Shiera awoke with a breath. She was crying. She had a strange dream. Except.....she couldn't remember it. She tried to focus on it, but all memory of whatever it was simply slipped away from her. She frowned and then sat up, taking a look at her surroundings once again.

It was nighttime now. She could tell because of the window that sat above her on the wall behind her bed. She noticed Nurse RedHeart was also in the room, however, from the soft snores coming from her, Shiera could safely assume she was asleep. The thought did occur to her that she could attempt to escape right now, but Shiera decided against it. There was no point really, even if she did succeed. She knew almost nothing about this world, and no amount of running would ever get her away from it.

She put a hoof upon her chest, looking down at her new body. She was alive. How? She did not know. She remembered dying, she remembered the face of her husband, Cao Weng An, as she laid dying in his arms. The tears they shared in that final moment....and then....nothing. Shiera had a feeling that something was missing, something important, but she couldn't remember what. But, that didn't matter now.

Now, she had awoken in this new world, as a...pony-thing, and apparently fell out of the sky into something called the 'Everfree Forest', whatever that was. This whole world was weird, but....those that she had met so far in this world had been nothing but kind to her so far, except maybe the Pink one, who nearly scared the shit out of her with that canon thing of hers. How was she supposed to know it shot confetti? Still, it was apparent that none of these pony-things meant her any harm.

If she truly was alive again, then she wanted to find a way back home, but until that could happen, she figured she might as well get used to this wacky world whiles she was here.

Shiera tried to go back to sleep, but her thoughts kept her awake throughout the rest of the night....

Luna collapsed to her knees as she exited the Dream Realm. Tears poured down her face, her heart drowned with sorrow. She didn't even know why she was crying. That mare....how can such sorrow exist inside anypony? It was....unnatural. It was like a sea that just drowned everything else out. Luna had just barely escaped it in time.

She took a moment to steady herself. It took a minute or two before the shaking stopped, and another minute before her breathing returned to normal. Tears still poured from her eyes, but much less frequently now. "You are fine, Luna, that sorrow is not your own," she told herself, taking a deep breath. That seemed to help. She blinked the last few tears away and frowned.

This mysterious mare was more disturbed than she previously had thought, but she wasn't sure how she could help her. She also never had a pony expel her from a dream before, and she had seen some disturbing nightmares in her time. But this was....different. While the experience could be considered a bit nightmarish to her, it wasn't so to the mare who was dreaming it. That numbness that was within that mare....it must be a side affect of all that sorrow she felt.

She needed to find this mare. It was her duty as the Princess of the Night to bring peace to all ponies as the sleep. However, she'd have to worry about that later. She had other duties to attend to tonight, and many other dreams to protect.

Twilight tossed and turned in her bed before finally sitting up. The whole situation with Shiera was flooding her thoughts. She sighed, looking down at Spike. Spike slept soundly in his bed beside her, undisturbed by her tossing and turning it seemed. "I just don't get it. How did she even get here? Did she really die like she said? She seemed really convinced that this was the afterlife....What if this is the afterlife? No, don't be silly Twilight, this can't be the afterlife, can it?" Twilight didn't know what to make of that thought, and decided to push it away for now. Still, there was a lot of mystery still surrounding Shiera. Like, who was she? She claims she wasn't a unicorn before coming here, but if so, then what was she? Why did Pinkie Pie's canon freak her out? There were a lot of questions, but sadly no answers. At least, not until she could talk with Shiera again.

And then, the Princesses....

They sent her a letter notifying her that they would be visiting Shiera tomorrow at the Ponyville Hospital. What would they make of her? Would they know anything about what is going on? If anypony would know, it had to be the Princesses, right?

Twilight let out another sigh and collapsed back onto her bed. "WHY IS THIS SO CONFOUNDING?!" she yelled in frustration. Suddenly she heard Spike tumble out of his bed in surprise.

"Huh? What's going on, is there danger?" he asked wiping his eyes while trying to be as alert as he could.

Twilight rolled over to face him. "It's okay Spike, i was just.....frustrated."

Spike gave a concerned look, "This whole 'mystery mare' thing is getting to you, huh?"

Twilight's ears sagged, "Yes....Her name is Shiera, by the way, not 'Mystery mare'. Still....It's been on my mind a lot lately, especially after meeting with her today..."

"Well, don't worry about it, Twilight. Besides, I will always be here with you as your number one assistant! I'll stick by you no matter how crazy things get!"

Twilight chuckled and nuzzled him. "Yeah, I'm glad to have you with me, Spike..."

Spike climbed up the bed and sat down next to her. "Hey, i know there is a lot things we don't understand about all of this, but i think everything will be alright. After all we have been through stranger things before, and have faced much tougher situations before, and we have always made it out okay."

"You're, right Spike. Thank you, i needed it that."

"See? I told, everything is A-Okay! Whatever happens, we can handle it!"

They both chuckled, and afterwards, Twilight was finally able to drift off to sleep, her mind relieved for now.

Author's Note

It might be a few days or even a week before i have time for the next chapter, but we will see. I hope you are enjoying this so far, and i will continue to keep trying my best!