"So thou art trapped in this half-life?"

The shadow dissolved into nothingness and Luna was alone once more.

KNOCK KNOCK

Princess Cadence rolled over in bed, it was about an hour before dawn when a knock came at her door. She carefully slid out of bed, doing her best not to wake her husband. She opened her bedroom door to find one of her guards there, "Yes?" She asked sleepily.

The guard stood stalwart as he saluted, "your Highness. By your orders, you asked to be awakened when Princess Luna returned."

Her ears perked up a bit a that, "Auntie Luna's back?"

"Yes, your Highness. She awaits you in the sitting room."

Cadence followed her guard to the sitting room. It was one of the few rooms in the castle that had its own hearth and this one had a roaring fire going when she arrived. The Princess Luna could be found at the base of the fireplace, wrapped up in a blanket.

"I take it it's cold up there?" Cadence said as she sat next to Luna.

"Indubitably so," the lunar princess said through chattering teeth. "It didn't help we found ourselves caught in a blizzard once we found the source of the light."

"You found it?!" Cadence sat up in rapt attention. "What was it?!"

Luna seemed to hesitate as she prepared to deliver whatever news she had, "pray thee wait before inciting a panic. The news we bring is...of an unusual nature to put it mildly."

"Well don't leave me in suspense," she leaned forward, tension rippling across her fur.

Luna tightened the blanket around her freezing body before speaking a single word. "Sombra."

Cadence reeled back, wings flaring outward and eyes narrowing to pinpricks. "He's back?! We must prepare! We must alert the guard! We must..."

"Calm yourself, niece," she shifted a bit in her wrappings as another chill ran through her. "We told thee to but wait a moment before arising to a state of panic. We do not think the situation is as dire as thou wouldst think."

"How can it not be so bad?!" Cadence felt a shaking take over her body in equal parts fear and anger. "The last time he appeared, we barely survived."

"He appeared to us, talked to us, and he seems..." Luna took a moment to think of the right word, "lost. Sombra also seems to be unable to venture out from the frozen wastes. He just sit there, bemoaning his own existence."

"You think he's expressing sadness?" Cadence grit her teeth, "I've had a long time to talk with my subjects about the former king. He does not feel emotions like a normal pony would. I promise you Luna, conquest is the only thing that rules his thoughts."

"Perhaps you are right," she took slow breath as she let the warm air of the fire fill her lungs. "However that is not the emotion? Aura? What is it the young ones say these days? Ah yes, vibe. That is not the vibe we receive from him."

Cadence stony gaze broke a bit as she chuckled, "heh, nice try aunt Luna. But I don't think the humor is appropriate right now."

"Be that as it may," Luna said. "Everything we saw up there suggests that he is unable to advance on the empire in his current condition. We would personally prefer to wait before taking any further action. The current danger is minimal at worst and we feel there is something more going on here."

She resigned herself to the elder alicorn's wisdom, "very well auntie. We will wait before doing anything else...for now. So what happens now?"

"Now we would partake of a warm bath and then sleep," Luna smiled. "We are quite exhausted and would rest before returning to Canterlot."

Cadence smiled warmly, "I'll have someone draw you a bath then."

Blossomforth slowly made her way into the bedroom. She had felt much better waking up this morning without the feeling of something trying to crawl out of her skin. Which, as a member of the changeling race that is used to wearing a faux skin over their own, turned out to be very unsettling. She couldn't remember much of yesterday after Random had her step into circle that he had destroyed her roommate's room in order to draw. Some vague shadows, some stars, and a deep comforting voice that permeated deep into herself, deeper than the local DJ could shake a pony when they cranked up the bass.

As she stepped into the room, her breath caught in her throat as she witnessed the charred form laying on the bed. "Random?!" She shouted as she rushed forward to the bedside. She barely knew this stallion but tears still welled up inside her for the one that saved her life.

A small form flitted off the pillow as she approached, "shh, keep it down. Don't you know it's bad manners to yell at some pony who's sleeping?"

Her eyes snapped to the small light the voice came from. "Are you...?"

"Yes I'm a faerie. Name's Whisper," came the voice from the wind. "I swear you ponies, or changelings in your case, need to get out more. I feel like I've had the shock and wonderment talk a few too many times recently...Why are you bowing?"

Blossomforth had jumped back from the bed and pressed her nose to the ground, "please forgive this one's rudeness." She hastily explained. "We have not had an encounter with a creature of the fae in recent memory."

"Um...OK?" The little light wavered and bobbed, not used to this kind of attention. "I guess...Rise, my child?"

"This one is honored by your presence," said Blossomforth.

"Yeah, I'm gonna have to ask you to knock that off," Whisper was blushing a bit. "Cause that's gonna get annoying really fast."

"This one apologizes," she made to bow once more only to find the faerie booping her on the nose.

"Stop. Now," now she WAS getting annoyed. "I've forgotten how much your people revere faeries. Please just talk to me like anypony else."

"But..."

"I insist," she put her hoof down hard as she landed on the bedstand. "And don't worry about Random, he's fine. Well, as fine as anypony can be who decides to take up self detonation as a late night hobby."

"He blew himself up?!" She was shocked to hear this. "How and why?!" Her gaze followed where Whisper was pointing and her eyes landed on the alicorn amulet.

"He found himself a toy to play with," Whisper said with a grin. "Broke it too."

"I remember this thing," she brushed some of the soot off of it. "Some crazy unicorn showed up with that and took over the town a few moons ago."

"I remember," said Whisper. "I was here when Trixie pulled that stunt. It was really funny to watch how Twilight pulled one over on her too. Random would approve of how she went about it too."

Blossomforth's eyes settled back on the blackened unicorn, "he's really gonna be ok?"

"Should be, I've seen him recover from far worse. Heh, this one time he..." Whisper's eyes grew wide as she focused on the ceiling.

"GET AWAY FROM THE BED!" She shouted as she flew away from the bed.

Blossomforth quickly jumped away from the sleeping unicorn. As she did so, she caught the sight of the circle that was spinning on the ceiling. Did she miss that when she came in? It appeared to be picking up speed as it was started to spin much, much faster. "What is that?!"

"That's a bad sign," said Whisper even as light poured off the edges of the circle, enshrouding the entire bed in a veil of light.

"What are you doing awake, little Luna?" Said the wizened, old stallion.

Little Luna looked up at Starswirl, "I couldn't sleep."

"Go easy on her, old timer," said the figure shrouded in a forest green cloak standing next to him. "She's been getting more and more nocturnal ever since she got her cutie mark."

"Shouldn't you think about finding your own student?" Starswirl snapped at Cloak

"Maybe I haven't found the right one yet. Besides, I think you just want to keep both of the new princesses to yourself." Cloak snapped back.

What is this?

"Must you insist on calling them by that title as well?" Said Starswirl while shaking his head.

"It's too late now, all the ponies have been calling them that ever since they sprouted wings."

Little Luna slowly walked up to Cloak, "my wings hurt." She tugged at his leg. "Help me?"

"Heh...She may be my student but she keep coming to you for things," laughed Starswirl.

"Well that's what you get for always going to bed so early, you old fogey." Cloak jabbed back.

"What's a fogey?" Little Luna looked up at Cloak.

Cloak lowered himself down to eye level with the young princess, kind green eyes that shone like emeralds looked at her from within the shroud. "A fogey is what we call old unicorns that let their beards get too fluffy."

A memory?

Starswirl stroked his fluffy beard, "I think it's rather dignified." And I would not call two in the morning early. Not all of us can sleep the day away."

"I've told you time and time again," he snapped back. "The night is the time for doing things, maybe if you just..."

Little Luna placed both her hooves on his foreleg, "wings..."

"Sorry Starswirl," his horn glowed and a wisp of green picked little Luna up off the ground and deposited her on his back, where she soon nuzzled into his neck. "You heard the princess, duty calls."

"Nothing good will come of you spoiling her like that," Starswirl called after him.

"Somepony has to," Cloak called back as he walked away. "Chronos knows the elder sister gets more than her fair share of attention."

He carried the little princess back to her room and gathered up a pile of pillows for them to sit on.

Is this the old castle?

Little Luna hopped off his back and landed in the pile of pillows, giggling. Cloak swiftly dug her out of the pile and placed her down between his forelegs as he sat down. "Why do you and Starswirl always fight?" She asked him.

He looked at her with shock, "we don't fight."

"You do too," Little Luna pouted. "I always see you fighting."

"We don't fight," smiled Cloak. "We just...disagree. It's something adults do. Now if you want to keep arguing with me, I won't do your wings."

"Nuh-uh," quick as a whip she turn her back to him and stretched her wings out as far as she could. "Wings."

Cloak pulled her close as he nuzzled into her feathers, looking for feathers that were out of place.

"Tee-hee," little Luna giggled. "That tickles."

This is so embarrassing.

He worked his way out, straightening and cleaning the small soft quills. "One of these days you're going to have to learn how to do this yourself."

"But I like it when you do it." She whined.

He make another pass, this time pulling out a secondary that was loose and was sticking out at odd angle.

"Eep." She squeaked as the feather came free.

"You ok?" He said as he set the feather to the side. "That one had to come out."

"It hurt a bit," she said as her primaries twitched. "But it feels a lot better now."

"Well I'm not done yet. Hold still," he dove into the other wing, looking for various flaws.

Who are you?

Her wings were still quite small so it only took a couple of minutes before the feathers were all lined up correctly and no longer causing any discomfort.

"All done," he said as he pulled out a stray piece of down that gotten bunched up all funny.

"How are you so good at this when you don't have your own wings?" Little Luna asked as she curled up in front of him.

"That's a secret," Cloak tickled her. "I can't tell you everything. How else am I supposed to be dark and mysterious."

"Hehe, you're silly," the little filly's eyelids started to droop as she got more comfortable. "But I like it when you're silly."

"Well I'm glad you approve," he leaned down and gave her a small kiss on the head as she drifted off to sleep.

Luna slowly opened her eyes as she laid in bed. Bits and pieces of the dream were slowly slipping away from her as she stared up at the ceiling. "Not a dream, but a memory." She mused.

She tried her hardest to remember the name of the stallion she was so close to in her youth. His name was on the tip of her tongue, but try as she might, it eluded her. The eternal march of time stealing precious moments from her as tears rolled down her face. Guilt plaguing her for forgetting one she was once close to.

Something stuck out in her mind though. It was the green cloak he wore. It looked exactly the same as the one the dreamer wore.

*CRACK* "RAAAAAIIEEEEEEEEE!!!"

Blossomforth and Whisper slammed their hooves down over their ears when the screaming started.

Not long after the diagram on the ceiling started spinning than a large crack had split open in the middle of Random's chest. Smoke started to pour out of the fissure and rolled across his fur and down the sides of the bed, stopping only once it hit the veil of light that had dropped from the ceiling.

A blood red spike started to push it's way out through the crack in his chest. His eyes generating their own green light as they cast shadows throughout the room. His hooves came up and wrapped around the protrusion even as Random could be seen gritting his teeth as he tried to pull the spike back inside himself.

Glass could be heard breaking as cracks started to form around his hooves and started to climb up his forelegs. More cracks also started forming down the rest of his body and up his face, and everywhere a crack formed, more smoke poured out from him.

The cracks formed deeper and deeper gouges as they continued to spread. Pieces of his fur started to shine and solidify. The pieces started to flake and break off, falling away from his body.

Suddenly the spike thrust out of him several inches, throwing his hooves away as his back arched upward. One of his forelegs striking the nightstand as it came down upon it. The leg shattering into a million pieces as it scattered and bounced off the veil.

Random's head lay against the bed with his mouth soundlessly hanging open. The cracks slowly creeped from his face to the green orbs that were his eyes. They quickly resembled a web as the cracks spidered their way through them.

Then, as if someone had dropped hot glass in the snow, his eyes shattered. As soon as they did so, the spike forced the rest of they way out of his body with the smoke forming a mass around it. Lines started to form around the spike as more of the shadows collected themselves. A few moments later, the lines had formed into a face framed by two green eyes with red irises, purple smoke pouring off of them. A gleaming white, fanged smile cut the most sinister grin as it started to laugh.

"HAHAHA! At last!" Declared the shadow. "At last I'm free! That fool finally bit off a bit too much." He glanced down at the wrecked, still body. "Still, you were a mighty foe to keep the mighty King Sombra at bay for so long."

As soon as the king said his name, small green chains poured out from the corpse and wrapped around him.

"Still refusing to admit when you're beaten," he turned to the source of his annoyance, several of the chains snapping just from him moving. "Pfff," he spit in disgust. "Good riddance."

The chains, proving to be no threat, retracted back into the broken body. As he turned to the rest of the room, his eyes fell on the occupants. "Ah, I see that lunch has been provided." Sombra licked his lips as he floated towards the two creatures shaking in the room. "I can taste your fear already, it must be delicious. Just wait right there while I..."

*Wham* He collided with the veil, lighting up as he did so. "So you had one last trick up your sleeve, my foe. No matter," he pressed his horn into the veil, causing it to sizzle and smoke. "This won't take long."

Luna had only managed a single step out of bed when it happened. She had felt the dreamer again through her connection with the dream world and was getting ready to pursue him when a consciousness slammed into her.

"Who's there?! Show yourself!" She demanded.

Desperation was bleeding through the voice in her head.

"Who's getting away?" Luna asked the open air.

"The dream?" She gasped. "Art thou the dreamer?"

That was most certainly him, although this is the first time he's reached out to her in this fashion. Whatever is happening, it doesn't sound good.

Luna closed her eyes and reached deep within herself. It only took but a moment to tap into the power that filled her domain and sent her into the world of dreams.

Luna flew down the starry corridor. Most of the passages to pony's dreams were faded and barred tight since most were still awake.

She poured on the speed and could feel his presence getting stronger as she did so. Racing ever faster down the starry road, it didn't take much longer to spot her destination.

The rift! The one she had sealed the previous night...was torn wide open!

Luna hurried to the edge of the rift, finding the dreamer lying in front of it buckled over. The collapsed dream lay behind him in ruins. Shattered crystal lay strewn throughout the broken passage.

The dreamer, still shrouded in same green cloak she had grown used to seeing, looked up as she approached, "You made it."

"What hath occurred?" Luna asked him. "Last we saw thee, thee did not appear to be having a pleasant time." She looked at the rift, dreading to ask the next question, "where is the shadow?"

"Escaped. It hasn't gone far though," said the dreamer. "My body had been placed inside a spiritual containment circle before it had a chance to break free, but...it won't hold."

"What do you need me for? My power doesn't work in the waking world as it does here, and last I tried to used it here, I was completely overpowered."

The dreamer looked up at her, soft green eyes radiating from his cloak even as he held a hoof forward to her. "I need you to lend me a portion of your power. It'll only be for a moment but I'm far too injured to resort to my normal tricks. I need a source of raw power to pull the shadow back before it escapes."

"Thou hast quite the audacity to request this of us," Luna looked deep into those eyes of his. "How are we to know that thou won't abuse our power if we were to lend it to you?"

"You don't. I'm putting myself out here and even though I haven't given you any reason to believe in me, I want, no, need you to trust that I'm doing this for a good reason."

The rift started to spark and rumble.

"Please decide quickly," the dreamer asked her. "It won't be much longer before it escapes and wrecks indiscriminate havoc."

Luna continued looking deep into those pleading eyes, remembering the memory she just relived. "Ponies will end up hurt if I don't, will they?"

"It's a guarantee if it escapes." He continued to hold his hoof out to her.

She stepped forward, placing her hoof in his. "You and I are going to have some words once this is over."

"I will answer what I can." A smile broke out across his face, "are you ready? This is going to feel weird."

Luna took a deep breath, "do whatever thou intends to do."

She suddenly buckled over as she felt the center of her being press in on itself. Small lights began to shine all along her fur. The lights began to form lines as they traveled across her body and down the hoof that held that of the dreamer's.

As the lights flowed up into the dreamer, a bright blue form riddled with stars could be seen from underneath the cloak. "Just a little more Luna, I almost have enough."

Her vision started to go a bit blurry as more light left her. Just as she was about to pass out, she felt his hoof fall away from her.

She looked on as moonlight cascaded off his body. He walked to the front of the rift and stood straight with his horn pointed skyward. "I've spent too long digging up all the pieces," she barely heard under his breath. "I'm not letting you get away when I'm so close."

Blossomforth looked on in horror as the creature that declared himself King Sombra pushed against the veil. Cracks were starting to form as Whisper landed on her head.

"Move! Now!" She shouted. "It's coming!"

The veil shattered and Sombra grinned a savage grin as he advanced on the retreating mare. Just a little closer and he can...

"AARRROOOUUU!!"

The room started to shake as the howling of a wolf shook the very air itself. Sombra turned to look behind him. "No! I beat you! How can you..."

His words were cut off as a bright blue...thing clamped it's jaws around him. Fangs piercing his ethereal body, preventing him from escaping as he was pulled back to the shattered corpse on the bed. Large blue links of chain reeling him back in.

"NO! NOT AGAIN!" The chains continued to pull him in, unhindered by his struggling. "I'M NOT GOING BACK! I'M NOT..."

The head of the lunar beast dragged him the rest of the way in. As the last of bit of it retreated into the broken form, the room's light returned to normal.

Whisper was the first to say something, "I'm not ashamed to admit it. That was scary."

Blossomforth edged forward to the burnt and broken form on the bed, "what about Random? Is he...?"

*Crack* *Crumble* *POP* The still form on the bed shattered into dust as a figure sat up on the bed and began coughing and hacking over the side.

"I hath forgotten how unsavory the taste of burnt crystal can be."

As the dust settled, a stallion that nopony could've expected sat on the bed. He still had the same green eyes but he now he sported a coat of goldenrod and a light brown mane.

Across his back was a deep green cloak. The dreamer had awoken.

Author's Note

I feel like such a rookie writer when I take all week to write a chapter like this.
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