GRIM POV

I had closed my eyes for a moment, just a second or two, but in that moment, I felt something dragging me away from everything, and once I opened my eyes once more I was in bed, next to her. "Morning, my love~" she purred as Cadance stroked my chest "Time to get to work. You know how Tidal gets when you're late." As she rolled out of bed, the sheets unveiled my new (or should I say old) body. There were no signs of my magic veins, and my skin, pale from lack of sunlight, was brighter, with more muscle underneath. The body I once had before being sent to Equestria. I got out of bed and hurried to the bathroom where I checked my complexion. I looked like Noire, or more accurately, the me of the past.

"Is this some kind of messed up nightmare or did I die in my sleep and get sent to Hell?" I said to myself, now aware that voice had lost its deep tone. Cadance looked at me with a worried look on her face "Don't worry about me. Just my inner evening person." She shrugged it off and left for work while I pinched myself to make sure I wasn't dreaming. No pain. A dream, but a very weird one. "I don't know how Noire's room looked so how do I feel like this is his room to a T? More importantly, why can't I destroy this dream?" I decided it would be best to play the game for a bit. I didn't know how I got here, but I thought surely the answers would show themselves soon. I got dressed in what seemed to a red and black version of Noire's armor, and headed to wherever I needed to go. I followed Cadance down the hall, running to catch up with her. When I caught up I asked "What's first on the checklist?"

"You need to meet with Tidal. She's been asking for you, Noire. So has the baby~" she mused as she made a turn while I stopped in my tracks.

"..." I was silent as we walked out of the castle. I observed the people around. They were happy, peaceful, yet I could see the cracks in this world the moment I laid my eyes on it. The moment I woke up and rested my eyes on Cadance's bedside dresser, half-open to see a picture of Shining and her during their wedding. What utopia has a woman clinging onto the man that broke her? "A world of pain" I thought. Without noticing I was in the hospital, I saw the unicorn woman, Tidal Horn. She was cradling a little ball in her hands.

"Look, your daddy is here," she singed as she held them up to me. As she did, I saw that she couldn't lean forward at all. She had a C- section. As I took the child in my arms, I looked down to see a pair of bug-like eyes. A changeling birthed from a pony? The child I had asked Shining to implant in the female general to kill her? Why would he want to keep something like that in his ideal world? Does he even want this world to change? These questions birthed further questions as I looked at the spawn. "So did you think of a name?" Tidal asked me.

"I guess a good name would be..."

NOIRE POV

"Celestia, what am I doing in Canterlot?"

"You live here, silly~"

"Okay. Why aren't we heading to Griffonstone like we planned?"

"Griffonstone? Why would we be heading there?"

"Good to know. Last question, I promise: Why was I in your bed?"

"We were sleeping together. Then we went to sleep~." She wiggled her brows suggestively as I trying to figure out what kind of wacky dream I was having. I would never dream so lucidly unless I was talking to Faust or I was... "Now come on, Grim. We should get ready to meet King Shining Armour and Queen Chrysalis."

"...shit..." I looked at my body, but nothing was out of the ordinary. However as I walked to the bathroom to check my appearance, I saw my eyes were a bright, red hue. "This has to be my dream-walking kicking in again, but why Grim? Why now?" I concluded that venturing through this dream would give me the answers I needed. I got dressed in my royal attire and followed Celestia to the council room. As we walked through the halls, I came to another harrowing realization: the ponies that walked through the halls, guarding the area, talking amongst themselves, they were NOT ponies. They were HUMANS. I decided to test something "Wow, everypony is active this morning," I said to myself, but loud enough for Celestia to hear.

"I think you mean everyone. Hard to say 'everypony' if I'm the only pony," she chuckled to herself as she walked. It was as I thought. A world without ponies. I kept silent and followed as my mind was buzzing with questions as to why Grim would dream a race out of existence save for Celestia, but the sound of opening doors and the polite greetings of two of my biggest enemies pulled me from my thoughts. While the three chatted away, I looked to Chrysalis and Shining, happily married as I had heard it, with the changeling race thriving without a need to feast on love.

"It was all thanks to you, Grim. With your magic, changing the very anatomy of our race, we have no need to prey on innocents, creating false images of our people." I did not need to respond for them to continue talking, discussing the attempts of moving to new worlds to establish interdimensional connections. While they talked, I began putting the pieces together.

A new world was Grim's desire on the most surface level, but from everything else I had heard:

There being no need for changelings to absorb love and the race being treated like equals. Chrysalis' desire.

The erasure of all ponies. I was told of Gilgar's hatred for ponies. Hatred that could arouse the thought of erasing them. This wasn't simply a dream.

"This is our new utopia." Grim's disembodied voice echoed through the room, followed by a piercing pain in my chest, leaving my writhing on the ground. None of them came to help and just kept talking, even as the world was erased around them. Only darkness and us remained. Grim stood above me looking down on me as I recovered from the experience "You only saw a fraction of the justice I will bestow upon this world. Equal rights for all races? I know you want it. I saw your ideal world too. A happy family, peace across Equestria, and no threats like me there to harm either. If there was no role switching or memories of reality to get in the way, our worlds would be indistinguishable. We both yearn for true peace, but the world you try to protect is the fallacy. That everyone still has to suffer." He extended his hand to me "I'm going to ask you one last time. All you have to do to save everything you love is to take my hand. We can end this pointless war and you can have anything you want in the new world. Your loved ones as you know them. No more pointless suffering because of differences. Everything will be-"

"Do you ever wonder if your followers are tired of listening to your preaching?" I asked as I slapped his hand away. He seemed unfazed, knowing I would refuse "Your world will be the fallacy. We live through our pain,-" my mother appeared behind me "-our losses,-" followed by my father "our own personal hell so when we walk out, we can stand tall with the people who helped us get this far." Every person I met on my journey joined my side, with Cadance right next to me as she held my hand "We don't need you. So I make this vow to you as not the opposite of you, not another half, as Noire: bodyguard, lover, and friend." I extended my hand to Grim, and my arm began to light up a royal blue " I vow to protect every life on this planet with everything I have, so we may all find our own utopia. Made by good."

Grim reached out his crimson red arm and grabbed mine in a handshake "Then I will make this vow to you. I vow that every life on this planet will wither, fade, die, and be reborn in a new world made by its new god: Grim, the avatar of destruction." Like that, I felt what was once keeping us together fall apart, severed by our vows that cemented our journey. As not just enemies, but beings that could not exist in the same world. The abyss that surrounded us began to decay, but not before Grim told me one last thing "I'll see you at the controller."

I woke up covered in sweat, panting heavily as Cadance rose from her slumber as well. "Noire? You look like you just ran a marathon. Bad dream?" she asked, rubbing her eyes. I felt my code coursing through my veins with a refined tune. I git out of bed, and looked out the window at the border of Griffonstone in sight.

"We need to talk with others. I think I know what Grim is doing."

Author's Note

As scheduled, two new chapters of Grim/Noire (yes Grim slash Noire, I'm running with it). Sorry this one is so short but I wanted this one to be simple and closed to our focal characters. I really wanted this to be the chapter when both characters established themselves that they were two separate beings now, fully committed to ending each other for the sake of their ideals, plus, the mind linking has run its course. There will be three new chapters next month: an interlude followed by two full chapters so I will get my ass in gear for the new arc (I'm thinking Empire Civil War Arc). Tell me what you thought of the chapters recently and I will see you in August.

Stay dizzy. Wuzzy out.