It was evening by the time Luna woke up in the guest room of the Crystal Palace. Princess Cadence had insisted she get some sleep after seeing how tired she looked upon her arrival. She stepped out onto the balcony to watch her sister's setting sun as she raised her moon on the opposite horizon. It turned out her sister had indeed covered for her the previous night...the previous two nights actually. She had been lax in her responsibility and she wasn't about to make a habit of it.

A crystal pony guard was waiting for her as she stepped out of her room. "Your highness," the guard bowed to her. "Princess Cadence awaits you in the dining hall. Allow me the honor of escorting you."

She followed the guard to the dining chamber where Cadence was waiting for her alongside her husband, Shining Armor. "Princess Luna," she said excitedly. "You're looking a lot better now. Sorry for rushing you off to bed, but when auntie Celestia said you hadn't been sleeping, I started to worry."

"Tis all right, Princess Cadence, my sister's and your concern for us is touching." Luna sat down at the table where a serving pony soon brought her a salad which she tore into ravenously.

"I take it you're not visiting for some vacation time though. Care to tell us what brings you up north?"

Luna swallowed a mouthful of food and wiped her mouth with a napkin. "Very well. I shall tell you what brings me," Luna steadied her breath to prepare herself for the retelling of events. "Two nights ago, I encountered a particularly powerful dream of the Crystal Empire in flames. I also saw a beast of shadow that was doing its best to try and escape the dream."

Cadence looked at Luna with a worried expression, "You were able to stop it from escaping though, weren't you?"

"I didn't get the chance," she idly sipped at the coffee that was provided. "The beast lashed out at me before I had a chance to fight back," she clenched the cup her hooves and grit her teeth. "I've never felt so powerless in the dream world before."

Shining Armor jumped up in his seat, "So you think it escaped to the Empire then?!"

Luna shook her head, "we do not believe so, but that's not what worries us most. The one who was dreaming that dream leapt out his own dream and dragged the beast back inside kicking and screaming."

"And this isn't normal?" Cadence was on the edge of her seat with rapt attention. "How often does anything like that happen?"

"It has never happened once in our memory," she stirred her drink in deep contemplation. "However it doesn't stop there. The second incident worries me even more."

"What?! There still more?!" Said Shining Armor who was just barely keeping up with the conversation.

"The dreamer pushed into the dream world this morning. I can't tell you how unusual it is see someone in the dream world once the sun has risen. However, this time the dreamer's action confuse me." Luna was a bit hesitant to share this part since she didn't fully understand it either. "This time the dreamer looked like he was pulling a shadow out of another pony's dream and feeding it to the beast. After its hunger was sated, it retreated back into the same dream as before, a dream of the Crystal Empire."

Cadence held back a gasp with her hooves, "so you think it's up here then?"

"Or that we shall at least find a clue. That's all I know so far."

Cadence shot a look at her husband, "we need to tell her."

He looked unsure of himself as he stared back at her, "are you sure? We haven't even confirmed anything yet."

Luna looked at the two of them inquisitively, "did something happen?"

Shining settled into his seat, "we haven't confirmed anything yet and we still have a large part of the populace in therapy after Sombra was banished. But some ponies have told stories of a shadow on the glacier north of the empire. Most have dismissed it as a trick of the light while others claim the king is trying to return. But then two nights ago, the whole empire shook as a pillar of dark light pierced the sky. We've only avoided a panic cause it was barely visible against the night sky and we've barely been able to convince the public at large that nothing is wrong."

"Two nights ago you say," Luna found this quite curious. "That's the same time I encountered the shadow in the dream world. This seems far too unlikely to just be a coincidence." Determination filled her as decided her next course of action, "With your leave, I would depart for the northern glacier to ascertain the nature of..."

Something suddenly clawed at her from inside her chest, making her jump back from the table. The chair flew away from her and the dishes scattered as she felt a throbbing from deep within her soul.

The two other royals in the room jumped to their hooves and rushed over to catch Luna before she fell to the floor. "Luna! Luna!" Shouted Cadence as Luna felt her vision fade. "What's happening?! What's wrong?!"

Stars filled Luna's vision as she stared down the corridors of the dream realm. The dreamer appeared a few paces away from where she sat, but he didn't seem to care much that she was there. Her breath caught in her throat as she watched him step forward and tear a space open in the cosmos.

What was he doing?! She needs to stop him! He does not know what forces he plays with! Is she sure about that though? Every time she'd seen him, he'd exuded an uncanny amount of control over what he was doing. Would she even be able to intervene in whatever he was doing?

You used to be much more perceptive, Luna. Why was she thinking of him now? That accursed pegasus didn't have anything to do with this, did he? However, she did used to be the quiet observer when it came to arcane matters. It served her well when her first teachers taught her how to understand the secrets of the universe.

She steadied her breathing as she settled into her seat. If she wouldn't be able to interfere, then at the very least she could hope to learn something. So she sat there and quietly watched as he pulled shadows from the void and fed it to the voracious beast behind him. She almost jumped in to try and save him when it looked like he was going to get eaten by the ever growing monster at his back.

He didn't seem to be concerned about it though as he pulled a star from the void and held it to his chest. The beast's teeth stopped on contact with his body, even as she felt a smile radiating off of him. Something about that smile struck a cord in her memory. Did she know him somehow? That can't be though. Anyone she knew would've been from before she became Nightmare Moon and ponies don't live that long.

The star against his chest glowed bright as he looked back at the beast. As he made eye contact with it, the beast screamed as chains erupted from its body and wrapped their way around its body. The chains trailed back into the dream and seemed to effortlessly pull the creature back in even as the dreamer made to follow it.

Her attention snapped to the gap in space that he was pulling the shadows out of as it started to pulsate like an angry sun. She threw up a shield over herself as the dreamer looked back at his work with his mouth hanging open in shock. The void exploded, sending him crashing into the beast and they both went spiraling into the dream, shattering the doors guarding it as they passed through. The wreckage quickly filled the passage, blocking the chance for anything to squeeze through it.

She staggered as she was pushed back by the explosion, her shield cracking under the strain of the cosmic forces pushing against her.

As the dust settled, she looked over the damage. The dreamer was gone and the path to his dream completely shattered. Across from it, where there was once a small crack, was now a large fissure that she could feel trying to pull her into the waking world.

Luna rushed forward to the fissure with her horn ablaze with moonlight. Bracing herself so as not to get pulled through, she carefully sealed the break in reality. It took a couple of minutes to do so, but she was eventually able to repair the wound in the world.

Cadence and Shining stood over her as she opened her eyes. Cadence was the first to say something, "are you ok, Luna?"

She looked up at the pair hovering over her, she must've fallen down when she was unexpectedly pulled into the dream realm. "We...cough...we are fine. He showed up again."

"What happened this time?" Cadence wore a worried look on her face as she pressed for details.

"It is hard to say," Luna reflected. "But we believe that something hath gone wrong. His dream has collapsed in on itself."

Twilight was flying high above Whitetail woods in a chariot when she saw the explosion. The shockwave blew past her and the guards pulling the chariot, rocking their airborne position.

"Take us down!" Twilight shouted to the guards, the shock waking her up as adrenaline pumped through her system.

"Princess, it isn't safe! We are grossly underequipped for whatever that could be."

"I don't care! Everything else has been a dead end and this happened with us on site. If it's related, it may be the lead we need!" She was getting excited, whatever happened down there had some power behind it.

They both looked hesitantly back at her. Neither wanting to put the new Princess in jeopardy. They looked like they were going to argue with her further.

She looked down at the distance to the ground. She should be able to glide down easily enough, Celestia knows Rainbow Dash made her practice gliding enough the last few days.

She jumped off the back of the chariot and spread her wings. The sudden push of air against her feathers jarring her shoulders as she made her descent. The surprised guards quickly changed their course to follow her.

Twilight stumbled into the clearing, falling to her knees as she touched down. Her escort landed right beside her as she stood back up. She stepped forward into the smoldering crater at her hooves, ashen sticks crumbling underneath her. She found a pitch black and smoking body laying in the middle of the burned earth. "There something in here," she called back up to the guards. She leaned down to get a closer look. She could tell by the outline it was a unicorn, but she couldn't discern more than that. She cautiously placed a forehoof on its chest. It was cold under her touch but the chest was slowly moving up and down. "They're alive, we need to get them to the hospital!" She called back to her guards.

"No you don't!" A pink light flew down to her from the trees. "That's not what he would want and a hospital wouldn't be able to help him."

Twilight strained her eyes at the blinding light. That voice sounded familiar. "Whisper? Is that you?"

"You know any other fairies this good looking?!" The light snapped at her. "Of course it's me!"

She looked back at the smoking body, a look of horror dawned on her face. "Wait...If you're here, does that mean," she held her hooves to her face, eyes going wide. "Is this Random?!"

Whisper landed on her nose and she got a good look at the angry fairy. "You wanna play twenty questions or do you want to help? Get him home and ask your questions later."

She quickly loaded him up on the chariot and shouted to the guards to get her home as fast as possible. They didn't try to argue this time as they flew the chariot back towards Ponyville as fast as they were able.

They soon touched down in front of the library and Twilight carried the smoking ruin of a unicorn inside with Whisper leading the way.

"We've got to get him into bed and get one of those potions he's so proud of into him." Whisper guided her down into the Archive, past his office and into his room.

Twilight carefully laid him into bed and covered him with some blankets to try to keep him warm. As she did so, a magic circle lit up on the ceiling and started to spin in place.

"What's that?!" She excitedly pointed at the ceiling only to feel tiny hooves smack her across the face, jarring her head a bit.

"No questions!" Came an panicked Whisper. "Leave him be, we need to find where he's hidden his potions."

They scoured over all the shelves and through all the drawers looking for where Random may have hidden his potions. Finding nothing, they started to panic. "Can you think where else he may have hidden them? Like another room?"

Whisper stopped zipping around the room for a moment, her light dimming a bit as she floated there, thinking. "He may have set up a proper lab if he's been here long enough. Wait! I got it!"

She flew over all the open spaces of wall, stopping when she got near a particularly large section of it. "Right here, Twilight. There's a hidden door here. I should've known, he like things like this."

Twilight flooded her magic over the empty wall but didn't see anything, "How do we open it?"

"Not sure, but we don't have that kind of time. Just break it open."

"OK, I got this. Stand back." She stood back a couple paces from the wall and grabbed a firm hold of it with her magic. Bracing herself, she pulled with all her might until she heard the wall start to crack. Giving it one last pull, she felt the wall give way and it crumbled outward. Dust filled the room as debris crashed across it, causing Twilight to break down into a coughing fit.

"We found it!" Came Whisper's voice from inside the room. "Get your purple flank in here."

Twilight pushed through the wreckage she made while covering her face with one of her wings to filter out the dust. As she stepped through the door she made, she beheld Random's Lab.

Dozens of shelves filled the walls, all with various beakers and flasks. Crystals glowing all sorts of colors covered the walls and several magical circles were all over the floor and under the shelves, all with different designs to them. Most of the things in the room she had no idea what they did.

Her attention snapped back to Whisper, who was floating there looking annoyed with her. "Do you know any alchemy?" Whisper asked her.

"I do, but...I've never heard of any alchemy that looks like this." If this was going to count on her using unknown equipment, she didn't know what they'd be able to do to save the dying unicorn in the other room.

"Then I'm going to need you to follow my directions to the letter. I've seen him mix the potion we need a dozen times before."

Whisper directed her to several of the bottles against the wall, all in different colors and labeled in a language she didn't recognize. She first had her mix a combination that glowed a muddy brown. Twilight was a bit disheartened she messed up when she was told to place it on one of the magic circles on the ground. As she did so, the color changed from a brown to a pale milky color. The fairy didn't let her catch her breath and they mixed another potion, placed it in another circle, and this one turned blue. They mixed up a red one, a green one, and a purple one next over the next few minutes.

"OK, we're almost done. Place an empty flask in the middle of it and then stopper it with one of the clear crystals with no color in them."

Twilight did as she was told and suddenly all the magic circles faded to make way for a pentagram with each of the potions they made at each point of the star. The contents of each bubbled up and spiraled out of them in a big circle as they made lines that wove in and out of each other in the air before focusing in on the clear gem in the middle. The gem shattered as the magic poured into it, causing a chain reaction that caused all the flying solutions to sparkle as they filled the empty flask. It only took a moment before the flask started to overflow.

"Quick, Twilight! Pull it out of there."

She did as the fairy directed and stared at the black liquid that had little motes of light shining in it. "Did it work?"

Whisper looked closely at it, "it's sloppy but not bad for a first try. This will work. Come on." She flew out of the room with Twilight close behind her.

They made their way back to the room they laid Random in. He looked the same as when they left him, still a charred mess. Whisper landed next to him and tried to fiddle with something metallic on his neck, but her hooves were smoking as she did so. "We need to get this infernal thing off of him."

"What is it?" She asked as she set the flask down on the nearby table and bent down to help her remove it.

"It's the Alicorn Amulet. Even though it's broken, it's still metal and I can't touch it."

Twilight's tongue caught in her throat as she started fiddling with it. "What's he doing wearing this thing?!"

"You'll have to ask when he wakes up, I don't know what he was trying to do." She lied.

She managed to unlatch the necklace after about another minute of playing with it. It was stained as black as the rest of him was. It peeled off his fur, taking chunks of the charred mess with it.

"Good," nodded Whisper. "Now shove that potion down her throat, all of it. Don't worry if it sounds like he's choking. Lungs or stomach, either will absorb it. But get it in him!"

Twilight picked up the flask in her magic and held it up to his lips and started to pour it in. He coughed and sputtered a bit as she poured it in, but she didn't stop until it she had emptied the whole thing into him. As soon as she finished draining the concoction into him, he suddenly started to thrash about violently, almost knocking her out with his wildly swinging hooves.

"It's working!" Proclaimed Whisper. "Hold him down before he hurts himself."

She stepped back and used her magic to hold him down as he thrashed and pushed against his bindings. His eyes shot open and she saw a sea of stars in one of them, while the other one swirled with green and black colors. After a moment he stopped thrashing around and his breathing steadied as his eyes closed. Twilight stopped holding him down once she could see that he had visibly relaxed. "Well Whisper," she asked. "Is he going to be alright?"

Whisper settled down between her ears and let the alicorn take her full weight. "Yeah, he'll live." Damn, she was exhausted. "He might sleep for a day or two, but he'll be right as rain when he wakes back up."

Twilight settled onto the floor into a stray pillow, the adrenaline in her system over the last couple hours finally wearing off. "So Whisper...yawn," she asked through heavy eyelids. "What was that potion we mixed up?"

"It's some kind of revival elixir. We didn't get it perfect or else he'd already be up." She looked down at the princess but found she was already sleeping. "Thank you, Twilight. You did good, little filly." Whisper gave her a little kiss on the brow, curled up into her mane, and fell asleep.

"Hey Twi!," came a distant voice. "You down here, girl?"

Twilight stirred at the sound of her name. She slowly picked herself up off the cold floor. When had she fallen asleep? She felt something roll off her head as she stood, only for it to take flight and land on the bed next to Random's head.

Wait?! Random! The events of last night came rushing back to her. She snapped her head to look at the sleeping stallion. Aside from the excessive amount of burnt fur, he looked like he was sleeping peacefully.

"You can stop worrying, princess," came the fairy next to him. "He's already looks a lot better."

She relaxed a bit upon hear this. "That's good. Yesterday was way too eventful, hopefully today will be an easy day."

Whisper facehoofed, "I swear, both you and Random like to tempt fate when you open your mouths. I think someone's calling you by the way. It sounds urgent."

Twilight walked through Random's office into the main part of the Archive. She found an out of breath Applejack and Blossomforth waiting for her. "Hey girls, what's up? Yawn...I had a bit of a late night."

"Where's Random?!" Shouted Blossomforth while pushing in front of Applejack, "The guards upstairs said you brought him home last night and he looked half dead."

"He's asleep in bed now. He had a bit of an episode last night. I don't know what he was doing out in the Whitetail last night but I think it was a really close call."

"Do you think he'll mind if I wait for him to wake up?" Blossomforth looked at her teary eyed.

"I think that'll be ok." She looked over to Applejack as Blossomforth went into the room behind her. "What's up Applejack?"

"Ah need you to come to the hospital with me, right now!" AJ had a disheveled look to her, like she had been running around in a panic all morning.

"What's wrong, AJ?"

"It's too hard to explain, Twi. Ah don't reckon Ah can begin to understand what's wrong with Big Mac. But it ain't natural, that's fer sure." AJ looked like she was struggling to find the right words. "Ah'll tell ya on the way. Come on."

They picked up Spike as they exited the library. The Canterlot guards following them as they departed. As they made their way across town, AJ shared her story.

"The mornin started pretty normal," AJ started. "Up until Ah noticed Big Mac hadn't woken up yet. Now, we all have mornings where we don't wanna get up right away. So Ah didn't think anything bout it at first. Eventually, Ah figured he slept in long enough, we got work that needs doin. So Ah went in to wake him up and...and...Ah can't really say it, it's too confusin."

They made the rest of the way to the hospital in silence. However, something she saw in the apple farmer's eyes unsettled her even as a terrible wild theory started to gnaw at the back of Twilight's mind. She really hoped she was wrong.

As they stepped into the hospital, they found a couple ponies in the waiting room. In the corner, they spotted Granny Smith who looked like she was doing her best to comfort Apple Bloom. Apple Bloom herself though, was hunched down like she was trying to make herself as small as possible, shaking and with a distant look on her face.

"Spike," she looked to the dragon on her back. "Stay with Apple Bloom, she looks like she need a friend right now."

"You got it Twilight," he hopped off her back and ran over to join the apple ponies.

Across the room, Applejack pushed the door into the back without even waiting for the receptionist to let them in.

Twilight struggled to keep up with the farm mare. That gnawing feeling in the pit of her stomach getting worse as they ran through the halls.

AJ stopped at one of the doors and taking a moment to catch her breath, stepped inside. "Ah found her doc."

"Wait here," Twilight told the guards as she stepped inside to find a very confused doctor step out from behind a curtain. The silhouette of a large body could be seen lying in the bed through the curtain. "Princess Twilight," the doctor gave a very hasty bow. "I'm glad she found you. Right this way. Maybe you can make some sense of this."

Twilight slowly and hesitantly made her way to the edge of the curtain. "Dear sweet Celestia, let me be wrong," she prayed under her breath. She reached up with a hoof and slowly pulled back the curtain. Upon seeing the bed's occupant, she collapsed to the ground. "No! Not another one!" She cried.

She looked up again, knowing that she had to confirm it before she sent her letter to Canterlot. She looked at the stallion in the bed. It was Big Macintosh alright. Applejack's brother lay on the bed not making a sound. His body was also missing any color to it and his cutie mark was gone.

Author's Note

Well, I guess Random had to go and blow himself up. I hate it when that happens.
So what's gonna happen? Will Twilight track down the culprit? Will Random recover? What will Luna find on the northern glacier? Will all the mares in town go on a murderous rampage when they find out Ponyville's most eligible bachelor is down for the count?
Find out next time on Dragonba...I mean...this...place...yeah.