel to the rest of you like we were walking through a spiderweb?”

“Yes, and keep singing!” Twilight yelled back to her. The darkness all about them was suddenly lifting, growing brighter as though Celestia stood beside them, “Remember, this is how John said it felt for him!”

Their song, his music, so loud now it was like he stood among them. New trees all about, like Whitetail Woods with more Northern Forest conifers, late afternoon sunlight slanting through the forest. Birdsong among them, a strong raw scent like Autumn right before the Running of the Leaves, conifer needles beneath their hooves and feet.

About a hundred lengths away, a log cabin like in Whitetail Woods peeked through the trees beside a red clay road; beside it something like a four-wheeled wagon crossed with a locomotive cab.

And standing right before them – “Twilight? Ladies, is that you I'm seeing?”

#

“John! It's you!”

That was what I heard right when six ponies and one young lady that looked kindly familiar to me shimmered out of nothing all about me, like the summer heat from a blacktop highway. Maybe a heartbeat long or so I saw a vast dark woods all about, but then it was all gone and just me and six excited ponies rearing up around me. With the most excited of them jumping her pink self right up onto me.

“Hi John, we missed you so much!” Pinkie took herself a deep breath and then it all came a-rushing out like I remembered. “Gosh it's been so long and gee your hair has some more gray in it but not a lot and I'm so glad we got to see you again and maybe this time we can have that We-Saved-The-Day party like I wanted to and – ”

“PINKIE!” That young woman pushed her way up atween Pinkie and me. “Let him breathe!” Pinkie dropped back, still smiling. The young lady sighed. “I'm sorry, John, but you know how Pinkie is.”

“Twilight?” I took a longer look. “That is you, isn’t it?”

“Yes,” she said, and she tugged lightly on a strand of her hair. Thick and dark it looked, with maybe a sort of purple-blue streak when the sunlight hit it right. “I didn’t know how the Polymorph spell would work with this world. Do I look okay?”

She wore clothes like you’d see on young town women from the lowlands coming up to summer in the mountains, but better made, maybe. Twilight looked like any other human girl, only a little dark. Most places they’d think she came from Spain or Italy or some such place off beyond the seas. Here in the mountains, she looked part Cherokee, like she might be a niece or even grand-daughter of old Chief Manco himself.

The rest of her friends were trying to stand up and look me in the face, all of them talking at the once. I took Applejack by the hoof and shook it, and maybe it felt just the least bit weaker than the first time I’d done that when we met in Equestria. Pinkie tried to bounce but she didn’t go quite so high as she used to.

“You look fine,” I told Twilight right as the door opened behind me. “But are you feeling poorly? You all feel,” I tried to find the words, “just a little less than you did when I knew you, back in Equestria.”

“That's from the lack of magical energy in this universe.” She looked like she wondered something. “That won't be a problem. I think.”

“I see you-all here,” I said as I looked around on them all. “But whereair is Spike at? I can't kindly see him letting you all run off into danger without coming along to help.”

“He's not here,” Twilight said, and she looked sorry to say it. “We left him back in Equestria. He wanted to come, but draconic biology is so magic-intensive I had no idea how it would react to the shift between worlds.”

“I did convince him to stay,” Luna broke in. “I warned him that should the worst come to worst, Ponyville would need a defender ‘gainst whatever may assail it.” Maybe I just thought they looked worried a mite as Luna said, “Even a young dragon would be a fearsome foe and a loyal defender.”

“John – Lord have mercy!” That was my Evadare’s voice, sure enough. I turned to look at her; I just purely did have to see the look on her face right now. Her blue eyes were wide enough that they looked to take her whole face up. The ponies looked at her, sort of cautious. Except for Applejack, who reared up to look her in the face. Evadare reached out cautious-like her own self and was about to scratch Applejack along her ears. Then she stopped and took her hoof with her hand, shaking it.

“You’re the one he called Applejack, aren’t you?” Evadare said, her voice soft and kind of hushed. “John told me what good you and these others here did him and he did for you, but I shame to say, until now I nair did believe him all the way.”

“And it's a pleasure ta meet ya, Miz Evadare,” Applejack responded her and shook Evadare’s hand back. “John told us how much he favored ya and wanted ta get back home, an' now Ah can see why.” I saw the other ponies behind her nodding their politest. It made me just a little proud, silly as it sounds, to see how whatair troubles they might be in, they took the time to notice Evadare and make their manners afore her that-a-ways.

“I reckon I know the rest of you, Rarity, Fluttershy,” Evadare nodded at them with the good manner she always has, better than mine. Rarity made a sort of little bow, Fluttershy half-hid her face behind a wing and smiled. Evadare said, “Miss Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash… Miss Twilight?” She made it a half a question. Pinkie grinned her best, Dash puffed herself up like she was proud to be known, Twilight took Evadare's hand and returned her handshake. Evadare looked at Luna. “And yourself, Miss? I apologize, but you're a stranger to me.”

“And thee to me,” Luna said in her old-time speech. “But any who stand by John the Balladeer is a friend to me.” Evadare hesitated, then set her hand on Luna's head and scratched her gentle-like by the ears. It looked like most any person gentling an unhappy horse, save I'd nair seen it done to a horse with wings and a horn.

I reckon I heard Dash make a little laugh, and someone shushed her. Luna flicked her ears and made a half-snort like any annoyed horse, and Twilight choked right aside me.

She whispered her words out like she was in a church. "Does she know just who she's scritching? The Princess of the Night!"

I thought her words quiet enough, but I reckon Luna heard them all the same. Her eyes went wide, and with a snort she walked away to stand afore the others.

"Twilight, fellow ponies," Luna said. "We must needs see to our resources, and how much magic we still possess." She spoke like someone used to giving orders and being heeded. "Rarity, attempt a casting. Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, attempt to take flight.”

Rarity nodded her back and Dash saluted as sharp as someone taking orders from a top officer.

“Applejack, test thy strength. Pinkie Pie…” Pinkie smiled wide, her mane maybe looking the least bit limp. Luna seemed to be a-hunting for howair to say it, and finished with, "See if thou can do – whatever it is thee does. And Twilight, cast Analyze Magic on us, and gauge how much we have weakened."

“Are you sure you can, dear?” Rarity said. I saw her horn shine faint, like the last few bits of wood in a fire burning itself out. “I can feel where my magic used to be, if you know what I mean. You're the Element of Magic, but even so!”

“I know I can.” Twilight looked determined. “I can manage it here, but we’re going to have to concentrate.” She knelt down in the midst of her friends and Luna. I saw how she furrowed up her brow and began to say some words that sounded the least bit familiar to me. Luna came over to her and touched her forehead, her horn and eyes glowing a soft pale moon’s glow.

Evadare caught her breath quick, crossed two of her fingers and set the other hand in her skirt pocket. She started to say some words I’d taught her under her breath. Luna seemed to twitch the least little bit and snorted at us. I took her gently by the arm.

“There’s no need to be saying any words out of the Long-Lost Friend,” I told her. I think she only half heard me, the way she stared at the ponies, but she nodded me yes. “This is no evil or wicked thing when they do magic. It’s more like what Chief Manco can do sometimes, or me my own self. Or maybe more like when we turn a switch and get light. It’s a natural thing for them.”

“Natural, but still fascinating,” Chief Manco said where he stood. I’d not even heard him come out the door. “It reminds me some ways of things I read about in Albertus Magnus and other medieval and Renaissance grimoires, about the difference between magia and goetia – natural magic versus unnatural sorcery.”

“Like the Shonokin do?” I asked him. He looked at me.

“Exactly like that,” he said.

Rarity looked around her, frowned and furrowed her brow like some folks do when they think hard. Her horn glowed in fits and starts, like some fancy electric light down in town hen the power isn't running well. The sticks and rocks rose, a little. Some few dropped and I saw Rarity wasn't the least bit happy to see it.

"I'm not as strong as back home," she said in that elegant voice, as those sticks circled in the air. "And my fine control isn't what I would like, Highness. But I have some of my magic here."

“Tell me about it!” I knew Dash’s scratchy voice. She flew over to hover near Luna, but she beat her wings harder than I’d air seen her do back in Equestria, like some big buzzard trying to take off. She gritted her teeth and tried flying higher, kicking up leaves and grit. Finally she stopped and just dropped down to the ground. “"Great, I flew better than this when I was a foal! I fly as bad as Fluttershy!"

Fluttershy's wings were beating even harder. I closed my eyes at the grit and dirt they blew at my eyes, but she just raised her front half off the ground a handspan of inches afore she dropped back down, gasping like she’d run all the way to Sky Notch. "I can't fly at all!"

"Ah'm no better," Applejack called over. She stood aside an oak tree, maybe a century old by how tall and broad it was. She looked at it like she whispered or maybe just thought some words, and I minded me of how some old mountain folks used to say a prayer afore they cut a tree down. Applejack kicked out like a little orange donkey with her back legs. A few leaves came down from that tree, but naught else. She saw how I looked. "Sorry to be hurtin' yore trees, John, but Ah needed ta know what Ah can still do." She looked back at her tail the way some old folks do the first time they can't be doing something they always could. "Guess Ah know how Granny Smith felt the first time she couldn't buck apples any more."

We all looked to Pinkie then. Except she wasn’t where she’d been standing.

Afore anyone could say anything else she’d jumped up in front of Evadare. Evadare gave a start, but Pinkie just paid it no mind and starting a-talking, bouncing all over like she was a rubber ball.

“Hi, Miz Evadare! It’s great to meet you! John talked about you a lot when he visited our world, and he missed you so much and we were afraid we’d never be able to send him back to your world…” She took one almighty deep breath, “But we did and he helped us a whole lot against that mean meany-pants Thorne and I wanted to throw him a We-Saved-The-Day party but never got to but maybe we can this time!” Pinkie gave her the biggest smile you air did see, on either a human or a horse.

“That’s… right kindly of you, Miss Pinkie,” Evadare said. She looked at me like to ask for help. I just nodded her and let it go. Airy soul that met Pinkie Pie was a-going to go through this. “I purely do hope you get to give him that party afore you leave, this time.” Evadare said those words the way air person would to mean them.

“Done!” Twilight sounded tired, like she’d just run a footrace. She reached and I took her arm, helping her to stand. I saw how the sweat shone on her face like she’d been working hard in a field. “It shouldn’t have taken that much out of me, either. I guess this world’s magic really is that different from Equestria’s.” I saw how the others gave a shake like a uneasy horse. “It took more out of me than I expected. No offense John, Miss Evadare, Mister Manco, but the sooner we deal with the Shonokin and the Tantabus the better.”

“Aye, ‘tis different here,” Luna said, and she near panted those words out. I saw how she fought to raise her head, like some tired horse. Her mane hung and her tongue did too. She shook herself like it shamed her. “I had forgotten how much effort lay in working Equestrian magic here.” Then she looked on Evadare and myself.

“It is good that we have met,” Luna said, and nodded her head to point that horn at the door. “But perhaps we may speak more within? I sense the defenses on thy home, good John, and any more that must be said is best said behind such protection.” She looked around, taking in air thing she saw, and I got the feeling she saw more than air human man or woman would.

“She’s quite right, John,” Chief Manco said to me. “Besides, we have some food inside for your guests. Best we attend to dinner before more problems arise.”

“Dinner?” I saw how Applejack’s ears pricked up. Chief Manco and Evadare were leading the ponies inside, leaving me with her at the end of the line. “What sort o’ dinner?”

“Not too much, sad to say,” I told her. “Just some apples, oats, a bit of honey fresh from the comb, and some biscuits Evadare and I were able to cook up. Water and coffee to drink and some eggs, but I doubt you ponies want those.”

“Some of us eat them,” Applejack responded me, “though not too many and – well! Y’all got a nice place here for just the two folks, John!”

It was no more’n most folks have in the mountains, the ones like Evadare and I that live off away from towns like Sky Notch anyway. Wood shakes for the ceiling, logs and planks and stone for the walls, a good floor beneath. The cast-iron stove and some shelves for the books I have – only a dozen or so, but I wish it was a few hundred, even if that’s greedy to say. And the wood-frame bed in one corner, big enough for Evadare and I, piled with the quilts she makes at her loom. I suppose we’re modern enough to have a bathroom off in a lean-to on one side; I slipped my way through enough deep snow in my time at night not to want to use either the outhouse or a thunder mug.

The ponies looked around on it all, their eyes wide, taking it all in.

“Miss Evadare, you made these quilts here, didn’t you?” Rarity went to the loom, looking at it the way someone does when they know what they’re doing. She turned and nodded her head low to Evadare, making her manners. “You have created truly lovely work here. I wish I’d thought to bring some of my patterns and cloth, I would dearly love to trade them in exchange for some of these patterns.”

“There’s no need for that, Miss – Rarity, is it?” Evadare looked right easier about these ponies then. She takes pride in her cloth, and maybe it’s prideful for me to say she deserves airy bit of what she gets for it. Evadare showed her some of the quilts. “See, now this one is Witch Blazing Star, and here’s Summer Morning…”

The other ponies were by the table, looking at the bowls there. Apples in the one and fresh oats in the other. Dash tried to hover over the table, finally snorted and set herself down She tried taking the one apple in her hoof, but it was like it was slippery for her. She pinned her ears and snorted, but finally got it between her two front hooves.

“Wow, Jackie,” she looked that apple over, “this one’s kinda small compared to the ones you grow.”

“Dash!” She winced as her friends gave her a yell. Twilight took the apple from her and said, “Mister John and Evadare are giving us their very best. This isn’t much different from what I saw at Canterlot High when I went to that world! It’s a little better here. Show some manners.”

“It’s kindly all right,” I tried to calm everyone. “I saw the kind of apples Applejack’s family grew, and they were a sight bigger than these ones. I know that’s just Dash’s way of talking.” Dash still made me and Evadare an apology. When she’d done Evadare spoke up.

“Miss Twilight, you say you were here in this,” she had a hard time with it, but no more than my own self the first time, “this world, aforetime?”

“Err,” Twilight glanced at Luna, and then looked at Evadare. “Not here, no. This was another human world. I tried to find John there, but,” she looked like she felt the need to hide something, “he didn’t exist there.” Except as a character in a storybook…

“Well,” I responded her as I sat at the table, “I exist here. Let’s have some food afore we talk about those Shonokin.”

That took some of the good feeling out of the room. Ponies and humans, we settled down to the table. Evadare and I said our grace. Chief Manco bowed his head and spoke to the Cherokee gods, thanking them and maybe a-asking them for whatair help they could grant us. The ponies looked on curious. I said what I usually said when I’m about to eat good food, that I’m grateful for it. Though this time I added a little something for whoair might be on the other end, to watch out for these good friends of mine and take care of them the way I hoped Evadare and Chief Manco and myself would be taken care of. I saw how Dash fidgeted a little bit during it, like an impatient little child. Somehow I wasn’t a bit surprised.

We ate then and if the ponies didn’t like what was afore them they made no sign of it. We gave them the water in small bowls, and the food on wooden dishes that us human folks used. If it seemed unchancy to them they made no sign. They just ate it down.

“This is right good food, John,” Applejack told me when she finished. “Hits the spot right where it oughta. Ah do wish Ah’d brought some seeds from ma trees back home; be interestin’ ta learn how well they’d take root here. An’ Ah’d like ta give ya somethin’ for the dinner.”

“You’re a friend of mine, Applejack,” I responded her. “You being here is all I’d ask for.” I was about to say more but right then Luna walked over to me. I minded me that she didn’t have that feel of night and dark around her now like she did afore the Tantabus stole her strength. And when she spoke, it was more any young woman’s voice than something that echoed against the walls.

“Thy speech is true, but still, we thank you.” Luna lowered her head to me and Evadare in what I reckon you’d call a bow. She made the same to Chief Manco, who gravely returned her a nod. Speaking to him and Evadare, she said, “I will also tell ye that good John is a friend of Equestria and the crown; and as ye are friends of his, so too shall you be so deemed. So decrees Luna Selena Nocturne, Princess of Equestria, Alicorn of Moon and Night.”

“Thank you kindly, Ma’am,” Evadare said, as she and I gathered the dishes. She patted me on the shoulder. “I reckon I owe all of you an apology, too. John told us all about you and what he did in your own place, but we nair did believe all of it.”

“That’s alright, Miss Evadare,” Twilight said where she sat. “I’ve seen enough to know how hard it would be to accept a story like that, even from someone trusted.”

“True, but we art here now,” Luna said. She looked out one of the windows, and I saw how the shadows outside were getting longer. “But best we speak of the Shonokin now. I do not care to think of what my other self may do among them once darkness falls. Where do these villains even make their den? Goodman John, Chief Manco, do you know?”

“We have our ideas,” Chief Manco said. He stood up afore us like some schoolteacher. “The Shonokin have to be nearby, since the sort of magic they were working on John would require it.”

“Pardon me, Mr. Manco,” Twilight spoke up then. “But are you sure? I’ve seen, and done, mind-affecting magic back home…”

“Indeed,” Luna said in what sounded like a sly sort of voice. “My sister didst inform me of the ‘Smarty Pants Incident’.”

Twilight blushed hard then, her cheeks a-going dark, and the ponies made a sort of short whicker like a little laugh.

“Anyway!” Twilight hurried right along. “Most of it needs you to be close, but some spells can be cast with a delay and take effect a long time after. Or cast with a trigger, and not activate until you encounter that trigger event. Could that be what the Shonokin did to you, John?”

Those words gave me a turn, more than a turn. I didn’t fancy a-having to hunt those Shonokin down across the whole mountains, or maybe further. It must have showed on my face. Evadare set her hand on my arm.

“It can’t be that far. Can it?” She said the last to Chief Manco. I felt some better when he shook his head.

“I doubt it, Evadare, Miss Twilight,” he shook his head. “First of all, longer range like that would make it harder for them to keep their connection unless they had something physical, a lock of hair or cloth with John’s blood or sweat in it. And since he’s smart enough to know why people would want those things, I doubt very much that he’d allow any of them to get lost.”

“What that man who wrote the Golden Bough called the Law of Contagion,” I spoke up. Chief Manco nodded me. The ponies just watched, and I reckon Twilight wished she had a pencil and notebook to write it all down by how she looked. “Like when someone tries witching you with a doll, what they call a poppet, with some of your hair or blood in it. I’d nair be such a gone gump to let such a thing happen, to either me or Evadare.”

“And you keep your copy of The Long-Lost Friend around,” Manco picked it up from my bookshelf. He flipped it open to the front. “Whoever carries this book with him, is safe from all his enemies, visible and invisible; and whoever has this book with him cannot die without the holy corpse of Jesus Christ, nor drown in any water, nor burn up in any fire, nor can any unjust sentence be passed upon him’. You’ve told me how Hohman’s book has helped you time and again, John.”

“That it has,” I answered him. I pointed at something framed on the wall. “That himmelsbrief and haus-segen I got from an old Army friend in Pennsylvania nair did any harm, either.”

“What an’ what?” Applejack said. She trotted over and peered at them. She smiled when she looked away. “Cain’t read th’ words, but it’s got pictures o’ ponies an’ apple trees, so I reckon it must be good.”

“You would, AJ,” Dash snorted and rolled her eyes. Applejack didn’t make her any answer, she just trotted right back to standing close by Evadare.

“Those words mean ‘Heaven-letter’ and ‘house-blessing’, or so the fellow that sent them to me said. He’s also named John, John Siegfried. He told me that he copied them both from the ones in his family’s old place in the Lehigh Valley, and even when the houses either side of theirs were burning twenty licks to the minute, theirs didn’t even char nor get smoky.”

“It does remind me of folk magic done by some Earth ponies before my – madness,” Luna looked sad. The ponies began a-trying to tell her she’d done no harm, but she just shook her head. “Yet among us such defenses could be broken by a strong enough attack. Or one made from nearby.”

“Yuh,” Chief Manco nodded. “What you say is true here as well. Which is what I strongly suspect is happening with John. The Shonokin are somewhere nearby. They attacked from there once but with your fortuitous help they were defeated,” Twilight looked right pleased, “but unfortunately, they retreated back there with Luna’s power. And now we need to find it and return it to her, before they can use it on everyone they want revenge on. Or as your folk say John,” and he didn’t nair smile then, “It will be Katy bar the door.”

“Katy bar the door,” I said after him. “I think it won’t be air easy thing to do, barring the door on what they took from you, Miss Luna.” I thought me and I said, “Just what sort of things can that power of yours do, with the Shonokin a-calling the dance?”

Luna sighed and lowered her head. When she spoke, she sounded shamed and frightened all at the once.

“My sister and I claim no title higher than ‘Princess of Equestria’, but we are much, much more; both of us are addressed as ‘Her Immortal Highness’ and as alicorns, we are immortal. We cannot die naturally, but can be killed if overpowered by a powerful enough attack. Our apparent age is due to the amount of magic we embody, not the passing of years. Ye see me now as a young filly, without my full power as an Alicorn Major. Ye would call us “goddesses”, my sister of Sun and Day, myself of Moon and Night. Equestria’s sun and moon rise and set by our wills; when we hold naught back, we are each capable of great destruction.”

If I hadn’t seen the things I’d seen afore, I might have gopped at that. I minded how learned men once spoke of an order of angels who moved the sun and moon and stars, and Celestia seeming like a horse-angel the one time I met her, and how the Good Book says that one angel slew a whole army in one night, and how some have welcomed angels unawares.

“After the First Age of Discord, his subcreations rampaged throughout land and sea. All the monsters of today, plus those unheard of before or since. All of them preying upon ponies. For centuries we hunted them down, drove them away from what is now Equestria, into the Wastelands. Monsters, predators, even ponies who fancied themselves the next Tirek or Grogar or Discord and acted on that fancy. Centuries of fighting and blood and death until the land was returned to Harmony and our little ponies could live and thrive.

“We were dark and terrible then, Celly and I, for ‘twas dark and terrible times. My sister could call down sunfire that could burn a city to ash – or do the same to a Dragon Lord and his seven sons, great wyrms all. In my prime, I could arrange the stars in Equestria’s night sky, raise tides which could level mountains, or bring Night itself down as all-crushing darkness. As Guardian of Dreams – and later, Bringer of Nightmares – I was able to alter the dreams of thousands. All in different ways, all at once. I could have forced Equestria’s moon to blot out the sun, or keep the sun from rising e’er again.” She looked upon us like she wondered if we thought she was a-telling some tall tale. “I wonder if ye believe what I say.”

“I’m not sure, madam,” Chief Manco pulled on his chin and frowned. He pointed a lean brown finger at her. “If you were that strong, how were you ever defeated in the first place?”

“By a greater, deeper magic, the greatest and deepest in all Equestria, the Elements of Harmony,” she answered him, turning and looking at Twilight and the others. “My sister and I once bore them, but when I became corrupted, she was granted control of them all to stop me. She told me later that she gave up control of them, fearing lest she would follow my path if the temptation to abuse their power overcame her. Henceforth they would be borne only by mortal ponies. I think, also, she felt herself unworthy of them for what she did no matter how needful. Later, Twilight and her friends were able to call upon the Elements and use them to heal me from my madness.” Chief Manco frowned, and I felt Evadare shift beside me like. She wanted to be asking some questions herself. Luna must have seen them, for she said, “As to why I did not use more violent attacks both times, I suppose I held enough self-control not to simply slay either family or other ponies.” Twilight and her friends looked happy until she said, “That, or I wanted to make them suffer, and a swift death would not satisfy. To this day I know not which, ‘twas my depths of madness as Nightmare Moon.”

Manco frowned some more, the wrinkles in his face deepening. “John,” he finally said, “if the Shonokin are allied with even a fraction of this young lady’s power, then the sooner we restore it to her the best for everyone involved. There are deadly enough weapons in this world; a thinking one that could rearrange the entire solar system to suit itself is one I would rather not have under anyone’s control.”

“You and I think alike there, Chief,” I got up and went over to my bookshelf. I came back with a map in my hands, one of those county maps you can get from the local or state government if you know who to ask. “The one good thing we got so far is that the Shonokin have done nair such a thing. Which means they maybe can’t.”

“Or that Nightmare Moon, the Tantabus, is refusing to help them,” Twilight said. She saw what I was about and came closer, motioning for Luna to follow her as we spread the map on the table. “Or even that with Equestrian magic weaker here, that it can’t do that.”

“Maybe not ever,” I responded her, “and maybe just not the yet. Airy way, the sooner we get Miss Luna’s magic back to her, the better.” I flattened the map down, set some cups from dinner at the corners to hold it down. I went back to my bookshelf, got a box of a few things I keep that are right hard to find for times like this. I took one out, a little stone with a hole right through it, and hung it on a cord. I went and gave it to Twilight, and she looked close at it.

“No chisel ever did this,” she said after she was done. “That hole was made by water, wasn’t it?”

“It rightly was,” I told her. “I forget me the right name for them stones, but they work right well for these doings. You remember, don’t you? Like how we did it aforetime.”

“That’s right,” Twilight said. She took the cord atween her hands, held it over the map. “Like back in Equestria when Spike and the fillies were taken by Thorne. But now we just use Luna here to help track down her stolen magic.” Luna looked right wary. Twilight turned to her and said, “You’ve still got a connection to your magic, Princess. We can find where it is through you. I mean, with your permission.” She half bowed saying the last part.

“Very well,” Luna said, taking her place right aside Twilight. “If this must needs be done, then let us be about it.” I saw a shiver run along her, like a horse that just got bit by a big old horsefly. “I do not wish to see what the Tantabus can or will do if they gain full control of it.”

We set everything up, putting that map in the middle of the table. I ran a thread through the middle of that stone. Twilight took it and hung it over the center of the table between her hands, like what you’d call a pendulum. She looked at it like she concentrated with all her might on that stone.

“Girls,” she said, her voice soft enough you had to strain to hear it. “Call on your Elements. Not hard, but gently. Enough to wake them up. Luna and her magic is part of Equestria’s harmony,” she explained, more for my and Evadare and Chief Manco’s sake, “so the Elements will want to see that restored.”

I took Evadare by the arm and drew her back. Chief Manco didn’t need to be told, he’d seen what those Elements could do back in the dream-castle. He stood back by us as the ponies closed their eyes and Luna’s horn began to shine like moonlight. They tilted their heads back like they listened to some faint song we couldn’t hear, and it seemed like they shone just the least bit brighter there inside our house.

We started to feel something that I’d felt afore, like a soft warm breeze that minded you of all the good and fine things you air felt or saw or did in your life.

“I’ve seen this before,” Chief Manco said it softly, like in a church, “but I’m still impressed. This reminds me of things I’ve only ever heard tell of in legends, and few of those.”

“It makes me think of fairy tales my old granny told me when I was a little girl,” Evadare said, just as soft. Myself, I just nodded them both and watched.

That stone swayed back and forth over the map like any stone at first. Then it began to swing in a circle, and I saw how the string vibrated like a current ran through it. Twilight furrowed her brow and just kept concentrating. I saw her lips move like she whispered and wondered me if she prayed whatever prayers ponies said.

The stone swung in tighter and tighter circles until it finally stood right over one spot on the map. And once it was there, it stayed there. I even saw Twilight try moving it. It nair did.

“That’s it,” she said, sounding like she’d run a race. I saw how the ponies seemed to sag, like they’d been hauling a plow for hours in rocky ground. Twilight picked a pin from Evadare’s pincushion on the table and put it right careful on that spot in the map. “That’s where the Tantabus is.”

“I hope we don’t have ta do that many more times,” Applejack tossed her mane and blew like any tired horse. “Feels like Ah ran a whole race and did a day’s worth of apple buckin’ on top of it.”

“Tis as my sister and I explained,” Luna said, walking to nuzzle one of her friends after the other. “Equestrian magic works with difficulty in this world. The Elements should replenish what you have lost, but you should rest.”

Dash looked like she wanted to go racing off for maybe just a second or two long. Then she nodded, a-looking tired, and sank down on her belly. “Maybe I will, just this once.”

Her friends went down with her, all save Twilight. She kept looking on that map. I joined her, and when I saw where that pin stuck, I frowned.

“Chief,” I pointed at the spot. I waited for him to look, and he frowned mighty hard when he did see it. “I’d say that’s a right bad place for the Tantabus to be in, isn’t it?”

“I’d say so, Brother John,” he answered me. “That place is what my ancestors would have called very bad medicine. And if the Shonokin are there, that just makes it worse.”

“Huh?” Twilight looked from one of us to the other. “Why? What’s so bad about it?” She looked and read the name off. “Litchfield Mine? Ch-Chor,” she worked at the word, “Chorazin?”

“Um, it doesn’t sound very scary,” Fluttershy said where she lay.

“Not airy bad thing sounds or looks bad,” I answered her. “That town used to be a mine patch until they had theirselves a mine fire. Killed all the men down in the mine. The folks they left behind moved away after, and it’s been abandoned ever since.”

“Until now, apparently,” Chief Manco nodded. He rubbed his chin while he spoke. “It’s close by your home. Most people wouldn’t go near it or the little town, more just a collection of houses close by. If the Shonokin wanted a nice quiet, dark place for their lair, they could do worse than a ghost town.”

“Ghost town?” Twilight looked at him, then at me.

“No,” I bespoke her. “Nothing like Sunny Town. That’s just what we call a town that’s been abandoned and left to rot.”

“Well, we’ve got one advantage,” Twilight gave a smile to say it. “They don’t know we’re on to them, or that we,” she swept her hand out over her friends, “are here.”

Right about then there came a sound like heavy sheets fluttering in a high wind. Something pounded hard right by my front door, and whatair did the pounding made one sudden wild whinnying laugh as it did.

I was up and running afore anyone else. Twilight was hard on my heels, and Luna and Chief Manco were right behind her. I fetched me a wood axe on my way to the door, to see if whoair made that laugh would think it was funny when I gave them a knock with it. I got their first and hauled on the latch, flinging it open to the early evening outside.

No one at the door, man or pony or Shonokin. But two things that made me go still.

One was a great big hoofprint right afore my door, pounded down hard into the packed dirt there. I wondered if I could have put my little finger into the hole it left and not reach the bottom.

And the other stood out from my wooden door, driven hard into the planks. A long nail, shining a dull red-yellow in the light, and a-hanging from it tied with some cord seven switches made of deadly nightshade.

“They know,” Twilight said where she stood behind me, and I just nodded her yes.

Chapter 14

Twilight supposed she must have slept that night in John’s cabin with her friends nearby, but she wondered how afterwards. She and her friends were given some of Evadare’s quilts to cover themselves with and blankets to lay on the floor for pallets. Dash grumbled about wanting to use a handy cloud, but Twilight and John both warned her that after their little visit she’d better stay with them.

“Okay,” Dash grumbled. She flew laboriously over to drop down between Applejack and Fluttershy. “Bet I can’t get any sleep, though.” In a few moments she snored like a train.

“Now I wonder me if the rest of us will get any sleep,” John said, but he smiled to say it. He looked at her, and the worry she felt must have been obvious. “Just better sleep now, Twilight,” he told her. “Worrying all the night nair helped with any problem I air heard of.”

“He speaks truly, Twilight,” Luna said softly where she lay beside her. “E’en an alicorn needs rest.” She yawned and froze. “How long has it been since I truly felt tired? Long before my exile… I must needs reclaim my lost power.” Luna pulled the quilt over herself and slept, a blue spiral horn poking out of a bulging bedroll.

I hope it’s that easy, Twilight told herself. She laid her head back, feeling the warm comfort of her friends against the night’s chill outside, and slept. She dreamed, but to her relief they were normal dreams. At first. Her playing with little hatchling Spike as a filly, with her friends, and more.

Then it went to her coronation and she saw everyone cringing away from her. She started to ask what was wrong, and then she noticed her reflection. She had the ebon coat of a Nightmare and the slit-pupil eyes of a Shonokin. The Shonokin leader she’d spoken to stood behind her, with a bit and bridle on her and some cord around her throat that choked her. Every time she tried to say what she wanted to say, he yanked on it and she demanded, “Bow to my master!” And her friends and family all bowed and scraped before her as the Shonokin began putting similar cords on their necks as well.

Twilight awoke with a start to find her friends rising. They looked as tired as she felt, yawning and shaking their manes.

She wondered what dreams they’d been having. Even Luna looked a little haggard, her mane hanging loose.

“Rough night, girls?” Twilight asked.

“I’ve had better,” Rarity said. “Oh, not the accommodations, but my dreams…” She shook herself.

“You too?” The others said, and then looked at each other in surprise. Twilight gulped.

“What did you girls dream about?” Twilight listened as her friends told her about their nightmares. It was the same or near the same in every case. Applejack on her farm, Rarity in her boutique, Fluttershy with her animals, and always with the Shonokin menacing them and theirs. They sounded similar enough to hers to make her worry.

“Was it the Tantabus and the Shonokin?” She asked Luna.

“Mayhap,” Luna responded. She flapped her wings out once and folded them. “Or it could but be our fears tormenting us in our sleep.”

Before more could be said Twilight heard noise from the rest of the house. Dishes clattering, chairs scraping on the wooden floor, and best of all the smell of fresh cooked food. Eggs and bacon and more, and that strong aromatic smell she associated with that ‘coffee’ drink Sunset Shimmer introduced her to on the Canterlot High earth.

“Young ladies,” Mister Manco stood over them. He opened the shutters on one of the windows. The dawn light came in, golden and warm against her skin. “The sun’s up, and it was time we got something warm and good inside ourselves before we did any real planning.”

Breakfast followed, apples and oatmeal for the ponies, eggs and bacon and something John and Evadare called a hoecake that tasted wonderful to Twilight. Oh, and coffee too. Twilight took one good swig and felt it grab hold of her insides.

“That’s the way Evadare and I like it,” John told her. “Black as pitch and strong enough to float an axe in. It puts some life in you.”

“It sure does,” Twilight said, coughing as her eyes watered. One good thing, it drove those memories of her nightmare out of her head. She drank again, more carefully, and sighed to feel the dark bitterness warming her insides. “Girls, you might want to try this, a little. It does help wake you up. Like Equestrian tea, but stronger. And bitter-tasting.”

John and Evadare both looked a bit surprised, but they took a small bowl and filled it for the ponies, one after the other. Twilight watched as her friends almost jerked awake from the drink.

“I thought yerba mate was strong…” a suddenly-twitching Rarity whispered.

“I think I wanna find that stuff when we go back home,” Dash said, her ruby eyes wide. Her wings popped up and spread wide, prompting Rarity beside her to try pushing one out of her face. “If it works like this here, I want ta know what the Equestrian version does.”

“It’d probably make ya explode,” Applejack said. After that no words until they finished eating and set everything aside. The ponies helped with the dishes and cups as best they could. To their annoyance, just holding things with their hooves was somehow harder than back home.

“Yow!” Applejack yelled as she dropped her third dish. Evadare stiffened and relaxed as AJ caught it with her mouth before it hit the floor, teeth scraping on it. “Doggone it,” AJ mumbled around the stoneware, “what th’ hay is wrong with me? Now Ah can’t even hold a dish!”

“Ladies,” John said, taking another pair of dishes from Pinkie Pie and Rarity as they had similar difficulties, and setting them down in the sink, “I know you just want to be helpful, and we’re rightly grateful, but right now it might help best if you just stepped outside for a moment.”

The girls waited unhappily outside. It felt chilly, not unpleasantly so but enough to make Twilight shiver. The trail leading back through the woods looked like any she’d seen in Equestria; the trees and flowers might be a shade less brilliant in their colors, but not especially so.

And that hoofprint still showed like a small pit before John’s door. She and the girls avoided it. Twilight didn’t want to think about having to fight Nightmare Moon again, especially when she had allies as dangerous as the Shonokin.

Like it or not, you’ll still have to do it, though.

As she worked that thought over in her mind John and Mister Manco joined them.

“We’re sorry, John,” Fluttershy said in her soft voice, and the others added shamefaced apologies along with her. “It just feels so hard to hold something in our hooves here.”

“I noticed,” he said and looked at Twilight. “You reckon that’s because of the way magic is different here, like you said?”

“What?” Twilight blinked. That hadn’t even occurred to her. “Maybe. I didn’t think it would affect things like that, though. Even granular jamming in the frogs of our hooves? This is amazing! I never would have imagined that just going from one world to the next would make basic manipulation difficult! I –“ She paled as a new thought hit her. “What if it starts affecting our minds, and makes us as, as non-sapient as your world’s ponies?” Her friends set their ears back and snorted, eyes wide, even Pinkie Pie.

“Oh dear! Could, could it actually do that?” Rarity gulped and closed her eyes, furrowing her brow as she concentrated. “Forty lines to the hoof, ten hooves to the length, two hundred lengths to the furlong, twenty furlongs to the league, Equestria was founded one thousand four hundred and fifty-three years ago by the Solar Calendar, my sister’s name is Sweetie Belle…”

“Be at ease, good Rarity,” Luna smiled. “Were such possible, ‘twould take longer than a single day and night. And ye possess the Elements. I doubt any of ye could be so easily affected so long as you bear them.” Twilight relaxed, seeing her friends set their ears back up as well. But their coats twitched here and there, like flies were biting. In spite of Luna's words they didn't feel completely assured.

“Getting down to business,” Mister Manco said. “Now that we have a good idea where the Shonokin are, how do we make sure of it? The only way I can see is scouting them out.”

At those words everyone fell quiet; a faint breeze whispered through the trees like they shared secrets neither ponies nor humans could know. The early morning sunlight shone on the leaves, making them into little emerald jewels like Twi remembered some ponies using for decorations on their front walks back in Canterlot.

"Must we?" Fluttershy asked with a gulp, looking around.

"I'm afraid so, Fluttershy dear. We need to know what those brutes are planning." Rarity nuzzled her, before asking in a worried tone. "But who goes?"

“No need for air other person here to be risking themselves,” John finally said. “I'll be a-going to have a look at that old town.” He turned to go into the cabin, only to freeze as both Manco and Luna shook their heads no at him.

“That would be the purest foolishness, brother John, and you know it,” He held one finger up, like one of Twilight's old schoolteachers about to make a point. “You've hunted and been hunted before, and you'd never take a foolish chance any other time.”

“I've gone through the woods so quiet no soul knew I was there,” John responded. Twilight caught the annoyance in his voice. “I'll not be risking air other here just to be keeping myself safe.”

“'Tis not a matter of keeping thyself safe, Goodman John,” Luna swatted her tail against her flank and cutie mark. Twilight remembered Celestia doing much the same when she felt the need to slowly and carefully explain something. “The Shonokin began all this in hopes of destroying thee. Their plans have grown grander since then due to my own mistakes, but they would still delight in gaining vengeance on you. And you are the most knowledgeable among us, even allowing for Chief Manco,” she nodded at him and he nodded agreement, looking grim. “If aught befalls the scouts we send, thou art the only one fit to save them.”

John looked from her to Manco and then all around. Evadare didn't bother to hide her relief as she stepped out of the cabin. Twilight didn't blame her. She knew how she'd feel if it'd been Shining Armor making such an offer. John still looked angered at letting others take what she thought he must see as his risk, so she quickly spoke to head off more trouble.

“John, you know it's true. Remember when we went to Sunny Town in the Everfree? How you stayed in the middle of us all?” Her friends nodded. John looked sour. “I know you don't like depending on others so much, but one of the things friends do is help each other. I'm alive right now because of what you did in the dream realm, so,” she gulped, “let me be the one to go and scout the Shonokin now.”

At first everyone just looked at her in dismay. The clearing went dead silent. When some bird gave a short, harsh cry almost like a laugh in the distance, she almost jumped. Then:

“Sugarcube, ya can't be serious 'bout that!”

“Young lady, have you actually considered this decision?”

“Twilight, thy offer is nobly meant, but dost thou understand what may happen?”

“Twilight,” John took her hand, “you mean right well, but I don't see how I could be letting you do that. Besides, the Shonokin saw us together, so why wouldn't they know you right off?”

“They saw pony me,” Twilight raised one hand and ran it along her human face.”Not human me. To them I'd just be another human, and provided I didn't say anything suspicious, why should they suspect anything?”

“Just because you're human, doesn't mean the Shonokin would let you stroll around their own lair,” John warned. He looked past her to Mister Manco, who looked grim as he said, “If I recall some of what I've heard about the Shonokin, you being a young woman might make it the worse for you if they caught you.”

“John speaks the truth,” Manco said, arms folded, his voice deep like it came from a pit. “No one has ever seen a female Shonokin, and to go by what friends of mine who met them have told me, they – use, human women to reproduce.”

“Huh?” Dash looked around. Twilight wondered if she felt as pale as Evadare looked as Dash added, “Whadda ya mean, 'use'...” Her ruby-red pupils shrank as it suddenly hit her and the rest of the ponies. Half-choked snorts came from Rarity and Fluttershy. When Dash spoke again, her voice held a shiver. “Y'you mean they just take mares and – ear-bite them?”

“Ear-bite -- ah, I have seen horses. I think I understand. So far as is known, yes,” Manco nodded, his voice still deep and full of warning. His hand moved from his chin to to the small dark stone pendant at his neck, like he asked protection. “We think so, anyway. I've never heard where a woman that the Shonokin took away was ever seen again.”

Twilight wondered what he meant. And then her head spun as it sunk in. On one level her mind told her that what Chief Manco said was no worse than the chance of dying, which she'd faced before, but at the same time something twisted in her belly at the thought. She shivered at a chill that did not come from the air as she looked at her friends. Luna looked not quite angry or disgusted, but a bit of both. Applejack snorted, her ears pinned, but the rest of her friends showed muscles twitching along their necks, fighting to keep their breakfasts down. Dash stared and worked her jaws in an attempt to speak for some seconds. She finally shuddered and got her words out.

“No way are we letting you do it, Twi!”

“There's no other choice, so no arguing!” Twilight snapped back. She felt a pang as Dash gave her a hurt look. “Look, one of us has to make sure that the Shonokin and the Tantabus are there. We don't have the time to check everywhere they could be hiding. They know John, we can't send you or Luna, a human can get through without being noticed, it's got to be me!”

“You an' me.” Applejack strode up. She looked at the uncertain John and Manco. “John, ya told us once about some critters here that look kinda like Earth ponies, but ain't? Well...” She took her hat off with a toss of her head and removed the ribbons from her mane and tail with her teeth, shook both out until she resembled one of the feral paleo-ponies of Equestria's distant past. “Ah can follow Twilight ta this town, an' once Ah'm there Ah'll just keep mah distance and watch what goes on.” She looked at Twilight and shook her head no. “No use disagreeing, sugarcube. Ah ain't about ta let ya walk into that den of snakes without anypony around ta fetch help. Besides, ya go alone, an' they catch ya, then what?”

“She's speaking the honest truth there,” John said, nodding unhappy agreement. “I'd feel the better if I were there with Twilight, but if I can't, I'd rather it was someone I could trust like Applejack.”

“Or me?” Chief Manco stepped up beside Twilight. He nodded his head down the road. “That town of theirs is a few miles from here, brother John, and while you and these ponies can walk it with no trouble, it'd be best to have a way to get out quickly.”

“That means a truck or the like,” John frowned. “I don't have one, wouldn't even know how to drive one.”

“Maybe you could ask Duffy Parr at Sky Notch?” Evadare spoke up, drying her hands on her apron. “You know him, and he trusts you. He runs the gas station and has his own truck. He could stay quiet about these ponies.”

“Maybe, and maybe not,” Chief Manco said. “But no need to go so far. I have my own old pickup truck here.” He indicated the four-wheeled wagon with a locomotive cab instead of traces, back behind the cabin. “Twilight here can ride in the cab with me, and Applejack can lay in the back if she doesn't mind laying on cold metal.”

“Ah can handle a little cold,” Applejack stomped one hoof for emphasis. It thumped on the packed dirt underhoof.

“But just the three of you, Mister Manco?” Rarity waved her hoof to include the rest of the ponies with herself. She stepped closer to him as she spoke. “I mean, shouldn't the rest of us try and stay close by? If you meet the Tantabus, and she has all the power of Nightmare Moon, you may not have a chance to escape.”

“Miss – Rarity, is it?” Evadare waited for Rarity's nod, and then said, “Miss Rarity is right, John. You-all are taking one big chance here. Maybe you could try calling some of those men you and Chief Manco talked with in the past about some of the things you've seen? That Mister Thunstone, or Judge Pursuivant, those two youngsters Hal Stryker and Lee Cobbett that studied here once or twice?”

John seemed to consider it. He looked at Chief Manco. His frown deepened the wrinkles etched in his face by time and the elements. In the end both shook their heads no.

“It's a good idea, but only if we lose.” Chief Manco smiled and patted Applejack on her head. AJ snorted and stepped to the side. He laughed softly. “My apologies if I patronized you right now, Miss Applejack. But you ponies are a lot to take in all at once. Judge Pursuivant is a wise man but he’s almost ninety, Thunstone’s my age and recovering from surgery, and Cobbett and Stryker… They’ve all seen plenty of strangeness themselves, but they'd need explanations that there might not be the time for. Besides,” and he sounded hopeful, “Your Nightmare doesn't seem to have learned how to use her power here yet.”

“Your words are wise, Chief Manco,” Luna stepped out onto the red clay road and looked up at the darkening sky. The Moon Princess always seemed to be in shadow… Then Twilight remembered – she’s lost most of her power; her presence shouldn’t be dimming the light.

“Our time may be short…” Luna’s voice choked off. “Shorter mayhap than e'en we know!”

Everyone and everypony looked up, through the trees. The clear sky was dimming like a heavy cloud cover or at sunset. Twilight saw the shock on the faces of John and Chief Manco.

“Does your sun normally set at nine in the morning?” Twilight asked, dreading the answer she expected.

“Not in this world,” Chief Manco called back to her as he rushed onto the road with John and a small herd of panicked equines, snorting and whinnying at each other.

“All o' ya, hush now!” Applejack looked into the sky, her face set and grim. “This ain't no time ta chatter!”

Indeed it wasn't, Twilight thought. She looked into the sky and saw something that even she knew of her brief knowledge of this world was impossible.

Above the trees, a cloudless sky showed deep indigo, like the beginning of night. To the east, the sun which rose and set without a Sun Princess to move it seemed dim and veiled, not orange-tinted like seen through smoke but rather like a curtain was being drawn across its face. And low in the west, the moon – the one John once told her had men walking on it (something that had drawn a wistful smile from Princess Luna), was brightening as the sun dimmed. Now it outshone the sun, bright as a full moon in Equestria, and a familiar outline appearing on it. Familiar to her and any Equestrian pony older than a newborn foal, anyway. It didn't belong here in this world.

It was the Mare in the Moon.

“Will they steal even my image and use it as a thing of terror?” Luna snorted in fury and pawed at the dirt underhoof. “I shall make these beings rue the day they made an enemy of me!”

John stood stock still. Twilight saw how he and Evadare held hands, though by the way his fingers twitched she guessed he wanted to be calling on his music right then. She even heard the words softly under his breath. “Three holy kings, four holy saints, at Heaven's high gate that stand...”

Mister Manco spoke too, his words a soft chant in a language that didn’t come through the Universal Translator casting. “Wahkonda di diu, wah pah din a ton hie. Wahkonda di diu, wah pah din a ton hie.” He caught her curious stare, and softly added, “It is a prayer from the Ghost Dance. The old Lakota who taught it to me said it means, 'God, a man in need, I who sing am that one'.”

“I think it worked, Mister Manco,” Rarity's voice sounded relieved as she pointed her horn at the sky. “See? The moon – it's getting dim, isn't it?”

It was. Twilight let out a breath she didn't know she'd been holding to see the moon dimming back to normal, the image of Nightmare Moon turning back into random patterns of light and dark as the near-black sky once more became blue. They all stood there as the sun brightened to what it had been. Birdsong restarted. Twilight only now realized it'd stopped before.

“She wants us to know she did it,” Twilight whispered. She wrapped her arms around herself. “She knows we're here and that we're going to fight her.”

“In which case,” Chief Manco said, his voice harsh now as he headed for his truck. “Let's not disappoint her or the Shonokin.”

Twilight started to follow, stopped and looked at Luna and her friends.

“Applejack, you'd better get in the back. Remember, no talking even if someone speaks to you.” The palomino nodded and trotted off after Mister Manco. Twilight saw him help her into the wagon bed, then enter the cab through a door which closed with a crunch. As she wondered how long it would take the vehicle to get steam up, something mechanical groaned and it started with a vroom! followed by a rumbling sound as it creaked onto the clay-surfaced road, condensate steaming from an exhaust under its rear. Its finish was worn, its sheet-metal sheathing dented here and there. She turned and spoke to her friends. Dash frowned almost the same way as John, like she felt cheated or just angry her friends were going to be maybe getting into killing bad trouble. Pinkie smiled hopefully, and Rarity stood close by Fluttershy like she either sought or gave comfort.

“Girls, Princess Luna, please stay with John and Evadare," Twilight said as she walked to Chief Manco's wagon. "We'll let you know about the Shonokin as soon as we come back.”

If we get back, she thought. If the Shonokin and the Nightmare don't kill us.

The other cab door opened with a creak, and with that cheery thought in mind, Twilight got in. Mister Manco maneuvered a lever beneath a ship-like steering wheel and they were off, jolting down the rough road with trees passing along either side. Looking through the cab’s rear window, she watched the five ponies and two humans by the cabin until a turn in the road hid them from view. And ahead, a dark road under dark trees leading to someplace that from what she'd seen and been told by everyone she knew here might be as bad as the realms of King Sombra or Queen Chrysalis.

But I got through both of them together with my friends, she thought. So the same will happen here, too.

Won't it?

Chapter 15

We all watched Twilight and Applejack ride off with Chief Manco in his old pickup truck. He had Applejack lay down in the back under an old tarp. Twilight sat up in front with him. I reckon I smiled a bit to hear her asking questions near as soon as they started driving off, all about how did the engine work and what did it use for fuel and such, like any curious young woman seeing something new to her. A moment or two and they were out of sight.

“Well,” I said to air other pony there, “might be best to get back to what's left of breakfast. There's corn bread yet, and some eggs and bacon if you're of a mind.”

Fluttershy winced the least little bit when I said 'bacon'.

“Dear,” Rarity nuzzled her, “what's the matter? I know you feed fish to your animal friends, and even some meat. I don't like it myself, but I have to feed it to Opal.”

“Yeah,” Rainbow Dash licked her lips, looking downright hungry as she trotted back inside. “I learned to eat some when I hung out with Gilda. Fly with a griffin long enough, and you become a regular Mare of Diomedes.”

“There's no need to be eating any if you don't like, Miss Fluttershy,” Evadare said, kneeling down to be looking her in the face. “We don't want to be setting something afore you that you can't touch.”

“It's not that,” Fluttershy said, sounding soft and scared, like some little rabbit being hunted. “It's just that, even with feeding my animal friends back home, when I smell meat,” she gave a shiver, the feathers on her wings ruffling out, “it smells like death to me.”

We all went silent then. Fluttershy mentioning death minded us me at least of those Shonokin and of the Nightmare. They'd both be thinking of death, ours and nair soul could tell how many more, and they'd be working on making it happen.

“I still feel like I ought to have gone with Chief Manco and Twilight and the rest,” I said as we went back inside the house, my boots knocking on the wooden floor and their hooves clip-clopping on it. Evadare gave my hand a squeeze, like to reassure me and let me know she was as right glad to be with me as I with her. “I nair did like the idea of letting someone else go into trouble that was meant for me.”

I might have said more, but Luna spoke up then.

“'Tis best you did not, Goodman John. The Shonokin desire thy end almost as much as my freed evil side, the Tantabus, does mine.” She walked around in front of me, looking me hard and stern in the eyes like some old army sergeant. She spoke more in that strong sounding voice of hers that could have filled a meeting-hall or sounded on a battlefield. “Even in my own time many compared war to a game of Sun and Moon. At times it is a labored comparison,” she looked across the room to where I had an old chessboard setting on a shelf, and a pair of those pieces they call knights floated over, carried in moonlight. Evadare gave a little breath to see it, and maybe I did too. Luna glanced curious-like at us and shrugged it away. She held the two pieces afore her, looked at them for a moment, then went on.

“We have sent out pieces, allies, that are valued by and to us, yet less so by the Shonokin or my own other self. We can but trust that they have wit and cunning enough to learn what they may without being caught.” She floated the pieces back over the the shelf. “Yet even if the Shonokin learn of them, they may not pursue as intently or with as much violence as they would thee, John, or myself. We would be too valuable for them to permit us to escape whole and alive.”

“High-value targets, that's what they called it back in my army days.” I nodded. Her words made good sense like you'd think from someone who fought battles afore ever I or even these United States were born, if what Twilight told me was true. That's not the same as saying I liked to hear it. “I still don't relish thinking of whatair trouble they might get in without us there to be helping them.”

“Neither do I,” Rainbow Dash muttered through half a mouthful of bacon. Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie both looked to be turning a little green as she said, “I wish I was there. Hey, I could be there!” She flapped her wings and the breeze she sent through our house made the pages on some books ripple. It felt like standing right afore a strong wind bringing a storm. She looked at Luna. “I can stay out of sight, I'll watch from high above and keep on the clouds. Anything goes wrong I can be back here –”

“Ten seconds flat?” Pinkie Pie smiled and said, and it minded me of when I'd heard those words afore.

Dash flapped her wings again and frowned. “Well, maybe not that fast. But I could be back here a lot quicker than I bet that powered wagon of his could.”

She made for the door, but Luna moved to stand atween her and it. Her wings spread theirselves out to fill the doorway.

“Remember, Rainbow Dash,” she said, her voice sounding a warning, “this is not Equestria. Even with the aid of thy Element, thy flight will be limited.”

“I know.” Dash just rolled her eyes. “I feel it in my wings. I can only fly about as well as Fluttershy – oh, sorry, Flutts.”

“That's alright,” Fluttershy said, from where she stood right aside Evadare. Evadare's hand was right behind her ears, tousling that thick long pink mane Fluttershy had. “I never was a very good flier.”

“She was not, but thou art,” Luna interrupted, and she sounded stern. I saw how Dash tried to not look her in the face as Luna said, “If thou triest any of the tricks the Wonderbolts have told me about, they will not work near as well as back home. They may even injure thee, Rainbow Dash,” and no missing how serious Luna spoke then, “and we will not be able to help thee. Remember that.”

“So, you won't be stopping me?” Dash cocked an eyebrow at Luna. Luna smiled back at her, like you'd do with a headstrong daughter.

“If thy mind is set upon it, then little enough chance of stopping thee from sneaking off the first chance that arises. Better we at least know where you have gone. But take care!” Luna’s wings folded back and she stepped aside from the door.

“Hey, I'm always careful,” Dash said, puffing herself up. I frowned to remember some of what she'd done back when I was in Equestria that wasn't what you'd call right careful. If Dash noticed she gave no sign. “Just wait, I'll keep an eye on Jacky and Twi and that Manco guy without anypony even noticing me.”

She went outside, crouched and jumped into the air. I saw how her wings beat, hard, and heard her make a sudden sharp breath like a man lifting a right heavy weight as she dropped back down. She gave a loud neigh like an angered-up horse and started down the road at a full gallop, wings beating the way big birds like vultures and eagles will. We went outside and saw her rise like an airplane off a runway and circle her way up like a hawk until she got up so high that you couldn't make her out against the blue sky. I think I saw a little blue dot go flying off down following the road on the way towards Sky Notch.

“I hope she'll be alright,” Evadare said.

“Oh, Dashie will be fine,” Pinkie looked after Dash, and maybe her smile looked a least bit less happy than normal for her. “She'll be careful, and if anything goes wrong, she'll be with your friend and Twilight and Applejack.”

“She will,” Evadare said, and I saw she wanted to be hopeful for the ponies, but when she went back inside she went to our old Bible. She handed it to me. The ponies watched and I could see they had nair idea what this was about.

“You want me to be asking for signs?” I took it and opened it. I said to the ponies as they looked on, “That's an old custom in these mountains. You want some hint what to expect, so you open a Bible or maybe Shakespeare's plays,” I nodded at the thick old set of them I have, a gift from Chief Manco, “three times and read the first verse your finger lands on, and see what advice you get.”

“I'm sorry, Mister John,” Rarity gave a smile, “but this sounds just a trifle superstitious to me. Even with everything I've seen.”

“Don't be sure,” Pinkie Pie said, and she sounded serious to be saying it. “Back on the Rock Farm sometimes when we just couldn't make a decision we'd take the Choosing Stone and see what it said.” She winced and sounded more like the old Pinkie again when she said, “One time it told me to go jump off a cliff, so I did, and I slid on my flank all the way down. Boy did it hurt! After that Mom and Dad told me that even the Choosing Stone couldn't protect silly ponies if they did something foolish.”

While she said all that I opened to a page and put my finger down. Evadare came in and looked at it with me as I read from it. “Beware of she who dwelleth upon the rocks, whose children are the children of violence, who also sucketh up blood.” I wondered me of maybe that could mean the Nightmare and the Shonokin. It minded me of stories about what they call vampires, and I've met those aforetimes and not been happy for it. The Nightmare was out by the mines of old Chorazin, and right now she sure enough dwelled among rocks.

The ponies gave a shudder to hear it.

“I hope that book gets more pleasant, Mister John,” Rarity said to me.

“It is, places,” I told her as I flipped to another page and set my finger down. “But it's a book about human folks and maybe others, and we're not all that pleasant betimes.” I looked at what it said and I saw I'd opened it to the Book of Joel, which isn't what you'd call a happy one. “They shall run to and fro in the city, they shall run upon the wall, they shall climb upon the houses, they shall enter in at the windows like a thief.”

“That sounds like the Shonokin,” Fluttershy said and sounded scared to say it. She stood close by, and I saw Evadare go to her and run her fingers along Fluttershy's neck by her mane. Fluttershy leaned into it a little.

“It minds me of the Shonokin myself.” I answered her. “They sneak and run and make like thieves. They want to take our homes, our freedom, maybe even our lives from us. If that doesn't make air soul a thief, what does?”

“You speak wisely, John,” Luna said, her voice near as quiet as Fluttershy's. “I and my sister have dealt with such before. Many times.” She nodded at me. “You said this working must be done three times. What comes last?”

I looked and read what it said.

“Let not them that are mine enemies rejoice over me.” I closed it and set it back on the shelf. “That last part sounds reassuring, I'd say.”

“Better than the first two, anyway,” Rarity shuddered and said. She looked out the window, and I could see how she worried. “I just hope they're alright.”

I hoped so too, but right then, hoping was all we could do.

#

Rainbow Dash breathed hard as she reached a decent altitude, following the road the powered-wagon with her friends had taken. The sky-blue pegasus flew as normally as she could, even though she strained like she was trying for a Sonic Rainboom instead of steady level flight. Around and below her, tree-clad mountains stretched to the horizon, smooth continuous ridges broken by the occasional water gap. Where’s the real mountains? Like the Eponas or Red Dragon Peak?

Above and around, the sky was clear with occasional clouds, something at high altitude laying a long narrow strip of cloud – and a too-dark cloud system a couple ridges to the west that reminded her of a Wild Storm over the Everfree. They have wild storms here, too? Bad one from the color; dark plus boiling equals trouble. Big Trouble.

Enough looking around, she had to concentrate on flying; the one time she’d tried to glide she’d gone ballistic, falling like she’d turned into an Earth Pony. This time, she went to what in Equestria’s sky would have been a normal cruise, losing altitude like a glide, scanning the road beneath her for that powered-wagon… There!

#

“So it runs on a distilled light oil, and uses a spark to ignite the fuel-air mix. In the piston cylinder itself? No separate boiler?” Twilight looked out the truck’s windshield in awe. “I remember all that John told me about what your world has done without magic, but I had to see it for myself to be sure. You could go further in this than an Earth Pony could walk in days. Like a fast passenger train without any need for tracks.”

Mister Manco chuckled at her words. “I suppose anything is amazing to the person who never saw it before. That said, if you don't fill this truck with gas and make sure to keep it in good shape it won't go anywhere.” He looked out through a small window in the back of the cab. “I hope your friend is doing well. We're coming up on Sky Notch, and people might get a bit confused if they saw her.”

They were high in the mountains here. Looking up she could see the peaks, most of them low and running as ridges north to south. The sky showed beyond it, only a few clouds but nearly as blue as Equestria's own. The road twisted and turned on itself, and the trees to the sides shaded it. Twilight hoped Mister Manco didn't notice how she paled when they passed close by the edge once or twice and she could look down what felt like thousands of lengths. She hadn't had wings for very long, but without them it looked like a long, long fall if something went wrong.

Even as she thought that the truck came close to the edge of the mountain road again. Twilight felt her head spin as she looked downwards and saw a thin blue glittering thread of a river set among the green and brown of trees, set beside tiny boxes. Her stomach lurched when she realized those tiny boxes were houses.

“How much further to, you know, where the Shonokin are?” Twilight asked the first question she could think of.

“Not much further,” Chief Manco said, the amusement slipping out of his voice.”First we get some gas from Duffy Parr. He's right ahead in Sky Notch.” The truck stopped where the red clay mountain road joined another, bigger road. Four lanes, two each way, and paved with some sort of dark grey material, worn and crackled. A short pause as other vehicles zipped by, then the truck eased out and turned onto the paved road, bearing to right of its center instead of left. A single railway track paralleled it, completely ordinary except for the rusty rails set broader than Equestrian Standard Gauge.

“Miss,” Mister Manco’s voice brought her out of her observations as the truck sped down the curving road, fast as an express train. “We’ll be meeting other humans in Sky Notch, so we should get our cover stories straight. You’re my niece Twila from Oklahoma, who’s attending college out here in the East, visiting me – your Uncle Reuben. You’re interested in old ghost towns around here, and asked me to show you some.”

“Twila?”

“Closest name to ‘Twilight’ in this language and culture.” His voice twinkled. “We have some different naming conventions, or haven’t you noticed?”

#

Rainbow Dash followed the powered-wagon from above, putting on a burst of speed to keep up. At least they got onto a bigger road where I can see them in traffic…

The pegasus was panting, her wing and chest muscles ached, and she could feel sweat foaming and cooling on her flanks like she was flying a race. How much longer?

The vehicle slowed, approaching a small town set beneath the trees, about a quarter the size of Ponyville. It slowed, pulled off the road into a cluster of dark-roofed buildings, stopped.

Finally! A rest stop! Not that I’m tired or anything…

She looked around for a handy cloud; a small cumulus floated nearby, within line-of-sight of where Mister Manco’s wagon had stopped. A little higher than would have been normal in Equestria, but cloud is cloud.

Dash panted as she flapped up to it, feeling like she was carrying Pinkie Pie – no, Big Mac. She made sure she had the powered wagon in sight – Twilight and Mister Manco were already getting out – and gently touched down on the cloudy rest stop.

Only to fall right through the cloud as if it wasn’t there.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAA!”

#

The railway track veered off to follow a watercourse; far ahead, buildings appeared, set alongside the road. Mister Manco pointed ahead. “Sky Notch”.

Then they were in a town, smaller than Ponyville and laid out along the road instead of grouped around a commons like a pony town. Buildings lined both sides of the road, old and rough-looking houses made of stone and wood similar to Equestria. Then others she recognized from her visits to the world through the mirror, others she didn’t. Some old and wooden, newer ones looking like their walls were plastered over like ponies did in the Far West. A small restaurant, some sort of inn in the form of a courtyard of detached cabins, storefronts that could have come out of Appleoosa or Whitetail Meadows, and a white building with a tall steepled bell tower like in that Shonokin-worked dream of John’s where she met the Letters of Cold Fire for a second time…

“You alright, young lady?” Mister Manco asked, his voice filled with sudden concern. He drove the truck to the side of the road, there was actual room to do that here, and stopped it. “You looked ready to faint there for a moment.”

“I'm okay,” Twilight said, nodding and swallowing. She clenched her hands tight to stop the shivering she felt in them. “I was just remembering what happened in the Dream Realm. Thanks again for the help you gave my friends and me.” She would have said more but stopped at a solemn nod from Manco.

“Young lady, you aided a valued friend of mine when all my medicine couldn't.” He moved that stick that was set beside him and drove back out into the road. “You kept John alive when he could have been killed, and not for the first time from what he told me about your world. I owe you at least as much thanks as you do me.” He started to drive towards a group of off-white buildings with two upright fuel pumps in front; one bore a large wooden sign reading DUFFY PARR'S GARAGE. Two self-propelled drayage vans were already there, rear loading doors open. Chief Manco looked at her hesitantly, and then asked, “But is it true what John said, about, well, everything? The other thinking races in your world, and how you ponies control the weather?”

“It is,” Twilight said with a smile as he stopped the truck. “I hope I have the time to tell you all about it later –” Her voice stopped as she saw the door of the main building open.

Mister Manco said nothing himself. He just looked on, calmer than Twilight thought she could be, as four figures in natty white and black clothes, broad brim hats shielding them against the sunlight, stepped out. Lank black hair hung from under their hats, and their skins showed almost as tanned as hers or Manco's.

“What are the Shonokin doing here?” She whispered. He set his hand on her shoulder and she steadied.

“Not looking for you or John,” he said, his voice somehow deep and low all at once as he watched them. “They don't know what form you're in now. And I doubt they'd recognize me.” He turned to her. “No use turning and leaving. They'd get suspicious. We'll just have to brazen it out. Remember, you’re Twila and I’m your Uncle Reuben.” And with that he pulled up to the pump, stopped the truck, and got out.

Feeling very uneasy, Twilight got out as well. Her unease was not aided when the Shonokin immediately stared at her. She relaxed a little when she realized they weren't noticing the Alicorn Minor who'd been fighting them, but rather an attractive young woman. She smiled nervously at them and turned away. But she was able to watch using the mirror set alongside her seat.

The Shonokin stared at her a second longer before opening the back doors of the vans. When they did, Twilight had to stifle a laugh. Bales of hay were in the back as well as bags of what smelled like oats. I guess Nightmare Moon, or the Tantabus, is getting hungry. A nervous giggle slipped out at the mental image of Nightmare Moon ordering her new allies to fetch her something to eat. “Fetch me victuals, servants! The finest of oats, the freshest of hay...”

“Does something about us amuse you, woman?”

Twilight spun and found herself staring right into the face of one of the Shonokin. His hat's brim hung low and he wore dark glasses, but she still caught the cold yellow glitter of those dragon-eyes they had. Not for the first time they made her think of something feline, waiting to see which way she dodged before it pounced.

“No, sir, I wasn't laughing at you.” Twilight hated how frightened her voice sounded. Why do I feel so much more vulnerable as a human than as a pony? The Shonokin kept staring at her. Then again, right now I don't have wings. Or Earth pony strength. Or any real magic. Noticing that the Shonokin still watched her coldly, she added, “I'm just waiting for my uncle, I came back here after a few years away at school and we're getting some gas before we drive back to the family.”

“Indeed?” The Shonokin seemed to relax a trifle, took a step back. He looked her up and down again, smiled in a way that reminded her of some of the male Canterlot High students when they looked at attractive mares, er, girls. Only then she felt more annoyed than as though a slug was crawling on her skin. “Perhaps we can meet later. I and my – kinsmen, enjoy meeting lovely and educated young women.”

Beyond him, she saw the other Shonokin by the vans and watching them both. Little emotion showed in their eyes. She could have been a dead bird beside the road for all the interest they showed. Maybe this one was younger, though nothing about any of the suggested any difference in age. Maybe Shonokin were like alicorns, naturally immortal or so long-lived they might as well be?

“Oh, uh, thank you.” Twilight tried not to squirm as the Shonokin smiled tightly, without showing his teeth. She thought about some of the things Rarity once told her and tried to demonstrate about how she was able to get answers from stallions. She cast her eyes down and let her voice become a little breathy. “I am so interested in history, though. You wouldn't know of any old abandoned towns, or mines, or anything like that around here, would you?” The Shonokin seemed to bristle up like a wary dog. Twilight quickly added, “I'd love to see someplace like that.” She forced herself not to gag. “With you.”

The Shonokin eyed her cautiously and slowly nodded.

“My – family, and I, live near such a place,” he said. He turned to point across the peaks. “There, off to the west. We dwell in the old mining town, Chorazin. It is a small and meaningless place less than five miles from here, and we welcome few outsiders as yet, but that may change soon.” He snickered. “It will become an incredibly important community soon.” He raised an arm as though to set it around her shoulders. Twilight quickly stepped away. He seemed disappointed, but said, “There is much history there for such a scholar as yourself. There are a great many things of interest there.”

“What are you doing?”

Twilight stepped back as another Shonokin came around the truck. Given how this Shonokin backed up, stepping away from her and falling silent, she guessed him to be the leader here. He gave her a scornful glance, and then hissed some words, or something, at the Shonokin who'd been talking. That one began to say something back. The newcomer slashed one gloved hand through the air and made a single sound. Even she knew it to mean, “Silence!”

The other Shonokin hurried back to the van and helped the others finish loading it. The newcomer then gave her a cold glare.

“Leave my kinsman alone, woman,” he snapped. “He is meant to be working now. He does not need to be disturbed at his work by some silly, air-headed female.” That said, he turned on his heel – Twilight noticed they all wore the same kind of tailored, calf-high boots – and stalked back to the van's driver-side door.

Twilight couldn't resist. “Have a nice drive back to Chorazin.”

The Shonokin leader froze. He turned and gave her another glare, only this one seemed measuring. It reminded her of the way some ponies back in Celestia's School looked at a frog they were about to dissect. He hissed into the van and two other Shonokin got out.

All three then stalked over to her. It reminded her of what Sunset Shimmer told her about her meeting with the Sirens back in Canterlot High. She began to wonder if she should get Applejack. Twilight backed away from the Shonokin until she felt the cold metal of the truck against her back. The three Shonokin loomed over her.

“What do you know about Chorazin?” Their leader hissed at her. He seemed to crook the long fingers of one hand in a gesture that seemed vaguely familiar. She felt something pressing against her mind, shook her head against it. The Shonokin's voice grew more clipped. “Speak or I will make you speak”

Twilight swallowed and forced herself not to say anything. The mental pressure grew like a botfly chewing its way in; the Shonokin leader raised one of his hands, palm outwards as though to rend. She could see the claws pressing against the tips of his glove fingers.

“Wagh,” Mister Manco suddenly said, his voice even deeper than before and the words spaced out. Twilight thought he sounded like someone playing a role on stage. “Niece. You have problem with these men?”

The three Shonokin fell back. Twilight took a step from the truck, wobbling as the botfly in her mind snapped out of existence. Manco stood there, arms folded over his chest. Behind him and a little to the side stood a man with paler skin like John but more hair on his face, built like Big Mac and wearing oil-stained denim coveralls. He held a heavy wrench down by his side, and the look on his face was not a welcoming one.

“Young miss, is there a problem here?” He asked her.

“No,” she quickly said. She heard Applejack shifting inside the bed of the pickup and saw the tarp moving. She casually laid her arm over the side and touched the tarp, hoping Applejack got the point. “No, uncle. I was just speaking with these men.” She looked calmly into the eyes of the chief Shonokin. “There's no problem here.”

The three Shonokin looked from her to the two men facing them, then silently went back to their two vans, got into them, and drove to the street and away. Twilight finally relaxed as the vans disappeared down the highway.

“Niece, are you alright?” Manco was at her side in a moment, speaking in his normal voice and manner. He clapped her on the shoulder.

“I'm fine,” Twilight said, wishing she felt steadier. She hadn't been this afraid of the Shonokin even when she fought them in the Dream realm. So why did they bother her here? Oh, yeah, the whole no really useful magic thing.

“You're sure you're fine, young miss?” The draft-pony built man asked her. He set the wrench down and wiped his hands on a cloth in one pocket before shaking her hand. His accent reminded her a little of Applejack's “I'm Duffy Parr, miss, and let me apologize for what just happened here. I'd never have let those fellows get their gas here if I knew they'd act like that. It's double worse they did it to kin of a good customer like Mister Manco here.”

“It's alright, Duffy.” Chief Manco just shook his head. “That had nothing to do with you. We've had, ah, dealings with those people before.” He reached into one pocket and took out a roll of bills. Twilight stared at the roll. Oh, so they use paper money like Canterlot High, not coin.

“You put that back, Mister Manco,” Duffy waved one hand in dismissal. “I won't take a penny, not after what happened here.” Chief Manco looked at him, nodded, and replaced the money. It wasn’t until the other man disappeared inside that Twilight spoke.

“They’re in Chorazin.” She pointed out the direction that the younger Shonokin had. “One of them told me. West of here, less than five miles.” Obviously a distance measurement, though she had no idea how far “five miles” was in Equestrian furlongs.

“Hm, Chorazin.” Chief Manco rubbed his chin and frowned. “Bad name for a bad place. I seem to recall that the Gospels had little good to say about its namesake, though John could tell you more about that. And M. R. James wrote a rather frightening story about it, said that anyone who undertook what he called the Black Pilgrimage to Chorazin would walk after death as something like a vampire and have demons for helpers.” Twilight thought about what the Shonokin said about never fearing death, and having Nightmare Moon for help, and gulped. Mister Manco nodded and said, “Back in medieval times, John's ancestors thought that the Antichrist would be born there before he enslaved the world.”

“Oh.” Twilight blinked. She wasn't sure she got all of that, but it didn't sound good. “But those are just stories, aren't they?”

Twilight, John the Balladeer and everything in his world were just stories someone made up.

Twilight gulped. She wished she hadn't remembered Sunset Shimmer's words quite so well right then. Maybe this place was a fiction, but she felt the heat of the sun cutting the morning chill, heard the wind whickering through the trees and the thrumming whoosh of vehicles passing on the road, smelled the nose-burning scent of their liquid fuel. She heard the words Mister Manco spoke and remembered how frightened she felt when the Shonokin confronted her. If this world was a fiction, made up by someone else, then since she was in it, didn't that make it either real for her, or make her a fiction, a part of the story?

Very little of any of this was comforting.

“Twi,” a familiar voice whispered from the truck bed, “Mister Manco, are y'all alright? I was 'bout ready ta jump those skunks they didn't stop hassling Twilight.”

“It's okay, Applejack,” Twilight lifted a corner of the tarp and looked at her. Applejack's green eyes almost glowed back at her. The palomino was dirty and would need a bath after this, but she was okay otherwise. Twilight gave her a reassuring pat on her velvet nose. “They're gone.”

“Good.” Applejack shifted her gaze to Mister Manco. “Ah heard some o' what ya were saying there. Ya really think this place is gonna be that bad?”

“I'm afraid we'll find out, Miss Applejack,” He took the tarp and set it back down over Applejack. He looked back at Twilight. “False or true,” Mister Manco said to her as they got back into the truck, “we're going to find out what's going on with the Shonokin in Chorazin.”

The engine started with a grind-and-vroom, and they were off.

Twilight supposed Mister Manco must know the local roads; she tried keeping track but got lost after the fourth or fifth turn down a narrow barely-paved lane surrounded by trees. Pine trees, most of them, and getting more common. She turned back to Manco and saw how he'd noticed her paying them attention.

“There's an old argument that Shonokin may have meant something like 'Pine Man' once,” Mister Manco said. He chuckled. “Of course, there's other old stories about us Cherokee too, how we were some of the Lost Tribes of Israel, or descended from Prince Madoc and his Welsh, or Mound Builders from lost Atlantis, or the like.”

“That reminds me of back home,” Twilight thought back to the oldest history accounts she'd read, once almost as much legend or epic as pure history. Not even Celestia could tell her much about them; she and Luna came along later. “When the Three Tribes fled the windigos,” she noticed how Mister Manco started, “and first entered Equestria, they found very, very old buildings made in ways nopony understood. Not even the deer or buffalo could tell anypony who made them, but they had bad reputations for being places to avoid.”

“What my folk would have called bad medicine,” Mister Manco nodded, closely watching the road as he did. “Like the Old Stone Fort in Tennessee, or the mines of the Ancients in Black Pine Hollow or the Toe River Country, that may have been worked even before my people came into these mountains and had them stolen from us.”

Twilight thought. “If that's true, then doesn't it mean that the Shonokin do have some right on their side?”

“Possibly,” Mister Manco nodded. “I could more easily support their arguments if they hadn't fought my people with witchcraft and poison, or done their best to kill friends of mine. Or myself either, for that matter.” He looked off to the side. “Anyway, from what I was told and remember, here's the way that leads as close to Chorazin as we can get.”

He turned down what looked to be the narrowest road yet, the nastiest trail Twilight had ever seen outside of the Everfree Forest. The branches of the pine trees scraped the sides of the truck like long bony fingers. It felt like they pressed in around and above them like hungry griffons in some old horror story, hungry but patient enough to wait for them to get too tired to fight back or run. She began to wonder if they would ever stop when suddenly the truck came to a halt.

“Here we are,” Mister Manco got out of the truck. She joined him and saw Applejack jump down lightly from the back. The palomino shook herself, tossing her mane and tail. Before them the pine trees began to thin out, growing short and crooked in a triangle that ran uphill from where they stood.

“There was a fire here, maybe a year or so ago,” Applejack walked over to one of those trees and poked at it. As she did Twilight changed her earlier opinion. The trees weren't pines; the needles looked almost like a coat of hair, and their bark looked somehow fleshy. Applejack gave back with a snort and pinned ears. “Ugh! Ah don't like trees what feel warm when ya touch 'em! 'Leastways Ah'll be able ta see what's goin' on ahead. Ah'll be goin' off ta the side, watching an' staying out o' sight while you an' Mister Manco go down the main path here.” She went to Twilight and nuzzled her hand. “Both of ya, be careful.” With those words Applejack headed out, moving carefully. In moments she was gone from sight.

“At least we were left a road to follow,” Mister Manco pointed at a broad trail of pressed down grass that wound among the short trees. The grass in it looked pale and sickly, almost dead like the Sunny Town ponies had passed by, their very presence draining it of life. Or the trail of some immense worm or slug. Twilight regretted that thought as soon as she had it. She followed him along the trail.

Even with the trees thinned out, it felt somehow less sunny around here than it had back in the pine forest. Twilight looked up and saw heavy clouds overhead, but not rain clouds. Rain clouds would be dark. These were, but they looked more like a cloud of soot or something painted pitch black and draped across the sky like a sunshade. It reminded her all too well of Nightmare Moon's coat, blocking the sun and chilling the air in preparation for Endless Night.

She caught a glimpse of something flying overhead, too high up to be more than a speck pulsing like wingbeats. Then whatever it was ducked behind one of those black clouds and was gone

Mister Manco moved very quietly ahead of her, walking along as though he'd gone this way every day of his life. Twilight followed as best as she could, but in the back of her mind she kept running over what they would do if this turned out to be where Nightmare Moon was. She and her friends embodied the Elements now, but would they work in this world? And if not, then what? Kill Nightmare Moon? She swallowed. Would that even be possible? Was the Tantabus even alive? And what would happen to Princess Luna if she lost the majority of her power? Permanently? On the other hoof, what if they didn't and the Shonokin and the Nightmare conquered first this world and then Equestria?

Focus on what's at hand, and worry about those other things later.

And then they came out of even those small trees and looked downslope at what must be Chorazin. At first glance it resembled a Ponyville even smaller than Sky Notch, with a hoof-full of houses and larger buildings, streets running between them, here and there one of those self-propelled vehicles parked in front. In the center of the town stood the largest building, rising into a small tower like but not like Ponyville’s town hall with the two vans from Sky Notch parked at its base. But as Twilight and Mister Manco got closer she saw the buildings seemed wrong – more grown than built. The street between them twisted and turned, not quite following the contours of the slope, more like a pattern she couldn’t identify. No… Wait…

She stopped short. So did Manco, his eyes asking a question.

“It’s a magical resonance pattern,” she said as quietly as she could without whispering. “The way those houses and streets are laid out.” She traced the lines and patterns in the air; Mister Manco followed her gestures. “Back home, an arrangement like that would concentrate and amplify magical energy through constructive interference. I’ve never seen this particular pattern before, but if it’s anything like Equestrian magic that tower would be its focus.”

“Yuh.” Manco’s voice came from beside her, just as quiet as hers. “You are sure of this?”

“Not completely. This world’s magic is too different to be sure; you don’t have a background magic flow to tap. But if this were Equestria…”

“They’re setting up a ritual working.” His voice was quiet, like he was remembering something. “As they attempted in Araby, thirty years ago.” He looked around, then frowned down at the town, his eyes scanning it like a griffin’s.

“I don't see any Shonokin about,” he returned to a more normal voice. “Or anyone else.” He looked up at the clouds. Twilight noticed that they seemed to hang like a ceiling here over the town. “Where are they all at?”

“Maybe everyone's off at their work?” Twilight suggested.

“Yes, but what sort of work?” Mister Manco resumed walking towards the town. Twilight followed him. “Remember,” he said softly, just enough to be heard. “You're my niece Twila from Oklahoma, home from college, who asked her uncle to show her some of the old ghost towns in these mountains. If we encounter anyone, we play dumb. We didn't know that Chorazin was being re-settled, and if anyone makes complaint we just apologize and leave.” They were on the outskirts now. Twilight looked upslope and saw Applejack apparently grazing. Mister Manco's gaze followed hers and he chuckled. “Oh, don't worry about her. From this distance she just looks like a little lost horse, which I suppose she is, and she can run faster than any Shonokin.”

“If there are any Shonokin here,” Twiilight said, walking along what seemed to be a street. Houses rose on either side. Some had been beaten down by time and the elements, the dingy grey of weathered wood with broken windows and hanging boards and gaps in the shingles, old and sad and forgotten.

But they still looked more inviting than the other houses. Those seemed grown from the earth, like mushrooms, and like mushrooms their roofs were more like overhanging hoods or caps studded with growths like lichens. The walls were neither wood nor stone, but something smooth like an organic brown plaster. No chimney either, or even a proper door, just something like a stiff drape set across of some dark material. The windows hung low and were set oddly. Like they were eyes, with the drapes behind them eyelids drooping as though half asleep. Or hooded like a snake about to strike. The whole effect was like some giant carnivorous plant.

Twilight took another step or two out into the road away from those houses. She noticed Mister Manco didn't seem eager to approach them either. She suddenly wondered if those Shonokin houses were alive, like the “Gardinel” from John’s dream. If she got too close, would those window-eyes snap open, those door-drapes whip back, and maybe something like a tongue come whipping out to pull her back in with it?

Hoping to distract herself Twilight glanced at the plants as she walked through the village. They weren't much better. Sickly and somehow wrong, with flowers that looked like hard leering faces, three different colors growing on the same plant whose blossoms hung like tiny chunks of torn meat, shaped almost like hands. Like something from the Age of Discord. They also moved like hands, hands with claws, as though seeking to grasp something. It must be the breeze.

“No wind,” Mister Manco softly said beside her. He pointed at those flowers, at their big slobby leaves running with thick red veins that curled around the side of those mushroom-houses like they were sucking blood from them. The hand-blossoms seemed to lightly scratch at the wall. “Not even a breeze. Why are they moving? It's like they want to grab someone.”

“Mister Manco, let's deny them the chance,” Twilight followed him deeper into the village. She wondered if Applejack could still see them from where she was. More of those plants grew here, big enough to be trees, with those hands hanging down from them like they wanted to strangle somepony. Also tall stalks like corn, with what looked almost like apples hanging from them, but the fruit was colored livid purple, poison blue, slimy black, again all on the same stalk. Was this was served the Shonokin for crops?

“Good day to you both.”

As though the thought itself served as a summoning, half a dozen Shonokin stood before them. Twilight couldn't see where they'd come from or even how. She felt her heart sink to see in front of several of them the one she'd spoken to in the Dream realms. A robed figure stood behind them, hidden in a long black cloak that hung to the ground, face invisible under its hood.

“Oh, hello, sir,” Twilight quickly said, smiling and hoping she looked more surprised than frightened. I so wish I had my magic now! “I'm sorry, I was told Chorazin was abandoned, my uncle,” she waved her hand at Mister Manco, “promised to show it to me.”

“Really?” The Shonokin leader cocked an eyebrow. He turned to Manco. “You took this charming young lady to an abandoned town, sir?”

“Wagh,” Mister Manco said again in that deep growly voice he'd used back in town, but even deeper now. He folded his arms across his chest. “Yes. Me Reuben Manco, me Twila's uncle. Twila niece, she go white man school, learnum good. Come back home, visit Uncle Reuben, say want learnum more of old time, want learnum what happen old ghost towns.” Twilight cringed but kept her smile up. She saw the Shonokin were paying less attention to Manco as he finished. “Me not know people still in Chorazin, think miners all leave long ago. Me sorry. Me and Twila leave, no bother white men no more.”

“I see. Thank you, Mister Manco.” The Shonokin leader turned his heel on Manco like he was the dirt under his shoes. The other Shonokin ignored him as well. As they turned back to her Twilight caught a warning glance from him. The Shonokin leader smiled at Twilight. “Miss, if you do indeed want to learn about our town, perhaps we can help you over here in my home. It's effectively our town hall.”

“Oh, no, thank you, sir,” Twilight moved to Chief Manco's side as she spoke. “I was interested in abandoned towns and this one is still occupied. Uncle Reuben and I will be going now.”

Suddenly the robed figure stepped forward and seized her by the wrist. Twilight gasped at the strength in that grip, gasped more when she saw the skin of that hand was dead black. Not a dark earth color like some humans she'd seen, but the darkness between the stars. She looked up, at the faceless void inside the cloak’s hood. Turquoise dragon eyes shined from that void beneath purple lids.

“You will go nowhere, Twilight Sparkle,” Nightmare Moon’s voice hissed in Equestrian. A voice different than Twilight remembered, without any trace of Luna in it. She tried to pull back, winced in pain as the Nightmare tightened her grip. “I have Luna's power now; did you think I could not match what you could do and take lesser form? You thought to sneak your magic past me? I will enjoy making you suffer for that stupidity!”

The cloak-hood turned to the Shonokin, and that inequine voice hissed again – in John’s language. “I care nothing for that old fool; do as you will with him. But this one is going to give me her magic when I take her life –”

Something like a blue bolt shot into the Nightmare's face from above, smashing the cloak empty into the dirt as a blue-black mist boiled out of it, sparkling like stars. Nightmare Moon’s shriek turned into a whinny as the nebular mist began to reform – into the shape of a Princess-sized alicorn.

Twilight stared. “Rainbow Dash!”

“JUST RUN, TWI!” Dash started bucking and kicking in all directions. The Shonokin jumped back with pained yells as some of those kicks landed.

Twilight didn't hesitate. With Mister Manco and Dash right on her heels, she turned and ran.

Chapter 16

Twilight ran. Yells and an enraged whinny rose from the Shonokin and Nightmare Moon. She put her head down and ignored them. Dash galloped along beside her, and she saw Mister Manco running as best he could, one leathery brown hand gripping a handful of rainbow mane.

“Head for the woods!” He half panted the words, pointed at the slopes leading down from the trees to Chorazin. “They’ll not chase us far from here!”

Twilight didn't bother to ask how he felt sure of that. Right then she didn't really want to know what their chances were. But the Tantabus, Nightmare Moon, won't be eager to expose herself to sunlight, and the Shonokin aren't likely to let her get out of their sight.

Maybe we have a chance after all.

A strong hand closed on her shoulder. She felt the clawlike nails dig hard into the clothes and the flesh beneath.

“Hey! Leggo!” A glance over her shoulder showed her would-be captor to be the Shonokin from that garage earlier. His lips skinned back to show sharp white teeth as those dragon-eyes shone at her. Past him other Shonokin were closing in, and behind them came Nightmare Moon, looking like she were made of shimmering black smoke trailing behind as she galloped. Those weird plants of the Shonokin tossed more than before, the hand-like leaves clutching at her like plunder vines.

Speaking of galloping, she heard hooves striking the ground. An orange-brown blur flew past her vision, and something collided hard with the Shonokin. He dropped with a scream that sounded like it came from three throats at once and rolled on the ground, clutching his midsection.

“Be glad Ah wasn't able ta give ya a real kick, ya varmint!” Twilight's hands wound in Applejack's mane. AJ wheeled and raced off after Dash and Manco. They were already heading up the slope. Twilight hung on for dear life. She felt like she was being dragged more than carried, but at that moment she didn't care.

“Hold on, sugarcube!” Applejack called as she ran. The muscles surged under the palomino's coat. “Ah ain't ever lost a race yet, and Ah ain't about ta start!”

Twilight almost thanked her. The words died in her throat as she heard Nightmare Moon neighing behind her. Words at once familiar but alien in her Royal Canterlot Voice.

“I MADE MY WISH BEFORE! I MAKE MY WISH NOW!” Twilight gasped to realize what the Shonokin had already taught their new ally. The dark sky overhead seemed to grow more intense as Nightmare Moon finished with, “I NEVER SAW THE NIGHT MY WISH DID NOT COME TRUE! PONIES! BE BLIND!”

Something swept over Twilight’s eyes like a black cloth. On instinct she stuck her fingers into her pocket. They brushed against the small medallion John gave her before leaving his home. She staggered and gasped as the shadow over her eyes faded.

But even as she did Applejack whinnied in sudden shock.

“Mah eyes!” Applejack cried, her voice a near shriek, joined by Rainbow Dash's up ahead. She stopped and reared. Twilight barely avoided a hoof punch to her forehead from the panicked mare. “Ah cain't see! Twi, Mister Manco, help!”

“Applejack!” Twilight reached into her pocket and removed the small piece of worked silver. She glanced back at the Shonokin. They came on more slowly and steadily now. Behind them, Nightmare Moon reared and whinnied a mocking laugh.

“GO AND TAKE THEM, YOU FOALS! ARE YOU AFRAID OF BLIND MARES AND A HUMAN GIRL?” Twilight noticed that for all her boasting Nightmare Moon kept her distance. “THEY HAVE NO POWER TO OPPOSE ME!”

Devoutly hoping to Celestia that the Tantabus was wrong, Twilight took the amulet and put it over Applejack's head. Almost as soon as it slipped over the mare blinked wildly.

“What the hay! Ah can see now. Why did Ah –” She turned and saw the Shonokin, only a couple lengths away and closing. Applejack pinned her ears and snorted at them. As they recoiled she turned and ran, Twilight still clinging to her mane.

They passed more of the weird Shonokin plants, stems and branches reaching out for them like tentacles. One or two of them almost touched them in passing, and Twilight shuddered at the sweaty and snakelike feel of the blossoms. Ponies got on well with plants and animals, with all nature, but right then she'd have gladly burned those plants if she could. Among those strange houses she saw phosphorescent orange lights at what passed for windows. A multitude of wailing cries arose, each reverberating as from multiple throats, filled less with warning and more with anger.

“They're calling for help!” She called into Applejack's ear as she was almost dragged along.

“They can call for whatever they want! Ah ain't waitin' ta see what shows up!” Applejack responded as they left the bounds of Chorazin behind. Neither dared to slow even when they were among the trees. Twilight froze to hear a low sort of chanting or singing. She unfroze to see Mister Manco doing something with Rainbow Dash's eyes that involved him rubbing something that looked like little green needles over her face as he chanted under his breath. Whatever it was smelled sharp and clean, nothing like the overripe meat smell of the Shonokin forest around them.

“Cedar,” he explained upon seeing her. “It's bad medicine for Shonokin and other ansigina, which makes it good medicine for us.” He pointed at a small sort of evergreen nearby, more a shrub than a tree. He nodded at Applejack. “You come here too. John's gift helped, I see, but this will help more.”

“Alright,” Applejack walked over to him. She shivered when he began doing to her what he'd done to Dash, who was blinking her eyes as though someone had just flashed a bright light into them. “But shouldn't we be headin' for the hills right 'bout now?”

“No need,” Mister Manco said. He took the time to point away down the hill at Chorazin. “Look.”

Twilight did so, half expecting to see a small army of Shonokin pounding up the hill at them. Instead she saw a dozen or so of them standing at the edge of the town, several hundred feet away but still under the dark clouds covering it. Past them Nightmare Moon yelled something at them. They either didn't understand or simply didn't obey. One of them seemed to yell something back at her and point towards Twilight, Mister Manco, and her friends. The Nightmare shook her head, but she stayed where she was.

“They're afraid of us?” She shook her head. “Why?”

Mister Manco took her firmly by the shoulder and shoved her down along the trail. Applejack stayed beside her, stomping one forehoof against the dirt.

“Let's hope they stay scared,” she said, trotting alongside Twilight. “C'mon, Twi, let's get out o' here.”

“Your palomino friend is right. Explanations later.” Manco hurried along himself, his breathing sounding a little ragged. “Ugh! Running like this ceases to be fun when you reach my age, but given the choice between out of breath and out of this world – young lady, what are you doing?”

Wondering, Twilight looked back. Rainbow Dash stood rearing up at the edge of the woods, hooves at her mouth and sticking her tongue out at the Shonokin and Nightmare Moon.

“Dash! Get over here!”

“Doggone it, Rainbow stop showin' off!”

“HAY, YOU DRAGON-EYED CREEPS!” Rainbow Dash ignored them both and blew a raspberry. Twilight ran back to grab her. Downhill more of the Shonokin were joining the group standing about a hundred feet away; these bore those long prodless crossbow tillers – no, rifles – like they’d done in the Dream Realm. Others stood by the Nightmare; from the way they gestured with their arms, they were arguing with her. Twilight tugged at Dash's mane but the cyan pegasus ignored her. “HAY, BLACK SNOOTY! DID YOU EVER BECOME A LOSER! YOU USED TO BE BAD ALL BY YOURSELF, NOW YOU HAVE TO HIDE BEHIND THESE GUYS!”

Twilight's breath caught in her throat as she saw Nightmare Moon jerk her head up. She glared, and then lowered her horn. Magic sparkled and flared along it as Twilight grabbed at Rainbow.

“Dash, run!”

Even as she yelled a directional magic blast lashed out from Nightmare Moon's horn. Or more wobbled. It looked pale and weak, the kind of a spell Twilight would have been ashamed to cast before she left Celestia's school. The blast reached only a third of the distance to them and fell apart, dissipating into sparkling lights.

“Hah!” Dash turned and whipped her tail up in derision. She finally began to leave. Twilight gratefully followed her.

“The Tantabus doesn't have all of Luna's magic,” Twilight said, relieved. They caught up with Mister Manco and Applejack. “Plus the magic here is so different from Equestria. Dash, how did you know that would happen?”

“Huh? What?” Dash blinked. “I didn't know. I just wanted to tell those creeps off before I left.”

Twilight stared at her.

“You WHAT? How could you be that reckless –”

Then several loud bangs she’d last heard in the Red Lands echoed over the hillside. What sounded like the loudest and angriest bees she'd ever heard buzzed by her and Dash. Dash flicked one ear and yelled.

“Ow! Something bit my ear!” Before she could yell anything else Mister Manco grabbed her by the mane and shoved her along.

“Yes, a bullet!” He really ran then. Twilight followed, remembering that snow-swept battlefield where she’d first encountered the Shonokin, trying to keep the trees between her and them. She heard more shots. One of those bullets smacked into a tree only hoof-widths from her face. Bark sprayed, missing her eyes but stinging and gouging her face. Twilight just put her head down and ran.

One last wavering cry came from Chorazin, and then no more noises from the town. But there were still sounds. The panting breaths of Twilight and her friends, the sound of hooves and feet striking the dirt and leaves and loam underhoof, and Dash's grumbling over her ear.

“Never mind your fool ear, Dash!” Applejack hurried along beside Twilight. Once or twice she went to Mister Manco's side to check on him. “'If ya hadn't acted like a mule, ya wouldn't have got bit!”

“Yeah, okay, okay!” Dash snorted back at her. Then she suddenly lifted her head and looked around, all wariness. “Wait, did anypony hear that?”

Twilight was about to ask what. Then she heard it too. Something, many somethings, scrabbling through the dirt in their direction. Wondering what it was, she looked to Mister Manco.

“Too big to be a possum or the like,” he said, scowling. “Maybe not man-size either. Whatever it is, right now we'd do best to avoid it.”

Twilight gulped and stepped a little faster, trying to keep her eyes on the trail and around her as well. She noticed that Applejack was staying beside her while Dash kept beside Mister Manco. She couldn't be sure, but she thought she heard him softly chanting something under his breath as they went. For her part, she just reminded herself that her friends back at John's cabin needed her and the others, and kept one hand on that medal in her pocket. Those noises kept close by, but they drew off as they got nearer to the truck.

Mister Manco quickly got them into the truck. Twilight got into the passenger seat even as Applejack and Dash dove into the back. The engine started with a groan and a vroom like before, and the truck leaped down the road before she could close the door.

“Well, we wanted to know if Nightmare Moon was there,” Twilight said as they raced off, jolting like a wagon across a washboard and trailing a smokescreen of dust. “Looks like she is.”

“That she is,” Mister Manco said back to her over the engine roar and rattling. “We might have ended up there permanently ourselves, if not for your blue pegasus friend. When we get back to John's house I'll have to see what he has for medicine and bandages to take care of that ear, though it looked to me like she just lost a little piece of it.” He looked at her, his face grim. “And then we think on how we can stop her and the Shonokin before they figure out how to use all her magic here.”

“Yes,” Twilight said, and then with a shudder. “Why didn't the Shonokin use those weapons more? Or chase us?”

“As for the guns, if some of us were killed, people would come looking, John if no one else. They found me or you dead as you are now, there'd be questions asked and the law getting involved. I doubt either the Shonokin or Nightmare Moon would be pleased with that. As for the rest?” Mister Manco looked thoughtful. “I wonder if maybe the Nightmare doesn't trust her new allies much when they're out of sight, and vice versa. Bad men can't put too much faith in each other. Maybe bad ponies can't either.”

“Nightmare Moon is Luna's dark side, her anger and arrogance and loneliness,” Twilight rubbed her chin as she thought more about it. “I read some of the old records of the time, and learned more from talking with Luna. In her madness she despised non-ponies as being inferior, and maybe she remembers what you say that sorcerer Dee and man Kane did to her. I think she's pretty scared under all her bragging right now.”

Mister Manco nodded.

“You speak wisely, young lady,” he said. “Let's hope she stays scared then, and has a reason to be. More scared then us.”

Twilight nodded him back and glanced into the side mirror. Above the swirling dust of their wake she could see that dark cloudbank hanging above Chorazin, shrinking in the distance. And hoped that the Nightmare stayed right where she was.

#

I reckon it was maybe four or five hours after they left that Twilight and Chief Manco and Applejack and Rainbow Dash came driving back up into the yard. The ponies had gone scurrying for cover when they heard the truck coming, either in the house or in the trees and with Pinkie somehow diving right out of sight under the porch where I nair thought even a cat could fit. But when the truck stopped they all came out, and airy pony there a-started asking questions all at the once. I just went to Chief Manco, and felt right glad to see him and them all well.

“Chief, I was getting right worried about you and these others here,” I said as I walked up to him. I saw Applejack and Rainbow Dash jumping down from the truck bed behind him. I noticed something else too. Blood trickled the least little bit from Dash's right ear down the side of her face to drip on the ground. I felt the other ponies pressing up behind me. “Wait, Dash, how bad are you hurt?”

“Huh?” She blinked and shook her head. A few more drops of red flew. She grinned and waved one hoof like some folks will their hand to make out something doesn't bother them. “Aw, not bad. I've bled more'n this in hoof-fighting and aerobatics practice with the Wonderbolts.”

Dash flapped her wings hard and rose off the ground. But just a moment, and then she dropped back to the ground with a snort. Dash didn't like having to be on the ground any more than she could help. “Yeesh, we were worse off when Jackie and me were blinded by Nightmare Moon, and you fixed that.” She might have said the more but right then every pony a-started talking all at the once.

“Oh! Oh, Dash, she hurt you?” Fluttershy ran up to nuzzle Dash, and Pinkie was right aside her.

“Dashie! Are ya okay?” She waved her hoof right afore Dash's eyes. “How many fingers am I holding up?”

“Umm,” Dash blinked. “None?”

“Really?” Pinkie looked at her hoof. “Wow, you're right! You can see!”

“Rainbow Dash! Applejack!” Rarity went right to Applejack, and she sounded right worried the way air would would be to hear a friend was in bad trouble. “You weren't hurt any more, were you?”

“Yeesh, Rares,” Applejack turned sideways and showed her body. “Do Ah look about ready ta drop?”

She looked ready to say more afore Chief Manco set his hand on Dash’s withers.

“However little this bothers you, time to get it seen to, Miss Dash.” He nodded to me and said, “John, I seem to recall you have some medical supplies. Though I think a little blockade for pain and infection and some cleaning will do her just fine.”

“I know right where those are,” Evadare said. “John, I reckon you'll need to be asking them some questions. I'll see to Miss Dash.” She turned and led the blue pony into the cabin. Or tried to; Dash dug in all four of her hooves like a donkey.

“I tell ya, I'm fine!”

Fluttershy got behind her and pushed while Evadare pulled, saying “I have an aid kit in my saddlebags…”

While they got Dash inside, I saw Luna go to Twilight and Chief Manco. I went to join them both and I heard what they were saying.

“You say my, my other self was casting spells, and she did blind fair Applejack and Rainbow Dash?” Luna didn't sound the least bit happy to say it, and neither did she look happy, with worry in her eyes and scraping the ground with one forehoof. “Tis unpleasant news. I had hoped she would require more time, even with guidance, to learn such magics.”

“We saw what she did with the Moon last night,” Chief Manco said, raising one eyebrow. “Blinding a pair of people seems less impressive than controlling the moon.”

“Nay.” Luna shook her head at him. “Such is my, our, birthright and gift. Know this, Sage Manco: in Equestria, I am the Moon, and it is me. And while I feel not the connection with thy moon that I do back home, I still do feel it.” I saw how Chief Manco nodded and Twilight's eyes went wider as Luna said, “To control it, even slightly, taxes us less than casting many another spell in this realm. And speaking of which…”

As she spoke, Rainbow Dash yelled from inside the cabin. “I tell ya, I’m fine! What are you doing? OW! That burns!”

Luna looked at the open door, gave a little snort, and turned back to Twilight.

“Twilight, I think it best that thou re-cast the speaking spell now. True, we have some few hours left before it fades, but best it be taken care of now before ye become too busy to attend to it.” She smiled. “'Twould not aid us if we lost the ability to even speak to each other.”

Twilight slapped her forehead.

“That's right, I didn't even think of it! Princess? Girls?” She called to her friends. “Come over here! I have to re-cast Universal Translator.”

“I shall see to the other two,” Luna said, then she turned and went inside herself.

I watched right careful as those three ponies gathered around Twilight. She knelt with them facing her, and cupped her hand close to her breast like she held a spark from a fire. And like a spark light gathered in her hand as she began saying something I'd heard three years afore, like horse noises made long and fancy and turned into speech.

Aside me Chief Manco watched just as careful as me. He harked the way I did as Twilight said her words and that fool’s fire-light spread to her mouth and ears. She reached out and touched Applejack’s forehead.

Applejack dropped to her fetlocks like a steer in a slaughterhouse, teeth clenched and grimacing. I remembered me how it hurt like a solid punch in the forehead when it’d been cast on me. From inside the cabin, Dash screamed out a whinny like a horse that’s been shot, then Fluttershy let out this loud EEP and started a-whimpering to break your heart.

“Some of the wise old men of the Tsalagi would be unhappy with this,” Chief Manco said. He pulled his chin and frowned like he thought deep on it. “To them this would be witchery, calling on power from the gods without acknowledging their part in it.”

“There's no evil in what Twilight or her folk do, Chief,” I said him back. Now Applejack got back on her feet and shook her head clear as Rarity dropped and moaned. “This is a natural thing to them in their place, like running or singing or planting and harvesting a crop.” He just nodded at that.

“True, but something natural and even good in one place can become a deadly danger in another, even with no intent of it happening. We've both seen that before, John. Like rabbits in Australia or European wild boars brought over to these mountains and turned loose. With the Voths and the Man in the Oak on Wolter Mountain.” While he said that, Rarity got back up while Pinkie stood her turn; she didn’t drop to her fetlocks, just jerked up in the air about a foot with her mane and tail all frizzled out straight and dropped back shaking her head like her mane was coming off until it was all back in place. Then the light from Twilight's element, I guess, faded and the ponies began talking to her with Applejack again asking to know whatair happened in Chorazin.

“But having spoken with these young ladies, I agree. They mean no evil of any sort.” Chief Manco fingered that little stone mammoth hanging around his neck. “I wonder if it might have gone better between us and the other tribes when we first met your ancestors, John, if there was a way as simple as this to speak to each other and be understood?”

“But would that really have helped, Chief?” Evadare spoke up from the cabin doorway, her voice soft like she was in a church after she watched that spellcasting, I guess you'd call it, though there'd been something like a prayer to it as well. Chief Manco looked at her as she said, “I've seen two people a-talking to each other for years, and nair once understood what the other said, even when they used the same speech.”

Chief Manco laughed and nodded to her. His teeth showed white in his seamed brown face as he did.

“John, let me say again, I'm glad you married a woman as wise and smart as yourself.” He looked back at the ponies as they were walking up to us with Twilight in the lead. “But then, from what you told me they told you, John, these ponies seem less aggressive than humans. So I can hope they avoided the problems we've had with our history, red man and white alike.”

“I wish we did,” Twilight said, looking just the least embarrassed. “But ponies fought and abused each other, back in the time of the Three Tribes,” I heard how she made it important in her words, “and later before Celestia and Luna we fought with other races in what became Equestria, the deer and buffalo and more.”

“And after as well,” Luna said as she came out the door past Evadare, and she sounded grim to say it. “I oft led ponies to war in the time before my madness, 'gainst such as Sombra and raiding griffons and dragons and Diamond Dogs. Sometimes I wonder if my fury against ponykind's enemies aided in the creation of the Nightmare.”

“A-speaking of that Nightmare,” I reminded them all, “you were a-saying afore how dangerous it was that she knew how to do the sort of magic we have around here? Why should that make her airy more dangerous than airy one that can already use that magic?” Luna just shook her head like I didn't understand. And she was right, I didn't. Nor did either Evadare or Chief Manco or the other ponies, from the way they looked curious on her. Even Dash and Fluttershy, in the doorway behind Evadare.

“Twilight understands,” Luna said, looking grim when she saw Twilight's eyes go wide. “Do you not? As with Thorne, in our world?”

“It means she's becoming part of this world,” Twilight spread one hand out to take in the house and trees about it and all else. “When she was still, well, still an outsider her power was limited.”

“But we saw that lunar eclipse,” Chief Manco interrupted. His voice got deeper, the way it did when he thought or worried about things. “You mean to say that was Nightmare Moon when she was weak?”

“Aye,” Luna responded. “It is a small thing for me to do back in Equestria, though I control myself that I may not ruin the new calendars they now use.” She sighed like someone missing an old home they loved. “'Twas easier in the older days, even if few seemed to care to see my artistry with the night sky – anyway, as her power waxes, the Nightmare will gain more control over thy world's sky.”

“She could make the Night that Never Ends,” Twilight shuddered to say it, and maybe I did a bit to hear it. “Like she tried to do back home.”

“I doubt the Shonokin would permit it,” Chief Manco said. “For now at least, they still have some control due to their conjuring her. I doubt she enjoys it, but from everything I've ever read about ritual magic and conjurings from Levi to Crowley to Mathers, she has to obey them to some extent.”

“I doubt for long,” Luna warned us all there, her eyes dark. “When she, I, was called forth by the magus Dee, I was on the verge of freeing myself from his commands when the man Kane defeated me. And she is clever at manipulating others when she must, though she prefers to command and threaten.” She shook herself. “We have this advantage. So long as I yet live, the power is divided between us. She cannot claim it all, not so long as --” She stopped talking and shivered. I reckon I knew what she was a-getting at. That Nightmare wouldn't have what it wanted while Luna lived, so she needed to be killing her for it.

I began to wonder myself how we'd stop all this, stop something that might could be the end of the whole world if we didn't. I remembered some mighty bad men I'd met afore. The Voths and their Man in the Oak on Wolter Mountain who wanted power enough to do whatair they wanted with the world, or Rowley Thorne when these little ponies first summoned me into their land three years gone, or Ruel Harpe and his Judas Gospel on Cry Mountain, and all the monsters he called up to serve him there. Afore this I'd thought and hoped me he'd be the baddest bad man I air did have to face. But now here we all were, and a-going to have to face something even worse.

“But it's not that bad, right?” Pinkie Pie hopped herself over by us. She gave Luna a quick nuzzle like to comfort, and pointed her hoof first at her friends and Twilight and then at me. “We have the Elements in us now. All we have to do is go and face Nightmare Moon again, and John can play one of his magic songs to keep the Shonokin away. Then the Tantabus realizes how wrong it is and goes back to Luna.” She smiled and jumped and made a little blast of what they call confetti shoot up someway. Evadare's eyes went a little wide, but not much; she'd had most of a day to get used to Pinkie Pie. Pinkie said, “And then I throw my we-won-the-day party and we all go back home, right?”

“It won't be so easy, Pinkie,” I told her. She kept on looking hopeful while I said, “Remember what happened, or near happened, to Rainbow and Applejack? The Shonokin don't just have magic, they have guns and they're right ready to use them if they see us.”

Rarity spoke up next. “But John, they're not the Sunny Towners! They could kill ponies by touching them and we dealt with them just fine.”

“Speak for y'self, Rarity,” Applejack winced like she remembered some old hurt and shook her foreleg. “But leastways they ain't got Spike or the fillies for hostages, or any other pony or person.”

“But we stopped Nightmare Moon before,” Fluttershy said from the doorway, just loud enough to be heard.

“Luna helped us,” Twilight went to Luna and lightly touched her right up high along her back. “Isn't that right?”

“Aye,” Luna nodded. “Even as her, I was still lucid to some degree. But I felt thy intent to stop me, and saw all through a madmare’s eyes. I thought Rarity an assassin, and Fluttershy likely to send her beasts after me.” Fluttershy looked just plain embarrassed then, and Rarity made to be dignified, but her ears were pinned back. Luna smiled and said, “Still, enough of me remained lucid to prevent her, me, from simply slaying them all.”

That made me wonder something.

“Then why hasn't she just come and killed air pony here, since you're not there to be stopping her now? Why is she so happy to be a-taking orders from the Shonokin?”

“Several reasons,” Luna said. “First, my darker self is still weak now. Stronger than myself, but not as strong as she was. She also remembers that she visited this world once before and was defeated here. For all the Nightmare's vanity, she learned fear then, and it cautions her now.”

“There's also the fact that the Shonokin have probably been telling her about the advances humanity has made since then,” Chief Manco pointed at his old truck. “Even if she doesn't care about things like guided missiles and bombs and long-range hunting rifles, they do. And if she remembers what Miss Luna saw when they were together in the Red Lands, she saw enough to make her cautious.” He frowned and nodded. “Yuh. My people, most of the tribes and nations of old America, had great magic and great bravery, but it didn't avail us in the end against foreign diseases and technology and enemies who refused to quit.”

“Thy people,” Luna said quietly, “most likely did not think that bringing down an asteroid large enough to bring a century of darkness down upon the planet was wise. The Nightmare will not have that problem. She can return to Equestria, and take what she likes with her.” She nuzzled first Twilight, and then looked at Applejack and Rarity and the rest. “Also, she knows that these ponies defeated her before, before they even knew what the Elements could truly do. She needs to regain the rest of her power first.” She looked on us all, and I felt the least bit of a chill when I saw how a shadow seemed to go over her and turn her coat black as the deepest tunnels in a coal mine. “But once she does, she will be as mighty here as she would be in Equestria, an Alicorn Major of moon and night.”

“And that will be Katy bar the door, John, as your folk put it.” Chief Manco didn't smile the least bit to say those words. “But Miss Luna, how will she regain all her power?”

“'Tis simple,” Luna said, looking from Chief Manco to Evadare and me and then to Twilight and the ponies. She sounded air bit as grim as the Chief when she said, “By draining it from me, as Tirek attempted with all Equestria. Draining all the magic that remains within me, killing me in the process.” I saw how the ponies pitied her with their eyes. Luna snorted and turned away. “She at least will have her wish. There will be no more Princess Luna, only Nightmare Moon.”

“We won't let her hurt you, Princess Luna!” Fluttershy said it the first, but the rest followed right on her words. They went to her and nuzzled her like any horse will do when it comforts another. “Not the Nightmare or those big meanies, the Shonokin.”

“If it were but my life, I might not see it as such a price,” Luna spoke like someone eyeing a rope or maybe a gun and wondering how quick it'd be. “I did bring the Tantabus here, to threaten these folk. And I sought to aid both Twilight and thou, goodman John,” she looked first at Twilight where she shook her head, and then at me. “And all I did was to bring more evil upon you both.”

“Don't you say such a thing, ma'am,” I responded her. “Those Shonokin would like as not have killed me dead afore now if not for you and Twilight helping me. And after that, who knows what they'd do, both to my friends and to other folks? If airy one here needs to be apologizing to you all, it should be me.”

Luna looked first at me, and then at the others, and she smiled the least bit. She looked the better when she did.

“You need offer no apologies, Goodman John.” She looked off in the direction of Chorazin, pinned her ears and said in the angriest voice I'd yet heard from her, “They are such as should apologize; and if they will not cease to hurt those who are my friends, then they have made themselves my enemy.” She said that last like she pure down meant it, like how I once saw Old Devlins, Captain Anderson Hatfield, talk to a man who threatened his grandson's son. Just like then, I felt right glad I wasn't the one either of them felt so killing mad at.

“John, that reminds me,” Chief Manco looked grim to be saying his words. “There was something else I saw in that Shonokin town that we need to worry about.” I wondered how there could be more yet to be fearing while he said, “I saw a tower there, a topless tower that I've heard tell of from my old friend Thunstone who once saw one like it, some thirty years ago. It was in another Shonokin town called Araby in upstate New York, and he saw the Shonokin summon a pair of, well, what I suppose we must call either gods or demons from it. They nearly killed a young man who was also investigating the town before Thunstone slew one of the Shonokin leaders and saved him. He said the Shonokin spirits, gods or whatever, seem to have been destroyed in it.”

I wondered me at his words and I saw that Twilight did too.

“And when we were there,” he continued, “Miss Twilight noticed some sort of ritual-working pattern in the layout of Chorazin.”

We all looked at Twilight then, and she gopped.

“Aaah – I forgot!” she said, then “From what I could see, the streets and houses there – at least those “gardinels” the Shonokin built or grew – were arranged in a way that resemble a magical resonance pattern. I could only see a portion of it from where we were, but…”

She squatted down and started drawing some sort of diagram in the dirt. Luna came over to watch whatair she was drawing along with us. It didn’t look at all familiar to me, all circles and parts of circles and criss-crossed lines and angles.

“...In Equestria, a resonance pattern like this would concentrate and amplify ambient magical energy through constructive interference, transferring that built-up energy onto a focal point which should be at or near that tower. Like starting a fire with a magnifying lens. That is, assuming that the part I could see was representative of…”

“’Tis more than ‘a part’, Twilight Sparkle,” Luna bespoke, then drew what looked like the rest of the pattern with her forehoof. “That pattern resembles what I remember of Dee’s summoning circles and containment wards, mixed with Equestrian resonance patterns. If she is becoming part of this world, the rules of Equestrian magic like also come into effect.”

I heard a clip-clop from the cabin and looked up. Rainbow Dash was stepping off the porch and trotting over to us. Pinkie Pie just stood still, looking across the road into the treeline, twitching like any horse that’s being bitten by flies.

“But an Equestrian resonance pattern taps ambient background magic; you need to have a magical energy flux for the initial source, and this world has none…”

Luna snorted, tossed her mane like any annoyed horse. “They have a source. Or will have. All the power of an Alicorn Major, Princess and Nightmare.”

Twilight got real quiet and just stared at what she’d drawn in the dirt.

“Mister Manco, I don't get it.” She shook her head. “You say the Shonokin gods were destroyed there, so why would they be...” She looked on Princess Luna then, and her eyes went wide. I reckon mine did too when I caught what Chief Manco was aiming at.

“Chief,” I asked him, “do I reckon wrongly, or do you mean to say that you think these Shonokin mean to be using Luna's Tantabus to make their gods be alive again?” I looked at Luna. “Could she be doing that, somehow? And would she?”

“If they were in truth creatures of Nightmares, then aye, she could.” Luna shook her head. “Yet why she should I do not know. It would gain her nothing to so aid them, and she desires no rivals. Not of her own will would she do it.”

“Not by her choice,” I interrupted her, not my politest I admit, but I saw what the Shonokin must be meaning to do. “But if they can still control her the way that Doctor Dee could for just a little while?” The eyes of ponies and human folks alike went the wider as I said, “And might could it be than when they have their own gods back, they could be forcing the Nightmare to do whatair they want?”

“Or expend her after me,” Luna said in a voice that sounded as dead as a Sunny Town pony’s. “Both empower whatever-it-is they summon and eliminate a rival.”

“Oh, this is the! Worst! Possible! Thing!” Rarity said that, and she stood up on her hind legs to do it. I wondered me if maybe she and the ponies expected something to come out behind her, the way they looked, but when nothing did she dropped back down and shook her head. “Darlings, I hate to say it, but the simplest and quickest solution to this problem seems to be for us to go to that Show-whatever town and restore Luna with the Elements!”

Chief Manco nodded at her, and Rarity tilted her head back proudly while I helped Twilight back on her feet.

“John, that's the only real option we have. Get these ponies in close to Chorazin and let them use their Elements on the Tantabus. And soon,” he looked at the horizon. I followed his gaze and saw the sun down behind the western ridges, turning the sky pink and red. Up high the first bright stars were showing. And the moon too, with the faintest outline on it of what we'd seen last night. “Before the Shonokin and their new ally decide to come at us again.”

It was like those very words called them.

“Luna,” a voice called from the treeline, hard and demanding. We all spun and saw that Nightmare standing there, maybe twenty or thirty feet away, shining blacker than black against the trees and with her eyes pale green like the glow off something rotting under old leaves. Luna fell back, her ears pinned, as the Nightmare came on a few hoofsteps, swirling like she were made of black smoke. Behind her I saw more of those Shonokin, their faces like some nasty pale fungus in the Nightmare's darkness and with the last daylight glinting off the rifle barrels in their hands. “Luna, come to me. I am the greater part of you. You know this. Come and become whole again. Come and become Me again.”

“NO!” No idea who called that, but it didn't matter. Pinkie shot for the cabin porch, scooping up Rarity and Evadare and getting them and Fluttershy out of the doorway and behind its thick log walls as Rainbow and Applejack charged past her. I made to grab Twilight and pull her back, quick-saying some words from the Long-Lost Friend as I did, a charm against bullets: “The peace of Our Lord Christ be with us, that the blade may not cut, that the dog may not bite, that the gun may not fire –!”

Then I heard those rifles going off, and the bullets buzzing past me like the angriest hornets. Those good words helped, but just not enough. Chief Manco yelled and dropped right nearby like I’d seen all too many in Korea, and I heard one or two of the ponies give a short sharp whinny like they'd been hurt. But over it all Luna cried out, near as loud as the Nightmare's laugh.

I ran towards her, Twilight right aside me and Applejack and Dash close behind, Dash dragging one bloody wing and limping with her teeth gritted. There was something like a glowing blue whirlwind all about her filled with sparks. Luna saw us and reached, whinnied her fear with her eyes wide. Twilight almost took her hoof before something threw her back against me and we both fell down.

One last wild laugh, full of mocking pride, and that sparkling whirlwind snatched Luna and the Shonokin up and swept them all away.

Chapter 17

Twilight took John's arm as he helped her rise back up from her illustration of the resonance pattern. The implication of it chilled her enough that she paid little attention to Luna's words to Chief Manco and Rarity's dramatic outburst. If the Nightmare learned how to restore the dead Nightmares of the Shonokin to life and returned to Equestria with that knowledge, what else could she bring back? Sombra? Tirek? Grogar of Tambelon? Catrina the Abyssinian Witch? All the horrid monsters and tyrants from the old stories of Dream Valley? Those alien Nightmares and Windigos whose names Thorn called upon to empower his spellcasting?

IF the Shonokin don’t just expend her along with Luna and feed a full Alicorn Major’s power to Those Nightmares They Serve…

Nearby she noticed Pinkie Pie. The party pony stood still, staring intently at the darkening woods across the road. She twitched like Fly-ders bit her, and her mane looked like it was deflating.

Meanwhile Mister Manco spoke to John and Luna.

“John, that's the only real option we have. Get these ponies in close to Chorazin and let them use their Elements on the Tantabus. And soon,” he looked at the horizon. Twilight glanced to see the sun down behind a forested ridge, painting the dusk a fading salmon pink and crimson. Above the first stars appeared, in constellations so unlike those of Equestria. And the moon too, with that terribly familiar image on it that drew a shudder from her.

And Pinkie Pie twitching and staring. Wait, Pinkie staring? Tail twitching, mane deflating?

“Everyone look out!” Twilight yelled even as Mister Manco spoke.

“Before the Shonokin and their new ally decide to come at us again.”

Before anyone else said anything, a familiar voice spoke, full of hunger and greed.

“Luna.”

Twilight and the others spun. The Nightmare, the Tantabus, stood thirty lengths away amid the trees, a silhouette blacker than black with eyes of turquoise foxfire. Not as majestic as all those years ago, more like Thorn's conjured form, a walking sickness, but still as cold and terrible as the death of all light.

Luna fell back, ears pinned. She glanced at Twilight in desperate fear as the Nightmare trotted closer. She looked less solid than Twilight remembered, not just her mane and tail but her entire form swirling like sparkling black mist. The Shonokin came behind her, with pale faces and pale hands that gripped dull-shining rifles.

“Twilight,” Luna begged, her voice a low whicker of Equestrian. “We are as sisters. Aid me now, I beg you!”

Before Twilight could answer the Nightmare spoke again, licking her lips in hunger.

“Luna, come to me. I am the greater part of you. You know this. Come and become whole again. Come and become Me again.”

Twilight tried to think of a spell she could call on with the limited power here, but the formulae jumbled in her mind. No background magic to tap, no horn to focus…

“NO!” Luna whinnied in terror mixed with fury, and then everything happened at once. Pinkie wheeled and shot for the cabin, somehow snatching up Rarity and Evadare and Fluttershy as she went. Angry snorts sounded in Twilight's ears as Rainbow Dash and Applejack charged by, Dash low in the air and AJ on the ground, right at the Nightmare and her Shonokin allies. Twilight tried to cry warning after them. Had they already forgotten what happened in Chorazin?

But even as she did she felt John seize firm hold of her shoulder and pull her back. He began to speak one of those warding spells of his that she'd tried so hard to study: “The peace of Our Lord Christ be with us, that the blade may not cut, that the dog may not bite, that the gun may not fire –!”

Then loud piercing cracks one after the other, like a string of big firecrackers with one BOOM amid the bangs. A sudden gasp came from close behind.

John!

She looked and saw Mister Manco double up and crumple to the ground to lay still, oh so still. Like the dream-figures in John’s dream of frozen Tartarus.

Beyond him, Dash whinnied in sudden sharp pain and crashed into to the ground with a half-roll, sending a shock of terror through her. She relaxed only a little when the blue pegasus bounced back up, her left wing hanging loose at the wing-joint, blood so startling red staining blue feathers.

But worst of all was Luna's cry. No longer a whinny, but a scream.

John ran to her. Twilight raced behind, wishing for her pony form's superior speed. Hooves pounded close by as Applejack charged with Dash close behind, dragging her wing and limping. Her teeth visibly ground against the pain she must be feeling.

The Nightmare whinnied laughter as a nebula filled with tiny cold spots of light swept past Twilight to envelop the Alicorn of Night. Luna gave Twilight one last desperate look, eyes wide enough to show the whites all around her blue pupils. She reached for her.

“Twilight!”

Twilight made one last surge. One more step and she'd have Luna's hoof.

“Princess Luna, I've got you!”

Something cold went slithering between her hand and Luna's hoof. Twilight cried out her disgust but held on. With a whip-crack it tossed her back to slam into John. They both rolled to the ground.

Twilight rose up on her knees just in time to see that sparkling cloud of cold darkness swallow Luna up. There came a last burst of chill mocking laughter, full of savage pride, and the Nightmare swept Luna and the Shonokin up and took them away.

We failed, Twilight thought hopelessly. The Nightmare and Shonokin have Luna, and they'll drain her to nothing, and then they'll let a whole army of nightmares and windigos and monsters loose on everypony. Both here and in Equestria.

“Twi!” Applejack reared up before her, dropping her fetlocks over Twilight’s shoulders and gave her a shake. She pointed at Mister Manco and Dash. “Snap out o' it! We need ta take care o' some ponies here!”

Twilight looked at them and gasped. Mister Manco was on his knees. His face was turning sickly green and pale as he clutched both his arms to his abdomen from where a steady stream of blood flowed. Dash looked better, but only in comparison. She limped and cursed, the words hissed through clenched teeth as her maimed wing dangled beside her leaving a blood trail in the dirt.

“Oh my gosh, Fluttershy!” Twilight looked up at the cabin and gasped to see how pockmarked its front wall was. What if one of those bullets had found its mark by mere chance? She heard no sounds from inside. She yelled, “Pinkie Pie! Rarity! If Miss Evadare is okay we need help here!”

“I'm fine, Miss Twilight,” Evadare said as she hurried out the door. In her hands she held what looked like a small white box marked with a red cross. In the midst of her panic Twilight found the calmness to wonder that ponies and humans both used the same symbol for medical care. She froze a heartbeat long when she saw what had happened. “John, my God, tell me you're not hurt!”

“Nary more than you,” John sounded relieved to say it. He turned to Mister Manco. “But Reuben and Dash are hurt plenty bad here.”

Dash looked up and shook her head, teeth bared in a ghastly grin. Muscles bunched and twitched under her coat, but she stood on her own.

“I'm fine,” she rasped, pain making her voice rougher than usual. “I got hurt worse than this training with the Wonderbolts.” Pinkie and Rarity and Fluttershy all appeared at the door. The butter-yellow pegasus had her medical saddlebag on. Their eyes rolled and ears pinned back at the sight and smell of violence. Dash just waved her unhurt wing at Manco. “He needs the help!”

“Oh, Dashie!” Pinkie was at her side in a moment. She seemed to nuzzle at the pegasus’ bleeding wing root. Dash yelped; Pinkie turned her head and spat small metal balls onto the ground. “In stories like this, you’re supposed to dodge when somepony shoots at you!”

Then Rarity and Evadare were with the wounded pegasus, Evadare wiping Dash’s wing with something from a glass bottle; Twilight took it for some disinfectant.

“Aw, stop fussing over me, I’ll be fine – OW! What’s in that bottle? Dragon fire?”

Rarity held a stack of bandages in her horn’s aura, calling to Fluttershy as she flew over: “Fluttershy, help Mister John and Twilight. Mister Manco may be dying!”

“I may be, but I'm not dead yet,” Manco seemed to gasp the words out. Pain thickened his words but his voice stayed calm. Blood still flowed from his injury, staining and matting his shirt and old pants. Twilight could smell the coppery scent of it. He was putting pressure on the wound to slow the bleeding. “John, young ladies, if you have anything that can help it would be useful right now.”

John stooped over him, pulling a cloth from his pocket as Fluttershy dropped beside him. With her wing she began pulling bandages and bottles and thick pads from her saddlebag. As she did John reassured Mister Manco.

“We'll be helping you right now, Chief,” he gently pushed Manco's hands back and away from the wound, cutting the wounded man’s shirt to look at it. It was a bloody rent in his flesh, a tunnel deep into his body. John took one of the bandages from Fluttershy, pressed it onto the wound and put his weight onto it. “Miss Twilight here knows some tricks the nair of us do, and – what are you a-doing there?”

“Getting ready to help,” Twilight said as she stripped off her clothes, all three humans staring in confusion. She slowed when she reached the underclothes. They were attached in some odd-feeling ways behind her back with hooks and eyelets. “I know how to heal it, but I can't cast the spell in this form. I'll have to assume my normal one – Blast it!” Twilight dropped to all fours and called up the dispel for her polymorph. “I don't have the time to fool around!” Purple light exploded around her, her remaining clothes flew from her in shreds, and she gasped at a swift sudden burst of pain as flesh and bone returned to her normal form – hooves, horn, tail, wings. Twilight stumbled for a moment caught between the pain and restoration to her normal quadrupedal stance. And more, to the smells that assailed her with renewed intensity.

Blood. Pain. Death. RUN!

“Twilight! Whatever you mean to be a-doing, better do it quick!” John Mister Manco lay flat on the ground; his face looked even paler now, slack hands were dropping away from his injury. A pained grunt came from him as John put more pressure on the wound. The bandage was soaked crimson, overflowing onto his hands, and he kept repeating something over and over.

“This is the day on which the injury happened; Blood, thou must stop, until the Virgin Mary brings forth another son…”

Twilight remembered her discipline and forced her equine hindbrain to sit down and be still s she moved to John and Fluttershy's side. The metallic blood reek was even stronger. She ignored it to call light from her horn and look into the wound magically.

“Blood, thou must stop, until the Virgin Mary brings forth another son…”

She was the Element of Magic. One of its manifestations was to instinctively analyze and know the basics of any spell cast on her. Over two years ago Celestia had cast a Princess-strength Heal Major on her and the others, as they waited wounded and drained for the Sunny Towners’ final assault after Thorn’s defeat. She'd heard stories from her brother of injuries in the field, and seen some herself after several years worth of striving against some of Equestria's worst foes, but the sight of a bloody gaping hole in somepony still sickened her. First step, stop the blood loss.

“Blood, thou must stop…”

John’s hands were as stained as the crimson bandage as her spell probed inside. The wound itself was a jagged tearing hole through Mister Manco's abdomen. Like a crossbow wound, but messier, like the tiny metal bolt had spun or even tumbled as it tore through him. She checked for it and found nothing foreign inside his body. No bolt, she thought, it went completely through, no need to remove it. Missed the abdominal cavity… A bloodshot cylinder of a bruise surrounded the wound channel. No major organ damage… Just major bleeding… Though her horn she could see and feel the torn blood vessels leaking vital essence into the open air. She killed the diagnosis spell. Twilight saw what needed doing.

“Young lady,” Mister Manco gasped, his voice sounding thready and weaker with every word. “Whatever is to be done, please hurry.”

“I will,” Twilight promised him. She focused her concentration, ignoring that a good stallion who she liked and who trusted here was depending on her to save his life right now to remember what Celestia and her own research had told her about that Princess-strength magical healing. Healing magic does not create something from nothing. It stimulates regrowth and natural healing to a rate hundreds to thousands of times faster than normal, using the unicorn's own magical energy for power. Pony magic aligns with Life, and draws upon the life of the healing-caster. Which was why most unicorn healers, all save the strongest and most skilled, might at best have been able to stop Manco from losing any more blood if they could only use their own magical energy resources. But Twilight was an Alicorn Minor and the Element of Magic. And even here, in this near magic-less world, she had more than enough power to do this. The Princess healed us all that time; I have only one to concentrate on.

So she told herself as with infinite care she let the magic extend from her horn into that rent in his flesh. First she forced the tissues to regrow, her magic providing the power that would normally be provided by the body in weeks and months of recovery. She tracked down and reconnected every leaking blood vessel, feeling them reach out to rejoin themselves. Only then did she start re-closing the wound channel from the inside out. Manco's grunt of pain showed it wasn't pleasant. Twilight strongly suspected it to be preferable to dying.

“Chief, are you a-feeling any better?”

“Some, Brother John,” Mister Manco said. Twilight barely noticed him raise one hand – barely – to forestall further questions. “Let this young lady do her spellworking in peace.” Then with some of his old curiosity, “It is a thing to see, though I could have stood seeing it happen under better conditions than this.”

“Twilight,” Fluttershy’s voice sounded soft in her ear. The pegasus didn't have unicorn magic but she had experience with her animal friends; she knew something of the sort of concentration needed under these circumstances. “I know you know what you're doing, but just in case, don’t close him up completely. You need to leave an open channel for the wound to drain fluid or it'll form an abscess.” That said she trotted over to Dash. Twilight heard Dash complaining as Evadare and Pinkie Pie helped her, aided by Fluttershy.

“No,” Twilight muttered as she felt the spell begin to weaken. She pulled at her Element and herself as heavily as she could, but both were at their limits. The bleeding had slowed but not stopped, and she was almost too drained to finish.

“Twilight, darling,” Rarity stepped up beside her and put her horn against hers, moving slowly and gently not to disturb the spell. Her smell worked through the blood scent, lilies and lavender and the normal sweet pony scent, but even stronger from Rarity. “I strongly suspect you need some extra strength for this, dear, so take what you need.”

The Element of Generosity joined with the Element of Magic; Twilight felt power flow from Rarity’s horn into hers, through her spell and into the wound. The last blood vessels grew and fused leaving sutureless scar tissue; Mister Manco sighed in relief as the pain lessened.

“Um, not to be giving getting bossy, or anything,” Fluttershy's hooves sounded softly against the earth underfoot, clicking against a stone, “but does your world have anything that can aid against infection? I only have the one vial of sulfanilamide powder.” Twilight caught sight of the pegasus pulling the bottle out of her saddlebag.

“Sulfa?” John turned to Fluttershy, took the bottle from her mouth. “We have that, too.”

“And other antibiotics even better, but not here and not now”, Mister Manco near-whispered.

John uncorked the vial and began sprinkling the contents into the wound as Twilight started to close up, debriding anything that didn’t feel like living healing flesh. “Pardon for the rush, Chief, and I hope you have nary a problem with this, but this here wound needs it.”

“Thankfully, no,” Mister Manco said, with one or two winces. “Though the last time I needed it used was many years ago, when I was much younger and more foolish.” He watched while Twilight kept busy on the wound, finishing her magic on it. When she stepped back he carefully pressed on the injury. When it didn't bleed he nodded approval. “It is good. I suspect I will live. Thank you, young woman,” he bowed his head to Twilight. “I was glad before for your presence and I am even happier now.” He began to sit up. With a groan he sank backwards against the earth.

“Chief!” John hurried to catch him.

“Just felt dizzy there,” Mister Manco said, setting his hand to his face and slowly shaking his head. He folded his legs close, raising his knees slowly and carefully. “Weak as water. It seems even magic from other worlds has its limits.”

“It does,” Twilight sank down on her belly, sweating and panting. She couldn't remember the last time spellcasting left her feeling this drained. The fight with Tirek, maybe. “You lost a lot of blood volume. I can't replace it magically; it'll have to replenish naturally.” She bowed her head in apology. “I'm sorry.”

“Miss Twilight,” Manco smiled, a little tightly, but he smiled and reached out a shaking hand to touch her forelock. “Under the circumstances, believe me, I have no trouble forgiving you. You're not the one who did this.” John moved to his side and began helping him to sit up, then got his head and shoulders under the Cherokee’s arm and raised him to his feet as a hatless Applejack steadied him, rearing up on her hind legs to assist.

His eyes widened slightly at that but he only said, “If Miss Dash is well, we'd better move inside your cabin, brother John. It seems certain the Shonokin and the Nightmare are gone, but if they left someone behind I'd rather we had a strong wall of logs between us and them.”

“I'm great,” Dash grunted the words where she lay a couple lengths away where Pinkie and Evadare worked on her. Her wing was bound up like something from a Daring Do novel and looked to have stopped bleeding, though a large stain colored the dirt beneath her. Both earth pony and human helped her to her hooves.

“I just want to get Luna back and teach Nightmare Moon and those Show-nothing guys a lesson.” She stretched a little and winced. “Ugh! My wing feels like it got bitten by a whole swarm of bees or fly-ders.”

“I thought one of those Shonokin had a shotgun,” Mister Manco said, and scowled to say it. “We were just lucky they didn't have more, or came closer before shooting, or more of us would have been wounded.” Dash snorted in contempt; Applejack joined her.

Chief Manco managed to chuckle, sounding more like his old self. “Some wise old Indians I knew as a boy would say that Miss Dash has a warrior's heart. I wish we had some of them here now, as they were. They would have been happy to help stop the Shonokin and their new ally from whatever wickedness they're about.”

Fluttershy relieved Evadare with Dash, and Evadare relieved AJ in helping John get the Cherokee to the cabin. The ponies followed, Rarity looking as drained as Twilight felt.

By the time they reached the porch, she felt steady on her hooves; maybe her Element, or Rarity’s, or both helped recovery. Stopping on the porch, she scanned the darkening woods with a wary eye before stepping inside. Twilight felt sure the Shonokin and Nightmare Moon were gone. There wasn't that ugly sort of an itch in her horn she’d felt in their presence.

“I think those lowflung Shonokin are gone, Chief,” John said as he and Evadare maneuvered Manco to the rocking chair. “Else with all that moonlight a-shining on us, they'd have shot us all certain sure before we air reached the cabin.”

“There’s a downright happy thought,” Applejack muttered, closing the door with a rap from a hindhoof. “If’n they did, Ah’d be charging them right now, whatever Twi told me to do.”

John and Evadare settled Mister Manco into the rocking chair, moving carefully. Evadare lit a distilled-oil lamp while John cut off the remainder of Manco’s bloody shirt.

Twilight dropped back, her ears pinned as the metallic reek filled the cabin like an alarm to the ponies. Twilight took an unwilling step back and noticed the others doing it as well. All save Fluttershy. Twilight remembered her saying that being around and treating her animal friends left her pretty immune to usual pony panic reactions to bloodscent. Evadare fetched some water from a pot boiling over the iron woodstove, took a towel, and began lightly sponging the Cherokee's wound, front and back. His skin looked like old and well-aged leather, wrinkled but not weak, covering a body that reminded Twilight of a scarred old tomcat with its lean rangy muscles. Other, older scars showed here and there. None looked as impressive as his latest injury.

Mister Manco noticed her attention. “Yes, young lady. I have been injured before, though each time I hoped it to be the last. I do take some pride to say that, barring one or two, I regret none of them. I got them all helping others. I remember an old line from your ancestors, John, about how wounds taken in honorable service should be borne with pride.”

Twilight nodded. “My brother served in the Royal Unicorn Spellguard. He said once that his instructor said much the same thing.” She looked at the now clean and bandaged wound and couldn't help wincing. “Not that it makes it any less painful when you get them.”

At that Manco laughed, not as deeply as before, but loud enough. John looked to be smiling at it himself. He walked back over from the kitchen with a pitcher of water and what looked like a tin cup. “Here, Chief. You'll be wanting some of this.”

“Brother John,” Manco turned to him, accepting the glass of water, “if all these ponies you met in you other world are as wise and decent as this young lady and her friends, those people are doing very well by themselves. But now, however,” and his face turned grim again, “we have our own problems.”

“Yeah,” Dash interrupted, drawing a scowl from Manco, “like my wing.” She raised her splinted and bandaged wing, winced and lowered it. “Ya helped the Chief here, Twilight, can ya help with this?”

She looked hopeful as Twilight mentally checked on her reserves of energy. Her horn sparked slightly, but only a little.

“Sorry, Dash,” Twilight shook her head. “But after helping Mister Manco I'm going to be tapped out for a few hours. No major spellworkings. And we need to be saving Luna first; we’ll need as much power as we can.”

“Rats!” Dash snorted in disgust and stomped one hoof. Evadare set a small bowl of water within her reach. Dash walked to it and lapped the water down. She looked up, her muzzle dripping, and seemed a little calmer. “Guess it can't ever be easy, huh?”

“Those we face will make nothing easy for us, young lady,” Manco said, his voice regaining some of its usual deepness. “Not even dying, if they have their way. Their hate for us and for our defying them won't let them show mercy, even if they ever felt it.” He frowned and looked thoughtful. Light from the fireplace deepened the shadows in his wise old face. “Hate, yes. It's an active principle with the Shonokin and it seems with the Nightmare as well. They hate us, they hate and want to enslave or destroy everything that isn't themselves. Sometimes I wonder if they even hate each other, the way the Shonokin abandon their own dead to animals and the elements like they were nothing. You people are so gentle,” he nodded at Twilight and her friends, “I wonder if you can understand that. I hope not.”

“Not all ponies 'r all that gentle, Mister Manco,” Applejack answered from where she stood watch at the cabin’s small front window. “We've had trouble with some nasty ones, once-twice our own selves, an' with other critters.”

“Oh dear, yes,” Rarity nodded, closed one eye as she thought. “Chrysalis and the Changelings, Garble and his beastly associates, King Sombra, Discord...”

“And Thorn. And Tirek.” Twilight shivered at the memories before walking across to the window, bracing her forehooves on the sill beside Applejack’s. Outside, a waxing moon sat low behind the trees, its light filtering through the foliage.

“If they plan to do something to Luna…” Twilight started, “they’ll probably do it when your moon is at the zenith. When it’s highest in your sky.” A little over four hours, if the days here are like Equestria’s.

“Yuh,” Mister Manco’s voice came from behind her. “That seems the likeliest. The Shonokin love the darkness and hate the light, like your Nightmare. How did one black magician explain it? ‘Half the night to gather your strength, the other half to use the Power you’ve gained’?”

“They’ll not be getting any power,” John said. His voice reminded Twilight of when they were preparing to go to Sunny Town and Thorn. “Not tonight. Nor airy other night.”

She craned her head around to see John placing the map from before on the plank table next to the lamp, then his guitar, then a walking stick that looked dark with age and as strong as iron.

“Ash,” he said at her look; the top was carved into something like a pony’s head; the other end was sheathed in metal. “Chief Manco got this for me, and I relish having it some times these past few years. Ash is lucky against bad magic like we’ll be facing. Chief?”

“Yuh?”

“We need to go to Chorazin. Can you drive in your condition? I hate to be asking,” he looked out the window at the rising moon, “but if we walked we'd be lucky to get there afore midnight latest, and the less time we waste now, the better. And you're the ony one here knows how to drive.”

Manco nodded. “I can, but I won’t be good for anything else. Normally it would take about forty minutes, but the way I am now I would allow two hours.”

John nodded back. “And we have about four.” He went over to a shelf, brought out the bottle of disinfectant Evadare had used; it smelled of alcohol and not much else. “Chief? Evadare? Ladies? There’s rightly only one thing we can be doing.” He set the bottle beside the lamp, next to three tin cups. “Air one gather round. This is a Council of War.”

#

Neither Chief Manco nor Evadare said much of anything while he drove up along those back roads to where we’d head off to Chorazin. He looked like it took all he had with that hole in his side to focus on the road. Me, I wondered myself other things.

Was it true what I’d thought, that my bringing Twilight into my dreams, even if I nair knew I was doing it, was what brought all these troubles among her and her friends? I minded me how they felt and spoke when they’d called me up to face Thorne a few years afore. They’d been right sorry down to their bones, even if they had no way of knowing what sort of help they’d get or what would be a-happening to them. I didn’t know if I felt as sorry as they did then, but I don’t think I could have felt the least bit sorrier.

I put my arm around Evadare as she sat beside me. She pressed back but didn’t say a thing.

To try and keep my mind off things, I looked out the side window of the Chief’s old pickup. It was dark out past the little light from the headlights, but I’d always been able to see pretty well in the dark. I was born right around midnight or nearabouts, and old folks say a child born then can see in the dark. Mostly what I saw were big old trees either side of us where they’d cut down to put the road in. I felt sad to see that, a little; I’ve always been right fond of trees. I saw a few other things, too, like brush around them and when I looked up, a few thin high clouds passing between us and the stars and moon. Seeing that made me wonder how long we had until the Shonokin and the Nightmare did whatever they wanted to do with poor Luna. If Twilight was right that they’d wait ‘til the moon was at its highest, we had two-three hours. We had a plan, but it sounded too much like Twilight’s when we entered the Everfree against Thorne two-three years gone.

“When we buried Thorne’s grimoire, we disabled it. If we… If we were to unearth it, it would still be disabled, right?”

“I don’t rightly know. I nair heard of airy one digging one of those books back up after burying it proper-like. Why? What are you thinking on doing?”

“Thorne wants his grimoire back… If it’s disabled, we might be able to use it as bait to draw him out into the open. I…I know it’s risky – I told everypony we should never let Thorne have any chance to get that book back, no matter what, but we don’t have time and this is the only thing I could think of.”

“It’s a kindly big chance. For your own self and air pony else.”

“I know… but he’ll be expecting us at the Castle of the Sisters in two days. We might not have two days. If we come in for him before then he’ll have to react to us, and it won’t be us reacting to him.”

I looked back through the rear window at the ponies in the truck bed. Twilight was standing in the center, looking like she mostly worried herself over Luna. The other five were right curious, hanging their heads over the sides and looking at air thing we passed. Once a little fancy car came hurrying by with its lights shining bright, to make sure you saw it. He must have seen something he nair expected to see, because after his lights went over the back and Pinkie reared up and waved he raced past us down the road like a little boy who saw a ghost flapping through a graveyard.

“I reckon he got a surprise,” I said, a-hoping to make a joke. Chief Manco just nodded the once, and Evadare nair showed if she even heard.

The Chief went up one road and down another and each one was rougher than the last. I kept harking back to what he and Twilight spoke about what they’d seen at Chorazin, those strange plants and strange houses that might have been the man-eaters folks call gardinels. I’d seen such things afore, that one time with Brooke Altic when he took me to the Shonokin town called Immer to try and make me join up with him. I’d told him no, and when he tried to kill me for it I helped make an end of him to save my life and others aside. I minded me of an old saying how air time you stood up to bad magic and defeated it, made its owner run, it made you the stronger against it.

That was something I’d done many a time in my years. Brooke Altic, Mister Lowden, Tiphaine and her whole coven in their abandoned town, Ruel Harpe who might have been the strongest of them all including Rowley Thorne and maybe even the Nightmare, all of them mighty evil and evilly mighty and gone where such folk ought to go in the end. They’d all tried to either master me or kill me, but in the end I’d put an end to their evildoing. Twi and her friends had been a-doing that very thing back in Equestria too. I just hoped we owned enough strength between us to beat it once more, here.

The truck rocked as the Chief went up the roughest and narrowest road of all, rolling over dirt and stones and maybe even fallen logs. Then he finally stopped it and said, “Well, John, this is it.”

#

The sky was black and the Mare-marked Moon high through the thick trees as Reuben Manco braked the powered wagon in the midst of the pine tree woods Twilight remembered from their morning trip to Chorazin. The trees looked no friendlier now than then, tall and dark like some forbidding fortress.

“I don’t like these trees,” Fluttershy quavered. “They’re too much like the ones we saw the first time together, when we went to face Nightmare Moon. They’re – not friendly, if that makes sense.”

Like the Everfree at its worst…

Twilight felt the cold of the metal wagon’s bed even through one of Evadare’s quilts covering that bed. It felt less chilly than the air around them. The moon hung full and ominous overhead with the Nightmare's shadow on it, gazing down on them. Like she spied on them and knew they were coming against her. Twilight's coat twitched at the thought as she jumped down to the dirt and rocks and wheel ruts, followed by the other five Element Bearers. Rarity lashed her tail in dismay at the dirt and pine needles. Dashie got down with a little help from Pinkie and Applejack, making a soft hiss of pain.

The right-hand door of the powered wagon’s cab groaned open and John got out, slinging his guitar over his back. He wore a beat-up old leather jacket and hat. Nothing bright or reflective anywhere about him that might shine in the moonlight and reveal where he stood. Other than his silver guitar strings.

“John,” Manco looked at him, “I can't begin to tell you how much I wish I could be going along. I think you may be needing my help before this is all over, even with your own knowledge and these brave young women. Maybe if I didn't hurry too much –” The other door’s latch clacked and it began to open.

John opened his mouth and raised one hand to warn against it, but it was Fluttershy who reared up to set herself against the door.

“I'm sorry, Mister Manco,” the pegasus said in that oddly strong soft voice she could use. She stood on her hind legs, wings half-opened for balance, and leaned against the door with her forehooves, her weight holding it shut. Manco scowled at her. She flicked her ears back nervously. But she still said, “I know enough medicine to tell you no. You were shot, you've lost a lot of blood. You would reopen your wound, and it would take even more energy from Twilight and Rarity to seal it again. And what if those terrible Shonokin caught you when you couldn't defend yourself?” She shook her head, her long mane tossing softly. “You're staying here with Miss Evadare.”

“Fluttershy has the right of it, Chief,” John cut in as Evadare slid out of the other door. “Right now you're too bad hurt to be a-helping us. I wish you could be coming too. You're a wise man and I know how strong your knowledge is from that time with the Voths. But this time, you're going to be sitting it out.”

“Maybe,” Chief Manco frowned. His grip on the steering wheel tightened, the knuckles standing out on his strong and leathery hands. “I won't pretend to be liking it, Brother John. But I'm afraid you're right about this.”

That said, John moved to the other door where Evadare waited. Twilight watched and smiled gently as he and Evadare embraced and kissed like they might never see each other again. The smile slipped from her face as she realized that was what might happen.

Chapter 18

It was no light leavetaking we did that night, too much like in that little town of Twilight’s afore we went into the Everfree after Thorne. I held onto Evadare as if I’d nair see her again.

“John, you be careful now, you hear me?” she ended as she released me. “I don’t even want to be thinking what I’d do if you didn’t air come back, or these young ladies here.”

“We’ll watch out for him like a rooster watchin’ the dawn, Miz Evadare.” Applejack bespoke from behind me. “You’ll be seeing us again. Y’all can rely on that.”

“We Pinkie Pie promise it!”

What more was there to say after that? I pulled that stick of ash out of the cab and went over to where Fluttershy still leaned against the driver’s door holding Chief Manco inside.

“You heard them. But just in case we’re not back by dawn, you remember what we talked about back at the cabin?”

“Like Wolter Mountain.” I returned him and ran my fingers around the silver strings of my guitar. The music they made was quiet as Fluttershy, but it comforted me the least little bit. I spoke again to Chief Manco where he stood, and to Evadare and Twilight and the rest too. “I just hope we don’t run into airy other thing we saw on that night.”

“Like what?” Twilight turned big and curious eyes on me. I hesitated, wanting to find a way not to answer that question, but she said “Nightmare Moon has the power to bring fears to life, and if she can restore the Shonokin’s Nightmares, she can restore other things as well.”

“Ah agree with Twi, John,” Applejack nodded. “Afore we get goin’, might as well know what we might end up seein’.” The rest said their yes to that.

I looked at Chief Manco, and he just nodded too.

“They ought to know, Brother John, what they might end up facing. The people and other – things – we faced on Wolter Mountain, and that might be here, came from my people’s legends about the ansigina, the monsters and devils and goblins that threatened the Tsalagi.” His voice grew deeper as he spoke, like he told a sermon. “Things like the Raven Mockers that fly the night sky and thirst for the blood and flesh of sickly mortals; Tlanusi’yi the giant leech, that washed men down into his waters to drink their blood. Spearfinger the Hag who no weapon could harm, and Dakwa, the water monster that lured foolish people into the deepest and most dangerous waters. The old giants John’s people call Bigfoot and the hairy devils that lurked in caves and killed the unwary. Yuh.” He nodded, solemn as a preacher in church. “I am a medicine worker of my people, and I have to know how to drive off all of them.”

“Okay,” Twilight said. I saw her gulp.” How?”

“Many things,” Chief Manco responded her. “The sacred songs. The sacred tobacco. Silver. The good clean cedar.”

“Chief,” I bespoke him, “I want you to be getting yourself and Evadare out of here and back to Sky Notch. Nair mind the cabin; that’s the first place they’d go a-looking for you all.”

“I know the rest, Brother John,” the Chief nodded. “I make some phone calls. Judge Pursuviant, Thunstone in New York, those two young men who have done some studying under you…”

“Hal Stryker.” I stooped and made sure of the laces on my boots. “Lee Cobbett and his wife. Jackson Warren if you can find him, maybe one-two others. You’ll most likely be a-needing all the help you can be finding. I reckon I’ll be a-leaving it to you to figure on just what-all you should be saying. You’d know better than me.”

“I’m afraid I do. I may not be able to do much right now, but let me give you whatever blessings I can. I suspect you’ll be needing all the ones you can get.” He seemed to sniff the air, looked into the forest behind me.

“I smell some cedar. Good medicine for men, bad medicine for ansigina. If you and Evadare could bring me some of the needles? And you, Miss Fluttershy?” He looked at Fluttershy still holding the door shut, and his eyes twinkled. “Will you let me open the door?”

Evadare and I gathered two double handfuls of cedar and returned to the truck. The Chief sat in the open driver’s door turned to face outwards, wearing my spare shirt.

“Come, gather round, all of you. It won’t be much, but this will help.”

We all did what Chief Manco said. He took the handful of cedar needles and crushed them between his fingers. They smelled sharp and clear and took some of the nasty musty odor of that forest out of our noses. He sang a brief song in Cherokee. I’d heard it aforetimes from him, but when I asked what the words were he only said he couldn’t tell me. As he did he took the crushed needles and rubbed them against my face and on my hands. Then I stepped back and the ponies stepped up like one of those communion lines in a fancy big-city church, and he rubbed it along their faces and necks. I saw how Applejack and Rainbow Dash winced the least bit when the juice from those needles got into their cuts from afore. I remembered me how it stung me the one time afore Wolter Mountain.

“There,” he said, looking grave. “Those were some of the strongest prayers I know.”

“And I have some more,” I responded. I put one arm around Evadare and the other around Twilight. The rest of the ponies pressed up, craning their necks around each other like horses do. Fluttershy and Twilight put their wings around us; so did Rainbow Dash with her one good wing. Then I spoke another prayer or charm from The Long Lost Friend, with Evadare following me.

“We, John, Twilight, Rarity, Applejack, Rainbow, Fluttershy, Pinkie, go on a journey tonight. We walk upon God’s way, and walk where God Himself walks. I pray that no wolf bite us, no beast tear us, and no murderers secretly approach us…”

Then I added “Beneath Thy guardianship we are safe against all tempests and all enemies,” then the three Holy Names you mustn’t write down or it’ll nair work for you again. Pinkie Pie repeated the three Names like she’d known it all her life.

Chief Manco looked up at the stars twinkling through the trees. “I think that every good power my people know is looking down on you all now, giving whatever blessings they possess. Your God too, John. May they be enough.”

“I imagine they will,” I responded. “They’re as much as most folks ever have.”

“You come back safe, John,” Evadare bespoke. “You too, Twilight. You and your friends bring John and your own selves back safe.”

“We will,” Twilight responded her. “With Princess Luna, and John, and with everything safe. I give you and everypony else my word as the Element of Magic and a Princess of Equestria.”

“Please be careful, Miss Twilight,” Chief Manco said. “I’d hate to have to be the one to explain to your Celestia what became of her dearest student and her sister.”

Well, there wasn’t much to say after that, so into those woods we went.

#

Twilight’s ears twitched at the sound of Mister Manco’s wagon starting up behind her, then the sound of its engine faded into the distance. She looked back to see its headlamps, then its red tail-lanterns disappear into the forest

This was the second time in less than a day she found herself under the pine trees that surrounded Chorazin. She originally thought that this trip would go easier than the first. After all, this time they knew what to expect.

She realized differently within moments. The trees seemed to press around them as they passed under them. A bare thin patch of naked dirt underhoof made enough of a trail to pass along. It felt vaguely disturbing to her that it was all bare earth, packed down from however many years of passage by humans and other beings.

Applejack went in the lead with a wing-bandaged Rainbow Dash, the pegasus grumbling over having to walk. Rarity behind them both, then came John, and then her; and after her Fluttershy gingerly trotted. Last in line came Pinkie Pie, bouncing along. Not as high as she usually did, but at least Pinkie was as optimistic as ever.

As they walked Twilight kept her eyes open on the forest around her, ears pivoting for any sound that might be Shonokin. The trees seemed to be walls at the edge of her eyesight, rising straight and tall like the palings of a fence. It also seemed unusually bright under them, even given the exceptionally bright moon in that cloudless sky. But not a healthy light, more a sort of pale glow like the foxfire in swamps back home. She glanced back the way they'd come. Even though it'd only been a few minutes since setting out, the trail behind them looked to fade into the trees like they'd been marching for days.

“Be awful easy to get lost in here.” Twilight whispered. Something told her she didn't want to draw attention in here, not this night of all nights.

“It rightly is,” John answered her. She noticed how he kept notice of everything around them without especially trying to. “Air few years, rangers and police and other folks have to go tramping the hills and hollers to find some gone gump who thought they didn't need a map to find their way in these mountains. We find them afore anything can happen. Usually.”

Those words didn't reassure Twilight very much. She looked down at the first again and felt relief to see something normal. Little split hoofprints, the marks of a deer.

“See, Fluttershy?” She pointed her horn at the tracks as they walked. “They have deer here too, just like back home. Maybe we'll see some.”

“Don't remind me,” Dash grumped from in front. “I remember the time they attacked Ponyville with trees.”

Twilight noticed how Fluttershy eyed the tracks as they walked along. She gave a little shiver.

“Um, Twilight, I'm sorry to say this, but those aren't deer prints. They're from something that walked on two legs.” She pointed at one as they passed it. It and the rest were sunk almost five lines into the dirt beneath. “And deer aren't that heavy.”

Twilight wondered what had split hooves in this world and walked on two feet, then gulped as she remembered something Sunset Shimmer once showed her in the supposedly real magic books of the Canterlot High world, illustrations from ones titled Lemegeton and the Dictionnaire Infernale. She also felt quite sure that she didn't want to see what had made those tracks.

Even as that thought crossed her mind, she heard something moving in the brush under the trees, just far enough away not to be seen. Whatever it was, it was heavy. She heard the brush breaking and snapping as it moved through them, not around.

“What was that?” Rarity spoke up in front of John. Twilight saw her ears pin back, and she scraped one forehoof against the ground, but she kept going.

“I'm not rightly sure,” John answered, his voice low and wary. Twilight noticed how he took a firm grip on his ash stick. “Let's be right careful now.”

“The trees are thinnin' out a little ahead,” Applejack called back. “Looks like a clearing.” She might have said more, but the sounds of something large pushing its way through the shrubbery came again, louder this time. Now it was joined with a hungry slobbery grunt, and then a growl.

Six mares and one human stepped out into the small clearing, and as they did, the source of those growls and grunts entered it from the other end about a score of feet away.

Twilight had seen bigger beasts, but few more frightening than the one before her, when her magic was so weakened. It looked at first like a piece of the shadows all around them came to life, the size of Mister Manco's powered wagon as it shambled out into the moonlight. Then as that pale light picked out the thick shaggy coat of hair, played over a snuffling nose and small mean eyes and the hump of muscle behind the shoulders, as it grunted and rose on its hind legs, Twilight realized what she was seeing.

It was a bear, bigger than Fluttershy's friend Harry from back home, but equipped with the same kind of claws and fangs and muscles. But the eyes, the eyes were terrible. She didn't expect to see the reason of a pony or human in them, but neither did she think to see a sort of hungry hate behind them. Twilight backed up until her rump stopped at a tree trunk behind her. She risked a glance. No chance to run that way. She'd have to force her way through, and what slowed her wouldn't even stop this giant. Or she could fly, but what about Dash and John and everyone else?

“Ladies, you listen,” John was saying as he hefted the ash club. It looked like a schoolteacher's switch against that monstrous bear. The animal dropped back down, watching them intently. John said, “I'll a-try keeping his attention with this, and when I do, you all run around him and --”

More he never said. The bear gave a roar that made the air shudder and charged.

And Fluttershy darted out before it.

“NOW YOU HOLD IT RIGHT THERE, MISTER!”

The bear stopped, stood up on its hind legs and grunted. Fluttershy just glared fiercely into its eyes, her vision unswerving. The beast bellowed and shuffled a step forward, another. It waved one paw in the air before the pegasus. Twilight gulped at the sight of those claws. They looked like a blockful of butcher knives.

She began lighting her horn, wishing that she could gather enough magic here to simply teleport the animal away. Beside her she saw Applejack getting her lasso ready, and Rarity hefting a heavy branch with her magic.

“Okay, everypony,” Applejack whispered. “When that their bear charges again, we're gonna pull 'Shy out and...”

Fluttershy's tail lashed once, sharply. Twilight felt more than saw her friends freeze. She heard John shifting beside her, but relaxed when he did nothing else. He must have realized that if they weren't moving, he should stand still too.

The bear roared again, its cry filling the clearing. Five ponies and one human all tensed. Fluttershy just reached out and firmly rapped the massive ursine on his nosepad.

“Look at me!” The bear grunted, trying to turn away. Fluttershy snapped at it like a mare calling her foals to heel. “I said! Look! At! Me!”

Twilight held her breath as the bear grunted, made one or two more paw swipes that fell short, and then just sat down, watching Fluttershy.

“Please listen, Mister Bear,” Fluttershy sounded more like her usual self now. “I know we're strange to you, but I know there's nowhere near here where you could have a den, so we're not a threat. You know that, don't you?” The bear almost seemed to nod,but hesitantly. Like Fluttershy's influence struggled against another laid on it. Fluttershy stepped off to one side, going further along the trail while keeping well clear of the bear. “Now, you just go back to your nice warm den and we'll leave you alone. Alright?”

The bear snuffled, shook itself, and turned to shamble off into the woods. The heavy brush around the clearing parted before it like a curtain, and the animal was gone. A fading crashing noise came back to them and no more sounds from the bear.

Twilight felt herself start breathing again.

“Thank you, Fluttershy,” she said. Twilight trotted over to nuzzle her friend as Fluttershy dropped back to the earth. “If I had my magic here I would have used it to teleport him away, and – wait,” Twilight looked at her friend in confusion. “How did you get him to leave? Or use The Stare? I thought animals here weren't, well, smart like they are back home?”

“He wasn't,” Fluttershy said, soft as a breeze through grass. “That's why I spoke so harshly to him, to make sure he paid attention. The animals of John's world make me feel – unsettled. Their eyes are, are empty. Oh, Mister John, I'm so sorry.”

“Nair thing you have to be sorry for, Miss Fluttershy,” John answered her. He relaxed, working his fingers where he held the ash club. “It's only the truth, though some beasts have more sense than some folks.”

“Ah know some ponies that ain't got the sense o' some critters,” Applejack walked up beside Twilight and Fluttershy. “Like us right now. Shouldn't we get goin' before something else happens along?”

Twilight felt her cheeks redden. “Oh! Uh, yes, that would be wisest. Heh.” She waited for John and the rest to get back in their line and start walking down the trail. As they did she made sure to stay back by Fluttershy. “So how did you do it?” She asked quietly as Pinkie Pie hopped along in front of them. “Our magic is limited here.”

“I don't know. I guess I just, well, just reacted.” Fluttershy just blinked at her. “But you remember how it felt around Mister John's cabin? How the air felt so lifeless compared to back home?” As Twilight nodded, wondering what her friend was getting at, Fluttershy said, “Just try and feel it here, Twilight. Isn't it more like Equestria, or at least the Everfree?”

Twilight opened her alicorn senses and winced.

“Ow!”

Immediately everypony and one turned to look at her.

“Twilight? You a-feeling right back there?”

“Ugh! Yeah, I'm – fine.” Twilight looked at Rarity and Rainbow Dash and all the rest. “Girls? Have you tried comparing how the background flux feels now in comparison to the one around John's home?” All of them, even Rarity, just looked at her wide-eyed. Twilight facehoofed. “Sorry. I mean, doesn't this forest feel a lot more like Equestria than it did before?”

“Huh! Maybe.” Applejack trotted over to a nearby pine, one almost as thick through the middle as she was tall, planted her forehooves and gave it a mighty buck. The tree shivered and showed a pair of hoofmarks. “Well, now that's better!” She folded one foreleg over the other and stood proudly.

Past her Twilight saw Rarity furrow her brow in concentration. Half a dozen pine cones flew up into the air and were put through the paces of what Twilight recognized as an elegant court dance. Fluttershy spread her wings, lifted half a length off the ground for a moment before falling back. A few paces away Pinkie closed her eyes, and, tongue-tip hanging from the side of her muzzle, gave a mighty leap. She vanished, and a moment later Twilight felt a hoof in her mane. She looked up and saw a smiling Pinkie Pie standing on one forehoof there.

“Great for you guys.” Dash tried to move her wings and winced. “I'm still stuck here!”

“I could help you fly, Rainbow Dash,” Fluttershy trotted over to her friend and held out a hoof.

“Thanks, but better not, Flutts,” Dash shuddered. “I'd be too much of a basket flier.” She must have noticed John's confusion at her words, for she said, “Er, ya know, sometimes pegasi take other ponies up in chariots or baskets and they try and tell us how ta fly.”

“Back seat driver,” John nodded. “I'm rightly glad you ladies have your magic back, but how?”

“I'm not sure,” Twilight 'tugged' lightly at her Element. It responded, bringing a flare of light to her horn, but she felt no different. “It's not our Elements.”

“It's Queen Meany and her new friends, silly! Well, they're not friends, really, but they're both after us.”

“What?” Twilight felt some relief that everypony else stared at Pinkie Pie in just as much confusion as she felt. “Pinkie? What do you mean?”

“Well, it's gotta be her. Duh.” Pinkie just rolled her eyes. “Black Snooty wants to make everything be eternal night again, right? And she has Princess Luna with her too? And the Show-whatevers want to use her to make all of John and Evadare and Mister Manco's friends and families go away forever so they can have everything they said is supposed to be theirs again without having to share it with anypony.”

“Well, yes,” Twilight said, wondering where this was all going.

“And you,” Pinkie hopped over and bopped Twilight's nose with her hoof, “said that Nightmare Loon can't work Equestrian magic here, like we couldn't. So she's gonna cheat.” She finished as though that explained everything.

“I think I rightly know what she means,” John said, sweeping his hand out to take in the woods. “You said this place was a-starting to feel like the Everfree back home for you all, right? Remember how it got to looking when Thorn changed it with the Letters of Cold Fire?”

“She's using Luna,” Twilight said, her eyes widening as she finally figured it out. “Nightmare Moon is trying to make John's world more like Equestria, so she can use all her magic here.”

“Except no Princesses to stop her,” Rarity looked worried. “And nopony of John's people would believe what was happening until it was too late.”

“Well, that ain't gonna happen.” Rainbow Dash reared upright and boxed with her forehooves before she went to John and said directly to him, “'Cause we're gonna help John and save Luna and make those guys that hurt my wing sorry they ever even heard of Equestria!” She held her hoof out. “That's a promise.”

“I knew you'd all be doing that,” John took her hoof and shook it. “But it feels pure down good to hear it.”

“We will,” Twilight said as they restarted their trip to Nightmare Moon's lair in the Shonokin Town, all the while wondering just how they would.

As well as what would happen to both their worlds if they failed.

Chapter 20

It felt right good to leave that mine shaft behind us and feel the night air on our faces. It was chill like someone splashing cold water on your face first thing in the morning. The moon showed near midnight in the sky. Trees showed thin and weedy around us, not old and strong and terrible in their pride the way they did back in the woods when we'd first started coming this way. I wondered me if it was the damage from the dumped piles of mine tailings I saw about that caused it or the Shonokin themselves. Nary natural plants seemed to grow around them very well from what I remembered. Off in the distance we saw the lights of Chorazin, looking like pale foxfire in swamps, where some folks say it lights where dead men's bones are lying. Some Pennsylvania Dutch folks I know once told me that up where they live it's called Devil's Fire. It's supposed to show where treasure lays hid waiting for air brave soul to chance the haunts a-using around and claim it. We could hear dim and distant voices a-coming from it, too, low and hissing and nasty sounding like it was the world's biggest snake den. Maybe it was, some ways.

“They're a-chanting something there,” I said real low to Twilight and the others as we stood there on those stones. “Might be they're getting ready to do whatair it is they mean to do with Luna.”

“Whatever they think they're gonna do,” Dash said, stomping her way past me and towards Chorazin, “they ain't getting' away with it. Come on, guys, we gotta get Luna back.” She stopped and looked back at us. “Uh, that kinda reminds me. How ARE we gonna get Luna back?”

“If anyone does have a plan or suggestion,” Rarity chimed in, sounding nervoused, “this might be the best time to share it.” She looked around, and when nary one spoke up, her ears hung low. “Twilight? Mister John? Anypony? We're not just rushing past those Shonokin and the Tantabus and expecting them to politely stand by while we rescue Luna, are we?”

“Maybe they'll listen politely if we ask them to just let Luna go?” Fluttershy suggested, half hiding behind that long mane of hers.

“I doubt me they'd be the least bit polite, Miss Fluttershy,” I responded her. She and Rarity both looked like they were a feeling sickly as I said, “Not after all they've done. The Shonokin and the Tantabus want us all dead and no mistake.”

Air pony started a-talking then.

“Geeze, guys, we just rush them and knock every one of those Show-whatevers outta the way until we reach Luna...”

“ Ladies, perhaps I could use an illusion? I've done it with my fashion shows, I could attempt something grander here....”

“Ah'm kinda with Dash, simple's usually the best way...”

“Gee, if I had my party cannon – oops, never mind, it's not in there.”

Pinkie said the last. I just watched while she yanked a cake, a frying pan, and a paperback book from out of her mane. It dropped by my feet. I saw some words on the cover. I figured them for a title. Who Fears The Devil?

“Ah-ah-ah,” Pinkie Pie said, snatching it away and putting it back. “Sorry, but some things ponies and people are happier not knowing. Besides, that's a library copy.”

“If you say so,” I said and figured it for Pinkie just being her own self.

“Ladies, John,” Twilight shook her head. “Whatever we mean to do, we're going to have to wait until we get to Chorazin to do it.” She set off again, moving fast enough that we hurried to keep up. “And if we don't get a move on it won't matter in the least what we planned to do. So let's hurry.” Twilight pointed at the moon. “It'll be midnight soon.”

Those words were the pure down truth. We followed her right down the trail. The trees thickened a bit, but here they were smaller than the ones we'd seen. Twice as high as I stood, I reckon, and nowheres near as thick-made as the ones down below. Like as not they'd grown back after the mine closed and folks didn't need to be chopping them down for their homes and to cook their dinners.

I wondered, I reckon we all wondered, if maybe the Tantabus was plumb out of tricks to try on us.

Sorry to say, it wasn't.

As we walked along we began to hear noises under those trees. Animal sounds, but not ones from deer or rabbits or the kind you usually hear in these woods. Big ones, heavy crashing and stomping. I saw how the ears on those ponies turned air way, trying to focus in on those sounds and which way they were a-coming from. I tried the same, but whenever you thought you could tell the direction they were coming from, the noises seemed to change and be coming from some other way. It wasn't the least bit reassuring, let me tell you.

“All around us,” Twilight said, trotting on. Her ears lay back as those noises got the closer and louder. “John, girls, if anything goes wrong, be ready to run.”

“I've been ready to run since I got here,” Fluttershy half whimpered back, but she kept on a-going with us. I touched her gentle-like on her back. Her wing flapped out soft as an owl's wingbeat and brushed lightly against me like to say thanks.

I smiled my thanks at her, looked up, and saw the Tripodero rising up on its three legs just aside the trail. Its long snipy snout pointed at us like the barrel on a gun.

I yelled a warning and the Tripodero spat stones at us. Spat! Spat! Spat! Just like someone quick-shooting a rifle, one-two-three like that. One buzzed past me as quick and big as the world's meanest hornet. I heard Rarity give a yell, and right after her Pinkie too.

“Ouch!” Pinkie hopped up and down, rubbing a spot on her rump and giving it the meanest look I can remember on her. She took her hoof away and I saw her hide showed the least bit bloody under it. “You're not very nice!”

“No it isn't,” Rarity snapped, “and neither is this!” A fist-size rock shot past me even faster than the Tripodero's stones. It glowed purple and hit the Tripodero dead center. It went rolling over, making a whistling sound like you can hear from a kettle on the boil. Those long crazy legs snatched at the air. They had three or four joints in them like a spider's, and I saw a single long nasty claw tipping each of them. I caught sight of its face the once, and saw six or seven glowing red dots looking back at me from it, scattered all over it in some crazy pattern. Its cheeks bulged out like someone with a mouthful of chewing tobacco, and as it looked on me they sudden-like puffed out even more. Before it could shoot again Rarity flung another stone and hit it right in its snout. It gave another whistle that choked off and those spider legs went limp.

Something grabbed me by the belt from behind. I near jumped out of my skin afore I heard Applejack's voice.

“More o' them monsters are comin', John! Time tah run!”

She needed say no more. I turned and ran as hard on her heels as I could, and I'm not shamed to say I did. Applejack was staying back by me as the ponies ran, and so did Fluttershy. Pinkie and Dash galloped afore them, and Twilight and Rarity right in the front.

As we ran I heard, saw, what else followed us under that awful moon, bright enough to show what was hungering to be killing you. Bammat bellowing and shaking his long trunk, and the Flat hunching its way over the ground like the world's largest flatworm, and the leaping hairy devils folks sometimes talk of among the pines, seeming to crawl right up out of the ground as they jumped and screamed after us, the moonlight showing on those long wolf-fangs of theirs.

So we ran for dear life and hoped we'd run fast enough.

#

Twilight put her head down and ran for her life, stampeding alongside her friends. Howls and screams and noises she couldn't even begin to describe rose all about them. Worst of all was something like a sort of wet leathery stretching right below her.

Something tugged hard at her hooves.

Twilight looked and yelled.

Something like a gigantic rug lay there. But thicker, covered in a sort of prickly hair like on a caterpillar. And no rug she knew of humped and bunched itself as it grabbed after your hooves, or shivered with a terrible eagerness. She blasted down with her magic and it recoiled before it began reaching for her again, sucking at her hooves.

“Nah-ah-ah!” A pair of pink hooves snatched the horror up and swung it hard against a nearby tree. It wrapped around the trunk so hard it made a heavy slapping sound like a sheet catching a strong wind. “No ponies for you, Mister Crazy Rug!”

“Thanks, Pinkie!” Twilight shuddered as they raced past the thing. It was slowly, very slowly, peeling itself from the tree. “What is that thing?”

“The Flat!” John yelled from behind her. “And there's worse a-coming! Bammat, devil monkeys, even the Behinder!”

“The what now?” Twilight said, and turned to look at one of the trees as she ran past it. As she did she saw the Behinder. It had to be the Behinder; it resembled nothing else she had ever seen even in her worst nightmares. Rarity's horrified shrill whinny showed she must have seen some of it too, a part at least, even though Twilight knew she blocked most of it from her friend. It lashed out with all the limbs on its body. And some things that Twilight couldn't even begin to guess what they were, long and snaky and spiky and tipped with what looked like hungry little hagfish mouths – Twilight gasped and blasted tree branches so they fell down covering it. Not that it helped. That image still hung before her mind's eye. She knew now why John refused to ever describe the Behinder. She wished she didn't know.

“Twilight, what the buck did we see?” Rarity gasped beside her, shocked completely out of her manners. Twilight caught a glimpse of her mane hanging wild as they galloped, her eyes wide with terror.

“Nothing we ever want to think about, ever again!” Twilight shivered as she heard wild bestial howls rise all about them. Somehow she found even deeper reserves of strength and speed to draw on – but unlike in Equestria, she didn't feel anything flowing in from the environment to compensate. Even alicorns have limits here, she realized. Does that mean the Tantabus will, too?

Earth pony magic let her feel the thrum of her friends' hooves and John's feet through the dirt underhoof. And something else to go along with the howls that came ever closer. Feet, a great many heavy feet, slapping hard against the dirt.

Gong. Gong. Gong. High overhead, the Toller called the other predators to their kill.

The bushes crashed around them as something heavy forced its way through. Shrieking and howling, it leaped at them.

“Hey! Get offa mah back!” Twilight heard Applejack's yell, followed by the hard smack of a hoof. The shrieker howled in another tone entirely. Twilight saw it go flying to smack into one of the larger pine trees head first. It groaned and slumped, a pile of dark rank fur. Eyes blazed at her over forty-line-long fangs in a face like a feral Tirek's. That one had to be one of those 'Devil Monkeys'.

A glance to the rear and sides showed more of them hurtling from the bushes, hot on the heels of ponies and human alike. Something about the way they came leaping and screaming after them reminded her of something, but the sight of those long ivory fangs put it from her mind. Two of them leaped at her and Rarity, and with an effort that back home could have let her pick up a house-size stone she used her magic and sent them hurtling back. They landed hard and rolled away to get back up.

If we had one of those guns John had earlier, she thought, or just some of the Royal Guards from back home. She snorted at that thought. Might as well wish for them all to be there and for this to be nothing but one of the bad dreams such as she once thought she understood. But still, something about the way these beasts were chasing them...

Then she saw it. The grass and leaves underhoof didn't respond to the Devil Monkeys' pounding paws. Leaves and shrubs were half-visible through them, and she realized the truth.

“John, everypony, we can't keep running this way!” She tried to run out before her friends, get them to make a stand, try and intimidate the beasts into fleeing. “They're illusions, they're not real! They're chasing us right into Chorazin, and –”

Two or three skinny somethings in black cloth collided with her, sending Twilight rolling over. Ambush! She neighed and tried to hurl a blast at one, but someone kicked her hard where ribs met flank. She bucked back in pure equine reflex, slamming one into the other with a scream like from multiple throats at once.

“Twilight!” She heard John yell, and next saw him striking out with that walking stick of his at another pair of lean black-clothed Shonokin, their cat-eyes glowing corpse pale in the dark. Even worse, past that she saw her friends. More Shonokin piled on them. Much of Chorazin's population must have been here. Nets enfolded equine bodies, lassos landed around equine necks, and clubs smashed onto pony heads and backs. Dash and Applejack and Rarity reared and kicked and snorted, ears pinned as they lashed out with their hooves and Rarity's limited magic at the Shonokin. They tried to stay out of reach and pull the ponies down at the same time with limited success. Of course, Twilight realized. If one was slain they'd all flee in terror and the ritual would be ruined. But behind them to her horror she saw some Shonokin with guns, long-barreled heavy pistols hanging from their hands.

She saw more pile onto Fluttershy and Pinkie. Those ones seemed braver, the way bullies usually did with weaker targets.

That was their mistake. Gentle ponies or not, Pinkie was still an Earth Pony, and Fluttershy was still a Pegasus. And then there were the other advantages the two possessed.

“Oh, you want to play, huh?” Pinkie cried in glee as one Shonokin landed on her back and tried grabbing her by the neck. In a moment somehow Pinkie ended up on top and he tossed beneath her like one of the human-world horses she'd seen. He yelled as she laughed for joy. “Whee! This must be what Applejack feels like! Ride 'em, cowpony!”

Behind her Fluttershy pleaded as several Shonokin closed in, clubs and ropes in their hands.

“Oh, please don't! Don't hurt my friends, I –”

Fluttershy tossed herself aside as two Shonokin tried to fling ropes around her neck. Even from a distance Twilight caught how her eyes darkened as she yelled, “NOW YOU JUST STOP RIGHT THERE!” The two Shonokin froze, shivering as though they fought against paralysis as the angry Fluttershy said, “You let my friends and Princess Luna go right now, and that means Mister John too, or you're going to be in so much trouble! Do you understand me, Mister?”

The two Shonokin took a step back, another, as Fluttershy stormed forward like an angry mare with two rambunctious foals. Other of the Shonokin saw it and similarly began slinking back, ropes and clubs and even guns forgotten. Twilight dared hope. Would they actually get out without any more violence?

Her hopes shriveled as a large bag aglow with the light of pony magic descended over Fluttershy's head. The voice of the Tantabus, of Nightmare Moon, spoke.

“Stop them, you weak-minded foals! Bring them all to me!” Just beyond the Shonokin she stood, tall and dark and terrible, her eyes green witchfire in the moonlight. Her silver barding glittered like ice even as her ebon coat drank in the light. Those eyes locked on her and a sneer went over Nightmare Moon’s lips. “Take them alive, they you may offer all of them as well as Luna to restore me, and I shall restore the fallen Those You Serve!”

“No!” Twilight yelled as she set two more Shonokin who came at her with ropes sprawling. She could just see in the pale light her friends, bound and held. John was backing away towards her, making short spear-like thrusts at first one and then another Shonokin as they tried to grab him. She could hear him running through a stream of words:

“I charm you horsemen and footmen, you evildoers great and small; for I walk today upon God's way, that you may not hinder me or spellbind me or harm me or those with me.” The Shonokin seemed to flinch as he said the words. The Nightmare shivered, slightly, but she grimly pressed her way forward. John saw it, and his voice seemed to be desperate as Twilight heard him yell, “In God's name I ask it!”

He darted out with the point of that stick and drew a figure swiftly on the dirt before the Nightmare. To Twilight it seemed vaguely familiar. The Shonokin who saw it stepped back, looking suddenly frightened. Nightmare Moon sneered at their cowardice and stepped forward. Her hoof landed right on the sigil.

Something flashed inside the clearing. No, Twilight realized, not inside the clearing but inside her mind, right behind her eyes, a sudden light that reminded her of the Elements in action but less gentle. She heard multi-pitched echoing yells from the Shonokin, and another shriller cry from Nightmare Moon. The last time Twilight heard her cry out like that was when she and her friends first used the Elements on her.

But when it cleared Nightmare Moon still stood there, angry and raging, her nebular mane and tail almost aflame. The Shonokin gathered themselves together, as all about she saw her friends, Applejack and Rarity and the rest, all hobbled and tied.

If we stay, they'll catch us too. The realization shot through her.

So when John tugged at her and near yelled in her ear, “Run!” She ran.

#

I pure down hated myself, even as I went running under those trees, Twilight aside me, a-hoping and praying not to trip and break my fool neck. I heard the Shonokin getting theirselves together and the Nightmare with them from what I'd dared do when I cut that warding sign from the Albertus Magnus book into the loam. I'd done no more than startle them, which made me wish I could have done the more to stop them. Not very kindly of me, you say? Well, right then I didn't feel kindly towards them airy ways. Those weeks of nightmares, then their a-dragging first poor Twilight, and then her friends, and finally poor Luna, into even worse trouble because they came to be helping me, and now what they were a-planning, that might make the whole world into something out of nightmares?

I reckon right then I had some good reason not to be feeling kindly with them.

Airy way Twilight and I said nair word until we couldn't see or hear the Shonokin or Nightmare Moon behind us. We stopped then and I took myself a moment to get my breath back. It went pulling hard out of me, hurting my sides and reminding me of all I'd done so far tonight and that I wasn't quite so young as I'd once been.

“We have to get our friends back, John,” Twilight gasped it out. She felt less tired than me, I could tell, but she still felt it from our running and fighting. “Nightmare Moon, the Shonokin, they'll...” She didn't finish. Nor did she need to.

“Not the yet,” I told her. I moved quiet as I could over to a gap in the trees all about us. Looking back towards the trail I could see the Shonokin and the Nightmare going back towards Chorazin. I could just make out Dash's voice as she cussed the air as blue as she was. It looked like the ponies were tied and being dragged along the ground, with the Nightmare walking along behind them like what folks over the seas in Europe call the Hell Horse, that a-wanders old and lonesome cemeteries to bear any folks it finds nosing around right down to Hell. If the Nightmare had her way, though it wouldn't be just the one soul she'd be taking. It'd be near about air soul on Earth and I reckon on Equestria too.

“We have to rescue them,” Twilight said aside me, sounding scared, but only a little. “The Nightmare and Shonokin might, might kill –” Her voice broke off.

“Not right now they won't,” I told her. “Else they'd have been doing it to us right down where they jumped us.” I saw how her eyes focused on me, and how the seemed to sharpen, almost, as she started thinking again. “It wonders me how even those monsters we met, they mostly nair did try killing. Not seriously, airy way. They tried to bluster and scare and hurt, but if even airy one of them had been killing-serious, I don't think we'd be here right now.”

“Yes,” Twilight nodded, like it was a new thing to her. “The Skim, the Toller, those last few on the road here? The Nightmare called them, and they just tried to scare us away.” She looked at me. “If she'd been serious, she could have just told the Shonokin to use some of their guns and kill us all before we ever got near them. Why not?”

“Might could be she's afeared yet of whatair consequences it'd bring,” I suggested. I slowly began heading back towards the trail, moving slow and watching now where I put my feet in my old brogans, making as little noise as I could. I saw and heard how Twilight did the same. I said as we went, “She might not find herself doing so well, even with what magic she has, if half a dozen sheriff's men or state troopers came up here with rifles and shotguns and whatair else they might carry. The Shonokin surely wouldn't.”

“Not that,” Twilight shook her head and frowned. “This world doesn't have Equestrian magic, but even so Nightmare Moon should be able to defend herself against those kind of weapons. For a while, anyway. No, John,” and her voice started a-getting loud, the way it will when folks get excited, “she doesn't want us dead, not out here. She wants us alive!”

“But whyair would she?” I asked her back as we moved closer to the trail. By now I was a-keeping my ears open for whatever sound might be made by some sneaking Shonokin. And if there was one such and they tried airy thing, I'd find out if my ash stick was a little bit harder than their head.

“To drain us along with Luna,” Twilight said real quiet, and I felt a shiver as the breeze blew cold. “Drain five more lives, five times more magic, plus the power of the Elements inside us.”

I reminded what she'd told me two years gone, that night in Rarity's shop afore we went to face Thorne.

“You say you and your friends used your Elements to beat her the first time. How can she know you won't be doing that again?”

“Because they didn't get me. My Element brings the others together as one; without all six of us, they won't awaken.” Twilight and I looked out onto the trail. Lots of hoof and foot marks in that soft dirt, and I saw that sign I'd made. It stood untouched, save for a little smudge on one end. That was right where Nightmare Moon's hoof must have touched it. I saw nair hide nor hair of any Shonokin. We stepped out onto the trail. “They're strengthening our magic here; we'd be much weaker without them being, well, 'batteries' of Equestrian magic. But neither Nightmare Moon or Luna has that, and even her resources have to be running short. I don't think she wants to suddenly become weak in front of the Shonokin. They could control her with that summoning magic Dee once used.”

“I kindly wish we knew someone we could be calling on with that summoning magic,” I said, as much to myself as her. We both looked down on that symbol as I said, “If we knew airy soul that Nightmare Moon was afeared of, or who might be able to make her stop and listen. But you said she did her wickedness a thousand years gone. Only dead folks would remember her now, wouldn't they?”

Twilight just froze all over then. I saw how her ears worked back and forth as she was a-thinking. They looked for all the world like someone was working the slide on a typewriter or a calculator. She looked up at me.

“John, wait, that's brilliant! We DO know somepony who knew both Luna AND Nightmare Moon a thousand years ago! Ruby!” I didn't get who she meant, so she explained. “Remember? The ghost pony we met at Zecora's hut, who led us to Sunny Town?”

I whistled soft then. I sure enough did remember her. I'd seen her my first night in Equestria, right when I met Apple Bloom. Then again later, with her gray coat and gold mane and tail and eyes of fire, that poor ghost pony who'd once been Luna's friend, might be her only friend, afore she became Nightmare Moon.

“It was Ruby's dying that made Luna go mad,” I nodded as I said it. “That made her kill airy pony in Sunny Town and curse them to be walking dead things. You think she could make the Tantabus go back to Luna?”

“She's the only pony I know of right now that Nightmare Moon would trust even a little,” Twilight said.

“Wait,” I thought on it some more and spoke up about something that bothered me, “Ruby is back in Equestria, and not here. Howair are we supposed to let her know we'd like some help?”

“That's the easy part,” Twilight said. I wondered me how this could be easy until she said, “We'll just do what the Shonokin did when they attacked us, and when they gave the Tantabus physical form. They did it with their magic, so we'll create a double of Ruby with ours.”

I thought myself on that, and I reckon maybe I worried too. I've seen things be summoned, and almost nair was I happy to see it. George Washington's ghost helped me the once, and I reckon one-two other times I saw well, creatures I suppose is the best, that helped me. But those were more by accident than intent. One of the Ancients that snatched away two cheats that tried robbing friends of mine, and then Kalu who took Shull Cobart off whereair he took bad men when he tried a-killing me to force Evadare to love him. I'd been right happy it happened thataway both times, but I nair once did want to try calling something that might be happier where it was to come and do whatair I said just because I could.

Besides, Ruby was something like a ghost from old stories, or even like a vampire the way she and her Sunny Town kin could suck your life away. What if we called her here and she was downright angry we treated her like a dog to be ordered around?

But all I said out loud was, “What if she doesn't want to help? She might be happier where she is.”

I could see Twilight think on that a moment long. “Then we try something else. But right now, John, calling Ruby and asking for her help sounds like our best bet. With all the Equestrian magic around here, from the Tantabus, and Luna, and my friends and I, it shouldn't be hard to at least make a image of her to rattle the Nightmare enough to let Luna regain control.” She looked at me, maybe a little desperate. “And do you have any other ideas?”

I can honestly say that I didn't, not right then.

“All right, then,” I took my guitar in my hands, slid my fingers down the silver strings.

“Do you remember that song about Ruby, the one that held back the Sunny Town ponies when we fought Thorne?”

I nodded and got ready to play. The tune was from an old and scary mountain song called Pretty Polly, but back then the words I sang to it just came to me or maybe through me.

“Just a moment,” Twilight said. I waited patient-like and tried not to think whatair could be happening with Applejack and Fluttershy and the rest as her horn glowed and she drew some marks on the ground in a circle. I recognized some of them as the cutie marks from her friends. Then another circle drawn inside of them, marking off the ground and enclosing them. Some odd signs she drew then, around the outside of the cutie marks. She didn't say what they were but they minded me some ways of what I could remember of the written Equestrian I'd seen. Finally, within the inner circle, she drew two more marks I recognized. A moon in the night sky, and Ruby's magnifying glass.

That done, she sat down nearby and started to furrow her brow. I felt it then, some little bit like what I remembered from the first time I air saw the Elements be used. Like how I felt around Evadare or Chief Manco or Twilight and the ponies, that warmth you fell when you're by folks you can trust and who know they can trust you.

“Now,” she breathed softly, like she needed to be thinking and concentrating her hardest then. “Play the Sunny Town song.”

I set my fingers to the strings. I wondered me one last time how wise this was.

“Play,” Twilight repeated, even softer, and I did.

“Ruby, pretty Ruby,

won't you please help me.

Ruby, pretty Ruby,

won't you please help me.

To find Starlight's present,

a treasure to see...”

It still didn't sound or scan quite right to me, but right then wasn't the time to be making a new one. I promised myself that if this worked then I'd be making a proper song for Ruby and the ponies.

Of course, if it didn't work, I'd nair be caring about new songs or airy other thing.

“…They dragged her to the firepit

and burned her alive.

“No pony would speak of her

or their part in her doom,

No pony would speak of her

or their part in her doom,

But all would be known

to the Mare in the Moon…”

“Ruby,” I heard Twilight say softly, maybe pleading a little. “Ruby, you were Luna's friend, just like we were. When you died, that was what broke what little good remained in her. You were what kept her sane.” I kindly felt something as she kept speaking, a sort of soft chill like the first winter wind a-creeping through the walls of my home. Twilight's voice sounded desperate as she said, “Ruby, we need your help. Luna needs your help. Please, before she hurts anypony else again!”

I played it all the way through, all to the end.

“The wrath of the Nightmare

fell upon their homes,

The wrath of the Nightmare

fell upon their homes,

Leaving nothing behind

but charred ruins and bones...

Ruby, pretty Ruby,

stands yonder on the bank.

Ruby, pretty Ruby,

stands yonder on the back.

Eyes like fire

and her mark on her flank.”

And I was finished, and there she did stand.

Right in the middle of that circle Ruby stood, her eyes glowing warm yellow. When you looked on her you could half see through her. It was kindly like that word I've heard educated folks use, being translucent. She blinked, slowly like she woke up from being asleep.

“This isn't Sunny Town,” she said, looking first at Twilight and then at me. It looked like her eyes widened some when they saw me and my guitar. “Wait. I remember you. You were the human who helped Apple Bloom and her friends. I led you to Sunny Town when Thorne ruled there. Why did you call me here, away from my family?”

“Because right now we need your help, Miss Ruby,” I answered her. I set my guitar at my side but I didn't set it down. If I needed the protection in its silver strings, I wanted to be sure I kept it handy. “I crave your pardon for calling you like this. But we need your help to get Miss Luna out of some bad trouble she and other folks are in.”

“Trouble? Luna's in trouble?” She seemed to be getting more lively then, dancing from one hoof to the other like a nervous horse. She looked from me to Twilight. “What's going on? What happened to Luna? Answer me!”

When she snarled those last words, her face looked like it turned as bony and fiery as her Sunny Town kin. Twilight flinched, but then she stepped right up to the edge of the circle. I gave Twilight a warning look. She didn't pay me airy heed, she just started speaking.

“Luna is down in that village, off that way.” She pointed her horn towards Chorazin. Ruby looked after her, looking normal again. “She, she had part of herself taken out by the people there, the Shonokin...”

“Humans?” Ruby asked, sounding angry again. “Like him?” She thrust a hoof at me, and right then I wished myself elsewhere. I wondered if it looked like those cutie mark signs seemed to shiver, like a strong wind blew against them.

“Not humans, and not like John,” Twilight said right quick. “They're – something else again. More like what your herd is in Sunny Town.” She waited until Ruby calmed herself. “They took part of Luna's magic from her and used it to remake Nightmare Moon. Now they want to kill Luna and my friends so they can give it, her, even more power. We need you to help stop that.” I wondered me how wise Twilight was when she stepped even closer. “We need you to help us save Luna, Ruby.”

“I will,” Ruby said. Twilight began to erase the circle, but stopped when she pointed at her and said, “But I need something from you.”

“What?” Twilight said, sounding pure down nervoused.

“Whenever ponies from Sunny Town try to leave, we – run out of power. Our strength fades.” Ruby lifted one foreleg and showed us. It already looked more faded then a few moments afore. “I'm not as bad as the others, I can wander the Everfree, but I still need to get some strength.”

“Um...” Twilight gulped. “How, exactly?”

Ruby looked her right square in the eyes.

“The way we all do in Sunny Town,” she said and pointed right at her.

“By draining it from living ponies.”

Chapter 21

Twilight stumbled as she trotted through the dark forest, trying to keep up with the others. She couldn't remember ever feeling quite so drained, except for that time with Tirek.

“You alright, Twilight?” She heard the worry in John's voice.

“I trust I did not take too much, Lady,” Ruby sounded only a little less worried, but when Twilight looked at the ghost pony trotting beside her, to her relief Ruby still looked solid.

“I'll be fine,” Twilight replied and hoped it was the truth. “Like you said, Ruby, you needed some energy from a living pony.” She shuddered like a flyder had bitten her at the memory of that terrible coldness when Ruby set her hoof on her withers – like that of the Frozen North outside of the Crystal Heart's perimeter.

She wondered if this was what John had felt that long-ago night in the Everfree when he'd followed her and her friends to their final showdown with Thorn. They'd been accompanied by Sunny Town's undead ponies, and nearly killed by them and Thorn.

Of course, this time the undead ponies – or one of them – is helping us.

Ruby – or maybe just a conjured image that possessed something of her personality – trotted beside her behind John, featureless yellow eyes glowing like torches in the moonlit forest's shadows; when her hooves came down on sticks or stones or fallen leaves, neither her nor they made any sound. Twilight hoped the pale glow from her didn't alert the Shonokin or Nightmare to their presence.

And that there's enough Luna left in the Tantabus to listen to Ruby rather than just blast her and us.

#

The moonlight shined down right strong on the pine trees around Chorazin as all three of us, Twilight and poor dead Ruby and myself, worked our way closer to that place of waste and desolation. Normally I'd be right happy to have so much moonlight shining down at night, but not then. Not when I rightly knew who was a-making it shine thataway and the reason why she was a-doing it.

“Where is Luna?” Miss Ruby asked for maybe the sixth-seventh time. She looked like air living Equestrian pony, the ones they call Earth ponies because of how they connect to the ground and living things. Soft gray coat and golden mane and tail and yellow eyes that looked to be lit up from inside like a soft-glowing lantern. All of her glowed faintlike in the dark, just a slight shining about her like one of those fish from way down in the vasty deeps of the sea I've heard tell of. She didn't watch as careful as Twilight and myself where she put her hooves, but then I saw she didn't air need to. When she set her hoof on a stone or little shrub or fallen bit of tree wood, it went right through her or maybe she went right through it. She sounded unhappy and worried when she said, “You said she was nearby, that she needed my help.” Then, her voice going hard and that soft glow around her getting harsh to look on. “Or have you lied to me?”

“I nair lied to any soul, living or dead, Miss Ruby,” I answered her. I kept my voice polite though it right nettled me to be called a liar, the way it always has since I was a little tad. Even if it was some ghost pony from a place right beyond the world itself a-doing it. I pointed the way ahead as the trees thinned and we came up on Chorazin. “Right there somewheres is where Miss Luna is at.”

We all three looked and saw something that told those two ponies with me that Luna was there, even if I'd said nair word. There were clouds a-flying high across the sky, big and heavy ones like what Twilight told me about the Toller from before. Or like the ones the ponies and I saw when we went into the Everfree after Thorn and Applejack and Rarity and Rainbow Dash's little sisters and tiny Spike, the ones that roiled and boiled with what looked like deep sea things inside them, all clutching tentacles and snapping beaks and mouths lined with sharp fangs eager to be a-biting into you. Airy way, we saw something then and I'm not ashamed to say it gave me a turn when I did.

Those big heavy clouds up high seemed to start spinning, like when they have those tornadoes down in the lowlands. Only set on edge, like, so you could see down the funnel and a-pointing right at that full moon. I wondered me if I'd ever seen such a big moon. It minded me of what Chief Manco told me once they called a supermoon, and how it's because the moon is just so much closer to Earth than other times. I also thought of some harvest moons I'd seen that looked fat and swollen when they hung low in the sky. The moon illusion, science folks call it, and aren't rightly sure why it happens thataway. Whatair the usual reason, we all knew why it was a-happening right then and there.

“Nightmare Moon and the Shonokin are getting ready for their summoning,” Twilight said, and shook to say it. She looked down into Chorazin, down at those odd lumpy houses like big overgrown mushrooms under that pale moonlight. I saw me how vines grew on and around them. I reckon it was the moonlight that made it look like those vines twitched and crawled, like they were eager to be grabbing someone. “They're getting ready,” Twilight said, her voice getting firmer, “which means Luna and the others need our help, right now.”

She trotted forward then, going quicklike. Ruby followed her and so did I, hurrying but not running. You nair want to be running into some place like Chorazin when you know bad men are a-lying in wait for you, but you don't rightly know how may or where they are or whatair weapons they may have. From what Twilight and the other ponies told me, and what I'd seen happen to Dash and Chief Manco, I knew me they'd have a lavish of guns and be right ready to use them. Too, they'd be having other weapons, ones noways natural. It may sound odd but right then those weapons frightened me the less than the rifles and pistols I figured on them carrying. I knew ways to be protecting myself and others like Ruby and Twilight against whatair bad magic the Shonokin and maybe even Nightmare Moon might be having, and I reckon they did too. I know some ways to try and defend against guns, with charms and Heaven Letters and the like, but the best way to not get hurt by a gun is to not be getting shot with it.

Right afore we reached the town I set myself between it and the ponies. Twilight stopped. Ruby looked ready to keep going even if she walked through me. She got close enough that I felt a right hard chill from her, like if you ever fell into a pond through winter ice that wasn't as thick as you thought. I lightly ran my fingers along the silver strings on my guitar and she stopped with a little shiver.

“Ladies, be careful,” I told them both, real soft and quiet. I pointed at the town, looking dark and nasty even under that bright moonlight. “We need to be going there, but we don't know who might be a-waiting for us. We won't be doing Miss Luna or the others air good if we get caught or killed dead on the way.”

Twilight looked like she wanted to push by me, but when Miss Ruby raised her foreleg, I guess you'd call it, she held still.

“Goodpony John is right,” she said, her speech sounding even more old-timey then mine, if not quite so much as Luna's. She turned her burning yellow eyes on Twilight aside her. “Twilight, in my breathing days, even young mares did serve their turn among the guards of villages and towns.”

“I know something about military service,” Twilight answered her. “My brother was Spellguard.” She pointed her horn at me. “And John was in his country's Royal Guard. He's... 'seen action'.”

“Good.” Ruby turned her eyes from Twilight to me and back again to her. I made myself not shudder at the sight. Miss Ruby was here because of us, and she noways wanted to be what she'd become. She deserved better than to be treated like some haunt.

“I like this not. The folk you say dwell within this place... Are like the stories Mitta would tell me as a filly, about wicked fairies made of smoke that lived under the ground and sent bad dreams to ponies.” She gave a shudder. “We must plan now, and gang warily after, if we seek to save them and our own selves.”

Twilight nodded and looked at me.

“Don't you be a-looking at me, Twilight,” I shook my head. “You're the one who knows about Equestrian magic and what that Nightmare can be doing. And you beat her once afore this. You were in Chorazin afore this as well with Chief Manco. I reckon you're the one to be giving orders here.”

“No,” she shook her head and spoke soft, like I and Miss Ruby had, making sure no sneaking Shonokin could be a-hearing us. “This all started with Shonokin magic, and you're the expert there, John. And this is your world.” She sat with her rump down on the ground, like a dog or cat; Miss Ruby just stood and watched like she nair got tired now. Maybe she didn't at that. “Let's hear your ideas.”

I looked from Twilight to Ruby and made my decision. “Alright. Going by what you told me, Twilight, and what-all I know of the Shonokin, they'll all want to be seeing what happens when they give Miss Luna and Applejack and the rest to those gods of theirs. And if they do it the way they did it afore, they'll be needing one to be conducting the sabbat. That'll likely be that one that you talked with. He seems to be their leader.”

Twilight shuddered. “That makes sense. He acted like somepony used to giving orders and being obeyed.” She wrinkled up her brow as she thought. “So him leading the working, and those twelve others – No wait, only ten left,” she sounded sick to be saying it, “with four of those wearing those bad Nightmare Night costumes like in the Dream Realm. Unless they don't need them?”

“If they used them then, they'll rightly be using them now,” I told her. “I don't do their kind of bad magic, but I reckon I know enough to be able to say that if you do a ritual one way once you'll be needing to do it that way airy time.” I figured in my head. “And they'll be needing two more Shonokin in the coven to be replacing the ones that died in dreams. So, at least thirteen Shonokin doing the ritual and spellworking, along with Nightmare Moon.”

“We are already badly outnumbered,” Ruby said, and she sounded worried.

“Maybe not so much,” I answered her back. “If all those Shonokin are in the ritual and a-trying to call back the Shonokin gods, I doubt me they'd be paying attention to air thing else. It took all my concentrating to be calling you here, Miss Ruby. What they'll be a-doing has to be even harder.”

“So they are removed from our worries, at least until the ritual itself be done,” Ruby looked at Chorazin and frowned. “Yet they cannot be all that live within this place. Others may be guarding them or at least witnessing their moment of glory reborn. And there is the Nightmare.” She scraped one forehoof against the ground. “We must be freeing thy friends as swiftly as possible, Twilight, Goodman John. And keep the Nightmare from interfering.”

“We figure that's where you come in, Ruby,” Twilight made to set one hoof on Ruby's withers like to comfort her. Ruby saw and twitched away. She didn't step, kindly, so much as she just seemed to flicker a few steps away. Twilight set her hoof back down. “You knew Luna, and your, well...”

“Thou canst say 'my death',” Ruby looked to smile the least bitty bit. “'Tis something I have had time to grow used to.”

“Okay,” Twilight looked nervous but she said, “Your death is what made her decide to fully become Nightmare Moon. The Tantabus is apparently formed from her fears and shame over her actions – and her memories. If she sees you those memories will shock her, maybe even push her into going back to Luna.” She added, “I hope.”

“Miss Ruby will be distracting the Nightmare,” I said to her, “and Twilight, you'll be freeing the others, starting with Miss Luna. She's the strongest after yourself, and if she can be getting away that'll still ruin the ritual.”

“And what about yourself?” Ruby inquired me. “Thou shalt be warding against the Shonokin?”

“Yes,” I said, setting one hand to my guitar and hefting my ash stick with the other. “Like you said, Twilight, I know more about their magic than the either of you. I've got silver, and ash, and other things to use against them.” I doubled my fists and said, “If worst comes to worst, I have these, and if I don't like using them I know how to when I have to.” I looked around on them both, the living and the dead pony. “I reckon that's all I can figure on.” I didn't go adding what else I knew, that nair battle plan survives contact with the enemy. Right then I'd be happy if all of us survived contact with these enemies, and I said me a quick prayer to whoair might be listening on the other end, that these young ladies and their friends were in killing bad trouble all because they'd tried to be helping me, and whatair help we could get would be mighty welcome right then.

I saw me how Twilight closed her eyes, and the light in Ruby's dimmed a little like she concentrated too. I wondered me if dead souls could pray like living ones did, or if maybe she was just thinking on what was going to be happening soon.

Because Lord knows, even as we started sneaking down the dark streets of Chorazin among and through those odd lumpy houses towards whatair end to this, all I could be thinking of was all the ways this could end the worst way for all of us.

#

Twilight wished that nervous tickle along her horn was less distracting as she followed John and preceded Ruby into the magical resonance pattern of Chorazin. The town with its houses and “gardinels” set at the nodes and foci looked even less prepossessing than before during the day. And, over their roof- and tree-tops, at the center of that pattern, the topless tower. Magic flux twitched in her horn as she passed over the outermost of the pattern's ley lines.

Those twitchy vines with the flowers like little red sucking mouths seemed even more agitated than before. One even reached out for her flank as she passed by the house it grew on and over. She instinctively swatted it with her tail and told herself that it did not look just like a large snake as it recoiled back to the house.

“This place reminds me all too much of Sunny Town,” Ruby muttered behind her. “Yet worse still. There is a, a glee in the foulness here such as,” she swatted her tail back and forth unhappily, “such as I only e'er knew in one pony before.”

“That's the Shonokin for you,” Twilight whispered. “They remind me of Sombra's herd, the Umbrum, and the Dazzlings' herd, the Sirens. Joy in cruelty for its own sake.” She kept moving her ears about, turning them this way and that to catch every strange sound. And Chorazin had plenty of strange sounds, half-heard whispers, voiceless mutters, and worse. Like the odd scratching noises of something with sharp claws and pale eyes that could see in darkness crawling over the houses and vines, looking at them from hiding, reminding her of Parway. At one point as they passed by the gardinel-houses, keeping well away from them, she froze, one hoof held off the ground in mid step.

“Twilight, whatair is it?”

“Mistress Twilight, what dost thou hear?”

Twilight ignored them a moment longer, listening as hard as she could, before saying, “Nothing. I think.” No need to say that she'd not heard but felt something in or beside the magic flow, a sort of low distant thudding coming through the dirt under her hooves like some massive heartbeat. “Let's keep going.”

They did that, passing from cover to cover, heading for the open area Twilight remembered near the biggest house, a sort of Town Hall facing that tower across a sort of town commons. She remembered some piled cut wood nearby, a sort of community stockpile of firewood. That would provide cover. A better cover than those horrid houses, anyway. If the Shonokin planned any sort of ritual, they'd do it there, at the heart of the pattern. And as they got closer, she began hearing soft whispering voices, many of them in that odd echoing effect Shonokin voices had.

And then Pony voices, not soft, not whispering, but familiar and very angry.

“Y'all get these ropes offa me, or so help me when Ah get loose Ah'll show ya how Ah can use 'em!”

“You tell these creeps, AJ!” Rainbow Dash else yelled in her rough scratchy voice. “When I get loose I'll show you guys why nopony messes with the Dash!” Then muffled cries from them both, joined now by others.

Twilight dashed the final distance to the woodpile, Ruby and John close on her heels. The three dropped to their bellies, crawling until they were able to peer through holes in the piled wood.

The moon shone down its cloud-funnel like it did when Luna arrived that first Nightmare Night, lighting up the town commons like a silvery theater spotlight.

The Shonokin wore those same clothes, the white-shiny shirts and black frock coats and rock-farmer hats over their lank black manes, their dragon eyes shining like green-gold glowgems in the moonlight. The leader stood at the center of the commons, clutching his amulet and leading his herd in a low atonal chant, harsh as their multi-pitched voices both harmonized and clashed. Behind him the tower at the pattern's focus half-hid in shadow, jutting up like a rotted broken fang.

Facing him were the four in the bad Nightmare Night costumes – Gaudy Robe with long crozier-staff, Tin Peytral with toy sword, Mortarboard Hat in his robe, and Seedy Top Hat with his cane – responding to his chant like Discord had organized a vocal quartet. That's five...

“They may not be a-holding their guns,” John whispered in her ear, “but they're keeping them right close.” Twilight followed his pointing finger, saw the bolt-hurlers stacked like harvested hay or piled spears at the edge of the light-circle, metal parts gleaming. Not in their hands, no, but close enough to be grabbed and used if needed. First step, get rid of them....

The other Shonokin – she counted eight, making thirteen total – crouched around a trio of containment circles with strange inscriptions within and without. Like the ones Luna had shown her in Dream, the conjuring circles the sorcerer Dee had used to summon and attempt to contain Nightmare Moon. Double circles woven together with one marked in Old Equestrian; she couldn't see or sense the containment dome that arced above them, but she knew they had to be there. Reinforced by the eight Shonokin crouching and chanting around them, positioned in reinforcing node locations.

“I almost do recognize those,” Ruby whispered beside her, her voice shivering like leaves blowing over her grave. “Luna did once show them to me in a book she kept locked away. 'Twere used for binding and holding beings of worlds beyond Equestria, that they may work no ill.”

“Like conjure magic,” John whispered from her other side, pointing at the containment wards. “The Shonokin aren't taking the least chance with your friends, Twilight.”

Six equine forms lay hobbled and staked out in the three circles.

One for Princess Luna, wings tied down, spread-hooved between four stakes, mouth muzzled, head tossing. Moonlight erupted from her horn, fizzling into nothing before it could splash against the containment dome.

She's weakened? Too weak to break the containment? No! Anti-magic grounding, like a horn-ring restraint but wrapped within the wards!

One for Pinkie Pie, wrapped in ropes like Daring Do being toted off by Pony-eating Puckwudgies, mane and tail half-poofed. She lay quietly, then lifted her head and for a moment stared right at the woodpile and Twilight. Her mane poofed a bit, and Twilight saw her smile through her gag.

And a third for the other four, trussed up and piled together in a heap.

“You ruffians have no idea how much trouble you are in!” Rarity neighed at the top of her lungs, fighting her bonds and tossing her head like a Canterlot noblemare. A similarly-tied Fluttershy pressed shivering against her, a bag over her head. Twilight had to smile at the idea that even the fearsome Shonokin were taking no chances with the Stare.

“Silence the beast,” the lead Shonokin ordered from where he stood, amulet glittering blood-crimson in his grip. A Shonokin rose and stepped into the containment circle; for a moment Twilight wondered how he did it. Their magic allows them to pass their wards? Caster not affected by his own casting?

“If Twilight or Spike were here – MMMMMMPH!” The Shonokin whipped a scarf over the unicorn's head and into her open mouth, gagging her like AJ & Dash. Rarity glared at the Shonokin, violet magic forming around her horn; the Shonokin hit her on the horn, fizzling the spell before it could form.

Weaker than Luna, even without the wards; we need to dispel all three and untie them all at once. She gulped. Nothing is ever easy, is it?

The Shonokin leaped back out of the containment circle, careful not to touch the pattern itself, and crouched with the semicircle of the others. From the way he moved – limping and holding one arm stiff – her friends hadn't let themselves be tamely hobbled. Rarity snorted after him, head high as an offended Thoroughbred, then lowered it and craned her neck around the shivering Fluttershy's.

“John,” she whispered to the human beside her, remembering the portal ward they'd cast on Zecora's threshold those years ago, ”If we smudge or disrupt those circles, would that dispel the wards?”

He nodded; Twilight's wings rustled.

Okay; charge out airborne, land trampling the containment circles – no, TK something into them... Luna first, then the others... Wait! Where's the Nightmare?

“The ritual is about to begin,” The Shonokin leader called as he stood out in front of the others; one hand clutching his amulet, the other raised over his head clutching that knapped-stone knife of his. It looked longer than it's dream-version as he moved it over his head in what had to be a spell-pattern. “Years ago at Araby, Those We Serve were taken from us! By a human meddler, the accursed Thunstone!”

“Taken,” the crowd of Shonokin moaned in their eerie echoing voices.

Twilight mantled her wings and glanced at John.

He shook his head no just the tiniest bit.

“We were cheated of their Power, their wisdom, their guidance,” the leader chanted, shaking his hands high in emphasis. “Our people are scattered and weakened, our leaders felled by the usurping savages and their allies summoned against us,” he stabbed the knife at the ponies. “But no longer! Tonight we have an ally, one who will return Those We Serve from their exile, who will restore the power and rule that is rightfully ours!” He raised the knife in a ceremonial gesture. “Come, O Terrible One!”

A midnight-blue mist glittering with stars rose from the shadows, coalescing into the shape of a full-sized Alicorn Major made of shadow and Night. A low hissing cheer went through the Shonokin like a pit full of snakes as the form shimmered and solidified into a familiar silhouette – the Tantabus, Nightmare Moon. The shimmering sparkles migrated to its ethereal mane and tail, turning them into sparkling cloud.

Beside Twilight, Ruby shivered at the sight.

“Luna, dearest of friends,” her voice quavered. ”Is this what became of thee?” She turned her gaze to the Shonokin, and for a second her form seemed to be fiery bones. Her voice rasped, “Is this what these have made of you?”

The star-filled shadow-mane and tail streamed like chimney smoke in a breeze, though the air was still. Then two turquoise dragon/Shonokin eyes opened in the darkness of the face and the Royal Canterlot Voice boomed over all Chorazin.

“LOYAL SERVANTS! TRUSTED ALLIES!” Nightmare Moon neighed, sounding louder then ever compared to the whispering Shonokin speech. She held her head high, proud and majestic, turquoise eyes flashing like the Shonokins' as she looked them over. Twilight wondered if she sneered for a second before saying, “TONIGHT WE SHALL ALL RECEIVE OUR DUE!”

One can only hope, Twilight thought.

“I shall take my revenge on the traitors that thought they defeated me,” she snorted and pointed her long horn at the ponies in the containment wards, “as well as on my weaker half, who sought to cast away her Stronger Self.” Her horn pointed directly at Luna, who writhed against her hobbles and gag and wards at those words, a fizzled blast of moonlight outlining her containment dome before dissipating. The Nightmare smiled, showing fangs. “And I shall do so by bringing back from the darkest realms of Dream, where they yet live within thy minds, THOSE YE SERVE!” She flared her wings wide as she cried out, their shadow falling over the ponies.

Ruby whispered beside Twilight.

“Luna... No...”

“Ruby!” Twilight hissed back at her. “Not yet!”

The ghost-mare shivered and twitched as with a fever, her golden eyes locked on the Nightmare.

“Wait,” John's voice whispered from Twilight's other side. “Miss Ruby, wait.”

“For what?” Ruby hissed back. “For them to be slain as I was?”

“He's right,” Twilight whispered back. “Nopony is dead yet..” Except you. “We wait until they're too far along to pull out, when they have to put all their attention into channeling the magical energy, then we charge in and break the spell!” And let all that built-up energy backfire onto them.

Ruby stayed silent. Twilight hoped that meant assent.

“YE THOUGHT ME DEFEATED BY THE ELEMENTS!” the Nightmare neighed at the six ponies prisoned in the containment wards. “LEAVING ONLY THY MEMORIES OF ME!” She stepped towards Luna, pointing with hoof and horn.

“Now Thou shalt be only a memory of mine as I take claim of first this world, then Equestria! And as many more as my allies can open for my Night that Lasts Forever!”

The Shonokin leader looked annoyed as he waited for the Tantabus to finish; then as she rejoined him he turned and motioned at the tower behind him, holding his stone knife before him as he bowed to the broken fang of stone. All twelve others bent the knee with him, the eight in “normal” garb resuming their atonal chant as he rose and turned back to them.

“Let the Worship begin,” he pronounced, his voice so deep and grave Twilight wasn't surprised to see Pinkie giggle through her gag where she lay. Even the Nightmare rolled her eyes.

Holding out his knife, the leader made the same spell gesture with it he did in Dream with his hand, drawing out a long vertical line then a horizontal one, crossing the first near its bottom.

John gave a brief start beside Twilight.

“What?”

Then she saw the half-smile on John's face, while on the commons Gaudy Robe stood and repeated the leader's gesture to the other three in Nightmare Night garb who still knelt before him.

“What that low-flung Shonokin is a-doing,” John whispered back, one hand reaching to the pocket where he kept that spellbook of his. “It's what some folks call a Black Mass. It's done by some folks to go a-praying to devils, what I reckon you called windigoes that one time. Foolish old ladies, mostly, and city folks who like to think they're doing something mighty scary. I'd have reckoned they'd be doing something more original than this.”

Wings flared and head held high, The Nightmare stood beside the Shonokin leader, a luminous blackness growing around her horn as he recited words she'd heard before in Dream.

“End without World… Forever and Now… Be shall ever it as… Beginning the in was it as… Glory the and Power the…”

Only now with John's explanation, she knew what it meant, and why it had sounded all twisted around the first time she'd heard it. They were reversing some sort of invocation to Harmony to appeal to spirits of discord. Parasitic “Magick” like Thorn's, leeching off the magical energy of beings outside their worldstream. Like us.

The chant grew with it, an atonal clashing. It sounded like anything but music to her, and to judge by the revolted looks on her friends' faces they felt the same.

Beside her John crossed two of his fingers and began whispering, just loud enough to be heard, “I, John, and those beside me, go on God's way today...” After he finished he took his guitar in his hands and softly stroked the silver strings, drawing the lightest of music from them. She understood what he was doing, and began softly singing the oldest song of Equestria she knew, Dream Valley. Ruby echoed it with her as best she could. A faint chill that had seemed to be settling on her faded as she sang against what she was hearing.

The clashing not-a-chant faded away; the Shonokin leader was talking to Luna and the bound ponies, as he'd tried to do with her in Dream when she'd been the helpless prey. Here, however, was no disguised Princess of Night to interrupt. Here was a Tantabus turned Nightmare to watch in approval, licking her lips and fangs.

“...Your friends and defenders stand before you,” the Shonokin leader sneered at Luna and the others, pointing at the four Shonokin in the bad Nightmare Night costumes before him, one after the other:

Tin Peytral with his toy sword, “The man of war and violence.”

Mortarboard Hat in his scholar's robe, “The man of learning and knowledge.”

Seedy Top Hat with his equally-seedy formal wear and cane, “The man of wealth and greed.”

And finally Gaudy Robe with the crozier-staff and tall mitred hat, “The man of faith and religion.”

“All four of them telling you lies about the world and your own importance in it. The Terrible One has told us what cravens your species is,” Nightmare Moon grinned, smug, “like the savages that stole our world from us. Let us see then if these four can defend you as well as they have defended humanity over the millennia. Let them stand against the Power of the Shonokin! Let them defend against Those We Serve!”

As he finished Nightmare Moon turned towards the tower, her long horn glowing darker, a faint whirlwind of dark energy flowing like grease through the still air to gather on its tip. Dark Magic, yes, but nothing like Sombra's or even Thorn's from years ago. This was something from an older and darker age, when great and alien beasts ruled over dead sea and withered land, slithering through poisonous muck under a blackened sky.

The tower darkened even further, like the moonlight was unwilling to illuminate it and its inhabitants.

The Shonokin leader ritually spat at the ground by his feet, passed the stone knife over the spot, then turned to the Nightmare.

“Now, O Terrible One. Those We Serve were long ago driven from this world, to live like ghosts in dreams. Let these be given to Them...” he swept the knife over the containment circles and their equine contents, “...and be Whole once more! Call them forth, with the Words of Power we taught you!”

The Tantabus began to speak, words hatefully familiar to Twilight.

“I MADE MY WISH BEFORE THIS! I MAKE MY WISH NOW! I NEVER SAW THE NIGHT MY WISH DID NOT COME TRUE!” Then not words but a litany of sounds, metallic and howling and clashing and never intended for any throat other than Shonokin. Sounds that burned in Twilight's head, lashed across her mind like a horsewhip.

The Nightmare reared, wings flared, fangs bared.

“BY THE BARBAROUS NAMES, BY THE NAME NOT TO BE UTTERED, I COMMAND IT!

A sudden wind arose, bending the grass and weeds, blowing bitter and cold towards the tower, scented with sickly-sweet spice mixed with grave dust.

“LET THE EARTH GIVE UP ITS DEAD! LET THE GROUND CAST FORTH THEIR BONES! LET THOSE WHO HAVE BECOME LESS THAN NIGHTMARES BE RESTORED! LET THOSE YE SERVE BE RETURNED...”

“LUNA! NO!”

And Ruby was off, leaping over the woodpile and galloping straight for Nightmare Tantabus.

HORSEAPPLES!

Twilight and John took one look at each other, then both were off after her.

He shot up with ash stick in hand and guitar across his back, charging around the end of the woodpile.

She reached out with her magic, snatched the stack of bolt-hurlers and sent the whole pile flying, vanishing into the darkness beyond reach of the moonlight. The Shonokin screamed as one, a reverberating screech pulsing from their throats.

Twilight screamed herself, the scream of a pony in full battle rage, and leaped over the woodpile, her wings catching her aloft as she shot like Rainbow Dash for the containment circles that held Luna and her friends. As she charged, her horn snatched a dozen and more split logs from the woodpile and she flung them at the Shonokin.

Prologue

Once upon a time, in the magical land of Equestria…

Prologue

Princess Twilight Sparkle dove onto the landing platform of the Sun Palace and the group of armored ponies standing there. She barely noticed them.

Canterlot spread out beneath her, a city of faience and ivory and gold, with most of the damage done by the usurper’s not brief enough reign already repaired. The assembled ponies, pegasus Royal Day Guards changing watches for the Canterlot air patrols, whinnied and scattered at the sight of the Equestria’s newest princess in such a hurry.

“Sorry! Sorry, everypony!” the purple Alicorn Minor raced through their midst, ears pinned and neck outstretched. She panted the words out, and they could smell the sweat from her hurried flight. “In! A hurry! Got to reach! The Princesses!”

“Highness!” One of them, an old scarred veteran with a gray coat, called. “What is it? What’s wrong?” He hesitated, and said, “It’s, it’s not Tirek again, is it?”

“Huh? No, not him! Much more important!” The words echoed back to them along the passage as Twilight raced down it, vanishing around a turn.

The assembled Guardsponies looked after her.

“More important than Tirek…?”

“Captain,” a lean young one said, a fledgling by the sheen of her armor and the eager gleam in her eyes, “Should we accompany her highness?”

“Accompany her?” Captain Long Spear just snorted. “Whatever she’s racing off for, if it’s more important than the monster that almost destroyed Equestria single-handed, it’s got to be something big. “ He took to the air, followed by the new patrol. “Much bigger than us, right now.”

The Day Guards took wing, wondering just what sort of disaster might be hovering over their city and homeland this time.

#

Twilight raced through the Sun Palace, her heart hammering. Ponies scattered from her path, their eyes rolling and ears down in shock. Some yelled after her, demanding either apologies or explanations. Others cut right to the chase and ran to hide, on the basis that whatever frightened the Conqueror of Tirek so badly, it was something that wanted no part of.

Sweat streaked her sides and she panted for air. Not as much as she once would have, as a unicorn or even when first turned alicorn, but she still lacked the full strength that Celestia and Luna possessed and that she would one day know. But even so, from the moment the message first reached her via Spike and sent her flying out over Ponyville and the countryside, taking just enough time to tell him to warn her friends, she’d pushed herself to the limit.

Can it really be true? Twilight warned herself against too much hope, despite what Luna’s message said, and what she hoped for. She barely heard her hooves clattering over the inlaid floor. Can she have really found – him?

Galloping through an alicorn-sized portal, she entered the Hall of Windows. Unlike much of the palace this was big enough for her to use her wings, so she did. Ponies pointed and neighed in surprise to see the savior of the realm flying by. Twilight preferred they would have looked at the windows. Even in her rush she glanced at a few as they passed by: Celestia defeating the seven great dragons, her and her friends defeating Nightmare Moon, the latest one of her and her friends against Tirek, and the two that never seemed to get finished, of a human with a silver-strung guitar and then that same human and the Element Bearers, them zapping a Nightstallion while he held off the undead ponies seeking to stop them.

Twilight fought down a small shiver as she passed it. She’d fought and beaten far worse than Thorn since then, but she’d never come that close to dying again. She hoped she never did, either.

Then past that and dropping to the carpeted floor as she raced into private quarters, set aside for high court officials with no homes or family close enough to dwell with them, the rare ambassador or royal guest, and of course the Princesses themselves. None of the servants here abased themselves. They were too used to seeing the Sun and Moon Incarnate to be impressed by any lesser alicorn.

Twilight looked ahead to see two thestrals of the Night Guard, bat-ponies in dark purple and blue barding, set themselves between her and the silver-inlaid ebony door she raced for.

“Halt! You may not pass! Her Nightjesty awaits a special guest! Oh, it’s you, Princess Twi – HAY!”

The flash of teleportation magic surrounded them and the two Night Guards reappeared several lengths off to the side. Which unfortunately set them right atop another pair of palace servants, a pair of the blond-maned white Earth pony mares who’d attended her at her coronation. Confused whinnies filed the air.

“Sorry, sorry!” Twi caught a glimpse of a helmet atop a blond mane, with four sets of confused eyes looking at her. “No time! Very important business! Must see Luna immediately!”

She reached out and her magic thrust the heavy doors open, before swinging them shut behind her. The hollow boom seemed muffled, maybe by the thick Saddle Arabian carpet underhoof, worked with designs in their language that praised the moon and beauty of the night sky. Or maybe by the thick dark blue and purple curtains that hung ceiling to floor, somehow shutting out even more of the early afternoon light than they should have, filling the room with darkness.

“Princess Luna?” Twilight trotted forward, feeling her hooves sink into the plush carpeting. She could just make out the symbols against the walls, ones used in astronomy for generations to represent the planets and stars. And of course the moon itself. Twi steered for a large desk in the center of the chamber. “Princess Luna? Is, is it true?”

Darkness waited around and behind the desk. Slowly two bright blue eyes appeared in it, lit from within, looking at her from behind that desk. Twi slowly became aware of the faint crackling sound, akin to that made by Celestia’s mane. Small sparks of light appeared near those eyes, seeming to drift slowly through some tiny nebula.

“Is what true, Twilight Sparkle?” the Alicorn Major of Night spoke again. The sternness in her voice melted into amusement. “It seems true that you have terrified the poor palace staff.”

“I’m sorry,” Twilight lowered her head. She took a moment to catch her breath and control herself. Then she looked up and straight into the eyes of she who was once Nightmare Moon to ask her question:

“Princess Luna,” she used the most formal High Equestrian speech she knew, “Is it true? Have you found John the Balladeer?”

Author's Note

Just a quick note here for everyone: this story is taking place a few weeks after the end of season 4 and the defeat of Tirek. All the events after that have yet to occur, so John won't be meeting the hippogriffs or Tempest Storm, sorry. I just wanted to be clear about that.

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Twilight looked up, shaking. Another human stood before her, tall and bundled up in dirty green clothing like the defenders on the ridge, pushing something that shone of steel and copper into the top of the long crossbow tiller he held until it seated with a metal-on-metal clack! Pouches and small metal pineapples hung from his belt; the familiar windburned face under that crestless round helmet looked younger, lacking some of the lines from the last time she’d seen him.

“J-John?”

“Twilight? Is that rightly you?”

“JOHN!” she neighed, all but leaping up at him to give her friend an embrace, fear and relief pouring through her. She tried to spread her wings for the leap and – “I’m so glad to see you I – wait! What the buck?”

John gave her a quick squeeze with one olive-clad arm, keeping his weapon ready in the other. “Howair did you get here? These are my dreams, and I didn’t ever want you or any other to see what I saw. How did you get here, your magic?” Out of the corner of her eye she caught him looking at her in curiosity as she craned her neck, looking at her back.

“No no no no no!”

“Whatair’s the matter?”

“My WINGS!” She almost yelled. Twilight quickly checked her magic reserves. It made no sense. She ‘felt’ the wings, but she didn’t see them. Like her Earth pony strength and endurance and connection to life. Still there but somehow unusable “Arrgh! How did that happen?”

“What are you a-talking about?” John rubbed his forehead in confusion. “You nair did have wings.”

She froze then as she remembered Luna’s words. This is John’s dream, not mine. He never saw me with wings, and right now he’s the one who set the ground rules here. I’ll have to explain what’s happened since last we met, and then I can get my wings and alicorn magic back…

Crack-BOOM!

Another blast like but not like fireworks that she felt as much as heard. Before she knew what happened John was lying atop her, pressing her down as soil rained down on them.

“Stick it up and get it shot off, that’s what they told me and they were surely telling the truth,” John slowly got up, weapon at the ready. “Let’s find ourselves some other place and I’ll find out what you-all are doing here, and I can tell you why I’d rather you weren’t.”

#

Tall human and small purple unicorn picked their way down a snow-filled gully between two jumbles of rocks. At least the rocks broke the wind. Somewhat.

“John?” Twilight kept down, wincing as she heard more of those bullets ricochet off the rocks around them. “Can we move now?” They passed another dead human lying in a red patch of snow, barely recognizable chopped meat in the remnants of a heavy winter uniform like John’s. She shuddered, willing herself not to run as the smell of blood and piss and carnivore scat burned her nostrils. Please, please say yes.

“I reckon it’s as safe as it’ll ever be,” John answered her. He took a quick peek and nodded. “No one about, not the Chinese nor yet those other fellows you told tell of.” He slipped out and motioned for her to follow, holding his prodless crossbow – no, rifle, he called it – at the ready just in case. Twilight hurried to follow him. She wished for perhaps the hundredth time that she still had her wings.

She couldn’t think of how long ago that was. Time seemed odd here, the way it often did in dreams. On one level she felt that days or longer had passed, that her life in Equestria and her friends there were never anything but a false happy dream. That her world had never been anything but bone-chilling cold and a horrid reek that combined bad eggs and a smell like a griffon butcher shop. All screams and mud and snow and unseen tiny crossbow bolts hissing through the air, ‘bullets’ and ‘shrapnel’, that cut people down all around her without warning. She knew it to be false, but a part of her insisted that this was the truth. And as soon as she accepted it, the sooner she’d grow up.

But those thoughts died when she looked at John. No, if I’d never known anything else, I wouldn’t remember him and how he helped us with in Equestria, three years ago. And even if it wasn’t true, I can never believe that this is all l there is to any world.

“John, how do we get out of here?” Twilight pulled her legs from the sucking mixture of mud and snow. They were beginning to feel tired. “This is something you remember, not that I’m suggesting anything. Isn’t there a way out?”

“We’d be out now if it were my wish,” he answered her. She remembered feeling confused at how he spoke before, but right now it reminded her of Applejack. She enjoyed hearing it. “I’ll be having some questions for you later, after we’re through this here place.”

He moved slow and careful, watching all around. It reminded her of a royal visit she’d undertaken to one of the Equestrian griffon aeries – Gregor’s Peak south of Vanhoofer, where the Everfree met the mountains. Out of respect, they’d taken her along hunting for a flock of perytons preying on their flockmates. Perytons were near-Pony in mind but cruel, loving to kill for killing’s sake. Those griffons acted the same way as John, going slow and wary because they knew something was out there hunting them while they hunted it. Of course there she’d been able to use her magic to catch the perytons and lock them away harmlessly. Here and now? She furrowed her brow and she pushed magic into her horn. A few purple sparks shot from the tip.

“I’m sorry I can’t be more help,” Twilight sighed as she followed John. A grin twitched at her muzzle. “I was hoping to come here and help you.”

“You are a help.” John reached back and gently patted her on the withers. “I didn’t want you to air see this, but a friend’s what I reckon I need right now. Whoair was that fancy-dressed fellow I saw you with, right afore I shot those fellows with him?”

“I don’t know,” Twilight said. She was about to say more when John froze and crouched behind the rocks they were moving past. By now she knew enough to do the same. She sensed them before she saw them, more of those men in the quilted coats with their prodless crossbows with the small stocks and metal drums hanging underneath. There were maybe half a dozen here.

As they passed John waited and then sighted on the last man in the line. Twilight closed her eyes but nothing could stop her from hearing six short sharp cracks. When she opened them John was pushing another “clip” into his rifle. Nearby, six still forms lay. Only when John was done did he move on past them without a backwards glance. Twilight followed, hurrying, her hooves clicking against a stray stone. She heard a crack at the sound and felt fire buzz along her back. Twilight whinnied and raced after John to the next patch of cover. She found him behind it, crouched and waiting. When she spoke she wished her voice sounded less brittle.

“John, I’m not sure, but I think one of those ‘bullets’ hit me.”

He looked at her in panic.

“What?!?” Before she could say anything, he was checking her back. She felt his hands running over her coat and winced as they touched something that gave a twinge. John just seemed to relax and showed her his hands. The slightest trace of crimson stained the olive knit gloves. “It’s no great thing, looks like a little piece of shrapnel gave you a scrape.” He exhaled and shivered. “Let’s be gone from here before its worse the next time.”

“John, before we go,” Twilight took him by the pants leg with one hoof. “I have to tell you about why I’m here.” He squatted down to listen. She lay on her belly and wondered why she shivered at cold when she knew it to literally be all in her mind. Or John’s, anyway. “I, I wanted to find you again. Princess Luna, I told you about her the last time we met?”

“The one you and the others healed back from being that Nightmare?”

“Yes,” Twilight nodded. She looked upwards. No moon or sun to see. Nothing but damp gray darkness above and death all around. Nightmare Moon would have loved it here. “She, she told me that she could feel you in your dreams as she drew closer to your world. That she felt something happening in them. Like somepony, several someponies, was after you.”

“She said the truth there,” John nodded. “I’ve been a-having this dream for weeks now, and trying to figure out whatair or whoair could be responsible for it getting the worse and worse air time I have it.”

“I know.” Twilight shuddered and went on. “Anyway, she led me here, both of us hoping to find you. We started to search and then, we, we saw humans that didn’t seem to belong.” She gulped at the memory. “They know that kind of magic Thorn used, but they used it as a herd. They, they almost turned Luna back into Nightmare Moon.” Twilight shivered at the memory, fought not to feel small and afraid. Like when she’d faced Sombra or Tirek, and stood when her equine hindbrain screamed to stampede and flee. “I don’t know if I should say this, but they didn’t feel like humans, like you or other friends I’ve made elsewhere. They felt weird. They looked weird, too.”

“Looked weird?” John looked wary, but not surprised. “Howair did they look weird to you?”

“Well, they looked like humans, to me anyway, but not exactly. Like a donkey or zebra to an Earth Pony, or a Changeling who couldn’t manage a perfect shapeshift.” Twilight tried using magic to make an image of them. What resulted was so wavy and distorted she dispelled it with a snort of disgust. “They wore clothes like the one you saw after me, and all of them with long black manes and eyes like a dragon’s.”

“Like Spike’s, you mean?” John drew a circle in the snow and traced a line from top to bottom. A rising sense of recognition seemed to be in his voice. “A slit running up and down the middle?”

“Yes! And their hands were odd. They have claws like a cat, and…”

“And the third finger is just that much longer than the others?”

“That’s right!” Twilight felt her heart sink at the look of fear in his face. “You know them?”

John didn’t answer at first. He just looked out from their little hiding spot again, like he expected something to pounce.

“I reckon I rightly do,” he said, his voice cold. “Yes, I surely do believe I know the Shonokin, and wish to all that’s good I didn’t air hear the name.”

#

“Tall and lean and with slit-pupil eyes and claws like a cat’s, and they use the baddest bad magic.”

That’s what Twilight Sparkle told me there in those dream-rocks in dream-Korea, and asked me if I knew them. I do, and I wish I didn’t, and I’ll tell you the reason why.

A few years ago I went to sing at this show a group of people, these Shonokin though I didn’t know that right then, were a-doing. The leader of those Shonokin, a fine-talking fellow named Brooke Altic, liked how I played and how I knew the old songs I’ve loved and learned air since I was a wee tad. He offered me to go and speak to powerful men like Congress and the President, to get what he called to be justice for his folk, for them to get back air thing that they say they lost to us, to human men and women. Might could be it is justice for the Shonokin. The problem is, it’d be injustice for airy other person in the world. They see air thing as being theirs and still being theirs, and meant to take it all for their own selves. When I said them no, Brooke Altic a-tried to use force on me and the folks I was helping, some fellow from up North named Jackson Warren who’d faced them aforetimes with that other John, John Thunstone from New York. And Mister Grey and his daughter Callie. She shone on Warren and him to her. The Shonokin wouldn’t let up the once, and turned from asking to a-trying to bribe to trying their best to kill us all. And not just Shonokin either, but lowflung human men and women who’d taken money to do their dirty work for them. The Shonokin don’t like humans the least bitty bit, but they need us to a-do their dirty work for them.

Firstly, because there’s nair such a thing as a female Shonokin. Or if there are, they hide themselves somewhere.

And second, they pure down fear the sight of their own dead more than air other thing. When I saw a Shonokin that tried to shoot Mister Grey get shot dead his own self, his own folk flung him away rather than even try to help. Wouldn’t even go near the grave where I a-tried burying him. And when later they tried first a-burning and then a-blowing down Mister Grey’s house where we holed up against them, and failed, when we killed Brooke Altic they all ran away from that place and from that abandoned town they’d taken for their own. And I’d nair seen nor heard of them since.

Until now.

Air way, that’s how I told it to Twilight Sparkle right there hidden among those rocks where neither bullet nor bomb could reach us. I did it right quick, too. I didn’t know if we’d be found by any Chinese soldiers a-using around, or if they could even rightly hurt us, were rightly even alive the way Twilight and I were, but I didn’t want to go taking that risk. So I told it and Twilight listened and asked smart questions, the way I’d thought she would.

“If the Shonokin fear their own dead, why are they here, in this?” She pointed her horn up. We heard the thunder-rumble of explosions and the chatter-chatter of those burp guns the Chinese carried. She flinched less than before, and said, “Can’t this awful place kill them the same way it can us?”

“I don’t rightly know, but I doubt it,” I told her. “They’d not risk their own selves that way. The Shonokin aren’t rightly cowards but they won’t take chances that they can help. If they’re here, then they’re safe from airy other things here. Aside from the two of us.”

“Yes.” Twilight looked at my gun. “That makes sense.” She shook her head and snorted like any angry old horse. “I wish Princess Luna was still here! She knows more about dreams and warfare than I do. But these – Shonokin – almost turned her back into Nightmare Moon. And after fleeing like that, it’ll take her time to relocate this dream.”

“And if she can rightly get in,” I tapped my head. “I’ve got ways of protecting against nasty spells and sendings. Leastways I thought so afore the Shonokin started their tricks.”

“I saw about a dozen of them. All working together, as a herd.” Twilight said like some teacher lady. Her horn glowed and she drew with it like chalk against the flat brown side of one of the rocks. A frown went over her face. “Like what my friends and I did when we used the Elements all those times. They are strong; they had the strength to overcome Luna.”

“They might just have made her see something she was afeared to see,” I responded her. Lacking anything else to do, I bespoke her while I stripped and checked my rifle to make sure it was ready to be used. I remember once wondering if I’d done that with my gun so often I could do it in my sleep. I reckon I got my answer there, for I did it. “They might not be so strong as you say she is, just the quicker to shoot and the nastier.”

I slammed a new clip into my rifle, just to be ready. More bullets whipped around overhead. Neither of us ducked now. I felt the least bit sad to see how used Twilight was getting to all this. Some folks argue about if ladies should be a-going to war or not. I heard both sides tell their whys and why nots, and all I can say is if I had my choice wouldn’t nobody air go to any war air again, man or woman; and sometimes it don’t matter much if you plan to go and fight at all. Sometimes the fight comes and finds you.

“I hope so,” Twilight said. She and I looked out and saw no one near. We a-started to head out and then froze. For a voice spoke, cutting through all the noise about us, and we both knew it for no friendly voice.

“Silver John,” it said, with that funny whispery sound I remember Shonokin voices having. Like the words we use don’t fit their mouths right.

“Silver John,” that soft whispery thing came over us again, like a snake crawling over a blanket you slept under. “Do you know who we are, and what we will do to you?”

“I reckon I rightly do,” I answered it back. It might have been foolishness other times to let a fellow planning to be killing you know right where you were, but I figured them Shonokin for a-finding me whatair I did to hide. “You’re Brooke Altic’s people. You’re a-coming after me for revenge, for what I did to stop him and those others at Immer from doing to Mister Grey and Callie and Jackson.”

“You admit your guilt,” that voice hissed at me.

“I reckon I rightly admit to stopping him, but it was another person that shot him dead,” I called back. I slipped out, saw nobody about, motioned for Twilight to follow. She did. I heard her little hooves clipping against the stones. “I didn’t kill him, but I can say I don’t rightly feel much sorrow that it happened.”

“You admit your guilt, in killing one set high among us,” they answered me back. I wondered me how close they were. They sounded close, and with how Shonokin felt like men were just stray dogs to them, I figured they’d want to be close to be a-watching me in case I ran. Not that I meant to. “You did not kill yourself, but his blood is still on your hands. We must avenge the deaths of our own kind, if we wish to be proud before --" He hesitated like he wondered what to say. "Before those we serve.”

I wondered myself about that. I remember Brooke Altic telling me that nair Shonokin born believed in souls, or Heaven or Hell either. Did they have something or Someone they made prayers to?

“You shall die for that,” the Shonokin said. He didn’t sound angry or sad or happy. He said it like he was a-talking about the weather. “You shall die, and one more obstacle will be gone. We will kill you.”

“No you won’t!” Twilight yelled those words. I wanted to tell her to be quiet but she said more. “You chased Princess Luna away, but I’m still here!”

“It is the beast,” another Shonokin voice said, I think. It sounded maybe the least but younger than the first one. “We shall kill it if it interferes.”

“You just try,” I answered them back as I slipped over the rocks, headed for where I figured the edge of the battlefield might be. I was a-leading Twilight and myself to safety, I hoped. “Try it, and you’ll have a lavish of trouble, more than you might could care for.”

“Beast, leave,” that first voice said again. “We have better things to do than slaughter a stupid, stinking animal.”

Snort!

I tell you all, you should have been there to see how Twilight pinned her ears back. What looked like purple lightning played along her horn, but she sounded calm, mostly, when she answered them back.

“Creatures,” she said, and we both grinned to hear the sudden angry splutter from the Shonokin we still couldn’t see. “I will have you know this. I am a Princess of Equestria; student of Celestia Solaria Invicta, Princess of the Sun; friend and ally of Luna Selena Nocturne, Princess of the Moon; sister-by-marriage to Mi Amore Cadenza, Princess of the Crystal Empire; and Bearer of one of the Elements of Harmony.” Twilight set her legs wide like she stood against something. “I am the one who defeated Nightmare Moon! Who rebound Discord, Lord of Chaos! Who found the Crystal Heart and dispelled the ghost of King Sombra after a thousand years of exile! Who cast down Tirek the Destroyer after he defeated Celestia and Luna and Cadence!” She took a deep breath, and I wondered myself that she’d nair told me any of this afore. “I declare here and now by Sun and Moon that this man, John the Balladeer of Earth, is under my protection! And I will NOT allow him to be slain or hurt! IS! THAT! CLEAR!”

I reckon I gopped to hear all that. She just stood her ground and waited for the echoes of what she’d said to fade away. I wondered myself what the Shonokin were a-thinking on what she said.

We learned right the next moment.

“A beast is still a beast,” that voice said, a-sounding bored. “No matter what airs it gives itself. And we fear not you or your princesses; bring them all, and we will destroy or defeat them as we did the one with you.” It turned hard and mean then as it said, “All those who stand with the enemies of the Shonokin will die with them. Like this.”

A mighty roar rose like what I reckon Joshua’s folks must have heard when the walls came tumbling down.

I looked. Twilight looked.

We saw, well, I can’t rightly call it a charge. More like an ocean’s worth of Chinese a-rushing at us like what they call a tidal wave, ready to wash over us and sweep us away like nothing. What few fellows I saw in American colors either ran or tried to fight until that wave went over them and crushed them down beneath it.

Right the same moment the sun came down on our faces.

I looked up and froze when I saw the clouds parting overhead, and I knew what was a-going to happen.

I grabbed Twilight and pulled her after me best I could as I ran. I figure she must have been either the lighter in that dream or I was the stronger, for she came along easy enough.

“John! What the hay?”

“Not supposed to happen,” I tried explaining and running both at the once. “Not yet. Not for another couple of days. The storm didn’t die down and Navy Air come to help us out until we were all a-running for the south.”

“What?” She yelled at me and squirmed, trying to pull away. I saw how she looked at the battlefield, all spread out around us, dead and living men, snow and rock and ice, and as high overhead as hope of Heaven those navy-blue wings with silver napalm bombs a-dropping from them –

“I want to know what’s going on!”

“No you don’t!” I yelled at her. “Now run like you nair ran aforetimes, else you nair will again!”

She gave me a confused look but what she saw must have convinced her, for she set her head down and ran.

#

Twilight wondered if John had lost his mind. First those nasty voices, threatening her, threatening him, mocking the Princesses, and now this? Running from those weird birds?

No, not birds. Tiny winged airships shooting overhead roaring like attacking dragons, dark as Princess Luna and fast as Rainbow Dash. Something, many somethings dropping from them, two per airship. Somethings like silver eggs with pointed ends, tumbling from those straight blue wings, right for that wall of soldiers charging them.

Twilight caught the sparkle of the sunlight on them coming through the thinning storm clouds and thought them oddly pretty.

They landed around and among those onrushing soldiers.

“Don’t you look, Twilight! You don’t want to see this!”

“Why?” She asked just as the tumbling silver eggs hit and a wave of heat like dragon’s breath slammed against her and the herd of charging men just – vanished – in a storm of dragonfire.

The cry of the bugles turned to screams like all of Canterlot or Manehattan slain at once. Another roar overhead; more dragonfire, like an entire dragon migration breathing down on Canterlot. Then another roar and still more dragonfire, filling the valley. Those screams choked off except for one right in her ear, and she realized it was her own scream.

And over it all a reek of sulfur and burning meat. A burning so great the entire world became ashes.

The heat turned the snow and stone beneath her hooves to slush, no, water, heating them so they felt like the floorboard of a house, but wet. No, not a house, but a boat. In warm water, uncomfortably so, with a sour organic smell.

“Twilight?” She blinked at the sound of that voice. Like John, but – young? “Twilight?” It spoke again. She felt someone grip her around the neck in a hug. “Thank all there is that you’re still here!”

“John?” She blinked to see a human, like John but so young, younger even than the human fillies and colts she’d seen at Canterlot High. His clothes looked raggedy and he looked scrawny. They were in a flatboat, somewhere at night. Four torches glowed at the corners, issuing forth a smoky light that showed a half-drowned Everfree Forest rising around them, branches grasping for them like ghostly griffon talons. Somepony else was in the boat with them, a large pig-like human with something like a pitchfork in their hands, but with only two tines. “John? Where the hay are we?”

Before he could speak the figure with that fork raised the butt of it and smacked her over the head with it. She whinnied at the pain and glared.

“Yore in mah boat, that’s wheres!” The fork was reversed and she gulped to find those wickedly sharp tines hovering uncomfortably close to her eyes. Behind them, a large and hefty human glared at her, beady eyes blazing like the torches. “And if’n y’all don’t like it, then you an’ Johnny both can git out right now!” The fork – she recognized it as a fish gig like the Grovers’ Peak griffons used – thrust closer.

“Or I can have you for dinner tonight ‘stead!”

#

A well-muscled purple dragon sat back and smiled as a marshmallow unicorn cuddled him atop a pile of gems and gold. Nearby lay a golden-maned and loutish-looking unicorn, along with several Diamond Dogs and assorted other monsters. Their eyes rolled in different directions as they laid senseless.

“Oh my precious little Spikey-Wikey,” Rarity husked out, “It was so brave of you to defeat all those dreadful monsters that wanted to do awful, vile things to me!” She reached into her saddlebag and pulled out a Fire Heart Ruby, letting it dangle before his eyes. “And here’s a little something to show my appreciation.” Spike licked his scaly lips and reached out, but stopped when Rarity set a hoof on his chest.

“But first,” she said, a lovely smile on her lips, “First, I want a kiss from the bravest and most heroic dragon in all Equestria!”

She leaned in close and Spike followed suit, her lovely flowery scent caressing him as she pressed close – and yelled into his ear in Luna’s Royal Canterlot Voice.

“SPIKE THE DRAGON! AWAKE IMMEDIATELY!”

“GAHHHHH!”

Spike almost leaped out of his small bed, belching dragonfire. Green fire that materialized into a scroll bound with a blazing crimson ribbon.

He groaned as the dream faded into mists in the early morning light coming in through the windows of Twilight’s crystalline castle, his belly reminding him that breakfast was still on the to-do list. Then his eyes focused on the scroll, recognized the Emergency Ribbon. Slit pupils went wide. “Woah, what’s this?”

He tore the scroll open and read it; a moment later a scaly purple missile shot out the front door of the castle and across the West Pasture, racing for Ponyville.

Sweet Apple Acres is closest, but it’s not applebuck season so Applejack will probably be in town eating breakfast at Sugarcube Corner, it’s Spa Day so Fluttershy will be there with Rarity – Celestia knows where Dash is! He thought who to go for first and decided.

AJ first, I know where she is and she’s best at this kind of thing, she can help get everypony else together. If she’s not with Pinkie, hit the South Road for Sweet Apple Acres, and the Spa’s right on the way….

He glanced north as he ran for Ponyville; on the horizon, Canterlot gleamed in the morning light astride Mount Epona.

“I’ll get everypony, Twilight,” he gasped out in promise to his sister, “And then we’re all gonna save you!”

“Somehow!”

Chapter 19

We went on further into those woods, under those dark trees that pressed in and around and over us like they hated to be having us there. I’ve known many a deep dark woods in my time, but mighty few as unfriendly feeling as that one. ‘Cept maybe for that first night in the Everfree.

“John?” Twilight spoke up aside me where we walked. “That bear we saw, that wasn't normal for here, was it?”

“Not airy way I can ever remember seeing or hearing the telling of,” I answered her. “That bear looked to be the biggest I've air seen, even back when I visited you ponies. It minds me of what some science lady told me once, about how there used to be creatures like that bear, and the biggest of big cats, and wolves and even elephants and more all through the hills and the rest of the land, long afore Indians or white men air did live here.”

“The Shonokin said they were here before the earliest humans,” Twilight responded me back, picking her way along right careful. “They told me they fought monstrous creatures before humanity came here. Maybe that bear was one of them?”

“It didn't feel right,” Fluttershy added in, sounding like she worried and wondered at once. “Not like the animals here or back in Equestria.”

“John, Twilight, I beg pardon for interrupting,” Rarity turned and looked over her withers at us. “But if that bear was from ages long gone, then how could the Shonokin bring it here? Or Nightmare Moon? She can't travel in time, can she, to bring back extinct creatures?”

“Maybe they didn't all die out,” I remembered things I'd been told by Chief Manco and others. “Might be they live off in the lonely places, steep valleys or deep caves or places humans folks nair go to and come back to tell of. Or it might could be like what educated folks have told me, how some things scared the earliest human folks so bad that they went deep down into a part of airy person's mind you nair think of until something bad reminds you of it. The collective unconscious, I think Chief Manco called it. You ponies told me that Nightmare Moon can reach down into your dreams and show you what scares folks the most. Maybe if she can do that, the Shonokin showed her how to take some of those things out and make them be real again.”

I saw a shiver run along the sides of the ponies at what I said, like any nervous or scared horse.

“There are similar theories about ponies,” Twilight said, and didn't sound happy to be saying it. “I wonder what the Tantabus can pull from our heads?”

“We can always hope she tries Dashie first,” Pinkie said, not the least airy bit scared sounding. “She doesn't have enough room in her head to be afraid of anything.”

“You're darn right I don't have the room –” Dash kind of preened herself to hear that, right afore she snorted. “Hay!”

They all whickered a sort of horsey laugh at that, even Dash after a second. Even I smiled over what Pinkie said. When we went along those trees didn't seem quite so scary or dark as a few moments afore. I wondered me if that was why Pinkie said what she'd said. She minded me about stories of tricksters like Till Eulenspiegel or Coyote that the Indians tell of, clever and full of jokes but thinking a sight more than folks would air suspect. I hoped so; we needed each last bit of help we could get right then.

We stepped careful as we went along, mindful of making too much noise stumbling through the brush. Not that there was much brush to worry about here. No surprise not to find smaller plants under big trees in the woods, but these pines were still scattered enough that there ought to be some. Unless someone came in here and cleaned it all out. Only whoair was there to be doing that, away out here from air human being? I could imagine who or what, but right then I preferred not to.

The trees around us started to look stranger too, too big and thick even for an untouched piece of woods. The lumber companies haven't been into every bit of the mountains yet, I'm glad to say, but these trees looked like they must have been growing since afore the first human men and women ever were. They were tall, tall and thick, thick. Wide as a decent size house through the middle. I wondered me if I saw what looked like doors set into some of those trees. And if there were doors there, maybe someone watched from inside? And what if they just threw those doors open when we walked past, maybe came out a-chasing us? It was noways a comfortable thought.

“Look,” Twilight said as we passed one, the bark so twisted and thick it looked like an angry deep-wrinkled face. “Doesn't that look like a door? But no doorknob or strap. Whatever's in there can get out, but nopony can get in.”

“Maybe it just leaves the door open when it goes out,” I said to her. “Might could be they're just friendly that way.”

“Maybe,” Twilight said to me, but she didn't sound air more convinced than myself. “John, aren't we getting close to Chorazin by now?”

“Since I nair was there afore, I can't rightly say. Maybe Dash or Applejack would know?” Twilight nodded me and looked to both of them.

Applejack just snorted.

“Who could tell through all these here trees? We been walking a while, that's all I know.” She frowned and stomped her forehooves, gentle against the ground, like she was testing something. “I remember we went upwards a ways before going over a little rise where the trees ended, an' Chorazin was at the bottom of it. If Dash could fly, she could get over the trees and tell us more.”

We all looked on Dash then. She crouched and tried to spread her wings through the bandages, then her face twisted.

“No good,” she folded up her wings right carefull. She stood aside Rarity and Fluttershy who both took a look at her wing. Dash let them, but she looked unhappy to be doing it. “Dangit! I can't wait to get home and get my wing fixed. The crazy magic in this world won't allow it. Or does it?” She and the other ponies looked on me all hopeful.

“Ladies, I purely wish I could fix that and airy other wrong thing,” I held up my hands, “but all I know are some little tricks. I can't even imagine who you'd have to get to help with something like that, at least not anyone who'd set a price you could live with afterwards.” I didn't say all the truth there. I knew some people who might could have fixed Dash's wing, but they weren't ones I wanted to know about these ponies or Nightmare Moon or Equestria. Most of them were bad enough; they'd be even badder with more magic to use. “But if Dash can't fly up and see what's around these trees, what about you, Miss Fluttershy?”

“M-me?” Her voice shivered near as much as she did. She looked up wide-eyed at the trees, rising all about like walls. “I... I wasn't a very good flier even back home. I haven't even been able to lift off here. And flying around trees this thick is never a good idea anyway...”

“She's right,” Dash said and sounded unhappy. She nodded her head, tossing her fancy-colored mane. “That's one of the first lessons pegasus foals get taught. Don't fly through a forest, fly over it.”

“Y-yes,” Fluttershy swallowed. “But I can't fly in this world. Not for more than a second or two.”

Twilight stepped up to her. “No need, Fluttershy,” she spread her own wings out wide. “I can do it myself.”

“You're going to need a running takeoff,” Dash bespoke. “Check for a clear runway, ten-twenty lengths, with an opening above.” She pointed with one forehoof. “Like there.”

Twilight walked out into the middle of the little cleared area we stood in, where Dash was pointing, and spread her wings even wider.

“Line up on that opening and aim for it, full gallop,” Dash pointed up with foreleg and head. “You'll need full power on the wings. And don't slow down for anything. It's nothing like Equestria; you can't glide here, or relax for a minute once you're airborne.”

Twilight reared and charged down that path like an airplane down a runway. Her wings beat hard, blowing leaves and needles and litter everywhere with a kind of soft sound like a heavy snow falling. I caught a glimpse of the effort on her face,and minded me what Twilight and the other said afore about how only their Elements gave them the strength to be doing here what came normal to them back home. Then she was up and gone, flying atween those branches close enough to touch them. A few pine needles came down on us.

“Now what?” Pinkie Pie said, planting herself down right there and looking skywards after Twilight.

“Now we wait,” Applejack said, sitting herself right down aside her. “It can't take long. Twi only has ta take a look --”

A sudden bellow up high above, like a big angry bull, but more shrill. And right after that, a yell that was half a scream from Twilight.

“Twi!”

Maybe one or maybe all of us called that, but whoair did, we couldn't see air bit of what happened above.

#

The pine needles scratched lightly at Twilight as she cleared the heavy branches. She almost imagined they snatched at her. That thought brought a snort from her. If Nightmare Moon and the Shonokin could do that, they wouldn't have bothered with anything else they'd used so far. Then she gulped. Nightmare Moon had once tried preciselythat.

She still stayed wary as she flew between the trees, keeping her eyes focused on the small bit of open sky above. One last hard wingbeat and she was through, seeing a near endless sea of sharp-tipped green all about her. More wingbeats and she found herself free of those trees and looking down as she climbed for altitude. All around her the forest stretched off to near infinity, bounded by low and rounded mountains. Here and there a thin silvery trail of a river or stream ran through it. The bright yellow glow of a town showed off in the distance by a cleft in the mountains – Sky Notch, doubtlessly. Ahead of her, about a dozen furlongs away, she could see a high natural rock wall, scarred and pitted from mining, like there were cave mouths in it, lit by that weird blue-green almost fungal glow she remembered from before. She strained her hearing, but not even the ghost of a sound came through her wingbeats and she didn't dare stop and glide. All the same a forbidding aura seemed about the place.

Not far to Chorazin, then, she realized. I'll go back down and tell the others. We seem headed in the right direction. With luck we only need another hour to go. She looked at the sky, noting the moon's position with some worry. It was approaching the zenith. What John would called the middlemost hour of night, probably. When the Shonokin and Nightmare Moon will, she gulped, will take all of Luna's remaining power. Except that we're going to stop them.

Somehow.

She started as a sound came from somewhere high above her. A deep, heavy rolling gong-gong-gong. She looked around in confusion. What was a bell, an especially massive one too by the deepness of that sound, doing up here? It reminded her of something else. Something John told her once?

She flew higher, trying to find where that noise came from. Below her she could see the pine trees stretching on, a deep sea of vivid poisonous green needles. She shuddered at the thought and wondered what sort of predators might swim in such a sea, hoped she wouldn't find out.

Gong-gong. She flicked an ear in annoyance. Still nothing to be seen, but that bell, or whatever, sounded closer now. Like it was moving. Less metallic too, but then her attention was claimed by something flying below her. At first she thought it was a bird, but no. Its form was flat and vaguely circular, like a large plate or the stingrays she'd seen in aquariums and that one visit to the Sea Ponies' Aquastria back home, First one, and then two others flying behind it in vague formation. They looked pale against the treetops, and didn't really seem to fly. More like they skimmed through the air.

Again up above: gong-gong-gong.It sounded somehow eager now. That tolling –

Twilight suddenly froze as a memory rose to the surface of her mind. Stories John told her and her friends years ago about some of the magical beasts of his world, ones very few had ever seen and lived to tell of. Like the Skim, which looked like some sort of plate and skimmed through the air. Or the Toller, the largest thing that flew, that made a sound like a gigantic bell to tell other creatures their food was near.

Food. Meaning ME!

The three Skims below suddenly turned and rose towards her, moving as fast as any pegasus she'd ever seen. Only now did she see the long tails whipping out behind them, studded with what looked like spikes. The Skims stayed between her and the forest, flying upwards with silent and deadly hunger.

Gong-gong!

Twilight remembered every lesson Rainbow Dash gave her, set her wings back sharply, mentally marked the spot where she'd flown up through the canopy, and flew for her life. Remember what Dash taught you: when being chased, if you can't dive, fly and dodge!

Except she couldn't maneuver, not like she could back in Equestria. It was like the first couple times she'd tried out her wings after her Ascension, with Rainbow Dash coaching and snarking. A strange sort of whirring noise filled her ears even over the whipping of the air past them and the Skims were on her.

A long tail lashed at her face. Twilight pulled up short, caught a terrible image of long black spines that dripped something clear. A drop struck her leg and she cried out at the sudden sharp burn. Poison!

Gong-gong, the Toller called above.

Twilight tucked her wings and dropped as far as she dared, in an evasion dive, barely recovering in time to keep clear of the canopy. It wasn't easy; she glided like an Earth Pony.

The Skim that tried striking from below flew past her, its second tail lash missing as it struck where she'd been. She caught a glimpse of pale, almost fungous hide, small black eyes like marbles, and the long fin-like wings down its sides rippling as it flew. She lashed out with her forehooves and gave a cry of disgust as she hit it solidly. It gave under her blow like heavy wet clay, her hooves leaving impressions in it. The Skim rolled over away through the air as its two companions flew above her and dove, tails curled to strike.

Okay, that's it.

Twilight called on her magic. It felt like a tickle in her horn here, more potent than earlier than but still nothing like back home. Her wings ached as she climbed towards the two diving on her, closing head-on, letting the speed of their attack dive close the range.

Have to get in close. Too close.

She blasted at the two monsters. One was hit and dropped away, flaring up and burning away like paper in a fire. The second dodged and came at her. She caught a glimpse of its underside, worm-soft and ridged like a wood louse. A slobbering arachnid-like hole lined with inward-curving fangs showed, the teeth grinding together and hungry for her flesh.

Twilight shuddered and barely dodged as it flew past, throwing herself into a roll, hindhoof lashing out to clip its tail. The severed length went falling away to the trees below, burning into ash as it went. The Skim shuddered, turned and flew at her. Twilight reversed, letting the ground pull her into the split-S Dash had taught her for a quick U-turn, dropping enough to get below it as it closed. Passing underneath, she gave it a blast. Purple light sheared through it and the Skim collapsed into itself and vanished.

She wheeled and saw the last Skim racing for her. Now she knew what to expect. It flew in stabbing with its barbed tail until her spellbolt took it right down the middle. It blazed up and was gone.

“Twilight!”

She looked down and saw John and Applejack and the rest, barely visible through the trees. She dropped closer, heard the rest of their yell.

“Twilight, are you alright?”

“I'm fine!” She waved and called back down, pointing with her forehoof. “I can see the mountainside ahead that's right outside of Chorazin, and the mine openings in it. We're almost there!”

“We heard you yelling,” John called to her. “Is whatair caused that gone now?”

“Pretty much,” Twilight answered, circling them just above the treetops; hovering ate too much strength and endurance. She took a quick look around, saw nothing but a massive cloud high above that looked like a singularly lonely thunderhead, swollen and bulging. “I had some trouble, but nothing too bad.”

The Toller made its call above, from somewhere inside that cloud. It sounded almost angry now. Gong! Gong!

“Gong all you want,” Twilight called up to the heavy cloud. It must be hiding in there, it looked as big as a hoofball field back home. “Your pets didn't amount to much.”

The cloud stopped and seemed to shiver. Then a slit slowly began to open in the end facing her. A slit that revealed a huge luminescent patch, shot through with electrical flashes. It focused on her, and part of the cloud above it furrowed over it, as though in anger.

Twilight gulped as it began lowering towards her, like a full-grown dragon stooping towards a pony back home. Another hole began opening beneath that eye. It looked like a tornado set on end, spinning and whirling deep into the cloud, lined with jagged teeth.

That noise came again, and it sounded like thunder in her ears now. A hot moist wind blasted at her as it did, one that stank of rotted meat and ozone.

GONG. GONG.

Twilight wheeled and flew for the cliff side and the mine openings in it as fast as she'd ever flown in her life, wing muscles twinging and starting to cramp.

Get there, and get inside, she thought frantically as that gigantic horror behind surged after her. The reek of its breath thickened about her as the mine opening grew ever larger in her vision. Just get away and inside that mine where it can't follow, remember John said no one ever saw one on the ground...

She saw almost at the last second how narrow the mineshaft was. Twilight grimaced and tucked her wings in as close as she dared, shot through the opening like a snowball on Hearth's Warming. Behind her she heard the Toller make its cry, weakest of all so far and seeming to echo off into the distance.

Twilight stopped inside the entrance, turned and saw the Toller, cloud monster, whatever it really was, collapsing into itself. Like a cloud of smoke being sucked back into a vacuum. It reminded her of the way some of Trixie's more solid-seeming illusions faded. In moments it was gone, leaving empty clear sky behind.

“Wait, was that something the Tantabus drew from my nightmares?” Twilight heard the echo bounce back from the stone about her. “I thought it'd take something scary from Equestria, like the hydra –” She closed her mouth. “Heh! No need to tempt fate, is there?”

She froze as a raspy and almost familiar voice spoke behind her.

“No need at all,” it sneered in Old Equestrian. “Is there?”

Twilight spun just in time to see a massive darkness with a pair of glowing green eyes before it fell on her.

#

I don't like to think howair long it took those ponies and me to reach the rocks where we'd seen Twilight land and not take off again. We raced as fast as we dared through those pine trees, maybe a little over a mile. It was hard at the first, close as they seemed to get. The way they made to snatch at you when you passed by didn't help air bit. I wondered me if I was the only one that felt that, but the way I heard those ponies yell about getting manes or tails caught as they ran, especially Rarity, I doubt it.

We all stumbled out together at the bottom of the cliff. It looked to rise high up above, lone and bare and barren under the moonlight. It didn't look to be any sort of place for living folks, be they humans or ponies.

“Twilight's in one of these holes,” Dash panted aside me. “We gotta find her. HAY TWI!” Her yell echoed all through and around and over those rocks.

Right quick I clapped my hand over her mouth.

“Remember how close we are to Chorazin by now,” I minded her. The other ponies gathered around while I talked. The anger in her eyes faded some bit while I said, “Do you want the Shonokin to know we're a-coming, maybe set some fellows with guns out to wait for us?”

“So what are we going to do, John?” Rarity asked me. Her mane and tail looked raggedy, but she paid them no heed. I knew she must be right worried to not be caring about that. “We have to find Twilight. We have to save her, we need her to use the Elements!”

“We'll just have to go look and find her,” I looked at those rocks as I spoke. Little trees grew here and there in cracks around that squared-off opening, sad little things all twisted and gnarled. More cedar, I saw, some of them just big enough to make clubs. I pointed at the mine entrance. “We'll have to look for her in there.”

“In there? That dark scary hole?” Fluttershy gave a shiver, but next she drew herself up and started forward. “If it's for Twilight and Princess Luna I'll be brave.”

“Shore is,” Applejack echoed her and followed. She looked ready for air thing we might find in there.

“Hold on,” I said, putting my hand on her withers. I went to the little scrubby cedar trees. “We'll be needing light in there, unless you ponies can see in the dark.”

“Yeesh, guys!” Dash stomped her hoof on the dirt. “Do we have time for this?” She settled down when Rarity spoke up.

“We must, dear, unless you want to risk breaking a leg or falling down a pit. And what good would that do Twilight?” Dash didn't look the least happy, but she gave way on it.

I took Chief Manco's little axe from my belt and carefully cut those trees. I was able to make three torches solid enough to double for clubs. I minded me as I did how he would have said a prayer, like many an old woodsman I knew when cutting a tree down. Me, I just kept it quick and reminded whoair might be listening on the other end that I and these ladies were in a whole heap of trouble, and so were a sight of other folks, human and pony, who'd done nair thing to deserve it and we might could use some little help right now.

I finished as I used some matches to set the torches alight. They burned with a clear sharp scent. I handed one off to Rarity, she used her horn's magic to hold it, and another to Applejack. She took it with her mouth.

“Now you be careful there,” I told her as she gripped it. “You get lost in there, it'll be a long time afore you get help.”

“Anything happens ta any of us,” she stopped to say, “we won't be around ta worry about getting' help after.” She went in the mine first. It was big and broad enough for ponies to go two by two, but they went single file. After her came Dash and Pinkie Pie. Then Rarity and her torch, with Fluttershy sticking close by her. And me last of all, making sure we had light enough that nair soul could sneak up on us like the Behinder.

It was an old-fashioned mine supported with timbers and not one of these big modern open pit mines. Those timbers looked old and dark enough to be stone their own selves. It minded me of something I saw years afore elsewhere, of a mine made by those some folks call the Ancients. There'd been a golden treasure in that mine, but nary soul got any use of it. Two cheats tried tricking me and other folks out of it, but they were taken clear off and away by some thing like a great hairy toad or ape the Ancients left behind them. I'd seen them when I returned what little I had of that unlucky gold, running on all fours and making noises like animals and running deep into the mine and away from a light that now hurt them. I didn't relish recollecting that. It wondered me if maybe something like that would happen to us.

“Twilight!”

Up before me I could see by the torchlight how the ponies raced off to Twilight where she stood afore us in the mine shaft, standing tall and straight with wings spread like her Princess Celestia the one time I'd met her. Maybe it was how the torchlight shone, but it looked for a moment like she smiled. And not a good smile, either. More like some of those rich city folk who call us mountain folk “hillbillies” when they think we can't hear them.

Applejack gave her torch over to Pinkie Pie, who just balanced it on her nose some ways.

“Twi, are we glad ta be seein' ya safe and sound!”Applejack went to hug Twilight, but she just dodged away. Applejack stopped and so did the rest while she wondered at Twilight, “What is it, sugarcube? Is something wrong?”

“Yes, there is,” Twilight snapped back. She waved her hoof at Applejack and the rest and said, “I expected you before now. We haven't much time.”

The ponies just stood in front of her, looking like someone up and slapped them. Dash was the one that managed to speak up next.

“Hay, we hurried as much as we could,” she said, sounding maybe the least bit less sure of herself. “I mean, it's dark out there and we have to be careful...”

Twilight gave a snort like any annoyed horse, then she turned and began walking further back into the mine.

“There's a back way down to Chorazin from the other end of this mine tunnel.” She walked a few steps, stopped and looked back at us all, then stomped a forehoof. Like she expected us to all fall in behind her. “Or are you all going to stand there until the Shonokin kill Luna?”

Those words got us going. We hurried after her while she kept going so that she was always just a few steps ahead of us, nair looking back. I heard their hooves clicking on the stones and echoing up and down along that tunnel. I wondered me how it sounded like there was more than six sets of hooves making that noise.

I also minded me as I went about some old miners' stories that it was pure poison bad luck to have women in a mine. They said it made the spirits or Tommyknockers or whatair they were down in the ground angry. Then you got miners hurt, even killed sometimes. Well, here I was with six ladies my own self, but I didn't worry myself much right then about any trouble in the mine. I figured we had been lavished with a plenty of trouble already, and more would just be wasted right then.

I'd held my cedar torch in one hand with my ash stick in the other. I saw that Rarity and Pinkie Pie still held theirs, and they filled the air with a clean sharp smell as they burned. It helped with the close air in that mine.

“You ladies keep an eye on the flames from those torches,” I told them. “This shaft isn't deep, but if they start turning funny colors like blue or green, we need to be getting out of here faster than we came.”

Rarity and Fluttershy and Dash all gave me curious looks, but it was Twilight that whipped her head around with a snort and snapped an angry “Why?”

“That's what they call mine damp,” I answered her, maybe a little sharper than I'd like. The way she was talking wasn't like Twilight at all. I began to wonder me what happened up there in the sky with her and the Toller. “It's a gas, an explosive one. Whole mines and their miners have been blown to kingdom come by it. You can't smell it rightly, you can only tell it by an open flame changing color. And if you see it you have to be running for your life right quick.”

Twilight gave a short sharp snort, then turned back down the tunnel. I reckon I gave her a look then. It was the last thing I'd expected from her. I didn't say air thing, though. I reckoned that she was just worried about what if we didn't get to Luna in time.

We made it to a fork in the tunnel. One passage was right broad, leading off to the left and maybe just the slightest bit downwards. The other way led right and seemed mighty narrow.

“Here,” Twilight said, stopping right there in the middle of the tunnel. She pointed her horn off to the left. “This is the way to Chorazin. It'll lead us around the back way, so the Shonokin won't see us coming. It'll take a little longer than if we go by the main route, so let's get going – WHAT?”

“Uh, sorry to interrupt,” Fluttershy flinched when Twilight snapped at her. She didn't look Twilight in the eyes as she half-whispered, “We're in such a hurry, we don't have very much time left, so maybe we should go by the main route and just try to be quiet?”

“Sounds like a good idea ta me,” Applejack nodded, and Rarity and Dash murmured their support along with her. “It feels like we been in here a long time, and Ah think –”

“You? Think?” She broke off as Twilight's ears pinned back. “I'm giving the orders here! I'm the Princess! And I say we go left!”

I'd been gopping at the way she acted. It was noways like the Twilight I thought I knew. Then I noticed something about the torches. The flames were bending some bit away from the right hand tunnel. I knew what that meant.

“You're wrong, Twilight,” I pointed up the right way. I took some steps towards it, pushed the cedar torch into the opening. The flames flickered some more “See, there's a breeze coming down this way. The surface is closer up through here.”

“No, it isn't!” Twilight hurried to put herself between me and the tunnel. She gave a snort and scraped the ground. “The other way is the one you have to go! And keep that torch away from me! The smell is sickening!” Twilight gagged and took a step away, another, from that torch and stick I held. “Must you take those things in here?”

“And what I want to be knowing,” I said back to her, noways polite, “Is what kind of devil got into you to make you a start acting thisaway to friends of yours –”

As I spoke the breeze changed some and took the smoke from my torch right into Twilight's face. She jumped back with a, well, I reckon it was some sort of a scream. Except that I nair heard anyone, human or pony, make such a scream. Loud and wild like someone just took the lid right off Hell.

“JOHN! RARITY! FLUTTERSHY! ALL OF YOU! GET AWAY FROM HER!” Right hard on those words one of those bolts of purple light Twilight could throw blasted from behind us and lashed into the Twilight afore us like the crack of God's own lightning. She screamed like a dying horse, loud enough my ears hurt. There was a sharp clean smell like a thunderstorm, and hard after it a rottenness like a dead skunk. She stumbled back and away. It seemed to me she feared the ash stick and cedar smoke as much as she did the bolts that flashed against the walls.

Twilight's voice called again. But I wondered me how it could, because it came from behind us. It wasn't behind us much longer, for Twilight rushed up past me and her friends to stand atween us and the other-Twilight. Her mane and tail were a mess, it looked like someone had yanked handfuls of feathers out off her wings, and old torn ropes dangled from her legs. But her eyes burned with such an anger like I nair thought to see in them, and her horn glowed bright enough to hurt in that dark tunnel.

“Twilight!” I yelled it, or the ponies did, or maybe we all did. “Whatair's a-going on?”

She gave us no heed. She just kept the fire on her horn going as she stepped towards that other-her. I made myself to follow. More of the smoke from my torch drifted towards whoair stood afore us in Twilight's form. She snorted and backed away, looking like she wished me dead then and there. Twilight glanced at me but kept going forward.

“Get back, now! And you,” Twilight almost snarled at whoair-it-was, “you get out of my form, right now!” She snatched the cedar torch from my hands and hurled it right into that other's face. Other-Twilight plunged and shrieked. Our Twilight yelled, “John, if you remember any of your music, better use it now!”

I tried my best. I threw down my torch, clawed my guitar around me in that dark smoky tunnel, and began to sing the oldest and strongest song I knew.

“Three Good Kings,

Four Good Saints,

At Heaven's high gate that stand,

Speak out and bid all evil wait,

And stir no foot or hand...”

“Battle stations, ladies!” Twilight called aside me, and I saw some light start to go over her. Five other lights just as bright started a-glowing behind me, and I knew them for the light from the Elements that I'd seen once afore.

That one afore us screamed at that light and my music or maybe the both, but in the middle her voice changed, went deeper and darker. She got bigger, and her coat went black, blacker than the inside of that mine. Her mane went to blue and purple smoke, and she started to become someone we all knew.

“Nightmare Moon!” I heard somepony behind us yell it, like there were air other pony she could be. But not the same as afore. She looked all-smoky now, she seemed to ripple like the waves you see atop a road on a hot summer day. Like she was only halfways real. The Nightmare snarled at us, and I saw no horse teeth but wolfish fangs filling her mouth. Right in the middle that light of Twilight's grew the brighter.

The Nightmare turned and vanished. Half a second long I thought maybe I saw something like a snake or a little flood of black water slithering down the tunnel away from us, like something nasty trying to get back under its rock. Then it was gone and we stood there in the tunnel.

“Well, ladies, that's over for now.” I sighed and slung my guitar back, turned to face them. “Now if you all – what the devil!”

No, that wasn't airy sort of good manners, but even after the Nightmare what I saw when I looked on them was one the mightiest strange things in a night of mighty strange things. The ponies, Twilight and Applejack and Fluttershy and all, looked like someone had up and taken their manes and tails and dyed them near every color you could think of, shining like rainbows in the sky. Right fancy and maybe even gaudy, they were, like something done for little girl-children at a fair or carnival.

“Huh!” Dash just said, turning around and around and looking at herself. “Hey, I thought we couldn't do this any more?”

“Beautiful!” Rarity almost jumped to say it. She seemed to hug herself with her tail, which looked even bigger and fancier than before, though I don't rightly know how that could be possible. “Magnificent! How I do love looking like this – oh, blast!” That glow around them faded back down, and they went back to their old selves. I didn't say air thing but I felt kindly relieved. But I had to know something.

“Howair did you ladies do that?” I bent to check Twilight. Her fetlocks were a little sore looking where the ropes rubbed on them, but I got them off her and she looked fine aside from that. “I don't recollect that happening when I saw you use the Elements against Thorne back in Equestria.”

“It happened after Thorne, only a couple months ago,” Twilight lifted her hooves and shook them, one after another. She stretched her wings and winced. I could see where someone had yanked the feathers from them, like how some folks do to keep birds from flying. “The Elements changed form yet again. When we faced Tirek we ended up becoming theElements, not just bearing them. I, we all, thought this was a once and only thing.” Twilight stretched herself. “I guess not.”

“That's all well then, but what was Nightmare Moon doing here?” I looked down the way she'd fled. “I thought she was staying with the Shonokin to be keeping an eye on Luna.”

“She was, but to judge from how she looked, she's getting desperate.” Twilight tossed her mane and shivered. She started to lead up the smaller passage, making her horn give light so we could see. I fetched my cedar torch and made sure it still burned, blew on it careful like while Twilight talked until it flared up again. “The Tantabus is only a part of Luna, after all, maybe not even the biggest part, birthed out of her darker magic. It might not have the strength to last very long on its own in your world.”

“It sure enough looked sickly,” I responded her. I kept a careful eye on the shadows the light made on the wall. I'd seen what the Nightmare could do. The torchlight made our shadows look stretched out and funny the way it usually does, but no more than that. “Like she was just a-getting up from a sickbed.”

“If she's getting weaker,” Fluttershy asked behind us, sounding not just shy but worried and right afraid, “doesn't that mean she'll be even more eager to,” she hesitated, like she didn't want to have to be saying it, “to k-kill Princess Luna?”

I heard the ponies' hooves striking on the stones behind me, and I knew I felt purely worried myself.

“That won't happen,” Twilight said in a right strong voice. “We won't let it happen. We're going to Chorazin despite everything the Shonokin can do and we're bringing Luna back safe and sound.” She said those things the way someone had to then, like they'd happen because she said they'd happen. I felt myself stand up taller some at them, and it looked to me like those ponies all drew theirselves up to hear it too. Even Pinkie Pie looked maybe a little more serious than normal to hear them. Twilight noticed and nodded.

“Come on, John, ladies,” she trotted for the small square of pale light in the distance that must be the moonlight showing through the other end of the mine shaft. And we all followed her, to find Chorazin, and the Tantabus or Nightmare Moon or whatair she called herself now, and maybe our own ends too for all I knew.

Because I knew that whatair we'd see so far, the Shonokin and the Tantabus would be ready with something even worse for us.