Lunarium

by TrampingPony

Rating: teen
Tags: Lyra, Trixie, Octavia, Adventure, Derpy Hooves, Twilight Sparkle, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Alternate Universe
Length: 71854

In an alternate timeline where magic has vanished together with Discord, six fillies from the city of Canterlot go to find its burial ground and reawaken the ancient powers.

All magic vanished from the world when Discord fell. Along with it, the might of the unicorns and alicorn princesses dwindled. Even the Elements Of Harmony lost their potence and were lost in the sea of time.

Left without the guidance of the alicorns and the magic of harmony, the ponies soon raised Equestria to a country ruled by science and industry. But still, some remain who dream of magic.

As the mysterious beast Magia threatens the world, a sickly filly named Twilight Sparkle and five friends take it upon themselves to delve into the caverns beneath Canterlot to find the burial ground of magic, the Lunarium.

This is an ongoing Rewrite. The story in and of itself was finished in April 2013 but needed some massive editing. This new version features all new scenes, better descriptions, less mistakes, 3D-Effects, and a gratis code for the DLC-Character "Emo Pie", which on any other occasion would've been a pre-order bonus only.

Or something.

Current Coverart by: kmrshy, go check 'em out.

Also thanks to everybody who helps/ed editing this story, no matter if you did only help me with one chapter or all. Thank you for turning this rewrite from another mess into a brilliant story!

Published 2012-10-12 15:20:01 UTC
Last updated 2017-11-01 15:00:15 UTC

Chapter 2 ~ Trixie Will Perform The Greatestest Tricks Today! (V2)

Trixie Will Be Performing The Greatestest Tricks Today

Twilight had grown up with a rare condition which left her physically feeble. Even the smallest bit of excitement could end with vast consequences. That was one of the main reasons the best she had gotten out of her life had been books. Not that she was complaining. Her papa had told her that smart ponies didn’t complain and Twilight was a smart pony.

But even smart ponies wanted more out of the world than pictures and words. She knew the way from home to the hospital and that was her knowledge of the world. To her, the city of Canterlot was only streets which ended in crossings, of those only one path actually lead somewhere. To Twilight, Canterlot was the Cadenza Street, with its sweets shop that had an image of the ancient princess on its windows. It was the nice mare in it that had been super close to Shining Armor. To Twilight, Canterlot was the street that went by the new city hall. A large, black building with guards posted in front of it, wearing the blue coats of the republican guard and really neat hats. To Twilight, Canterlot was filled with brown and red houses and the alleys in between them. To Twilight, Canterlot was the pubs and places her papa went to forget that mama had died and his dear son hadn’t wanted to go to the military school.

They crawled beneath the ruined branches of the bushes and over the paling grass. Trixie keeping her package firm between her remaining teeth while lending Twilight help whenever she got too weak to walk on her own. For Twilight that lifted any remaining suspicions she had about the other unicorn.

While they hurried through the hospital's garden, Twilight noticed that some ponies saw them, but didn’t pay them any mind. Lucky for them, Twilight thought, if nopony really noticed them, miss Redheart wouldn’t find out. She didn’t want Redheart to be upset. The other nurses seemed to be always upset, so she really, really wanted to keep at least one nice pony to remain here.

By the time they reached the gate the small brown filly felt ecstatic. Trixie just gave a casual nod to the guard that was placed there. His answer was a dull gaze in their direction, telling them how little he cared about his work here. It reminded her of one of the Sherclop Pones stories she had read, only that had been an asylum, and he had a princess in companionship.

“We’re going to our meeting point,” Trixie announced as they went unto the streets. Twilight had to bob her head.

“Meeting point?”

“Yes,” Trixie answered, “you should see the others too.” Twilight strained to hear Trixie as the noise from the city overtook her entirely. She saw the mouth of the other filly still moving, but couldn’t make out anything she said. Was she explaining something important? Twilight didn't know, but didn't say anything herself. Truth was, she had enough trouble keeping up with the other filly.

She had never walked through Canterlot, the best look she had gotten was through the windows of home, the hospital or during the rides with the motorized carriage. So her eyes went from one side to another and for these moments, she forgot the bed bound, sickly filly with the books. She simply took it in. The stallions with their top hats and the mares with their fancy headdresses trotting around on the sidewalks. Carriages, both motorized and with ponies pulling them, went over the streets, creating the loud noises of high noon traffic. They rushed over the street, past some pegasus, who was probably a soldier of some sort, standing with his family, boasting to what might’ve been his daughter.

“Daddy’ll go soon to seriously kick some griffon flank! Really, RD, there’s nothing to worry about.”

All Twilight had was a short moment to take it in, his black uniform with the golden buttons marking him as a high-ranking military from Cloudsdale. Twilight knew because one of the picture books her own father had given Shining had all equestrian military ranks in it. Though that wasn't what got her attention, instead she looked to the filly who seemed to weep in the arms of the mare that might’ve been her mother. Twilight didn’t know, however she noted that “RD’s” mane had six colors, from black to pale blonde. Now, Trixie didn’t look so weird anymore.

Seconds later her legs had given in and she had fallen into a puddle in the middle of a small alley, trash all around her and small rats looking at her with minor interest. The filly had started coughing again and the pain had come back. Her meal was coming up again, too.

“Breathe Twilight, breathe!” she heard a voice beside her, “calm, like me . . . Look at me, watch me! Look at Trixie! Look at her! You need to follow Trixie!.”

She looked at the paling filly who breathed in and that in a manner most over the top. Still, Twilight did as wanted, breathing in and out, slowly calming down. The pain stopped and her tummy felt better too, after a few moments. Trixie stood by her side the whole time, offering a hug. She whispered reassuring words into Twilight’s ear; that she wouldn’t let anything bad happen to her, that she was her friend, that she’d never leave anypony alone, that Twilight could trust her, because Trixie was honest.

Twilight noted that the other filly had suddenly started talking in the third person but didn’t really make anything of it, still it was a good thought to keep her occupied as she faded away into the land of dreams again.

She woke up under another blanket with Trixie looking at her with a worried expression which immediately turned into relief. “Oh, by Celestia, you’re awake again,” she told Twilight and gave her another hug.

“Y-yeah,” the filly said, giving a hug back herself. After that was done she leaned back, finding herself on some kind of sofa. She looked around, they were in a large hall with all kinds of stuff in it. She spotted old toasters, beds, tables, she spotted carpets that were filled with holes and so much more stuff. Everything seemed old and broken, even the ceiling above had holes in it. She also noted a window and saw that the grey and black clouds were now right above Canterlot, which got her to question something: “How long was I out?”

“Maybe an hour, tops,” Trixie answered.

“When I break down, I usually wake up much later.” Twilight lifted her hoof to her horn, she had dreamt of something, something important this time but couldn’t remember what. So she tried to change the topic, “We’re not back in the hospital.”

Trixie looked away from her, “T-Trixie panicked and when Trixie panics she always goes here first . . . BUT! Trixie went back after she had gotten you here safely and then found some pills beneath all your books.”

She lifted about four different bottles up, all with their names printed on in elder Equestrian and beneath in new Equestrian. Twilight took them gladly and swallowed one pill from each. Trixie just watched again.

“Still, Trixie didn’t know you had . . .” she stopped. She knew, Twilight understood then and inhaled deeply.

“Doesn’t matter,” she said, “however, you wanted to show me what’s in your box.”

Twilight was still intent on making this trip count. Even though she knew what had happened on the streets, she still wanted to go on. At least Trixie seemed happy to oblige as she hopped away and towards the box, which had been placed away from the sofa and apparently, right in the middle of the hall. Trixie kicked it open and took something out of it. With a swirl she fastened the purple cloak around her neck and Twilight watched the glittering stars on it in awe. Trixie placed a hat of the same scheme, also with stars on it, and stood up on her hind legs.

“Now watch in awe, since Trixie will be performing the greatestest tricks today!” she exclaimed, lifting her front hooves up to the air.

A magician’s show. Now that was something Twilight had never seen. She clapped her hooves together, all giddy. Whatever would happen next, would be great, she thought. Alas, what happened wasn’t quite the thing she expected. Instead there appeared a voice in the hall. A small voice, but strong, full of of innocent believes and childish dreams. A voice that filled Twilight with wonder and Trixie with loathing as it seemed. The voice only spoke one question, for the filly cared only about one thing whenever she saw a wizard or magician performing.

“Could you grow me hands?” Lyra asked.

Chapter 3 ~ Think Of Me As The Ghost Of Canterlot

Have You Ever Dreamt Of Dying?

    A white earth pony with a pale blond mane had entered the scene, looking at Trixie with eyes that were positively sparkling. Her mouth had went open in a smile so wide, Twilight thought it must’ve hurt. It was like she was expecting Trixie to fulfill that wish of hers, not that Twilight had ever heard of ‘hands’ before.

    “Thanks for ruining the show, Lyra,” Trixie said with so much venom in her voice that Twilight shrank together. She also shrank because she loved to huddle herself up beneath a warm blanket, but that wasn’t the main reason right now.

    “Can you do it, though? Can you? Can you? Can you?” The earth pony spoke, bouncing up and down, not even trying hide her excitement. Her grin was the most spectacular thing, mostly because, unlike Trixie, her face wasn’t messed up and her teeth seemed to be intact.

    The mightiest magician only sighed, “No, Lyra,” Twilight was amazed just how much spite Trixie put into that one name, “I can’t:”

    The smile didn’t fade from Lyra’s face, instead she just hopped, yes, ‘hopped’, over to Trixie. “Well, don’t you worry. Maybe one day you’ll be able to do it,” she told the unicorn with a bright smile, “I mean, you’re still a fully functia-, funtio-...working unicorn, right?” She gave her friend a nudge. Trixie however only rolled her eyes.

    “Anyway, Lyra-” Really, Twilight asked how much hatred Trixie was able to fit in that one word and Lyra seemingly not even noticing. The fully functional unicorn couldn’t finish her sentence, as one newcomer spotted another.

    “WOAH!” Lyra shouted and pointed at Twilight, “Who’s she?”

    “That’s Twilight Sparkle, I met her in the hospital.”

    Another weird stranger that was exciting. The moment Trixie had finished speaking Twilight’s heart pushed against her chest, again and again. It felt like somepony was playing drums in her chest. She remembered however and tried to breathe slowly, maybe it’d help. Lyra looked at her and then at Trixie.

    “Why were you at the hospital?” Twilight asked. Trixie just looked down and for a moment there was silence. For a second, Twilight could have sworn she had heard Trixie whimpering. Lucky for her, the earth pony took charge of the situation.

    “So you’re Twilight,” she said and stepped up to her, the smile bright and welcoming, “I’m Lyra, Lyra Heartstrings and no, I can’t play any kind of instrument, even if my name might suggest so.”

    “Oh,” was all Twi managed.

    “Yeah, I know, everypony reacts the same. You should’ve seen Tavi when we first met, she was like ‘wow, you make music?’ and I was like ‘No I totally don’t even know what music is,’ and she was like ‘Whaaa-’ and I was like ‘yes, I am totally unaware of what music is, what I do know however is, that you look like you might know how I get hands,’ to which she replied-”

    Twilight looked over Lyra’s shoulder, the small filly with the cape and the hat was groaning as Lyra spoke. She went on and on and on, sometimes stopping to breathe, it was really very funny to watch, especially since it seemed like her sentences never stopped. Twilight immediately concluded that Trixie looked weird and Lyra was weird. Not in a bad way, though. While the words seemed completely meaningless to her, the voice itself was beautiful. There was something about Lyra, something melodious, in her voice, in her movements. It felt weird, but the assumption that she had something to do with music came easier the longer the filly talked.

    The heartbeat had slowed down, she had completely forgotten about the excitement and the stress. She simply listened to the strange filly in front of her and noted everything about her. Lyra’s mane, for example, was a tangled, wild mess of hair that had never seen a comb before. Twilight only noticed that now, because it drove the point further in just how different the filly looked compared to Trixie. That one had a not-so-good looking face but her mane was well cared for. Then she noted how Lyra was constantly moving, as if she couldn’t stand still for even a second. There were so many details she saw and Lyra only talked. It was quite staggering but also nice.  Halfway through she closed her eyes, lulled in by the talk.

Tell me, little filly. What *do** ponies dream of?*

    Her eyes flung open, “What?”

    Lyra had her hoof raised to the sky and seemed like she was about to make some kind of world-shaking speech when Twilight posed her question loudly. “What?” she asked in return.

    “There-” Twilight began, looking around, “there was a voice.”

    “What are you talking about, Twi?” Trixie asked as she stepped towards the both, ending whatever she had been doing, neglected in the middle of the room.

    “There was a voice, like from an old stallion. Is one here?” Twilight asked, looking around frantically. Both ponies looked first left, then right, then shook their heads in unison. Twilight was dazzled, “But I heard it.”

    Had she been dreaming? No, she couldn’t have slept in, she hadn’t been that tired, she-

I hadn’t expected for you to hear me. You’re the first in quite a while to hear my voice.

    Twilight’s eyes widened, her heart began to pound. “Wh-What?”

    Trixie and Lyra looked at each other, a bit weirded out. Twilight didn’t know what to say, what to tell them, there was a voice in her head. Fear came, and with the fear, the pain began to sting again.

Such a talent, so young and already so filled with magic that she can actually hear my voice. Well, that’s good enough, my little pony. Don’t fret, I’m a friend.

    “Where are you?” she asked loudly.

    “Who?” asked Lyra

Sad to say I am everywhere. Think of me as the ghost of Canterlot and you’re the only one I can talk to to. . . so please, don't stop breathing.

    The voice talked calmly to her and that was the weirdest thing. She didn’t know how to respond to that. She didn’t even know what exactly was going on. She looked at Trixie and Lyra. Maybe she should tell them.

    “There’s a ghost here.”

I doubt they will believe that

    “What? Does that mean Trixie’s ritual worked?” Trixie asked, excitement filling her, “Praised be Trixie!”

    At the same time, Lyra answered: “Wow! Really? I didn’t know you could talk to ghosts, that is so exciting. Tell him ‘hi’ from me!”

And I stand corrected. . .

    For a moment only silence remained, Twilight didn’t know what to say.

Wait, we can make this work. You’ve got a lot of raw talent and you three are unicorns. Put your horns together and...believe...yeah, *believe** that’s the right thing to do.*

    Twilight looked at Lyra, “You’re an earth pony, right?”

    She grinned and shook her head, “Nope, my parents just didn’t want a freak of nature to run around their house.”

Oh...right, I forgot. Even if you have the talent, you can’t use magic.

    “There is no such thing as magic,” Twilight said and immediately followed up to the others: “He didn’t know unicorn horns are merely decorative.”

Heh, don’t tell me you believe that? Little filly, always reading stories, always drawing pictures of knights and mighty princesses who can move the sun.

    “What do you mean?”

Twilight Sparkle. That’s a good name. A very good name. Twilight, listen. Stand up, take your friends. *Go*. Run. Don’t look back. Go to the old castle plaza and from there take a dive. If you don’t-

    The voice said something else but at that moment, the ground started shaking heavily. Like a roar from below it erupted. Things fell down, a mirror shattered on the other side of the hall, somewhere outside, in the distance thunder roared. Twilight cowered beneath the blanket, clutching her legs. There hadn’t been any earthquakes in the last few months, everypony said they had gone completely. She closed her eyes again and just listened and felt. Everything shook. Everything did. Somewhere in the distance the ground must have moved with such strength that it tore down a building. She heard it, the falling stones crashing unto the ground, the screams of the ponies around it. Something like that wasn’t missed, even here. Then it stopped.

    Twilight came out from beneath her fortress.

    It was Lyra who asked: “Everypony alright?”

    “Trixie is always fine;” Trixie answered between sobs but didn’t came out of Lyra’s embrace, instead hugging the hated filly as tight as she was able to, clearly crying while doing so.

    “This wasn’t supposed to happen,” Twilight said, “I wanna go home.”

    Lyra looked at her, “Yeah, that’s probably for the best. We could all go to the hospital. It’s safe there.”

    “Can I take the blanket?”

Lyra was too busy aiding Trixie, despite minor protests, so Twilight decided that she was good. The unicorn then got to the task of stuffing Twilight’s medicine in the pockets of her cape, meanwhile Lyra looked upside and told them to hurry. Twilight looked up once to see why, there were cracks in the roof and now she even noticed it creaking. They got everything together as quickly as they could but of course, Twilight fell again, her legs grew weak and she grew weary of her weakness. As tears came down her cheek Lyra and Trixie both helped her up and together they moved outside.

    Canterlot itself wasn’t pretty. When somepony walked through the alleys that was especially true. Beneath one’s hooves were stoney streets full of dirt with puddles with origins a pony never wanted to ask of. The whole city was filled with the stink of motorized carriages and trash that only was taken away once a month, if at all. Rats housed in the trash cans and on dry days the stink could become unbearable in certain places. A pony could easily wander off into the alleys and get so lost they’d never find their way out again. There wasn’t even any means to actually navigate in Canterlot. If you weren’t on a big street, it was highly unlikely that the sky could be seen. There were pipes and clothing hanged to dry, leaving little to no room to look through and if there was, chances were the sky was covered with smog.

    Canterlot still was one of the prettier cities in the republic. It had the castle garden and a few trees on choice streets. Most of them were dead but there were some at least. It didn’t compare to the mule cities, which had endured for centuries or the artful camel cities of the far east but it was something. That what her father had told her.

    “And for the little bits of beauty your mother loved Canterlot, Twily,” he had said.

    There were cracks in the walls and the ground. Somewhere in the distance smoke was coming up and somehow, Twilight knew it had nothing to do with the local industry. She heard screams, too.

    “Why was there an earthquake?” Trixie asked. She looked pale, incredibly pale.

    “I dunno, but we’ll be safe at the hospital,” Lyra answered and gave a reassuring smile. Trixie wasn’t even looking, but Twilight was. It made her happy that Lyra could be so positive about this.

They walked on, some dried clothing had fallen down on the ground and one of the pipes from above had crashed into a window during the quake. There was no pony here, though. That was when Twilight noticed that they were in one of those places she had read and heard about. Those places in the city where only those could go who knew their way. She was right in the middle of the maze called Canterlot, somewhere in the distance parts of the city had been destroyed and ponies were screaming. They were here and if not for the far-off sounds, she would’ve said they were the last ponies in Canterlot. That thought scared her and she was quite happy that they’d return to the hospital. It was good her two new friends helped her trot, too, otherwise she was sure to be lost here forever.

You’re going in the wrong direction

The voice was lying, she knew. Nurse Redheart was in the hospital, the doctors, too. They were mean, of course – but still, they only meant to help. They might even find a solution to this entire situation. Twilight could only hope.

“Do you think the others are alright?” Lyra asked, looking at Trixie on the other side.

“I-I don’t-”

“Right, stupid question, of course they’re alright. Derpy’s probably even the cause for this, considering her record,” Lyra laughed. Twilight of course had no idea who this Derpy  was and how she could have been responsible for this entire situation but she didn’t ask. She just wanted to reach the hospital.

They took the twists and turns of Canterlot with ease and with every step, Twilight felt herself growing stronger.

“I can walk on my own now,” she said after a while and then confirmed it by trying.

You’re really going into the wrong direction, Twilight.

     They moved, slow at first but then sped up, Twilight felt her legs growing stronger with every meter. Then the trot transformed into a canter. Twilight just moved her hooves and it felt right, they suddenly felt better, as if she had done this all her life, as if she had never stopped. . . galloping. The other two could barely keep up so Twilight slowed down a bit again. Alone, she would’ve never been able to move through the maze of the Canterlot alleys. It took them quite a while before they reached the street before the hospital. Motorized carriages were standing in the middle of the road while ponies hurried around. As the trio stepped outside they looked upon sheer chaos. There was smoke coming from a distance. Twilight couldn’t make much out but some ponies were yelling something and it seemed to terrify and anger them. She didn’t know why but somewhere down the road one pony was attacking another, shouting angrily.

     They had just come out of the alley and then Twilight saw something else, to their left the road had a huge cleft. She saw doctors hurrying around, directly from the hospital. motorized carriages were turned upside down and she saw some ponies, lying unconscious. She had felt the rumbling but still it looked so much worse than she had thought it would be, but then, that’s how all the earthquakes in Canterlot ended.

     Then she felt a drop of water on her nose. She shook her head bewildered, looked up, felt another. There were black clouds above them. She had the blanket, though, so even as the rain started to pour down on them, she felt little and less. Plus, she felt stronger than ever, even her heart didn’t give her any problems. Yes, she didn’t even feel it beat as she normally did and that was probably the best thing. Water came down from the sky, small, greenish drops that felt bad on the coat and skin of a pony. Her father had always liked to remind her not to drink it, since it was dangerous. Some drops had a shade of grey she noted, they had probably wanted to take some dust back to the ground.

     That was the moment one of the adults finally noticed the three fillies. A male pegasus, wearing a black uniform with golden buttons on it. It was the same one she had seen before with ‘RD’ and this time actually had time to see that his coat was as black as his outfit and his mane just added to the monotony. From what her mind could remember, he was the complete opposite of RD with her six-colored mane.

     “What are you doing here?” he asked loudly, “Go home to your parents where it’s safe.”

     Twilight wanted to open her mouth, wanted to answer something but the sight was too much. There wasn’t really anything to say about. She could see it, right behind the pegasus, whatever it was. It looked like a tower of mud with thirteen black sticks for arms, atop it’s crown was what looked like an eyeball. What should’ve been white was blood red and it appeared cut, with more mud leaking out of it. It moved and even that wasn’t natural. It was like the actual motions were missing, like she was blinking and the arms had moved in between. Then she noticed the ends of the arms, scissors.

Twilight Sparkle, this is important. Look at it and then tell me: Have you ever dreamt of dying?

     “What?” she asked.

Because you’re about to die. So do as I tell you...Twilight–

     “RUN!” she yelled, not even daring to look away from the creature.

The pegasus stood there, bewildered: “What?” he asked and raised his hoof, “You don’t need to-”

There was a noise. A snip. The hoof went up before his face and he looked at it, didn’t understand. His arm was flying. Then Twilight screamed, turned and ran. By then it was far too late.

She stood in an open field, rainbow colored grass waving in the air, mountains of gingerbread with sugar on top of them rose in the distance, and pink clouds of cotton candy were above her. That sight wasn’t enough to stop Twilight, in fact she didn’t even notice that the ground beneath her was made of solid chocolate. She just galloped with all her strength, she just galloped and cried. The stallion hadn’t even had the time to scream, to alarm anypony. Now he was gone and she was in a field of candy. She saw a blue and an aquamarine unicorn in the distance, the blue one wearing Trixie’s coat. That one suddenly stopped and turned around. She must have seen her as she immediately ran into her direction.

She herself didn’t know how to react to this whole thing, she wanted to close her eyes, look down and gallop horn first. That was when she noticed her own coat was a mulberry color. It was pretty, too. Still, she hadn’t time to question it as a screech sounded behind her. An otherworldly howl that made her head hurt immediately. That was how she knew that thing was coming, with its thirteen stick arms with scissors for hooves.

Around them the clouds were falling down and stood up again on small stick legs, growing moustaches and top hats of chocolate, by then the azure filly stood by her side. Stood, because now they were surrounded...by cotton candy clouds with moustaches and top hats.

“Please tell me this is a dream,” the blue filly asked, Twilight took one look at her face. The black eye and the other bruises gave Trixie away immediately.

“Sadly it’s not.” They both heard the ghostly voice. Trixie looked up.

“You two are either very lucky or incredibly unlucky but you’re the first to see that thing since the princesses.”

The thing stood behind the cotton clouds, one arm on it’s belly, shaking violently. Twilight figured it was laughing.

“What is that, what is going on? Where are we?” she asked, for once affording the panic.

“Oh, Twilight. You’ve stepped into the first phase of this world’s end, of what will happen when magic isn’t brought back. My little pony, that thing is the embodiment of chaos.

Both ponies stared at the thing, but Trixie turned around as those fluffy clouds started moving towards them, their every movement as eerie as the one from the beast itself.

“Discord named it: Magia.”

Chapter 4 ~ Have You Ever Dreamt Of Dying? (V2)

What Are You Doing, Twilight?

The ground cracked beneath their hooves as they stumbled on, its sweet smell touching their noses. Twilight had no idea what this place was, but she was sure she would've liked it under normal circumstances. . . Probably. The grass was colored like a rainbow, the ground was made of chocolate and the air tasted a bit like lemonade. Really – if it were not for those pink cotton candy clouds with scissors for hands, snipping wildly at the air –  it seemed like an ideal vacation spot.

Trixie was frightened, and also everything about her had changed color, well, everything aside from cloak and wizard hat. She looked as weird as everything else and Twilight didn't even want to look at herself. Although she had noticed the lack of her blanket. She shivered and turned her attention towards those creatures who slowly advanced towards them. Black top hats and moustaches of chocolate, the entire coloration reminded her of something.

An egg of purple with darker dots on it, a dragon baby looking up to her.

The ponies turned around each other, Trixie panicking even more than Twilight. "We can't get out of here,“ she cried, tears flowing down her ruined face.

"No, we can. . . I'm sure we can, we just need to. . .“ At that moment she realized that she didn't know what to do. If they ran they'd get pierced and sliced, if they stayed the same would happen, there wasn't even going to be much of a time difference as it stood and they were both just little fillies. It seemed kind of unfair, actually. She had just gotten the strength back to her legs, she was smart and her Papa was going to miss her. An unworldly scream followed and the creatures jumped at them. Twilight could only close her eyes, praying that Shining Armor would come to save her.

"CANDY!“

The yell easily overshadowed the screeching noise the candy attackers made, and as Twilight opened her eyes she saw an aquamarine unicorn with a cyan mane with white highlights. Her horn stood out strangely, since it hadn't been there before. What was there was the smile that was so wide it looked like it did really hurt.

Lyra smashed through one cloud head on, jumped over her friends, made a turn upon landing and bucked another cloud. Only then did she look at her friends.

"Run!“

She didn't need to say it another time, although Trixie reacted a split second faster than Twilight. As they started galloping she felt it almost immediately, the scissors at her tail. She didn't care how much of it she'd lose, she just needed to hurry up.  So they went at their quickest speed, the weight of their tiny hooves enough to transform the ground into chocolate sprinkles for the grass. Once or twice she felt herself running straight into a puddle but that would be easy to clean.

What she didn't hear was the sound of them being followed. After some time of running wildly across the field, she looked back and stopped.

"What're you doing?“ Lyra asked mid-run.

"There's nopony following us,“ she answered truthfully.

That made the others stop and they walked right back to her. They looked over the fields to find that Twilight had been right. Almost a second later all three fillies collapsed onto the ground, catching their breaths.

"Never again,“ Lyra complained.

Twilight looked at the far off mountains, the sun above them and the clouds. She really hoped they wouldn't suddenly come down. She stood still for a moment before it made click in her mind and she realized something, something they had forgotten to notice. Not just the mountains, the fields and the clouds. The whole thing was wrong.

"Where are we?“ Twilight asked.

The question hit home instantly and both her companions suddenly looked around. Then another question fell.

"Why do you have a horn?“

Trixie stared at Lyra, who stared at her in return. "I've got a horn,“ the green filly asked, touching her forehead. With a squee of delight she noted it's presence. "I've got a horn. I've got a horn,“ she sang.

Twilight looked at the filly who now was dancing around Trixie. The blue filly simply returned to looked extraordinarily annoyed. They both seemed to ignore the position they were in, but then again. . . Lyra had a horn. That would've maybe made a good enough cause for a party, not that Twilight knew how to throw one. Thing was, she had read about parties. Loud things with everypony having fun. The filly couldn't quite imagining a lot of ponies together without there suddenly being problems but then again, her papa had never allowed her to have a party. She had heard that Shining Armor had done a lot of partying before he'd left and her father had not been pleased. So she figured that a party might not be what was needed right now.

"Here you stand, hunted by the embodiment of chaos, somewhere impossible with candy clouds that kill. And you dance, quite the priorities you have.“ The voice didn't sound just through Twilight's head this time, instead it echoed across the land.

"What?“ Lyra asked, obviously surprised, Trixie just gazed around.

"Oh, yeah. . . I'm the ghost Twilight talked about. You can call me. . . A wise goat? Yeah, I'm a wise goat.“ The explanation wasn't enough to tell them anything, though.

Twilight took it upon herself to ask the important question: "And who are you, Mister Goat?“

   "Not important. Right now, the only thing that matters is you Twilight Sparkle. That *Magia** creature has been here for centuries but it had never made contact with ponykind before. It's just been in this world and ponies shouldn't be able to enter here. Twilight Sparkle, you, out of all the beings in the universe are the only one with a talent for a dead thing. For some strange reason you're still connected to magic.*“

     At least Lyra seemed impressed, "Wow, Twilight is a magician!“

     She would've been glad to see that wise goat herself at this very moment. She just had Lyra to stare at now and the way she grinned did nothing for any kind of suspense that the voice had been building up. Still, there were more questions, but before she could ask any of them the voice spoke up again.

   "Nothing really matters, my little ponies. The princesses were wise enough to foresee something like this. Twilight Sparkle, your mere presence here is proof enough that this world and Equestria are crashing together. When they have both melded together, it is the end. Sad to say, I don't know how you could escape from this place-“

   "Can I cast a spell?“ Twilight asked.

   "What?“

     Again, Twilight couldn't elaborate as the screeching echoed over them. In the distance she suddenly saw something moving and clouds raining down on the sky. That was when she knew that the time of talking was over.

   "We need to run,“ Lyra said and turned.

   "NO!“ shouted Twilight, "I'll handle this.“

     That was the moment she knew she had to try it out. If the voice had been right, then maybe this would be just like the stories she had read. She was about to become a hero, she was about to save them all. She took a deep breath, lowered her head and closed her eyes. Then, she just took it all in. The gushes of wind around her, blowing the sweet scent of this world into her nose, the grass brushed against her legs and the chocolate felt soft beneath her hooves. She heard them in the distance now, falling, crying, marching, snipping, wailing, hurling themselves towards the three who didn't belong. All those things made the world up but she felt something else, too, something warm, something nice. Something she hadn't felt before. She took the feeling in. It felt like the embrace of a parent, so warm, so nice, like a good friend returning home, like peace.

   "What are you doing, Twilight? Your horn is glowing,“ she heard Lyra's astonished voice, "You really are a magician!“

That was the moment. The wind blew around them, lifting the little filly off the ground. She felt the warmth, she felt the peace, she felt the magic. It had engulfed her completely and the power that was moving through her made her feel more powerful than anything else she had ever experienced. With a surge she stomped her hooves on the ground and suddenly, rain was falling down on them.

"We're back,“ Lyra exclaimed loudly as the ghastly wind vanished. Twilight only heard her. She found herself touching the ground again, feeling the warmth one last time. It was a weird feeling, but so good. She almost regretted transporting away. Then she opened her eyes again and for a moment she saw the alley, she felt the blanket against her back, the rain ruining her mane, stinking of chemicals. She still took a deep breath and then opened her mouth to breathe out but something other than air came out. Suddenly she was thrown into another world. A hell of pain and hurt. She collapsed onto the ground, into the red and brown stuff she had just vomited out, twitching.

The last thing Twilight heard was Lyra shouting her name. The last thing she saw was an ugly, small piebald pony wearing a wizard attire, looking at her with a mixture of resentment and pity.

Chapter 5 ~ What Are You Doing, Twilight? (V2)

I'm Just Prattling On

This time Twilight dreamt of a pony white as snow, with a long mane that moved even when there was no wind. She was tall and had wings greater than any pegasus'. She looked at Twilight with a smile and the filly noticed the long horn that emerged from her head, a thing to take pride in. Twilight didn't know who that mare was. She only knew what she was. She had read of alicorns before but standing in front of one was different. It wasn't so much the height but something else. The way the white alicorn smiled at her made her feel so much better already. She wasn't weak by her side, she was strong. She saw her parents in the dream, too. Them and Shining. They laughed together and were so happy. That was when she realized that it was only a dream, but she did not want to wake up. She never wanted to wake up again.

"Twilight Sparkle,“ she heard the white alicorn's voice, a voice filled with friendship, inspiring only love from the filly before her, "My faithful student.“

Twilight woke up. She felt weaker than ever before, her legs were shaking, her heart was pounding, but she was alive. She took one deep breath and as she got her focus right, she saw something moving above her. A big, yellow moon surrounded by stars and small figurines of flutter ponies. She understood the meaning of the device above her immediately and frowned. She was quite a bit too old for a mobile. Then again. . . She was in some stranger's room as it seemed. The blankets that now covered her were of more colors than a rainbow could have had and the entire bed was so warm and soft, together with the mobile above her she could've drifted to sleep again very quickly. She resolved herself not to and took a quick look around whatever room she was. She found it with another bed, size for a filly, with the same colorful bedding, although the construction was different. Toys laid scattered across the room, Twilight found as she turned her head away from the other bed. She spotted the door opposite to her own blanket fort and as she turned farther she spotted a window and beneath it another bed. That one was pretty stale with notes on its covers and a giant music instrument on it. She had to search her memory but couldn't quite find so much as a hint as to what this one was called. It looked like an oversized violin though.

The brown filly sighed and looked up at the mobile again. The constant moving annoyed her a bit but she felt too weak to do anything about it right now. As a matter of fact, even turning her head had made her heart pound against her chest real hard. She felt famished, too. She figured she could even eat a whole bowl of alfalfa. . . No, wait, no she couldn't. That stuff was disgusting! And green! All green food except flowers were disgusting and even they were borderline. She sighed again, and this time she was answered by the rumbling of her own tummy. She instantly tried to redirect her thoughts somewhere else.

Why was she in this strange place? She remembered going with Trixie, then they had been at some kind of old hall, then they had met Lyra, then an earthquake had happened and then they had walked back. Something else must've happened then, although she couldn't remember what exactly it was. She wondered if it had something to do with the alicorn from her dream. She figured not though. Papa had always told her that the last alicorn on this world had died more than a century ago. Shining had always said she must've been a real stupid alicorn, calling herself 'Princess of Love' and all. He had said that they were lucky that she was gone, he was sure he wouldn't have liked her.

Her tummy did not intend to give up so easily and another grumble came out. That, plus the feeling of emptiness really did nothing for Twilight. This truly felt like the worst day of her entire life. Yet still it seemed just like the start of every other day.

"You're awake,“ she suddenly heard an unfamiliar voice, it sounded very high-pitched even for a filly. Twilight turned her head, fully expecting to see some kind of almost-not-anymore-a-foal but what she saw was another filly. This one had a grey coat and blackish grey hair for her mane. She walked over to Twilight with something that might've been a noblepony's strut, if that noblepony would be extremely clumsy. And the filly seemed to try so hard to get every single step right, too. She even tried to hold her nose up but then she immediately stumbled over a toy and landed face first on the floor.

Twilight would've snickered but the grey filly began to cry immediately, which apparently alarmed the father, who came in a few seconds later and took the filly on the arm. She knew he was her father because he had a grey coat, although his was more on the dusky side. He also had a black mane and Twilight found his built pretty awesome. He looked like one of those action heroes she had always seen in Shining's comics.

He didn't even bother with Twilight, instead moved back to the door, keeping his balance pretty well for somepony who carried a filly with one hoof, and shouted out:"RAINDROPS! I TOLD YOU TO CLEAN UP YOUR MESS!“

Suddenly this place felt so much like home, the only thing that was missing now was him to go out to a bar, after he'd give 'Raindrops' a beating for the toys and the grey one for crying over nothing. The stallion however swiftly defied her expectations as he comforted the grey filly and put her on the bed, telling her to play something on the 'cello' for him and 'the guest'.

It took her one moment and then she began to pluck at the strings. At first it seemed pretty random but then the simple plucks developed a life, a melody came out of nowhere and a small but happy song was heard in the room. The stallion smiled at the filly.

"I need to tend to your friends’ friend, Octy, 'kay?“

As his question remained without answer he just smiled and moved to Twilight. "Hey, kiddo,“ he said, "The name's Jelly, Hugh Jelly, and you are?“

"Twilight Sparkle,“ she tried to say, but barely got a word out. Her throat felt so dry, there'd probably only come out dust instead of saliva if she'd take a spit now.

He looked a bit worried,"Want something to drink, Twilight? I think we've got just the right thing now.“

She wanted to say that she wanted something to eat but decided against it all of a sudden. Somehow she was scared of eating. She didn't know how this person might react if another pain-attack hit her.  So he went, getting her something to drink. That was something at least. She leaned back and listened to the other filly playing the cello. Here and then there was a mistake and she played wrong, but for the most part it was quite good.

The grey pony must have noticed that Twilight listened into her play and moved her head towards her, which Twilight heard, because suddenly the other filly started to play way more randomly.

"I'm just prattling on, yet everypony says it's good.“

Twilight didn't know what to answer, so she just spoke in that voiceless whisper she could barely manage, "It sounds magical. Where did you learn to play like that?“

"As I said: Just prattling on. . . Ah, right. I am Octavia Quarternote by the way, you surely heard of my family?“

Twilight shook her head, hoping the other filly would see it,"I don't know much about the outside world. . . Do they own some kind of jelly factory?“

What followed was the worst chord Twilight had ever heard.

"What?“ Octavia asked aghast.

"Because your papa. . . Hugh-“

"He's. . . He's not my father, more like a. . .“, Octavia interrupted, but then she didn't say anything, instead just resumed playing after a few seconds of silence. Twilight didn't quite know how to respond to that. The filly was strange, but on the other hoof, she must've been a friend to Trixie and Lyra. Maybe everypony associated with ponies like these had to be weird.

"My papa is probably looking for me at the hospital,“ or he was at a bar, drinking and complaining, maybe he was even celebrating now that the other ungrateful brat was gone from his life. Papa was better in her dreams, he smiled and was together with mama. She would've really liked the dreams to be true.

"Can't be, Madame said that the hospital was gone,“ Octavia told her.

Twilight stared blankly at the mobile for a moment, before her eyes widened in shock. Immediately a thousand questions ran through her mind like: What? Why? How? When? But most importantly: Where would her papa search for her if that was true? She didn't quite know how to respond to that statement so she did the sensible thing. Cry. When you cried, your parents came, just like it had happened with Octavia a few seconds ago. Her father would come, he needed to come. Or at least Shining, her brave knight coming to save her from pain and suffering. Her big brother best friend forever.

Twilight cried but neither came, instead Hugh arrived with a cup of warm tea. He immediately rushed to Twilight's side. He wasn't her papa and he wasn't Shining Armor, so she cried. She was hungry and thirsty, she was alone in a strange place and her papa hadn't visited her once. Shining had run away with some marefriend of his and her mother had died long ago during Twilight's birth. She had been sick and weak and always about to die. So all she could do now was cry.

Chapter 6 ~ I'm Just Prattling On (V2)

There Are Some Muffins Left For You

Crying didn't solve problems, it only made her feel better. And a stranger served just fine for hugs too, as it seemed. Her own papa hadn't been quite the pony for hugs. Every time she'd cry he would rage, which would result in more crying, which would somehow result in Shining and her papa arguing. Early on had she learned that this was more of a family thing, as ponies who didn't belong to her family came more easily to a crying filly. She knew that from the kind nurse Redheart and now from mister Jelly. For these moments there were only his arms, Octavia playing in the background and her shrinking pains. Not physical pains this time – luckily she wasn’t about to collapse again –  but the emotional kind.  Not that there were many of that kind.

Twilight was a smart filly and smart fillies didn't hurt.

Still, it was during the crying that she found herself lifted from the bed and unto Hugh's back.

"You come, too, Octavia. I think they should be ready now,“ the stallion said warmly and Octavia immediately jumped from her bed and hurried outside. Between sniffles Twilight had to wonder what he had meant and why the grey filly had reacted like that.

She didn't have to wonder long, however. The place wasn't that huge. From the only hallway she spotted about two other rooms, aside from the bathroom. One was on the end of the hall, closed, probably where the parents slept and the other was by what Twilight presumed to be the front door. Behind the entrance was a room, not big, but not small either. It wasn't kingly nor for beggars. It was simply, for lack of a better word, home. The kitchen itself was simple and held no need for the examination of what it was. But the table in the middle was something else entirely. It was carved from oak and its legs had the forms of the first ministers. Although she knew how they looked and she knew their legends. Firefly, who dared the last dragon to a race; Twinklestar, who, in her time, had banished all the paperwork from Equestria; Mjölna, who had united the pony tribes after they had gone to war against each other for the thirty-fifth time and – Twilight had to think who the one right in her sight was, the left leg of the table, although it seemed like she didn't belong. A unicorn in a simple robe. Then she remembered, the last unicorn with magic, Clover the Clever, a pony who had lived for more than a hundred and fifty years. On the table were small cups of tea, coffee and warm chocolate, while muffins were piled up on a tablet in the middle.

The ponies at the table were far more interesting. Lyra was waving happily at her when she spotted the filly on Hugh's back but Trixie's mood seemed immediately fouled. Twilight had to wonder what she had done. Then there was a tall, slender mare with a brown coat spotted with white and a long, dark brown mane, done into a braid, just like her tail. She looked at Twilight with a smile but the small filly noticed that her eyes were sleepy. To each of her sides she spotted a pegasus filly. The one on her left was a bit smaller, had a deep black coat with a mane pretty much the same color, playing with two muffins like they were toys. The one on the right was bigger and. . . Twilight didn't even notice her light grey coat or pale mane, all she noticed were her eyes. She had never seen something like that, how they stared into two different directions. The weirdness meters were topping themselves over and over again, today.

The weird eyed filly noticed her staring and started to grin as mister Jelly sat the young unicorn down. The filly than immediately told Twilight: "There are some muffins left for you.“

She however just sipped at her tea. It was warm and tasted so sweet, Twilight let it gladly warm her body. She only had one blanket left to cover her and she was shivering beneath it. The drink would help only a bit but she still felt starved. If a muffin would do? Probably.

She looked at the stallion, "can I take one?“

He seemed to genuinely think for a moment, Twilight began to wonder if that question was even right to ask. She was starved, yes, but what if they'd throw her out or yell or something worse. She really expected the last, adults were always good at coming up with 'something worse', it made her cringe sometimes. The 'tips' their own neighbours had given them for raising a filly had made her own papa tell her to never talk to these ponies again. Grown-ups sometimes even managed to scare grown-ups.

In the end, though he gave her a good answer. The words that told her that she could take one were the best she heard today. She immediately made a grab for one. It was still warm in its wrapping. The smell of raspberries filled her nose and as she took the first bite she felt its deliciousness in her mouth. It wasn't like she hadn't had muffins before but the last time was so long ago. She remembered snow falling and a young Shining laughing and their papa looming over them, smelling of a strong cider brewage.

"Do you think you'll be fine?“ She heard Trixie ask after a few moments. The piebald filly didn't look like she knew whether she should be worried for Twilight or not.

"Yeah,“ she answered with her mouth full. She took a look around, the mare was making the black filly stop to play with her muffins in one single movement, without ever saying a word. Octavia was eating in a fairly refined manner, while the wall-eyed filly was munching down muffins at record speed.

That was the moment Twilight grasped the chance: "Where am I?“

"You're at our household, well, technically it's hers,“ Hugh said, pointing at the mare,"I present my sister, Madame Hooves.“

She gave but a nod and a smile, but still didn't say anything. Hugh laughed at that. “Sorry, she doesn't talk. Lost her voice at an early age, actually. Anyway that one,“ he pointed at the muffin muncher, "is Derpy, my niece and the other one,” he pointed at the black one, "is Raindrop, she's another 'friend of the family' like Octavia, whom you've already met.“ Twilight looked at the grey filly who gave her a friendly smile while grabbing for a cup, although her being refined immediately left her as she toppled it over and spilled the tea all over the table. Madame Hooves gave her but a disapproving look and then moved into a motion that seemed so routinely handled Twilight didn't quite believe she was watching a pony and not a robot.

"Oooh. . . I'm Lyra!“

"Yeah. . .“ Twilight answered to that,"I know. . . And I'm Twilight and that's. . .“ She looked at Trixie, wearing her hat and wizard robe, "Starswirl the Bearded!“

That got a laugh out of everypony. Lyra laughed the loudest, "she called you 'bearded'?“

Trixie just looked forlorn. Twilight didn't quite get why until Hugh Jelly explained to the small filly that Starswirl had been a great magician in his days. Yet, with the way he phrased it Twilight couldn't help but think that he didn't appear to believe what he told the guests at the table. As if he didn't believe that magic had once been a part of Equestria. For some reason she had to smile at that. Maybe it was because she had read the stories about the princess of love, maybe it was because she was still so small. Shining had always told her that only foals believed in fairy tales, even though he liked Cadenza's story more than she. Not that he’d ever admitted it, but it had been there.

So she smiled and ate and thought of magic. And as they delightfully ate the raspberry muffins, the memories were regaining a foothold in her mind and soon enough it began to sting. From one moment to another Twilight had to hold her head with her hooves, as the hurts came so suddenly. They were different from her normal ones though, and this time the hurts brought something else but crying and more pain.

They brought her memories of rainbow fields, air that tasted of lemons and cotton candy clouds with moustaches and top hats made of chocolate and with these memories came the snipping of scissors and mud bleeding from an eye. Then the voice came back, too. The old, kindly voice of the wise goat. Again it was in the wind around her, filling the whole room but again, she knew, it was only the room she saw, not the one the others were in and the voice was only filling her head. Still the words were there and they frightened her so deeply.

You're awfully happy for a pony that is seconds away from dying.

Chapter 7 ~ There Are Some Muffins Left For You (V2)

There Are Dreams And There Are Dreams

Princess Cadence had lived a hundred years back, a young filly from the north. She had walked through equestria in disguise and then, as she had stood before the ministers she had proclaimed the ancient equestrian laws that when an alicorn would arrive, it was upon her to seize power in the land. Twilight had read quite a few versions about the reactions of the ministers when the princess spread her wings for the first time. Most she knew from very funny picture books. They relented, however reluctantly and Cadance brought forth a small golden age of harmony. She made friends with everyone aside from the ponies in her own country. She forged peace where the ponies lusted for war, created a stability in the realm that hadn't existed since the reign of the princesses and nearly banished all corruption from Equestria. Still she only left her work half done by the time she died of a sickness that had been believed to have vanished from equestrian soil. She had heard the tale a thousand time but never the continuation what had happened after the ministers took over again.

It made her feel bad to look outside the windows, since the world where princesses lived and every being lived in harmony wasn't the world she lived in. The streets were filled with trash, the houses were old and falling apart and the ponies angry and unsatisfied with their lives. Amidst it was a small filly with the same sickness as the princess of love, the same thing that had nearly killed off every unicorn right after the death of the princesses. She sat there, always looking out of the window, gulping medicine that wouldn't help, slowly dying away.

That was what Twilight Sparkle dreamt of this time. She dreamt of herself looking out of the window, all on her own. She dreamt of herself wishing to go outside and jump and play beneath the trees and the houses.

"Come on,“ she heard a white colt with blue mane say. "If you'd just get up, all our lives would get easier.“

"Come on,“ she heard her papa say. "Your brother was worthless, but you're smart. Smart ponies know how to stand.“

"Come on,“ she heard Trixie say. "I'll even help you.“ She reached out her hoof towards Twilight, a first. All Twilight had had were books but she didn't just want those anymore.

So Twilight Sparkle took the hoof and then they stood amidst ruins and rubble, staring at the center of what had destroyed the once proud city of Canterlot. Rain fell hard on their shoulders, but this time Twilight Sparkle did not shiver. She looked at her lavender colored hooves, feeling the strength inside her. She smiled, she could do this, just like back then. Before them rose a fissure from the air, with something clawing at it from the other side. The shrieking and howling it made would've been unbearable but Twilight knew she could do it. By her sides stood five other ponies, she knew them now, each by name: Trixie, Octavia, Lyra, Derpy and Raindrops. She knew them even though they looked so different than before. Trixie with her azure coat, Lyra with her cyan mane, Derpy with her golden eyes and Raindrops with the green mane. Only Octy looked different, if not for her cutie mark.

Twilight smiled at the fissure and then bellowed something heroic and jumped towards it, her horn lighting up and just as she wanted to release the magic she woke up beneath the covers of the bed, feeling colder than ever before. She felt a hot-water bottle against her chest, she felt layers of blankets above her and she still felt like she was thrown into icy water. The only good thing she noticed right now was that her stomach wasn't empty. For once that hadn't acted up again. Her heart was pounding, though.

You're alive, huh? I knew you had talent, but I didn't think you had guts, too.

She took a deep breath, "What happened?“

The world works according to rules, one of that rules is: No Magic. Guess what you did yesterday? Magic.

For a moment she held her breath but then let it out relieved. She had only passed out for a night, maybe a whole day at most. That was quite well, otherwise she didn't quite get what the voice was talking about. "Are you talking about this magia thing? For a moment I had thought that had only been a dream,“ she almost sounded relieved about that, too.

There are dreams and there are dreams, Twilight Sparkle. One word *can** have different meanings. The world Magia resides in should only be a realm of fantasy, the fact that you broke into it and out of it alone means that the wall between that dream and this world has weakened.*

"What?“

Twilight Sparkle, I know this may seem like an everyday occurrence to you but here's a secret: Nightmare Moon isn't real, the monster under your bed is fantasy too, but if Magia breaks from its world into this one, these things are going to be real. And you can believe me, it's going to be far worse than cotton candy clouds with scissors when that happens. You need to listen to me. You need to get to the Lunarium, you need to-

The voice spoke on but Twilight's attention was diverted by Derpy who flew into the room. Twilight found herself completely entranced in the other pony's eyes, again. The filly, who was actually a bit smaller than Twilight, simply smiled a smile that could've been called dim at best.

"You're awake again.“ The obvious had to be stated and at that moment Derpy was the mare on the case, still Twilight nodded. "Have a muffin.“

Twilight looked at the thing that had suddenly appeared out of nowhere and was now right in front of her face. "Wha-, Why?... Thanks,“ she mumbled taking the muffin out of Derpy's hoof.

"You suddenly collapsed, everypony was worried, you know. Raindrops especially, since didn't have a bed anymore, but that was solved, she simply slept with mommy.“

"Oh. . . I'm sorry.“ Twilight looked down on the muffin, mostly feeling annoyed at her sickness.

"It's no problem, that's how Octy started to live here, too. She collapsed, although she didn't came from a hospital, and it was because she was red all over, her zello-“

"Cello.“

"Jello, that's what I said. Anyway her jello was without a scratch, though.“

Twilight wondered why Octavia had been red when she collapsed. She had probably been painting. That kind of stuff happened when you painted. Like when Shining had showed her hoofpaint for the first time. In the end most of the colors had ended up on their respective coats. Even papa had gotten a laugh out of it.

"Why're you laughing?“ Derpy asked as a slight giggle erupted from Twilight.

"No reason.“

The grey mare seemed displeased with that answer,"You can tell me.“

"You wouldn't understand.“

"Tell me!“ she insisted.

Twilight just huddled up beneath her blankets and started eating the muffin. The other filly still insisted on being told why Twily had giggled. In the end she only stopped when Lyra came in. Twilight noticed that her steps were a bit more careful on the ground, she was almost on the tips of her hooves as she moved forward. Twilight waved to her nonetheless, which was greeting with that smile again.

"You're fine again.“

Derpy still insisted.

"Yeah. . . Just really cold. It's getting better, though. She brought a muffin.“

Lyra stopped in her tracks, "I thought all the muffins were gone?“

Derpy wouldn't say anything else until she was told.

"Really? Must be the last.“ Twilight shrugged.

"Anyway, I wanted to tell you something important.“

"What?“

For a moment Lyra hesitated, she was clearly trying to remember something. Maybe Mister Jelly had told her to tell Twilight something. Maybe it was a lecture, maybe it was that she should leave the house, maybe some other unspeakable horror that Lyra couldn't put into words.

"You slept right through another earthquake.“

Okay, that wasn't so bad.

"They say half the city collapsed, too.“

Chapter 9 ~ Trixie Is Not Amused With Your Shenanigans (V2)

I Always Wanted To Play There

Ponies galloped frantically through the city. Cracks in the road, roofs had fallen down, houses had collapsed. Somewhere on the edges of the town there was a fire, or so she overheard two mares talking. Everypony was stressed out and busy. Some were digging through their fallen homes, some were tending to others. Twilight even spotted some pegasi soldiers trying to organize themselves. They were all so incredibly busy that they didn't notice six fillies walking over the roads towards the old end of the city. Derpy complained pretty soon that she hadn't ever gone farther than their hideout, especially not in this direction and without her mother, while Lyra boasted that she had actually taken the train once, all on her own. Twilight felt weird, she stood in the center of the group, leading them. She hadn't  actually thought to be the leader until now and it was a scary thought. Mostly because she knew the city even less than Derpy. She knew the way from her home to the hospital. She knew the shops and the bakery, she knew the signs and the house numbers. That, however, was all she knew of Canterlot.

Octavia trotted close by her side, trying to look dignified, although the panic around them seemed to affect her, as she was growing more and more nervous. Trixie was on the right end of the group, right beside Raindrops, who in return seemed to worry about the downtrodden, piebald filly.

"How do we get to the castle?“ Twilight asked Octavia as they passed the first street. She got a queer look for that question.

"You don't know? Well, just follow my lead then, I know an easy way to get there.“

With that, the grey filly took the lead. The grace she carried herself with was not lost to Twilight, sometimes she would stumble over her own hooves or walk into something she hadn't noticed because she held her nose to high up, but otherwise she seemed to know where she was going. Twilight decided that this was a good moment to get to know the fairly beautiful filly.

"So, why were you staying at Hugh's house? Sleepover?“ she asked. Twilight had read about sleepovers and slumber parties but since she didn't have any friends, having such things was but a faint dream she had.

Octavia looked over to her for a second, trying to figure out how to answer that. "I live there,“ she said finally and added after a pause: "My parents are ministerial agents and we lived with the other ones near the town hall.“

"I've never seen that part of Town,“ Twilight admitted.

"It's beautiful, they have gardeners that tend to the parks there and the houses are old and wonderful.“ Even though she said that, Twilight noticed that Octavia wasn't exactly swooning, there wasn't even a longing in her voice. "It looked best during winter, when the snows covers the roofs and streets and lanterns. The ponies go about in their fancy clothes. I always got good inspiration for music during those times. The cello I have belongs to my own grandfather, one of the greatest musicians that ever walked into the Celestial Hall.“

"That's where the orchestras, operas and all that stuff play, right?“

"Yeah, the biggest musical house in all of Equestria. It's quite grand and since it's from the time of the princesses, even the simpler ponies can go there and enjoy the masterworks of music.“ Now her voice was drifting, dreamingly. "I've been there myself, you know, the last time grandfather played. I remember the name of the piece, too: The Seapalace, a solo dedicated to some kind of water ponyfolk.“

"Seaponies,“ Twilight interjected, "They're part of our folklore.“ Octavia nodded and the unicorn felt a bit smart. It was a good balance to those weakening legs of hers.

"The piece was quite wonderful and it was grandfather who introduced me to playing the cello. My parents tolerated it as a passing hobby but after he died I wanted to become a musician just like him. Little Octavia Quarternote, the neighbours said, dreaming foalish dreams.“

They walked through the alleys once more, through the maze and the shadows but Octavia walked on single-minded. Twilight took the chance to observe how the city had changed from the moment she and Trixie had stepped out of the hospital. Back then she wouldn't have called Canterlot a good looking city but at least it didn't seem too rustic. Now it seemed different. The walls seemed like they were about to crumble and a variety of windows was shattered, although they didn't seem to step into any glass. They trailed through the narrow passages in a line, with Trixie on the far-off end and Raindrops trying to hover above them but failing miserably at it. Derpy seemed to make a habit out of knocking several things down, which on most occasions set of a string of events, which once lead to the fall of a pony from the sixth floor into the dump and another time in the furthering of a small crack, which Twilight figured would probably somehow end in a disaster in the long run. At least the first time the pony had been unharmed, he hadn't even known that Derpy had somehow been responsible for his fall.

Then after a while they came unto another street but the district was deserted. There were no ponies in the street and whichever houses still stood seemed abandoned, the doors and windows barred. Twilight had to stop for a moment to take it all in.

"It's a huge city and built so utterly without plan that they forgot this entire district a long time ago,“ Lyra immediately told her when she noticed Twilight watching.

"How do you know that?“

"Grew up here,“ the white pony laughed. Twilight looked around once more, this didn't seem like a good place to live at. Half the buildings, as it appeared, had collapsed some time ago and the sudden earthquakes had done a number on the rest. They still moved onwards. Twilight didn't quite know how anypony could forget an entire district of a city.

That was when Octavia stopped before another building. Everypony stopped to look at it. Twilight was instantly captivated by it. A house that must've once had white walls stood before them, it looked huge compared to the apartment buildings around it and its entrance, even though broken down, still had remnants of a red carpet coming out of it and the entrance was guarded by stone statues of the solar guard, the first army that had served Equestria.

"What building is that?“

"The Celestial Hall,“ Octavia answered, "It burned down after my grandfather died. It must've been a year or two. The rest of the district was already falling apart and with the fire, everypony left to the other parts of the town. Father and Mother even told me to forget about it. Funny thing. I always wanted to play there and now I can't, not ever.“

Twilight looked at the sad little pony. "Can we go in?“

"I, my parents. . . No, it's dangerous.“

A moment later they heard Lyra's voice from across the street: "Are you coming or not?“ She waved at them from before the house and Twilight had to giggle. A few moments later they all decided to follow the small pony in.

It was dark inside. So dark that Twilight could barely make anything out. The sun was already moving down outside, so only small rays of light reached here, too. The few things she did notice when they came in were the old counters and burned pictures on the walls. They probably had depicted the princesses. She would've loved to see them. Other than that there was a stairway up and hallways leading to the bathrooms. They decided to take the stairs.

Old wood creaked beneath them and Twilight held herself close to Octavia, who tried to stay close to Derpy who tried to stay close to Raindrop who tried to stay close to Trixie who tried to stay as close as possible to Lyra. Still, they somehow managed to not trample on each others hooves. Twilight deemed their teamwork excellent as of that moment.

Then they entered the biggest door they saw and came into the biggest room Twilight had ever seen. The roof had given up long ago and had fallen down, leaving only a ring on the edges of the walls. The large stage stood empty and desolate, its curtains had become ashes and were scattered in the wind. The filly noticed the rows and rows of chairs. So many chairs, she figured that the entire city had to fit in here. She was in deep amazement as she walked through the gate into this weird new world. The others followed her suit, as amazed at the size of it all as much as she was. It was Octavia, though, who moved intently through all the rubble and the chairs up to the stage.

She then positioned herself in the middle of the stage and just stared at the hall before her.

The hall was quiet.

Arpeggio Quarternote looked at them all, all the nervousness he had expressed to his family beforehand gone. He smiled so sure at the audience, so completely without fear. He took a deep breath and his gaze went over to his family. His own child and his wife, together with theirs. While his son seemed distant and disinterested and the wife was unusually busy with her purse the little grey filly stared at him with wide eyes. No, rather she was looking at his instrument. That old wonderful cello he had once bought at an auction in Manehatten. She looked so excited it filled him with joy.

Most ponies hadn't had a sense for music. True musicians were slowly dying out, just like unicorns. Writers and artists persisted through sheer stubbornness but magic was long since gone and with it the colors and the words and the music. The notes could still be played but few ponies could get the heart of the piece right. Nopony sang anymore and when they tried they would get angry because they didn't 'get' the music.

Arpeggio Quarternote lifted the bow to the strings of his instrument. He was well aware that there were few ponies could still create magic and just as few who could feel it. The magic of music, the rarest thing. Like writing or drawing, anypony could do it but his long studies had brought him to but one conclusion. The magic of Harmony was needed to create real music. Harmony was gone.

He pulled the bow and the melody began to resonate throughout the Celestial Hall. A song, a prayer, a ray of hope. The magic was still there, in his bow. He was a musician and nothing else. His heart was with his instrument and he had lived his entire life just like this. Playing the cello for everypony. He closed his eyes and let his heart do the work for him. Guide him from note to note as the seaponies journeyed from their lake through the rivers and into the sea, searching the palace of their queen.

He asked himself if he'd find Celestia's palace if he kept playing like this? The bow hovered across the cello, the sounds came out so fluidly and the magic worked. He didn't open his eyes, he pictured it. The little seaponies, going deeper and deeper into the darkness, where no light would reach. They ran from sharks and whales, needed to solve the eight riddles of a squid and needed to help a lost frogfish. In the end, he heard the orchestra entering his play, playing a glorious fanfare as, at long last, the group reached the palace of seashells and pearls.

The bow went off the cello and he opened his eyes, although they were a bit watery. He was happy for the seaponies, so happy. Even more happier it made him that it had reached everypony around him. They all stomped their hooves on the ground and cheered like foals. Everytime he played they were so giddy afterwards. The magic had gotten to them and they all felt the harmony. All but his son who had never forgiven him.

He looked at his family but his son and his wife had left. The little grey filly had stayed, though, her eyes glittering with tears she herself hadn't noticed, so intoxicated she had been by the music. She wasn't even aware it had ended, she was just happy that they had reached their goal. Like him. He smiled a smile reserved for her.

"Octavia,“ he would later tell her, "you know there's magic in these strings and few are talented enough to unleash it. I think you can do it, though. You're a Quarternote and the most musical pony in all of Equestria. We've been since the dawn of the earth ponies. Never forget who you are, Octavia and do what your heart tells you to.“

Octavia took a deep breath and looked down at the other five ponies. They were all good friends of hers and they would need her. She was sure of it. The filly stepped down from the stage and moved towards her friends, ready to continue their journey.

So you're done then, my little champion? Remember, you are the only pony that matters, only you can bring magic back. No matter what this journey will bring, I trust you completely.

Chapter 10 ~ I Always Wanted To Play There (V2)

You Can Change Everything

It never seemed to stop raining. First earthquakes and now getting soaked again, that seemed fairly harsh. It had to be the end of summer, she figured, the weather was changing. She couldn't tell, weather was a force of nature and who could tell what nature would come up with next.  She had tried to but the books about weather, air and temperatures had been too complicated to her. Twilight didn't like books she wasn't able to understand. A smart pony understood many things and things a smart pony didn't understand should have been non-existent. So here she was, glad she had a blanket that she could throw over her head, standing beneath the falling waters that did exist and  wondered when the rain would stop.

The others took the change of weather even worse. Trixie had taken the lid of a garbage can and held it over her hat, clearly wanting to protect it from the rain. The white Lyra had huddled herself besides the piebald filly, constantly whispering jests into the ears of the pony that considered her a major nuisance. The two greys, Octavia and Derpy walked before Twilight. The earth pony told the other that she shouldn't drink the water, that Hugh and Madame had forbidden it, but Derpy seemed quite stubborn about the thing. The clumsy pony seemed quite stubborn about everything she did, actually. Raindrops, the little black pegasus, seemed to have used up much of her energy and she walked quietly besides Twilight.

The team had gotten quieter since they had left the Celestial Hall and Twilight had found herself pondering after it. There were many things she never understood but one thing had been there her entire life: Ponies telling her that magic didn't exist. The princesses had been called complete make-believe until Cadance had showed up in Canterlot and even now most things surrounding them, such as their involvement in the movings of day and night or the almost utopian way with which they had ruled over equestria, those were considered myths. Twilight liked the stories better than reality. She liked to think of fields and castles, of princesses and the Elements of Harmony defeating the forces of Discord.

The Wise Goat had seen that, too. Somehow that single voice in her head had given her dreams a new strength. She didn't know why exactly but somehow its words had gotten her to march on. No, not just the words. She had felt the strength when they had faced that thing, Magia, she had felt the magic running through every fiber of her being. She had felt as strong as never before and she had utterly changed the rules of the world. Twilight knew that. Ponies didn't believe in magic because nopony had ever seen magic, not even Cadance had used spells. Twilight, however, had. There had been pain but if she stayed true to what the voice told her, it wasn't that bad. If they found the Lunarium she would probably even be healed.

She remembered Shining Armor, her papa and the pictures she had seen of mama. Twilight Sparkle wondered if the world would change for the better, if she'd ever see her mama outside the dreams. That would be like a dream. Maybe Shining would come back, her papa would stop drinking and they all would-

What would they do?

Twilight didn't quite know how to answer her own question. Even when she thought on the matter. She had never felt stupid in her life, she knew answers to many questions but what would she do when mama was back? Now it was really just a hypothetical – she congratulated herself on getting the word right – question. What would they do when mama was back? Maybe Shining would finally go and play with her. Maybe papa would be able to do a good job, since he'd have magic and unicorns wouldn't be considered as bad as they were now. Maybe mama would work while he stayed home and he'd read her stories and played with his children. That would be wonderful, she thought. Really, really, wonderful. Just the thought of it: mama, papa, Shining. A hall with a green floor and a checkered wall, three ponies writing stuff down and a purple egg with dark dots on it. Maybe those things would become reality if she managed to get to the Lunarium.

Maybe she could even stop reading then. She would be strong; strong enough to go outside, strong enough to visit different towns, strong enough to make friends and she would never ever collapse again. She'd be a healthy little filly and she would be able to do magic, too. Surely she didn't need to be a smart filly then, instead she could just be a normal filly. She had read stories about normal fillies. She had read about cookie jars, bedtime stories and playing hide-and-seek on the corners of the street. It filled her with glee, the thought that she would be able to do all those things. Maybe she could even eat like a normal pony, then. She wouldn't be skinny anymore.

Her heart was pounding, leaving a mild sting in her chest. She stopped in her tracks for a moment, took a deep breath but moved on before anypony could suspect anything. She didn't want to stop now, she wanted to do this. If the voice was real, if all the things she had seen were real, this was the right way to go. This way she could do something. Twilight Sparkle, the brave little adventurer. She had read such stories, too.

The rain didn't stop as they waded through the garbage of yet another alley. It would've probably ruined her mood, but somehow the rain made her happy, too. It calmed her and deep down she felt more excited than ever before. The voice had told her she had only been seconds away from falling to sleep and never waking up again. She knew what death was and no matter how much she disliked the world, never waking up seemed too harsh. Not that she really disliked this world, there were some bits of it she liked.

The group around her walked on but no one really walked with her. Not that Twilight really cared right now, she was too deep in her own thoughts. Of course her thinking had to be interrupted after a while. Raindrops had been walking quietly besides here, until she said: "I haven't seen mommy or uncle.“

Raindrops had to be a bit younger than Twilight, she only now really noticed. The black filly walked in a slightly hunched way, as if she was scared of something.

"Don't worry, they're busy with the other adults. While they fix the damage we'll make sure that there won't be anymore earthquakes!“ Twilight grinned widely.

"How?“

"Well,“ she paused. "We're going to find the Lunarium.“

"The. . .“ Raindrops watched her for a few moments. Long enough for Twilight to realise that she never had heard of that 'Lunarium' before. What exactly was a 'Lunarium' anyhow?

   "The Lunarium? The burial ground of magic?“, Raindrops asked, leaving her mouth wide open.

"Huh? You know it?“ Twilight asked, then progressing to slam a mental hoof against her head. Now Raindrop probably thought she was stupid.

"Some. . . Some mare used to tell me that story,“ Raindrop told her, unusually downtrodden.Twilight would’ve inquired but that was when the others got closer, too.

"I've never heard that story,“ confided Octavia, "could you tell us about it?“

"It's. . . it's where the princesses supposedly left plans for the resurrection of harmony. Mommy always said that it was far beneath Canterlot but nopony ever found it,“ Raindrops told them, nervously shifting her weight around as she became the center of attention. "At least, that's what I can remember. When the. . .the other mare told me the story it was way more detailed and I really liked Tendertwig, she was the gardener at Canterlot during that time, or something.“

"Well, it's not much, but it helps,“ Octavia said and she looked to Twilight, "How do you suppose can we get there, though?“

"We need to go to the old plaza, behind the gardens and,“ Twilight thought for a moment then concluded she didn't know, "the rest you'll see when you get there.“ At least she hoped that.

You will. Also: Thank you, Twilight Sparkle.

The voice went through her head, carried by the winds of the coming autumn, the cold winds. It was carried through the growing darkness of the city's shadows and came from somewhere far away, somewhere Twilight knew she wouldn't want to get to.

One tip though: Don't  trust in me, but rather believe in yourself. You are an Element of Harmony, I know it. You can change everything, Twilight Sparkle.

Chapter 11 ~ You Can Change Everything (V2)

Don't You Dare Leave Us

There were stories about Canterlot Castle, Twilight remembered as they took the steps that led up to its front gate. They were stories about heroes defending the realm, the princesses and great adventures. There had been a time where those things had been part of the world and anypony could've easily donned a cloak and just go off into the world, coming back with tales to tell and new friendships found. As they moved up the steps, she felt her heart pounding more and more, but the words of the Wise Goat had given her strength. She tried to think of herself as one of those old heroes, but which one, that she tried to find out next. There were quite a few tales of which she remembered the names, more and more popping up every time her hooves hit the ground again. A certain phrase moved through her mind, over and over again: Take a dive.

She had heard that a long, long time ago. The phrase had appeared once in a story, a specific tale of wonder and adventure. Twilight remembered. There had been a folk called seaponies. They had lived in the eastern sea and their first contact with ponykind was a story Twilight had always liked. In it a young seapony once swam far, far away from her home, where the earth rose beyond the waters. The little pony was intrigued by the idea of life outside the water, although until then she had only heard the griffons talk of it. Strange tales of wood growing out of the ground and creatures breathing air. She thought the griffons and their stories weird, but was intrigued nonetheless. Even though her family told her: "Don't you dare leave us,“ she swam for miles and miles, until she reached a point where the ground lifted itself up, above the water. The sky was dapped in weird colors and she could see from afar that something was wrong with the land.

She carried on by the side of the coast, brave little filly that she was, until she found a stream to move up. The seapony swam deeper into the land and sometimes she'd take her head out of the water to look at the weird world without water. Queer was the simplest word for it, as she saw nothing but chaos there, but she swam on nonetheless.

She reached the end of the river at one point and it went into a lake. On its end was a mountain. She swam through it and talked with its inhabitants. Only few fish remained, but those who did talked about an evil king called Discord. They told her that by the lakeside he had fought rebels and imprisoned one of their leaders within the mountain. The little seapony's curiosity was peaked and so she went towards the large stones and held her ears close them. Deep inside the mountain, she heard a pony crying.

Then the pony searched the stones for a weak spot, a hole or something like it and went deeper and deeper into the lake, till most light had died around her. There she found a hole in the wall, blacker than the blackest night and the water howling as it went into it. On the other side, though, there had to be the crying pony, so the brave seapony took some seaweed from the ground, in case the other pony was hungry and then she took a dive into the deep dark. Without any kind of orientation she moved with the stream through the tunnel. Without any knowledge where she was going she just went with the flow but the ride was hazardous. More than once she hit her fins or her head on the cold stone, but she persisted. She closed her eyes and sped up, even though the way left her bruised and battered.

When the stream was gone and she was in calm waters she opened her eyes to look at a strange light. It was like the sun was shining above her, reflecting upon the green stone that now surrounded her, painting the water in a beautiful and mystical color. Up there she heard a song, too. A small song drowning the silence. She followed its sound, the voice that came from beyond the waves. And then-

"Woah,“ was the sound that lifted Twilight from her recollection.

They had reached the top of the stairs and it was there, that Twilight Sparkle saw the Canterlot Palace for the first time in her life. The gates were made of fine stone, although she didn't know exactly what kind, and stories were carved into them. They were pictures of the old age and Twilight was sure that if she would have had the time, looking over them would have been quite fun. There had to be some great legends on those gates. At least she thought that's what they were meant to represent but the filly did not know for certain.

     Lucky as they were, the gates were open and behind them was what had once been the most beautiful castle in the world. The white paint had gone off its walls and where once gold had adorned the walls, only cracks and holes remained. The towers were gone but for a few stones and the main palace looked even worse than the Celestial Hall. The roof had collapsed a hundred years ago and she knew the ancient library had been taken by a fire about a lifte-time before she was born. The green surrounding the castle had been forgotten and had grown without control. Grass covered the old pathways and wild flowers grew everywhere. So little remained of the palace and yet Twilight felt that those tales on the front gates and the stories she had read, they all remained. She saw the weeds, the broken towers and fainted colors all there before her. As the six moved into the grand gardens, she felt herself overwhelmed. It took her a moment to realize that everypony else was also completely stunned by the sight.

Nopony ever visited the castle, as far she knew. The ponies didn't cling to the days where the princesses lived anymore and even the existence of magic had grown into a myth. As they walked over the grass and the rocks of the once greatest structure built by ponykind, she made herself realize that. Her papa had once told her that there was a difference between stories and reality. Something she hadn't wanted to acknowledge and if they did as the seapony did, taking the dive into the deep dark, she'd prove him wrong. She'd bring magic back and would become a bearer of an Element of Harmony. The thought alone made her well up with pride. He'd also like that, a kid of his that wasn't a complete failure.

Trixie watched the stones with a passing interest, while Lyra hopped happily beside her, talking about how great this was going to be. Twilight had to smile at that, mainly because she agreed. This was going to be a wonderful adventure and at the end, her entire family might gather up again and live happily ever after. Her grin disappeared the moment she got a look at Octavia, who had the most serious about her. The graceful confidence she had about her was something Twilight already envied.

She noted how little presence Derpy and Raindrops had in the group, with either getting more and more nervous the farther they went. Of course, they had only joined them in hopes of finding Madame Hooves and Hugh Jelly. Well, a fun and exciting adventure would surely fix that, it always happened in the stories. Plus, if they were to bring back harmony, they'd be heroes. Everypony would like them and their story would find itself carved into stone. The two of them probably didn't even realize just how big the thing was they were about to do. Thought Twilight had to admit that that might’ve been nice as well.

The gardens were silent, aside from the rustling of the leaves and the distant piping of wind as it went through ancient corridors. The sun still hadn't reached the horizon, so a few hours remained until sundown. This place would probably be far more scary without as much light, as it was now. Still it was amazing how little the earthquakes seemed to matter here. The destruction here was ancient and even if the earthquakes had done more damage than there had been before, nopony would have noticed. Twilight sure didn't.

They went on, moving past the old buildings, everypony following Twilight who followed Octavia, who still guided the way.

"Have you been here before?“ Twilight asked after a few more moments.

Octavia turned her head for a moment. "No, the castle has been out of bounds for a long time.“

That came as a surprise. "How do you know where to go then?“

Octavia smiled a little. "There's only one path that isn't fully covered in grass. I hope it's the right one,“ she explained and Twilight nodded, finding  that conclusion absolutely logical.

From the front gate they had turned left and followed the only remaining path past the old castle ruins and statues of old heroes. Past stories long forgotten and stones set there long before their parents had seen the first light. Six little fillies strutted, beneath a sky of black and greenish smoke, through the oldest tale in pony history. As they walked on Twilight looked left and right, everything here had a story. Each broken statue they passed had been a hero, a villain or something else entirely. Before the death of the princesses, they all had contributed to Equestrian history. She saw and knew and the words resounded in the back of her head.

You can change everything.

You are an Element of Harmony.

Take a dive!

They were so close now and her heart was pounding. Not the bad, hurting kind. She felt strong. Her tiny, brown hooves moved onwards in a steady walk. By the end of this she would be a hero and she would fix the world. She would bring harmony to the ponies and all she needed to do for that was to jump down. Some cotton candy monster wouldn't be able to stop her. Nothing would ever be able to stop Twilight Sparkle now that she was at full strength.

She had to giggle. Her own confidence felt refreshing, but also silly. She had never felt like that before. All she had done until now was wake up everyday in a world without magic, a world that refused to change. Now she could bring something good into it and her own pain wouldn't matter anymore. She had to ask herself whether nurse Redheart was still out there. Surely, somepony needed to care for those who were hurt. Twilight wasn't among them now, Twilight was strong. She could stand on her own and her own heart wasn't hurting anymore.

The flowers around them were lavender and red and off the path the elder labyrinth rose up. It had long since grown into a huge bush with trees reaching out of it, like claws coming from the ground, only stopped by the twines. Their leaves moved in the slight wind and many more statues stood around it. Twilight had never seen so many stone figures before and even though she had heard about them it was overwhelming to see them. They had all been important ponies and yet she couldn't put any names to their faces. That was a depressing thought, so she turned away from the cold stone.

They moved further into the gardens and after a few more minutes of walking the old path the plaza came into sight. It stood out from the grey and green the rest of the path was covered in, for it was built in nightly blue painted stone, or so she thought from afar but the closer they got the clearer the plaza became. Six pillars stood around it, each with a round rock with a symbol on it. A mosaic covered the ground. A nightsky with fourteen stars on it's edges, a full moon to it's north and no moon to it's south, while in the middle the sun resided. From it there rose two more statues, or at least remnants of them. Of the left only the base and a hoof remained, while the right one was still clearly a pony, only one wing remained and her face had been removed alongside any features. So both were unrecognizable. Not that it mattered, for they were there and dusk was still far away.

They moved unto the plaza and looked around.

"What now,“ Raindrop asked.

"There should be a way down somewhere, we need to find it,“ Twilight answered. It had said they should take a dive, that the Lunarium was below Canterlot but the Wise Goat hadn't said that the way down was going to be difficult to find. Twilight found such twists and turns wonderful, though. They reminded her of all the adventure stories she had read until now. Especially that Daring Do book, for that she still hoped for a continuation.

They searched the plaza and its surrounding, hoping to find what they needed. While Trixie and Derpy thought there might be a button on one of the statues, Octavia and Lyra tried to figure out the meaning of the pillars. Derpy just hovered by Twilight's side.

"Our parents aren't here. We should really go home,“ she said.

"We can save Canterlot,“ Twilight answered.

"From what?“

For a moment the filly hesitated. "The world is dying, the earthquakes will get worse and worse. We need to bring magic back and then everything will be alright.“

Raindrops looked at her with utter disbelief. "I want to go home,“ she said with the complete defiance she had presented earlier. "Mom and dad are waiting at home. There will be more muffins and everything will be alright. We're just fillies, we can't do anything.“

Twilight looked at the black little pony with the funny eyes. "I don't care If I can't change anything. I want to change everything.“

She had been weak and small up until this point. Her world had been restricted to her bed and her books, when she had always longed for the ability to do more. She was a smart filly, she was a good filly but all she ever wanted was to play outside with all the others. If she did this here her world wouldn't be grey and dull anymore. No, maybe the entire world wouldn't be grey and dull anymore. It would all be bright and happy. Everypony would be happy.

Shining, Father, Mother, she thought. Her heart pounded and it hurt.

After that there followed silence and upon silence, the ground began to shake a bit and only for a second. After that second passed the ponies looked at each other.

"Another?“ Raindrops asked, fear washing over her face.

Just as the question had left her mouth the ground started rumbling and shaking more violently. Twilight didn't even get a chance to steady herself, the ground just seemed to sweep her off her hooves. She crashed onto the mosaic, with her jaw first and felt a sharp sting as her teeth dug themselves into her tongue. She yelled out but was immediately overshadowed by the royal palace. They heard its walls falling down to the ground and within seconds they were completely covered in the dust. She heard Octavia yell something, but rather than listening she hid well beneath her blanket, pulling it close in hope to cover herself from the smoke that now surrounded the area. She remained like that until the ground stopped shaking and the dust started to settle down.

A few minutes passed like that until Octavia came to her. "Come up. We need to find this way down quickly,“ she said, coughing.

As Twilight stood up she found that the entire area was covered in white smoke from the stones. It took her a moment to get her head back in the game and she looked at Octavia, who seemed very worried. Twilight took a deep breath and swallowed the bloody taste in her mouth down. "Yeah, the quakes are getting worse.“

The sudden sound of an explosion came from the distance and suddenly a gust of wind moved over them, disrupting the mist and revealing the sky once more. The two ponies were nearly taken off their hooves by it but this time they stood steady. The others had found each other in the middle of the plaza and were all looking well after another. That was good enough for Twilight.

Then, all of a sudden, Lightning whipped across the sky and its thunder roared up seconds after. The six fillies all turned to the sky, which had turned into a strange purple tone within a few moments. The ground was shaking and the rocks were trembling, Twilight felt her heart pounding. It still didn't hurt. She heard the whimpering of Raindrops but herself she didn't feel like being scared, not this time. Far over Canterlot a light gleamed, slowly growing, forming a crack that got bigger and bigger with each passing moment. Twilight felt the force behind it.

"What is that?“ she heard Trixie ask.

I told you to get to the Lunarium but you waited. The worlds are crashing together and your worst dreams will come true.

"Trouble,“ Twilight answered.

"What do we do?“

It's too late. If you weren't here it could well be over now. But, Twilight Sparkle, I told you to trust in yourself. Now go, prove yourself.

Twilight Sparkle looked at the distant sky, the crack in their reality and the twisting fabric of reality. She understood that this would end badly for everypony in the town. Cut to pieces by clouds of candy. Everypony around her was scared but she? She felt stronger than ever. Maybe the Wise Goat was right and she could change everything. Maybe the Lunarium wasn't even needed. She was strong, she had escaped that creature without much thinking, so if she did think, maybe, just maybe it would work out fine. The brown filly who covered herself in a colorful blanket took a deep breath. This was going to be the moment of truth but she needed to be strong. She looked over those companions she had gathered over a short time. She didn't know much about them but still, she would protect them.

"Don't worry, I'll do something,“ she told her friends.

With that, Twilight Sparkle smiled. With a bit of quick thinking and her new found strength, she was sure to get everything right. She turned away from the plaza and galloped towards the gate. She could do this, she could be strong. She would do this, she would be strong. She was Twilight Sparkle and she wasn't weak anymore, she was a brave filly who'd bring harmony and magic back into this world.

She galloped at top speed but her legs were stronger than before. She had friends to protect, she had a family to reunite and now her body wasn't failing anymore. For a moment she felt herself a pony with a lavender coat with a white alicorn smiling down on her and everypony being happy. She could do it now.

With those thoughts she reached the gate from where the steps led down and the sight let her hopes disperse.

She heard Trixie and the others coming up behind her and then all of them halted. Rain started falling down once more and the water dripped down her shoulders, clearer then before, but also colder and Twilight Sparkle shivered. They stood before the rubble and the ruins, staring at what had been the mighty city of Canterlot just hours ago. She looked down on her brown hooves, felt the strength inside herself. She tried to smile, tried to tell herself that she could do it, just like a few seconds ago. Before them, a fissure rose up in the sky, with tendrils clawing from the other side, widening it. The shrieking and the howling of it was enough to make her head ache but Twilight knew what to do. By her side stood five ponies: Trixie, Octavia, Lyra, Derpy and Raindrops.

Twilight turned her head and started to smile more confidently now.

"Are you scared of nightmares?“ Octavia suddenly asked, her voice shaking and her eyes fixated on the fissure, her mind somewhere far off, thinking of things Twilight couldn’t fathom.

But Twilight Sparkle wasn't afraid of nightmares, though. She was a big filly and this was going to be her story.

"I can finish it if I try,“ she said and looked at them. "That thing's presence is bringing back bits of magic and I could use them. So don't you all worry. I'll do it.“

She looked at them and smiled. She turned away and hurried down the stairs and the sun had reached the horizon.

Chapter 12 ~ Don't You Dare Leave Us (V2)

Are You Scared Of Nightmares?

A hoof met the ground, kicking a small stone up into the air. It was hurled against the wall of a building that had stood the test of time for more than thirty years. Now it had lost the fight and only one side remained, whereas the rest had collapsed into the neighbouring building. Twilight did not notice the stone but she noticed the house and all the others. On their way to the castle Canterlot had been intact, but now?

All she could do was run. There wasn't any time to question. She saw some ponies galloping away from the fissure, screaming in fright, not putting any mind to the six fillies who hurried towards it. She noticed the smoke rising up in the distance. Fires had probably broken out in several districts, but Twilight couldn’t tell. She didn't want to know, either. Large cracks ran through the streets and as they ran past one she saw a colt and a filly helping a stallion, who hung from the side. Twilight wanted to stop, she wanted to help but took a breath. She needed to fix the fissure in the sky. She gave one last look and saw that Raindrops hovered towards the crack, a look of determination on her face.

Twilight didn't know whether to smile or not, instead she just hurried through the streets. The closer she got to her target, the stronger her legs became. To save everypony, she needed to finish off the fissure.

They ran, she didn't know for how long. It might've been minutes, even half an hour seemed plausible. Her breathing was still steady, her heart had stopped beating heavily against her chest. She took one turn swiftly, then another, she jumped over the rubble that was before her. It all came so easy to her, like in a dream. She was free and could gallop anywhere she wanted, yet her eyes lingered on the fissure in the sky. The heavens changed their colors around it, turning into a wild rainbowlike whirl. Lightning erupted, reaching out from the crack into the reality of Equestria. Then the thunder would follow, like a howling hammer striking across the sky, breaking her ears. It was the worst sound imaginable and just one more thing to toughen her determination.

The filly sprinted past the Celestial Hall and noticed something in the corner of her eye. She turned her head and saw a small pegasus emerging from the hall. She hadn't the time to look into it but Octavia immediately shouted: "I'll take care of that,“ and ran towards the old hall where her grandfather had once held his concerts.

Twilight gave a:  "Yes.“ She'd get Magia and the rest of them would save the ponies in the town. It was perfect, just like in the stories she had read.

Take a dive

It echoed through her head. This was the right way, the filly told herself and around them the broken and burning ruins of Canterlot took over. The streets that had been dead before were now shuffling with wounded ponies who tried to escape from the rubble and others who helped them out. She heard yells and screams, more ponies panicking, the situation getting worse and worse. The little filly ignored it, instead focused on the fissure and saving Canterlot. Unintentionally she took the city's smell in. What had been an already foul stench had changed drastically. She didn't know exactly what that new smell was that had overtaken the city. It smelt burnt and rotten and like vomit. Ponies were dying around her, it came to her.

Twilight Sparkle just ran on and didn't notice that tears had started coming out of her eyes and while her muscles felt strong, her legs still shook. She had never been as afraid of anything as she had now. She had seen that creature once and the closer the four of them got, the clearer the picture in her head became. The snipping noise, clouds of cotton candy with moustaches of chocolate. A sight that should've been just weird or funny, it scared her like nothing ever did before, more so than her worst nightmares.

Twilight Sparkle gritted her teeth. "We're going to make this,“ she shouted at the others and also herself. She was a big filly and wasn't scared of nightmares and she had read that they weren't real. She wasn't going to be scared of this, too, even if it was real. She was strong now and even though she wanted nothing more but to stop and hide beneath her blanket she kicked herself forward. When it came down to it, she knew, there were still some fillies with her. She had trusted Trixie from the beginning and even though Lyra was weird, she seemed reliable, too and Derpy was so stubborn she would surely never run. She hardly knew any of them but she trusted them with all her heart in these moments.

Because that's what friendship was.

The shaking slowly stopped as she took the next steps. The rain fell hard on her shoulders and left an uncomfortable feeling on her head but she didn't care. It felt like the final weight had been pulled off her shoulders. She wasn't the lone little filly in the hospital anymore. Always waking from dreams of a better life to find her heart beating so hard it felt like it would burst out of her chest and with legs that were so weak she could hardly support herself when standing up. She wasn't opening her eyes to a white room anymore with only a window and sometimes a nurse to greet her warmly.

Right now she was Twilight Sparkle and she felt like it, too. She felt like a lavender colored pony who had her baby dragon by her side and always read books. She felt like a smart, strong filly, capable of doing what she had to do. She felt like she could do it, she could bring a dawn of magic to this world and a bright and happy future to all these ponies who now cried and feared.

She felt like she had grown up in a matter of minutes.

Magic was returning and the little brown filly wasn't scared anymore.

She took the next corner.

And...

With a loud noise another bolt of lightning reached across the sky, tipping the building they passed and with an explosion, it sent the stones of it flying into it's surroundings. Derpy stopped midflight and gawked as the building came falling down, while her friends moved on. She heard Trixie yell something, Twilight shout something back.

"Hurry.“

She didn't react, back in her mind she knew what to do but her body just didn't want to react, all that came was a tear as she saw the wall closing in on her. Everything seemed to move in slow-motion. She heard the crying and shouting in the distance, so slow and hushed that she could barely make it out. She felt her heart beating slow and steady against her chest and she gained a focus like never before as both her eyes fixated on the thing that would crush her in the next few seconds. She felt her mane pressing against her coat, both wet and smelly from the rain. Her mom wouldn't have liked that, dad neither. She had to ask herself if she'd ever see them both again.

It was moving closer.

Her parents had only ever smiled when guests were at home. They seemed so much happier when the house was flooded with life. Madame had told Derpy that she once had siblings but two of them never made it into this world breathing. She had told her that only recently, too and she had hugged her only trueborn daughter and thanked her for bringing Octavia, Raindrops and all the others into her life. Muffins had been on the table that day and they had tasted wonderful.

It was moving closer.

Hugh had loved to spend his time with the family but it seemed like he was always needed somewhere else, everypony always asked about him and was interested in him. Derpy had figured early on that he had to be the mayor or something, since he just seemed so very important. He had finally gotten around to spend time with his family just before the Twilight had collapsed and the huge quake had come. Muffins had been on the table this day and they had tasted wonderful.

And  it was moving closer.

And then her world shook violently as she was gripped by a mighty force like she had experienced only rarely before. Her thoughts drifted for a moment. There had been blueberry muffins on the table and they had tasted the best.

It hit the ground and then the world was silent. For a moment Derpy experienced absolute nothingness. She didn't feel her body, she didn't see her surroundings, she didn't smell the muffins in her memory and her thoughts were so blank it was like her head was filled with nothing but the color white. She didn't hear anypony shouting, she didn't have a taste in her mouth and she couldn't move.

Derpy asked herself what had happened.

Was she dead?

A sudden sting on her left cheek, wetness growing, the uncomfortable feeling of her mane returning. She opened her eyes and saw the weirdest sight. Normally the filly had a smile so wide that it should've hurt but now she seemed to cry as she had lifted her hoof.. The white little filly called Lyra looked at Derpy, her teeth gritted and whispered: "Don't go...“

Derpy blinked and tried to smile. "I can't even move,“ she said trying to lift her hoof to show that she couldn't lift her hoof. The filly's hopes were dashed as she couldn't just lift her hoof up but also managed to find the strength to pull her friend into a hug. Fair enough, she thought and she started to feel the world again.

The ground was hard on her hurting back and as looked over Lyra's shoulder she found that the stones had barely missed them. She must've stared at it forever, dumbstruck. She didn't even know whether she should laugh or cry but even so, her body would've refused to make a move. She couldn't even let go of Lyra, she was shaking, feeling cold and wet and she wanted to go home. Oh Celestia, did she want to go home.

They had to be here somewhere, surely, her parents. They were probably looking for her and Raindrops and Lyra and all the others. Surely they were searching.

"We need to go.“ Lyra was  the one to say that. She had always been brave, although everypony else simply called it a ‘madness’ of hers. Derpy thought it a synonym but considering how bad it sounded. . . it probably meant being brave in stupid situations. So Lyra wasn't brave, she was heroic. She managed to steady her smile but not to loosen the grip on her friend.

The grey little pegasus knew that they had to follow Twilight. The filly had changed the moment the earthquake was gone. She seemed stronger than before, braver and even her eyes had this mad flicker that had always seemed to mark only her friend Lyra. That was why Derpy trusted her, just like she had trusted Lyra when they had met.

"Come on,“ the hornless unicorn told her and lifted herself up. Derpy, still locked tight in the hug came up with it and decided to let go once she sat firmly on just her behind. "We need to catch up to Trix'n'Twi.“ The signature grin moved itself onto Lyra's face again, giving Derpy the confidence she needed spread her little pegasus wings and flutter herself into a standing position.

Saluting, she answered Lyra: "Yessir.“

Just as they tried to run however, a voice came from behind: "Are you two alright?“ They turned and found a brown stallion with a dark brown mane approaching them.

Lyra looked at him: "We need to find our friends.“

"It's not safe,“ he warned them. "We're getting everypony else out of here. You should come, too. If your friends are still in the city, we're sure to find them and get them out of here. Just. . . come.“

Lyra seemed unsure but Derpy only ever knew that she should take one path and stick to it, her dad had told her that and she would stick to it. "No.“

"What?“ the brown stallion said, completely distraught by the sudden backtalking.

"We're going to find our friends,“ she said and suddenly his hoof hit her so hard, that a single tooth was sent flying.

He stared at them with an utterly cold expression, his eyes flickering. "Listen you brat, my job's to get the survivors out of here so we're going to get out of here, understand?“

Lyra nodded and Derpy did so, too, scared of getting hit once more. The stallion smiled, but that faded the moment Lyra turned herself around bucked him right in his knees. Derpy didn't even quite get what had happened until she was gripped by the hoof and Lyra started laughing madly. "Twily, we're coming!“

Lyra yelled across the world and Derpy began to smile, one road, none else. Her dad had taught her that much and he had taught Lyra the same lesson. Lyra let go of her hoof so they could start galloping again. Their target was the fissure in the center of the town and they intended to reach it well enough.

A screeching noise erupted and a bolt struck before them in the ground. Lyra stopped, Derpy, too and they looked at the smoke.

"What?“ Derpy asked.

A shape emerged from the rising dust.

"What?“ Derpy asked.

She had never seen a shape like that, something without shape, without face and without name. A being so foul that its mere presents scared the ponies before it. Lyra was as scared as she was. The thing approached. . .

And. . .

Octavia sighed. "I'm still here,“ she spoke, loud enough for the other pony to hear.

She moved past all the seats with a jacket she had found on the ground. It was still dry, too, unlike her and the filly. Hopefully it would keep them warm while Twilight did what she thought she could do.

Sadly, the Wise Goat wasn't helping. He had continued his talk about how they needed to go to the Lunarium and how Twilight was mad and that, if he could talk to her, he would've surely talked her out of something as mad as this. Octavia had never trusted the strange voice and something in his tone sounded giddy when he gushed about how Twilight Sparkle was 'mad'. Personally, she trusted Twilight. She had the same feeling as Octavia's grandfather about her. A grandness and force of will well beyond her own. She sighed, she wasn't a chosen, she wasn't an element of harmony and there was not magic in the tunes she was able to play on the cello. All she could do was what she did now. She moved past the many seats and up the stage of the Celestial Hall to where once the curtains were. There, she found a small filly, cowering, crying and very frightened.

"I'm back,“ Octavia said and the pegasus looked up.

"Did you find mommy? Daddy? Is daddy with you? He promised he'd be back, he never came back. He said he'd be back...“

Octavia looked at the filly that was as small as her but probably a bit younger. She had her eyes closed and bandaged. Rocks had hit her during the first earthquake and the treatment had been very mediocre, as the next earthquake had come so soon thereafter and suddenly nopony had been there for her. She had been wandering around the town and had still thought she was with the doctors. She had gone to the Celestial Hall looking for her parents, this filly with the six colors in her mane.

"I've brought something to cover yourself with,“ Octavia said and spread the coat over the other filly, "and guess what, there's still room for one more.“ She huddled herself up, right beside the pegasus. "Is this okay with you, Rainbow Dash?“

She used the filly's name intentionally here, she wanted to give her as much comfort as possible. The pegasus didn't speak, but moved a bit closer to Octavia, sobbing and silently whispering the same questions over and over again.

"Where's Mommy? When will daddy come home? Is he here yet? Is she here yet? Will they both be there? He promised. . . He promised to take me to the wonderbolts.“

Octavia looked over the burnt hall, it was all happening over again, just with this filly. She leaned in on her new companion. "Don't worry,“ she said, "They're probably still searching for you. You've gone a bit away from the camp. Don't worry.“

Octavia found herself struggling for words.  What could she say in this situation. What could she possibly talk about. She looked at the empty seats and remembered how he had played the strings, how he had silenced the entire audience. Nopony in the entire auditorium had been able to speak of anything, to think of anything but the little seapony's journey home.

Think. . .

"Rainbow Dash,“ she suddenly said, and the other pony looked up, not saying anything. "Could you tell me about the wonderbolts?“

The other pony waited for a moment, "Y- You don't know about th- the wonderbolts?“

"Not my area of expertise but I'd like to hear about them.“

There was another moment of silence and then Rainbow Dash stopped her sobbing and her crying as well as her thinking of her lost family and from one second to another she talked about the most important thing in her tiny world.

"They're equestrias best fliers, and by that I mean the best. They're so awesome. There's Spitfire, she won the great Dragonbridge Race a year ago. A volcano broke out as they were right above it and Spitfire saved eight different racers from falling into the lava. She was so cool, they even gave her the price, even though she finished last then and a medal, too. Oh there's also Soarin, the youngest member, he eats pies. A lot. Oh and he's also the only pegasus to ever win at the Manehatten Diving challenge. Also there's Fire Streak, the hottest stallion in all of Equestria. He won last years Wonderbolt Derby and is the most senior member on the team. Ooh, and Wave Chill who's so lazy he once slept through an entire race and still managed to be placed tenth, out of a hundred. And Misty, she's also pretty young but she accomplished herself by the 'mountaintop' Derby two years ago and she also bakes pies. A lot. Then there's-“

She talked on and on and had completely forgotten the darkness of her eyes and the absence of her family members. All Octavia would have needed to do now was to say 'uh huh' and 'yeah' every now and then. Instead she listened to Rainbow Dash gushing about how awesome her most favorite flight team ever was. Then she started rambling about the Deserts Dusters, the flight team from Appleloosa or the Thundernados from Manehatten. Then she started talking about the history of the uniform design and just to top it off she recounted the most important Wonderbolt members throughout history.

"You're pretty awesome for knowing so much about them,“ she said after Rainbow Dash had finished. She meant it, too. Most little ponies played games and didn't think much of the world around them but every now and then one would discover the magic of a certain thing. For Octavia it had been music, the same way it had been being completely bonkers for Lyra.

Rainbow Dash turned several shades of red just then. "Thanks. . . I always wanted to join them.“

I always wanted to play there.

"And now I can't.“

Not ever.

"Why?“ Octavia asked.

"I. . . The doctor said I can never see again.“

"You also said that he couldn't do much for you there. There's still a chance, there's still hope and hey, you could still make it, even without eyes.“

"How?“

"I-“ she paused right there, "I don't know. . . But if you put your mind into it, you can. Do. . .“

They sat on the large, desolate stage with it's curtains that had become ashes long ago and were scattered in the wind. They were surrounded by rows and rows of chairs, enough to let the whole city in. And the hall was quite.

Her grandfather once stood right there, she remembered, near the edge of the stage armed only with his cello and all the nervousness he had shown beforehand had vanished. Then he had looked at her and his concentrated expression changed into a smile even he didn't seem to notice.

"Anything,“ she finished. "Rainbow, how about we make a deal?“

"Huh?“

"From now on we'll watch over each other's dream, you get to become a wonderbolt and I will rebuilt this hall here and then we'll both fill all their hearts with the magic of joy.“

Rainbow Dash broke into a smile. . .

And. . .

Raindrops took a deep breath and she just kept breathing in for a few more moments. The light brown filly with the blonde mane called Doseydotes and her brother Goldengrape looked at her for a moment, then at their father, mister Grape, who seemed to scarcely believe what had just happened himself.

"This is all impossible.“

Raindrops didn't feel that inclined to agree. Under the smog of the city one could never see the stars, she had found, that's why she kept the stars close to her heart, that's why she always looked up. The filly also knew that arguing more would get him only angry again. She preferred it not to be beaten by a stallion of his strength. Hugh would have never hit her like that. Plus she had just saved his life and the only thing he had done was yell at his children for not being stronger and at her for not being fast enough.

She hated stallions like him, he should've fallen down and broken all his bones. Now he was there and he had led them right into it.

A cloud of darkest blue, glittering like the night itself, glaring at them with snake-like eyes. A shape that had no shape and a beast that had no name. Octavia had asked the right question before they had stormed off into this mess, she felt.

"Are you scared of nightmares?“, she mumbled, trying to find an answer herself.

"What did you say?“ the stallion asked, getting angry again.

She didn't answer,  just looked to the ground.

"That's what I thought,“ he grumbled and stood up again. "Let's get going.“

She hated stallions like him the most but still got up. She wanted to be back with Twily and the others. Why hadn't they helped her, though? No, Twilight had said that she could fix this entire situation, she would do it. Trixie trusted her and Lyra, too. Derpy had seemed to take liking to the filly who had slept in Raindrops' bed, the one where the stars were always close to her. She thought of that now. The night sky always calmed her mind.

So they moved on, right through the door of the destroyed building and into the ashes of her hometown. The crack in the sky reigned over the chaos it had caused, but the screams of the ponies seemed far away now. They never stopped it seemed but Raindrops knew better, some ponies stopped at one point, but only so others could take up the cacaphony. Each step felt horrible, like she should go somewhere else and help the ponies. She was small, yes, but still she knew about the importance of life. Unlike that stallion, she didn't even care what his name was.

He just moved on, running away, thinking that he was some kind of brave hero saving his kids and some stranger's brat. He didn't care about them, though. He spotted 'thank yous' and mares fainting at his sight because he braved the chaos of the city with three foals on his back. She was enraged but hid it well.

He reminded her of someone a pony once had known, a pony that had not been this Raindrops but another. A sad little filly who had gone and run away and had died and was reborn. She had found friends and a new, happy family. Was Hugh alright? Madame Hooves? She didn't know but the uncertainty was eating at her. As they walked past broken buildings, through puddles of acid rain she only cared about that, that and the fate of her friends.

Twilight had seemed so strong all of a sudden. Raindrops looked to her hooves. She was just a little filly in the hooves of another mad adult but Twilight had decided she would change her fate. Why not she?

She looked over to Goldengrape as they moved through an alley and closed in on him. "Is he all you got for family?”, she asked.

"He's not our family. . . not really, but he took care of us and all he expects in return is that we do his chores at home and get money.“

"So he gives you a bed to sleep in? That's it?“ Raindrop asked. Goldengrape didn't answer, he only looked at Doseydotes and that told Raindrops all she needed to know. Goldengrape was older than she was, lucky enough, so maybe he could help. "I live with a good pony, you don't have to work with him and his wife. They'll take you as their kids and raise you good. I'm searching for them right now, so maybe. . .“

He looked at her for a moment and his eyes brightened up. A madness must've overtaken him that moment, the same madness that had overtaken her.  He moved towards his sister, whispered something into her ear. The stallion didn't notice.

They walked on through the corridors but nothing happened, they passed a few ponies but under his glorious leadership, they ignored any screams for help and just walked passed the ponies. It was at the end of the major road as they would turn into another corner that Goldengrape suddenly shouted:"Now!“

Seconds later Raindrops was hooting and laughing as they raced through another alley, believing that the stallion didn't even have a chance to turn his head before they had vanished from his sight. They turned from that alley into another and this time they would get to do the right thing. They'd help the ponies, they'd search for Hugh, they'd find Twilight and help her. They would save Canterlot.

Raindrops looked at the sky and noticed it had changed it's color completely but this new color wasn't to her liking. Waves of purple, green and gold washed across it and in between it seemed ripped. It was like something straight out of a nightmare.

They were heading towards the main road again when the snipping noise echoed through the alleyway and a screeching and crying came closer and closer, louder and louder,. . .

Then. . .

The hornless unicorn yelled out in pain as the pair of black scissors darted past her. She looked down to find it had scratched her right leg. Not deep, but it hurt. Lyra immediately looked up again and stared at the candy cloud who retracted the Scissors as fast as it had thrown them. They had changed since their last meeting, Lyra had noticed, much to her own disgust. They were still pink but beneath the moustache was now a mouth which had sharp teeth lined up vertically and between the head and the moustache was a giant eyeball staring at them, red veins pulsing within, not once did it blink. Its extremities were twisted and every time the thing took a step it made the sound of bones breaking. All that added to its screams of agony and the thing had become the most terrible, monstrous sight.

Needless to say, even Lyra, the one everypony called too mad to be scared was afraid of it. Derpy was backing away, too. She was always so stubborn but right now, the only reason she didn't run away crying was because Lyra wasn't. Maybe that alone was a true sign of madness. Everypony else had been quick to take their hooves into their other hooves, why not she? Twilight was still running towards the fissure, she knew and time was running out.

That Wise Goat had been right, the worlds were colliding and they needed to do something. Twilight would try whatever she could, so what should she, Lyra, do? She steadied herself and for once in her life she cursed the absence of a horn. For once in her life she wasn't proud to have lost the one thing that made her a unicorn.

The thing approached with its broken march and Lyra found tears swelling up in her eyes. She had always believed that her parents had the right of it, that unicorns were filth from an era long gone. Magic was a dream that probably never existed and if it ever did, it was good that it was gone. The princesses were all dead and soon enough even the memory of them would have faded away.

Magic was long gone and Lyra had not once dreamt of it. Not once.

Now was different. Now as she heard the bones crack and the screams of pain she felt different. The screams reflected her own, her crushed hopes. When she had met Trixie first the little filly had put up the most pathetic of magic shows and Lyra had told her so. Trixie, of course, had never forgiven her, no matter how much she tried to fix it. To that filly, magic was everything. What was it to Lyra, though?

Crack, crack, crack.

She looked at the beast and the noise of the cracking bones changed into the plucking of a harp. She blinked, she saw an old mare with pink coat and hair of gold and purple, plucking the strings of the golden instrument. A beautiful picture it was, still fresh in her mind, like the day she had first seen it. The princess of love looked different from any other pony, she had been so colorful and said to be full of smiles, bringing joy to all those around her. She had truly been the greatest of ponies in her own time.

A golden harp she had played and only once, for the first photograph with her royal visage. She had been dying back then but Cadance had never cared. All she had ever known was the duty she had enjoyed so much, spreading love without searching it for her own. She had found a golden harp in an old pawn shop and had played it only once, while waiting for her knight in shining armor.

A golden harp having its strings plucked and Octavia telling her the truth of it.

"There is magic in music,“ she had said and Lyra had laughed at her. Magic was real, though so it was there. It could enchant ponies, it could bring happiness to so many.

Lyra opened her eyes like for the first time after a century long sleep. She opened her eyes and was met with the neverending stare of the cotton cloud's eye. The snipping noise remained in the background just as much as the screams from the ponies who met things like it in the streets. Still, Lyra had but one believe left in her. The aquamarine unicorn smiled.

There was still magic in her and the stump of a horn on her head started glowing.

The scissors were closing in but before they could slice the light erupted from the forehead of the filly and engulfed the square that they were standing on and the screams changed to a happy, sobbing laughter as the cloud was cleansed. Then, Lyra and Derpy stood both there, with the rain falling heavy on their shoulders.

"L-Lyra?“ Derpy suddenly asked.

"Yeah,“ she answered.

"What. . . What did you do?“

Lyra turned around and smiled, not the mad smile, not the smile of the pony that had stopped believing in magic and herself. She knew this was not the face of the pony whose horn they had sawn of and whom they had told that she was the lowest dirt. This was her face, Lyra Heartstring’s face and smile.

"I don't know,“ she said, looking at her hooves, green hooves that seemed to belong to a stranger, "I don't know. . . But I feel. . . Good? Yeah, good. Better than before.“

"You've got a horn.“

"I'm a wizard now, too.“

She grinned. This would do. She could do it now, she could help, she could be a unicorn, she could be proud. "We need to go, Derpy. Twilight's waiting.“

And. . .

The crack was not a crack. It tore right through reality itself and any sane pony would've stayed as far away from it as possible. They weren't sane, Trixie found. Everypony around her was raving mad. At first she had thought Lyra was the worst but now she wasn't so sure anymore, Twilight came pretty close now.

She hadn't reacted to them losing Derpy and Lyra, she had only hurried onwards and then after a few minutes suddenly her color had started to change. Trixie had never seen a lavender unicorn before, especially not with a dark blue mane, nor had she ever thought to. Now that they had reached their goal it seemed even weirder. Everything had turned from strange to stranger and worst of all, she still didn't feel a thing.

All those wondrous things were happening around her and she still didn't feel anything. The only thing that looked remotely magical about her was the hat. Twilight looked like a unicorn magician right out of the era of discord, while she was stuck being some kind of earth pony with horn in a nice wardrobe. She hated that.  Still, she tried to focus. There were far more important things going on, like the destruction of Canterlot for example.

They stood on the edge of what had once been the main plaza and around here, nothing but the foundations of the buildings and a few bodies remained. Trixie didn't even want to know why none of them weren't moving. She saw Twilight take a deep breath. "This is it,“ she said, trying to sound tough, but her voice cracked up.

Trixie wanted to tell her that she wasn't as good as she thought she was, that she would fail, but those weren't things she wanted to tell Twilight. She had seen her back then in the hospital, a little thing that stared out of the window with little to no hope of ever finding a better life. She had a weakness for ponies like that, ponies that were like Trixie. She had wanted to show Twilight something nice, give her some hope, something to hold on to. The unicorn had found it and Trixie felt that she should respect that. Finally, she said, "You can do it, Twilight.“

There was a twitching and the lavender unicorn gave an awkward smile, "Let's take a dive,“ she said and moved forwards, "Although I don't know what to do now.“

Trixie found it both amazing and scary how quick Twilight's confidence was fading but then she stared up again, where the crack reached up far beyond the clouds. There was something hammering against it from the other side and Trixie found that she would've rather run than walk up there. Twilight was as mad as she was brave.

"I-“ she suddenly heard her friend say, "Oh Celestia, what-, how?“

"Concentrate, like you did back then. Just do what you did. You're special, right? You did something that couldn't be done. You are a magician, Twilight!“

The unicorn looked at her and then started to smile again, "Thanks,“ she said, "Trixie.“

Trixie smiled back, even though she knew that was all she could do. She blinked and then the earthquake came from nowhere. The ground started shaking and both unicorns, with their capes on, shook with it. Trixie could barely stand up straight, but then she noticed why the earth had stopped being quiet. The fissure was growing.

Slowly but steadily it opened, looking like the mouth of a gigantic beast that got ready to swallow the world. Trixie knew what was on the other side, she knew that she shouldn't be scared but for some strange reason cottoncandy clouds frightened her. Twilight stood a few meters before her looking up without a clue what to expect.

From the other side, a huge brown leg appeared, high as the highest towers of Canterlot and then a large chocolate pony marched with astonishing slowness through the gate. The screeching stopped and was exchanged with bright, childish laughter as cottoncandy-clouds with moustaches and tophats rained down on the equestrian ground. Gliding down, using their umbrellas as parachutes they seemed to laugh at the silliness of it all. All the while the chocolate pony took one step, then another, slowly emerging more and more from the portal that lead to its rainbow colored world. The sky was now dyed in a fine, bright red, but Trixie didn't care, her eyes were fixated on the giant pony and it's warm grin that told of the numerous joys it would bring. It looked like something straight out of a dream, a wonderful dream that would make her forget all the pain and destruction surrounding her. Yes, that giant thing looked like a promise that it would become better, that the entire downfall of Canterlot had been nothing more than a misunderstanding.

She stared at it, as it moved slowly onwards and then the tip of its tail reached the other side and suddenly it stopped. The clouds were still raining and laughing, looking like something right out of a children's storybook, all while the chocolate pony stood still. It was now that Trixie noticed that it had both wings and a horn, a chocolate alicorn wearing a warm smile. That's what she had always hoped a princess would be like, sweet with a warm smile and this here had quickly become the most wonderful experience in her entire life.

The Wise Goat might've been wrong, maybe-

Suddenly the chocolate pony turned it's head, twisting it far beyond what it's neck should have been able to support, just to stare at Twilight Sparkle. There was the laughter of children in the background and Trixie remembered a tower by the cliffs in which used to play. That memory came all of a sudden and with it came the realization that she was still shaking, that she knew that something was wrong. She looked up again and the huge, bulging eyes of the chocolate pony took nearly all hope from her. But no, she didn't intend to surrender. She could still do something.

With an angry shout she jumped forward, towards Twilight. Her haunches lifted her into the air and she felt the breeze lifting her cape up while her hat nearly flew off her head. Her forehooves touched the ground and her eyes went unto Twilight.

It didn't even take a second.

The chocolate pony dispersed and a whirl of black and brown and white and red surrounded Twilight, forming something new. It had the white skull of an equine with a red liquid swirling in circles where the eyes should be and a body of bones and shadows. It stared at Twilight for a moment, before it's cackling became a cacaphony in her ears. The whirlwind of shades closed in on Twilight, claws forming.

Trixie saw that the unicorn tried to concentrate and a sudden burst of light erupted. She had to grin, that thing had underestimated Twilight. . .

And. . .

     Twilight Sparkle felt nothing. Twilight Sparkle saw nothing. Twilight Sparkle tasted her blood.

Chapter 13 ~ Aren't You Scared Of Nightmares? Pt. 1

All Dreams Die Once You Wake Up

The room she sat in was made of white stone and had colored windows. A red carpet went from one end to the other, flanked by many columns. She sat before a stairway that lead up to a beautiful throne, whose surface reflected the bright light of the midday sun. Never had she seen a sight like that and she immediately became completely enthralled by it. She didn't even notice the stranger moving up to her and seating herself beside her.

Do you like it?, the whisper asked.

She answered, "Yes.“

It is the most wonderful of places, we found. Never did we think that we'd gaze upon it again and never had we thought to bask in the glorious blaze of our own light once more.

"It's a ruin where I come from.“ She looked over the windows who each served a memory for a deed once done. She only recognized the defeat of Discord, the events that would unfold on the other windows were entirely unfamiliar to her. Some dark blue pony moving underground, some strange figure with a six-colored mane standing in the darkness.

It is a ruin because time alone only knows the decay of things already born. We know better than you, Twilight Sparkle, that ponies are on the verge of completely forgetting what they are, even our beloved cousin was unable to change that, in the end.

She looked at the throne. At its feet grew red flowers and by the sides of the carpet the entire first step was a pond, with life brimming in it. On its second step stood the throne itself. A majestic, golden seat, emblazoned with leaves and swirls, cushioned with the most softest of pillows, a small candle at it's side and the sigil of the sun at its most upper top. Such a fine seat, she thought it was.

"Your. . . cousin?“, she asked the whisper.

We are nearly all gone from the world and when the last of us dies, so does the last piece of harmony that clings to the world. All that has happened to you would have happened much sooner and never would the world have seen these days. Cadance had waited for her knight, yet she had arrived too soon for him to be born and the elements have yet to appear, either. When she lived, they had not yet found the strength to bind themselves to those bodies destined for them.

"The Elements of Harmony? The Wise Goat said that I was one of them...“

For the beast its many lies that one was the truth and the fact that you are here and not in the realm of the eternal dreams is proof enough for that. Do you know what you did, Twilight?

She shook her head and looked to the ground, "I don't know what had happened. I don't remember anything. . . We were before the crack and suddenly, a giant pony came out. I didn't know, but the feeling of it was off-putting. It was happy and sad, angry and mellow. I didn't know what to do and then-“

You did something that would have been impossible to most, you stared into the eyes of the first Nightmare and lived to tell the tale. Twilight, We will be frank with you since this is important. This tale may still end bad for you and all you hold dear.

That came as a shock to her. In the tales, the hero always triumphed, no matter what. So she asked the whisper: "How?“

Magic is not as wonderful as your stories made it out to be, the whisper explained with both warmth and sadness in her voice, Magic in and of itself came from the Crystal Empire, truth be told, and it was heralded by two ponies: Star Swirl and Sombra. Brothers they had been and each had their own vision of magic. Star Swirl saw the potential to help ponies, Sombra sought to use it as a weapon. They never understood each other but Sombra made a deal with Star Swirl that they'd both teach the unicorns in magic, so they were able to use the full spectrum of their powers. While Star Swirl thought it a good idea to work in harmony, Sombra still only intended the worst. His lessons taught the ponies to sought out power and that strength was the only means of survival in this world.

She found herself listening to the tale and tried to figure out what it meant but as of now came to no conclusion. She just looked at the throne that rose up before them and listened in on the whisper's tale.

Sombra and his students then betrayed the Crystal Empire, they murdered their king and queen, enslaved their ponies and Star Swirl needed to retreat south, there he met the two young alicorns and told them his tale, so they might free the Crystal Empire. What remains is that Star Swirl, until his end, never cared for the power magic held but only for the good it could do. Sombra on the other hand only cared for power. He betrayed and enslaved to achieve more greatness than before and in the end, he payed dearly for it. Do you get it, Twilight?

There was a pause and She looked down. She was thinking, she was a smart filly, she could answer this. She felt a hoof brushing over her mane and calmed herself.

"Magic is more than just being able to cast spells,“ she finally answered.

She heard the whisper laugh, That is the first half, my dear Twilight. I think that the rest will come to you soon enough. For now it will do just fine.

She felt how the hoof left her head but she still felt how it had touched her, how warm it had felt, how familiar. Yet she did not recognize the whisper's voice, or maybe she did? She couldn't say.

"I. . . I wanted to save them, I really did. I didn't want the power, I-“

We know, our little pony. You are a weird little spot in the this grey world, everyday waking up and finding yourself in the wrong room. Your very existence is bound to magic and only you can bring it back to the world, therefore it searches for you and you search for it.

She didn't understand, so she just looked at the flowers, the red, beautiful flowers.

Still, there was more Sombra's tale than just the lust for power. Now, Twilight, Magic is at its base a force of chaos, lead by emotions. Sombra utilized the darkness of his heart, the hatred and the fears he held within him and it turned him darker with every spell he cast, while Star Swirl helped others and felt better for it. Do not, under any circumstances, use the power you feel near Magia ever again. It is the most powerful of vile magicks and even Discord became afraid of it. It will eat at you, tear you apart and forever cripple you. With every time you use this power, the worse you will end up. There aren't many chances left for you.

She wanted to turn around, but found she couldn't. She was fixated on the throne. The only things she could do was listen to the whisper and answer its faint warmth. "Why me? Trixie loves magic more than any other pony I know? She seems more fit than me.“

We cannot tell you about the tiny Lulamoon, for her story is one that she needs to see to an end with her own strength. But you? Why you, indeed? We asked ourself that question a long time ago. Who would bear the element of magic and how would it show? Everypony is bound to the fabrics of magic, for they are everything we are. From the color of our coats to our cutie marks, magic defines how we look and it defines how we look at ourselves. Did you know? Everypony has a special talent. The talent of our sister was to rule the night, while ours was to rule the day, others could do such simple things like stand on one hoof and We once knew a pegasus who could fly through any weather with his eyes closed. . . We believe it might have been Wonderbolt himself.

Anway, your talent is magic itself and because of that you were always connected to it. Even if you would not want to believe it yourself, it still is the truth. But this talk is coming to an end, we feel, and all dreams die once you wake up. You will remember little, if anything from this conversation we fear, but also hope that you take the one important thing with you.

Twilight turned her head to her left and looked into the alicorn's magenta eyes. Her coat was white and the mane moved in an ethereal wind. The little unicorn's mouth opened and closed, but she couldn't get a word out.

We may not see each other again, but I wish you good luck, my faithful student, Celestia said and Twilight felt the feeling in her body returning.

The scenery blurred out as she opened her eyes again. There was grey stone above her and her body felt weak again. She was shivering and her heart was pounding. She smiled, her heart was pounding, so she was alive. She took one look to her side where Trixie stood, the filly with half her teeth missing. Lyra stood beside her, looking worried and also very green,while Derpy looked relieved. "You're back,“ she gasped happily.

Twilight coughed. "Yeah,“ she said, "are there possibly any muffins we could eat? I'm starving.“

Chapter 14 ~ Aren't You Scared Of Nightmares? Pt. 2

Dusk Has Fallen ~ PART I FINALE

Muffins would have been delicious. Like, really delicious. So, if one were to admit that no muffins were available at the time it would also mean that nothing delicious at all was to be had. As a matter of fact, there was no food whatsoever to be had. Neither good nor bad tasting food was available and that was probably the worst thing about everything right now. That and the fact that she could hardly remember anything after Canterlot.

There had been another earthquake and then she had been running. The last remaining bits were about a golden throne, a white alicorn and that she couldn't even stand up on her own, again. The little brown filly was back once more. Standing on weak legs that couldn't carry her own weight and feeling colder than before.

Somehow she felt better for it.

There was no exact way to describe what she felt as Derpy helped her from the ground and her two unicorn friends stood beside her. Physically she felt the same as ever but somehow her spirit felt lighter, better. For one second she didn't know why but then she remembered the alicorn, white as a pearl and with a smile warm as the sun.

As she leaned on Derpy, she gave the little pegasus her thanks and Derpy replied with but a scrunchy face and a smile.

"We should try to go back," Trixie said and Twilight noticed how she looked.

Trixie wasn't exactly what one would call a beautiful pony, piebald with a two-toned mane, a black eye, bandages on her legs and a smile that showed half her teeth missing, some had fallen out and not yet regrown and some probably had fallen out once and then again, for other, less natural reasons. She wore a giant hat and her coat was hidden beneath a cloak with stars on it. Thing was, Trixie had not once looked like she cared about her looks. In fact Twilight would have said that there had always been a certain pride about Trixie, a pride she herself could hardly comprehend. Yet it had given her courage and something to trust. That had been before and now she could hardly find anything admirable when she looked at Trixie. The filly seemed so much smaller, like she was using her cloak and hat as things to hide beneath, as if she was ashamed of something. Words faintly resounded in her mind, but just as that thought she couldn’t figure out what they meant and from whence they had come.

Beside the caped unicorn stood Lyra. She was a bit taller than Trixie and a bit more lanky. Also aquamarine.

Twilight took a moment before fully realising the strangeness of the color. "What happened?",  she asked.

"Oh, this? I guess I found something I lost again." She said it like she was talking about a misplaced book, which Twilight found weird. But then Lyra smiled and the weak filly stopped caring. That smile was better than the one before and it didn't look like it hurt at all.

Lyra was tall and beautiful.

Trixie looked at them from beneath her hat, "I know we need to catch up and all but considering everything: We need to get back to Canterlot. Or is this Lunarium a lie,  too?"

Both Lyra and Twilight stared at Trixie.

"What?", she asked, clearly freaked out by the sudden looks.

"I- I don't know, but  just now. . . Lu---narium." Lyra stretched the word and then looked at Twilight. "Do you hear it, too?"

"Hear what?" both Trixie and Derpy asked.

Twilight nodded. She hadn't realized it before but she could hear the power in the word now. She didn't know what exactly that was or why but she found courage in it.

"I think it's real! I believe it. There's a power in that word," the frail filly stated, "Yes, yes, we should go back, hopefully the others will think to do that, too."

Trixie nodded and gestured the others to follow her. Twilight was just thankful that she had other ponies to help her. She didn't remember the details of her dream, only that she had talked with the white pony and that something important was giving her courage.

She had read about Nightmares, or Night Terrors, as they had been called in the old days. She had read that they had been the most cruel beings, but they had died out. The only thing that had remained of them in this world had been the taint on the dreams they had left. Nightmares were nothing more but bad dreams nowadays and she hadn’t been scared of them.

They had taken refuge the ruins of a house, one of the many and stalked through the ruined alleys with great care. The sun had reached the horizon, coating the world in tones of orange as the stars slowly started to reveal themselves on the night sky.

"Dusk has fallen," Derpy mentioned, "isn't it past bedtime?"

"Trixie has no idea why you're talking about bedtime now," their very nervous leader stated. Trixie always said her name when she got nervous, Twilight figured.

"Because I'm getting tired! We've been running around the whole day," the pegasus whined. Trixie rolled her eyes.

"We'll need to meet the others before we can rest and Trixie doesn't think she could sleep after-," there she paused. Trixie looked down on the ground before her, yet didn't stop to walk. Was she thinking? Crying? Twilight couldn't tell. "Trixie thinks we all need to be together. Just follow Trixie."

Twilight couldn't say much. She felt much like herself again and was quite thankful to have her friends aiding her. She looked around. Whatever remained of the populous city of Canterlot was ruined and burned. The others kept their eyes focused on the road before them. The destruction of all the buildings had left a layer of dust spread across the city. Like mist it surrounded them, slowly coming down from the sky.

For once Twilight was happy needing to concentrate on getting one hoof before the other rather than look at her surroundings. The only thing she really noticed was the smell. The city had always smelled like a garbage pail with the factories by the edge only making it worse. The skies had been obscured quite often and the rain was poisonous. Now there was this smell of sweets and cotton candy overshadowing the old. Something she, strangely enough, did not find to be good. Her tummy was as sensitive as the rest of her body and the smell only made it hurt.

She turned her head to Derpy, whose eyes each looked into a different direction, one up, one down. The pony seemed to have lots of strength left,  now that she thought about it. What had happened to her on the run? She sported a cut on her cheek and it had bled, even though most of the red liquid had been washed off by the rain. Twilight didn't inquire.

The road was covered with rocks and in the corner of her eyes she thought to spot some ponies lying around. Despite all her curiosity, she thought better of it and didn't look and the others did not, too. She knew why those ponies weren't calling out, weren't moving.

Hopefully Raindrops and Octavia had managed to help those ponies they had met. If something good would come out of this whole mess, maybe it was worth the trouble in the end. Her heart was beating furiously but it wasn't hurting yet. She knew that the walk to Canterlot would hurt much and she knew there was nothing she could do about it. Her condition was one that would never go away and she actually felt a bit weaker than long before, she didn't know why. The last time she had been near that Magia-thing she had been unconscious for a long time. Was it because she had used magic?

With that thought her head turned to Lyra, who was walking on her other side, probably to aid when necessary. She let her words go through the mind again. Lyra had said that she had found something.

"What did you find?", she asked, but her voice was weak and she already breathing heavily.

There was a moment of silence before Lyra noticed that Twilight was talking to her. "What?"

"Your horn grew back and your coat is different. What if those things are influenced by magic," Twilight figured.

There was the smile Lyra sported now, the warm grin that, given the right circumstances could easily sway any mood to a good one. "Sure it does. I just thought about what Octavia once told me, that there's magic in music." Lyra looked like she was reflecting on something. "I never believed in magic, you know, not until I met you. I guess I realized that it exists and that with it we can do something, even fix the damage already done. I just want to bring a smile to everypony's face in the end. Even if this Magia is set free in the world, I now know we can defeat it. We've got each other and we can trust in that," then she laughed and looked bright as a sun, "We can earn ourselves a happy ending."

Twilight smiled but she didn't ask how Lyra had come to this conclusion. She knew that the easiest way to describe the situation was as utterly ‘mad’, but for some strange reason, with every step closer to the castle she felt a bit more confident. She wasn't getting stronger, in fact, she felt getting weaker. She felt the weight of her own body, the exhaustion from her long run and whatever had happened to her afterwards. Yet she still felt glad, as if she had done something right. She had ponies to trust in her and ponies she could trust in.

And she didn't notice that the distance between them and Trixie widened and Derpy looked awkwardly to the ground, not knowing what to say and keeping herself from tripping over her own hooves.

With that, they continued on, the sun sinking slowly behind them. Soon after they reached the steps. There they met Octavia, who had a grim expression about her. She looked at the four for a moment. Her cold glance wandering from one to the next, quietly noticing the injuries and the expressions they bore on their faces.

She looked at Trixie. . . and then smiled, "You're fine. Celestia be thanked."

Trixie didn't say anything but instead made to go past her. What could have been her giving the other filly the cold shoulder was ruined the instant Octavia grabbed the piebald unicorn and hugged her tightly. The other three just watched in silence, Twilight wondering what was going on, but Derpy looked understanding.

"We should go up," she then said.

"Why?" asked Raindrops. The ponies turned around. She looked like somepony had beaten her heavily her face was swollen but determined.

Twilight answered immediately: "Magia is a Nightmare."

"This whole mess is a nightmare."

The answer came suddenly and from Derpy's side and even though it was but a whisper, everypony seemed to agree with it. Twilight even nodded, "I know but that's not what I mean. Magia is a real Night Terror."

    "A what?" Lyra asked, trying to sound interested but she seemed to have the vaguest of notion that something called a 'Terror' and having just wrecked the capital of the Republic was something to be scared of.

"I'll tell you on the way up." Twilight said. She was smart, she had read those things and so she shared what she had found in the books her father had given to her. "The Night Terrors were creatures that infested the dreams of the ponies long before they first found magic to defend themselves. They were creatures of pure evil who sought nothing more than destroy the peace and harmony that ruled the land. Some stories," not for fillies, Shining had said, "even called them the 'Harbingers of the Long Silence', the end of the world."

She herself had never quite gotten into her head what exactly the end of the world meant. A world wasn't a pony that could just lie down and sleep forever, it was huge with land and water and skies and clouds. How something like that could end was well beyond her, but it did sound very bad. The others didn't answer her, so they probably thought that, too. Either that or Twilight was just so smart that she was the only one who got anything out of it.

She wasn't quite sure what she should hope for but either way, as the last rays of light vanished beyond the horizon they stood between the statues once more but this time the light of a full moon shone down upon them, revealing a hole in the middle of the small stone plaza.

And that was when Twilight realized what they would need to do and what had happened. The moon's light was bidding them farewell and the warm voice of a mentor she never had carried through the wind, telling her that she could do it.

There wasn't any time to reflect, she understood that. They needed to do this or they would all actually realize what kind of situation they were in. She could deal with it. Why? She did not know, maybe because she only thought she did. Maybe because her father had left her for good and she had last seen Shining a thousand years ago.

"Let's take a dive," Twilight Sparkle declared as she walked towards the hole in the ground, all on her own. She smiled, looking at the others and they all nodded, each stepping forward. One last time she looked at the sky and the laughing face of the beast called Magia stared back while the screeching and breaking of bones became the faintest background noise. This night would be the first Nightmare Night and even though the moon shone brightly, every pony who'd sleep would be haunted by night terrors.

Twilight took a deep breath and then she was the first to jump into the darkness, but she heard Lyra yelling: "CADENZA!" while jumping down. They were still all together and their journey towards the Lunarium had only just begun.

Chapter 15 ~ All Dreams Die Once You Wake Up (V2)

A Filly In The Dark (Raindrops I)

Raindrops had always taken certain pride in her own youth. Octavia tried to compensate her own looks by acting as dignified as possible, or so the pegasus thought, but she? Raindrops was a pony of but the color black, which in and of itself wasn't very special where another filly had lived together with her parents. Back in the place where the nightsky was lit with a gazillion stars and the father sang songs to best the silence.

She had taken pride in her youth and wasn't afraid to show what scared her. She knew about being judged for it but as long as she had a family that cared about her, that didn't matter. She remembered herself only a week before, crying because of something, she didn't even remember what. Madame had come, calmed her down, told her soothing things. She was but a little filly, not even ready to do minor factory work. That was something she needed to remind herself of every day.

When a moment of honesty struck, Hugh would always sit down alone and just stare at the table where they always ate and the smell of muffins had long since been absorbed by the furniture. She remembered walking in and just watching him, just like the other filly had done once before with her father. Every single time she had done that and once he saw him breaking down in tears, thinking nopony else was there. She had seen it, the truth of it. He didn't have enough room or money for so many fillies in one place and even though their presence gave him happiness, he knew that it was but a short-lived dream. All dreams died eventually, all you needed to do was wake up, but he never wanted to.

Raindrops had found herself in the Dark ever since that moment. The Dark, that's how she called the world the adults lived in. A world where you had to pay taxes for everything and were mocked because your house held children that were not your own offspring, a world where a minor problem like Derpy's eyes could get a pony into lots and lots of trouble. A world, where you knew of other ponies' worries and even the sweet scent of muffins became salty with tears.

She had placed a mobile above her head and tried to sleep with a nightlight again, letting herself be told small stories by Hugh and singing herself and the others to sleep while Madame Hooves gently let her hooves stroke through her mane. The warmth of home and family was for her, not the loneliness and the pain the Dark presented. She was but a little filly, not ready to face the world before her.

But the Night Terror had appeared and had dragged the world down, stripped the truth from everypony's skin. She had heard the nightmares and looked upon the terrors they inflicted and if it hadn't been for Goldengrape and Doseydotes she would not have survived it. Now, she was trapped in blackness. A filly in the Dark.

She spread her wings, tried to break as much as she could so she wouldn't hit the ground with full speed, she heard Twilight hitting the ground first, then Trixie landing beside her. Lyra chose to use the piebald unicorn as a cushion and landed safely upon her, at least until Derpy hit the ground. At least she hadn't forgotten to use her wings, only Celestia would've know what might have happened if she had. Octavia landed head first in the sand, everything above her neckline digging itself into the ground and tried to get it unstuck. With a *plop* she managed to get out of her hole and immediately turned to the others, sand in her mane, trying to look like nothing had happened.

"Everypony alright?" She asked. In the last moment, Raindrops tried to take one more break but instead folded her wings in a panicked motion, and fell the last few centimeters right into the sand, which felt far too soft. There was only little resistance and in fact the first thing that sprung to Raindrops' mind was an old pegasi proverb.

"This is fluffy as a cloud."

The others seemed to agree, even Trixie hadn't thought of moaning about the weight of the ponies lying on her. Twilight had closed her eyes, like she was asleep. 'Adorable', an adult would have called it. The unicorn responded after a few seconds, though. "I'm better than I expected," she said, weakly. She wasn't as full of power as when that horrible, horrible crack in the sky had appeared. Even her trying to stand up appeared clumsy, and Derpy rushed immediately to her help.

"Thanks," the unicorn told the grey pegasus, who tried to give her a confident smile in return.

"That's what friends are for."

Lyra helped Trixie up, telling her that it was nice to play cushion. Trixie brushed it off, saying that the ground was softer than she would ever be.

"She's right," Raindrops piped in and a small, smug smile appeared on Trixie's face. Somehow it managed to brighten up Lyra anymore.

"You're back!"

The smile vanished and Trixie turned with a huff.

"What's up with her?" Lyra asked, Raindrops shrugged. She didn't know. She didn't want to know.

"We need to go on," she said instead. In truth she wasn't quite sure about this Lunarium business but if it got her away from Canterlot and the monsters she was fine with it. No more adults, no more looks, no more judging and no more pain. She wanted to leave the Dark now and maybe even go where the filly and her family had rested. Somewhere with clear skies and a bazillion stars. Or somewhere deep down beneath the earth, where nopony would ever look for her. She wanted to forget what she had seen but an hour ago. For that, they needed to move forward.

Everypony was standing up straight now and it was only then that they all took a look around. They stood in a large cavern, filled with white sand that felt fluffy beneath their hooves. Inspecting it closer, Raindrops noted that the sand had the faintest glow to it, as if it had absorbed the light of the moon. She didn't know why and, quite frankly, was only happy to have some light. She hadn't actually thought about sleeping without light or even walking through the tunnels. Instinctively she walked up to the nearest pony, which happened to Octavia, who seemed to be as nervous as Raindrops was or even more. Just as she had stepped close she could feel how Octy tried to get as close to her as possible, staring at what surrounded them. Was she afraid?

There were tunnels all around them, some of their entries only barely made it above the sand, others were in the walls above it, but only one had the sand going into. That was weird.

"Wait," Twilight said, "I read about this. Princess Luna once brought parts of the moon so close to our world that their dust rained down on and there it formed a pathway from Canterlot to a. . ." she seemed unsure, "place."

"Well, that tells us nothing," Octavia said with a sigh.

"Yeah, it's totally anticlimatkit-" Lyra threw in.

"Anticlimactic," Twilight corrected.

"Just what I said. If Princess Luna lost Moondust that accidentally led some ponies somewhere I guess we have to follow the bright, sparkly path."

The conclusion was so bad Raindrops wanted to honestly say that they should think this over, not that they'd take the wrong path. Yet, they needed to get away from here and as long as it led them away from Canterlot it was fine. As long as where they were going was somewhere else, she was completely fine with it.

They had all witnessed things in Canterlot, they all wanted to run away so they seemed to quietly agree with Lyra, and as the white filly started walking, they followed. Six little fillies, stumbling over the weird sand that might have once been brought down from the moon.

They went a few steps and Raindrops had Octavia close by her side but then the light left them, and they stumbled through a dark corridor without being able to see. That was when the fillies felt themselves growing smaller and smaller, she could hear sniffling, she could feel Octavia fumbling for a hoof to hold, just as she did the same. Suddenly they were surrounded by darkness and they realized what Raindrops had tried to make herself see while still managing to keep herself blinded.

They weren't meant to adventure, they all  just wanted to go home. She could say something, maybe she even should have said somethin. Maybe, yet the sniffling was broken by a weak Twilight.

"Lyra, can you do me a favor?" she asked between huffed breaths, managing to carry a faint hope in her voice.

"Y-yeah?"

"Close your eyes."

"What?"

Raindrops was just as perplexed as Lyra about that question.

"Just do it," Twilight said softly and after a pause she said: "Now think about something warm and bright, a small flicker, a little flame."

A small flicker, there in the dark.

"Now a sun. Make it bright, make it full of hopes and love."

She could hear Lyra grunt as the unexpected strain hit her body and then a small, glowing orb appeared over her head and started floating above it. Her horn glistened with green, magicky stuff.

"Let it soar above you, free. Relax," Twilight instructed, sounding absolutely dazzled by the sight, and Lyra followed suit, sitting down, relaxing her shoulders and the orb starting floating in circles around her horn. Twilight smiled confidently and nodded, "Good. I think it should work on its own now. You can open your eyes now Lyra."

So Lyra did and she looked at the orb. The unicorn laughed and shouted: "I did magic!"

She jumped up and nopony couldn't contain their smiles at the sight. The orb disappeared instantenously.

Raindrops couldn't hold it in.

"OH, COME ON!"

Chapter 16 ~ Dusk Has Fallen (V2)

When You Hide (Octavia I)

Rainbow Dash was her name and she's waiting up there. She's safe, she'll be taken care off and I will see her again. I only need to remember that her name was Rainbow Dash and that we made a promise. Everything else will turn out fine.

The thoughts encompassed the gray earth pony's mind as they walked through the darkness. After a few tries Lyra had managed to get the orb to work and now she proudly cantered ahead of them, her head held so high, a grin so full of pride adorning her face. She was the first unicorn since forever to cast a spell, so Octavia could understand that. She would've been proud, too. The orb was small but bright, enlightening an area of a few meters around them. It was as good as a flashlight. Twilight had known how to do it, so maybe she had done magic, too. Octavia tried to remember Rainbow Dash but she wanted to see what the Wise Goat had meant.

"Twilight," she asked, "What happened to you in Canterlot?"

The walls were made of rock and crystals, with only a few gems in between and the way they had taken was so small an adult pony would have had a hard time fitting through. Not that it was impossible.

With them moving through the unknown earth, everypony struggling to be as close to the light as possible, Twilight answered Octavia. "I had an epiphany."

Octavia had no idea what that meant and so did everpony else, with Riandrops asking: "What's an ipefamy?"

Twilight laughed and coughed at the same time, still using Derpy as a means to keep her own, frail body standing and walking. "It's epiphany. What I meant was when I faced Magia I understood it, what it was and how I had used its power. The Wise Goat had said that my special talent was magic and I had hoped that that was the reason I could use it. He kinda encouraged me."

Octavia listened. The voice had spoken to her since when? Yesterday? The day before? She didn't know but it had stopped talking just as the creatures had vanished from the face of the city. The tiny earth pony hadn't known what to make of it, but he had told Twilight that she was the element of magic? This seemed weird.

"In truth, I tapped into the Magia's power. I-," she broke up but took a breath and continued, "I think that's what the Wise Goat wanted. It was a voice in my head, just appearing, telling me how special i was, how I could change the world. It probably only wanted further its own goals. I think it lied." Twilight seemed stopped then, panting heavily. "Sorry, I- I need a rest. I can't. . . My body- It's. . ." She was on her knees then, struggling for each breath and the other ponies tried to close in on the narrow path. Lyra turned around.

"It's only a bit farther Twily, then we can rest," one unicorn tried to assure another but Twilight shook her head. There were tears. The little filly was in pain, scared of it, too. She had seen that expression once, when they had eaten dinner, but this time, Octavia did not intend to let it simply go on. She took the chance, moved towards Twilight and embraced her in a hug.

"It's okay, calm down. Take deep breaths," she said, as softly as possible, "Think of a calm sea , a blue sky with white clouds."

She had seen one filly breaking down before her today. She had been able to help that one and she sure as hay didn't intend to fail this one. She stroke through Twilights mane, whispering whatever soothing thing came to her mind, trying to show her how to breathe, sing a little song. There was one thing she would have rather done, the real kindness of just taking Twilight's pain and going through it for her. She could have asked Lyra, but then, Twilight, while trying to follow, still twitched with every heartbeat, as if a tiny hammer was crashing against her chest, trying to break through the wall of bones.

Octavia didn't want to feel that kind of pain, ever.

After that thought it was like her mind went blank. There wasn't any magic in her music and she really wasn't anypony special. Everypony here could probably do something wonderful and even that little pegasus would eventually overcome all odds and become a wonderbolt. Her name had been Rainbow Dash, Octavia remembered. What she didn't remember, where her grandfather's words, or rather, their meaning. She was sitting there in the cave, surrounded by those five ponies she thought closest to her and yet she would eventually become deadweight to them. She was only an earth pony without anything, even her parents had thrown her out, because all she had ever done had been a waste.She wasn't even really a Quarternote anymore and even if she was, her parents were probably dead, too.

She felt another hug and looked to her left, Derpy was holding her, tears coming out of her eyes, "Don't cry, Octy. Don't-"

Was she crying? Her eyes went to the ground, and she noticed how watery they felt. They had stopped, they had done the one thing they all had tried not to do. They had stopped and then they had started thinking about Canterlot, each and every one of them.

Octavia would never see Hugh again or Madame Hooves, she wouldn't get to watch Trixie trying to make a decent magic show, Lyra throwing her off with a comment about 'hands', she wouldn't get to see a table nearly breaking under the weight of the muffins atop of it ever again. Never again would she smell the dirt of Canterlot and canter beneath the smog and the poison rain. The chance to see her parents again and bring a little music into their lives was gone as well.

Suddenly they were all hugging, drawn together by how they all were bound as close as family now. One pony though, didn't join in, instead simply adjusted her hat and saying in a loud voice: "Magic is harmony and harmony is peace. When we get to the Lunarium, everything will be fine. Everypony we have met, everypony we haven't. They're all going to be fine and maybe there will be Alicorns, too. I don't know what you're crying about because what happened up there, if anypony can undo it, it has to be an Alicorn!"

They all looked at her, how she stood there with a smile on her face, reassuring them. They were all together, not just in grief and fear.

"We've all seen what happened but we shouldn't run away from it, we should use it to go forward. That would make all our parents proud, Trixie's sure." Tiny and piebald, brown and white. Octavia had laughed when she had first seen Trixie and at that time, that filly had still lived with that strict household where she would get beaten for even the most minor thing. Sometimes she would get her head bashed in just for the sake of having it bashed in. Octavia had known and like anypony else done nothing about it. It had been normal.

If there ever was a chance to change that, was it now? Was the Lunarium really the answer? Had the Wise Goat lied about everything, or should they cling on to that little bit of hope?

"Come on everypony, we've still got ways to go," Trixie said and turned around. Octavia just looked at her and for a moment the tiny and weak Trixie seemed truly great and powerful.The speech was enough to make everypony find their strength once more.

I'd do anything if I don't have to look back now, Octavia thought and made herself move again, helping Twilight now. Of course, now that they had found themselves again, something hit the fluffy sands far behind them and they heard somepony shout obscure things.

Octavia recognized the voice and turned into the direction they had come from, a light appeared at its end. When you hide they can't find you, she had told Rainbow Dash. She remembered her, she was safe and sound and she would be taken care off. They hadn't gotten the filly who was even more tiny than the earth pony. They hadn't gotten the filly and they most certainly wouldn't get her.

"We need to go, now!" She said, her voice and body trembling. All looks were upon her but only Raindrops seemed to know what was going on. "They're meant to make sure nopony will tell what has happened here. They want to blame it on the griffons to justify an open war. We need to go, we need to run. We need to hurry!"

Part 2: Chapter 1 ~ A Filly In The Dark (V2)

This Is Trixie's Might (Trixie I)

And somehow they found themselves running again. That was something Trixie had thought she would never do again, run away from the home she loved. They hurried through the narrow path and she did not know where they were going, maybe to a better place? Maybe to a place far worse? Trixie didn't know, but she didn't look back. They all were following Lyra, the one who had the light, the pony who had never believed in magic. Trixie hated it. This pony and everypony else had just realized that Canterlot was broken, they had realized their families were gone. The next time they were stopping, they would all go crying again.

The only pony who had no tears left was Trixie, she had always endured, always hoped, always dreamt of magic and a better tomorrow. She had sat on the window sill of her room in the old orphanage, the day before her new parents had come and had looked at the sky. There she had spotted a single star, shaped like the ones on her hat and cloak. From the filly's point of view it had been as bright as the sun, even though it had just been one small star in a sea of them.

She galloped, her hooves making a clacking sound on the rocky ground. Not that she cared. Nopony cared about the rocks beneath them. Derpy had Twilight on her back now and the brown filly was holding on, while the one beneath her stared forward, not quite knowing what she did but kept doing it anyway. Octavia panted, Trixie could hear and she felt her own legs getting weaker. Were 'they' even following the group? The little filly didn't know and in truth, she didn't even want to know.

She only had wanted to know what that star had been. That night its had looked like it had dedicated its light to her, and summer snows had fallen, like they had done the day the princess of the night had held her own wake. Trixie remembered a filly by her side then and she didn't remember her color or mane, only how she had said that the sky was beautiful. She had spoken to the ugly, little Trixie.

She hit a rock with her hoof and stumbled, falling face first into the dirt while her friends still moved forward, none stopped. She was lying there for but one second, the longest second. There were fewer gems in the walls and the crystals were all but gone. The ground wasn't made of soft sand but hard, dark rocks, some of which had edges that could cut.

In that one second she closed her eyes and saw the room again. Six beds standing side by side with only a small corridor that lead to the door. The stink was unbearable and the window was almost always open. The only times it wasn't was because they had been ordered to close it. Her own bed was always neatly done, as if nopony would ever touch it. She never had slept in it, only on the sill, where she could see the city and dream of princesses and dragons.

Just like at this moment, with the summer snows falling. The orphanage had been placed on a higher ground outside the city so that the normal folk wouldn't be bothered by the parentless little ponies. On one hand, that meant long walks if the town was to be visited, on the other, that they had lots of space for themselves. For the nights it meant one more thing: Canterlot. It was an ugly town, coated in tones of brown with steam rising from the factories and dirt covering every inch of it, but the factories didn't work at night and the dirt was covered by darkness. What remained were the black silhouettes of buildings on a dark blue background with black clouds above and a few holes through which the light shined. Now, Canterlot was only towers and spires, a conglomeration of shapes and structures that looked like a piece of art. And it had been the only beautiful thing Trixie had learned about the city. Nopony else even looked out of the window, everypony had to be asleep, because if a pony wasn't, they would be put in detention.

Small flakes of white were falling and she looked up to the sky she only knew to be covered with smog and smoke, the air nearly unbreathable. She had heard about the factories, how ponies had to wear masks and most workers didn't even make ten years there. Someday, if no family picked her up, she had to work there, too. Thinking about it made her feel sad, so she didn't dwell on it. What she thought about were snowponies and a clear sky. She smiled at the window. A single light gleamed in the middle of the room. Sugar High insisted on one being lit, just like Trixie insisted that when she had to leave the room at night another filly had to come with her. The light caused a reflection which Trixie, at that point, still enjoyed. Her coat was both brown and white, her mane part white, part black and her eyes were a shade of the darkest green. She had always loved her own appearance, since it reminded her of bother her parents. Her mother, who had always walked around with a mess of a black mane and her father whose white mane had always been adorned with ribbons of various colors. She could still spot most of her teeth in that reflection, too.

Within it she saw the door swing open and another filly entering. This one had a coat as white as the snow outside and a well combed, brownish blonde mane. Her unicorn horn had been taken off like Lyra's. The only filly here who wasn't an orphan. Oh, if Trixie would only have been able to remember her name.

She remembered how it went. The filly tip-toed across the room and seated herself beside Trixie, looking silently out of the window. There had been an air of grace about her, but her mane was dripping wet. She sometimes cleaned herself at night, both herself and her sheets and nopony but Trixie had noticed until now. It was this filly's secret, whyever Trixie had never quite understood, though it was probably for the same reason most ponies here kept secrets. For the fear of punishment.

They both sat like they did and for minutes, maybe even an hour, neither said anything.

"It's beautiful," the other filly whispered, then looked behind her, hoping not to have woken any other ponies.

"Uh huh," Trixie answered. That was the only thing that needed to be said at that moment. The world was covered in a beautiful white and this moment there would be engraved in her mind forever. That thought didn't need to be spoken out and both of them could just stare at the snow falling forever.

It would stop, Trixie still knew, but the moment was theirs.

The other filly then did something Trixie didn't remember. She turned around, her eyes a tone of cyan a normal pony couldn't possess and with a fierceness of old age in them the filly would not have believed to exist. They looked at each other but the silence lasted not a breath.

"Trixie Lulamoon, do not stop!" The voice belonged to the filly she remembered, but only for the first two words, then it drifted off and became something different, something new, a power with a will of its own.

You still have something to fight for!

And the second was gone, Trixie touched the ground, feeling a sharp pain in her mouth. Next time she wouldn't scream while falling, because biting her tongue hurt. Yet, she knew that she had to stand up. If not for anything else, then for the sole fact that magic still existed in this world and all her dreams would soon be answered. She hurled herself forward, only barely hearing a voice behind her, shouting: "Dammit, there's really more kids down here! GET THEM!"

Trixie heard them but she wasn't listening. She didn't know who this voice belonged to and the tone sounded dangerous, too. She didn't want to be caught, she wanted to be free and she wanted to see the Lunarium. The filly wouldn't stop and her friends didn't appear to slow down either. With a determination only a child could bring up they galloped farther and farther into the dark. The path was straight but still they had to watch where they were going, rocks and crystals were on the ground, some were pointy, some had edges. More than once Trixie felt a sudden sting and a sharp pain on her hooves. The path got narrower and narrower and then the light orb vanished, Trixie didn't even know why. Not until she fell, her feet slipping under her and herself being propelled onto her back.

With six different sounding 'AAAAAAAH's they went down a natural slide. Down and down they went until Lyra hit the ground and the others landed on her.

When they hit the ground this time, they didn't just stand up, because they were immediately sucked in by what they saw. They were all feeling like they had just woken up in a world filled with magic. The cave was monstrous with walls made of crystals and a glowing stream in it's middle. The sand they had landed on was the same as before, the moon sand as Trixie recalled it. There were a few holes in the walls and some of them could be reached through narrow paths a filly could easily climb. All were leading into the blackness again.

After a few moments Twilight said one thing and she was too astonished to cough: "Luna's garden."

Trixie had heard that story. How Princess Luna had build a garden beneath the castle for all the children in Canterlot to play in. A giant playcave, so to speak. Trixie, like any sane mare had believed it to be a myth since the entrance had never been found.  Yet they were here and–

"You're squashing me," Lyra whined and as Trixie looked down, she realized that they were still a heap of ponies and got up immediately. The others followed suit. Lyra then immediately spoke up again, "Anyway. . . This is just destiny. The first fillies in this garden since Luna left. We should totally play here!"

Octavia, wise as she was, shook her head, "We were just being hunted Lyra. I don't think we'd lose soldiers this easily."

Trixie took that moment to think about that. Being hunted by equestrian soldiers, but found only one thought to be appropriate for this kind of situation: We should keep running.

Twilight nodded, "I agree. We should follow this stream up. Then we should get further into the mountain and hopefully deeper down. That's the way to go."

If only they had some reassurance as to where exactly they were going, Trixie thought, but there was no time to question things. A noise came up from behind them, from the slide.

"Hide," Octavia said quickly and looked around, finding a formation of rocks to their left. They hurried in this direction, following the river down and jumped behind the rocks. They heard a thud, a cry of pain, clearly male.

"Storm, you buckin' idiot, watch where yer goin'!" A hoarse voice grumbled, coughing.

"Shut it, you dumb bastard. If it weren't for you they wouldn't have run. Really, I have better things to do than to friggin' chase after kids," a second voice said, a bit younger but the annoyance was overshadowed by the sound of expectation and enjoyment. "Or, actually no, I've got nothing better to do than chase kids."

"And shoot kids," a third voice then said, this one belonging to a female and she spoke the words in the same tone tone any other mare would have stated that yes, she had her hair just styled. A moment after that voice had spoken, the thud of this pony landing on the ground came. It was softer than the others.

The other two spoke up in unison: "Sarge!" with what sounded to be utter amazement.

"It wasn't that slippery, guys. You could practically walk down there."

No answer.

"Well sarge. . . Uhm, you don' need to come. We can find and kill them kids all on our own."

"What do you mean ki-. . . Storm, Black, why aren't there any corpses?"

"Uhm. . ." Both male voices seemed to be wondering exactly why, or at least they were thinking.

"They could be here and listen to us, you mules!" 'Sarge' exclaimed.

"Yup!" the voice with what Trixie thought to be a dumb accent said.

The came the sound a hoof made when it hit another pony's face. "You idiots! How're we supposed to lure them out now?"

"They're probably behind one of the rock groups," the other, younger said. Trixie knew what that meant. She hadn't spotted that many actual rocks in here. The others were all cowering.

"Wait here till they're gone," she whispered in a sudden turn of madness and leaned around.

The trio was made up of three ponies. The one with the rough voice she figured was the brown, small stallion with the strawhat and the very untidy looking Canterlot Guard uniform, the younger one looked not much cleaner but was tall and lanky, he had a white coat and the female was a black, elegant pony who had her uniform clean and even wore boots. Not many ponies could afford proper boots. What they all had were long bladed staffs that had guns atop of them. She hadn't really any idea about the equestrian military but she already knew she didn't want to be hit with one of those. Luckily, all three had turned towards a smaller group of rocks in the other direction, which Trixie figured meant they hadn't actually seen anything of them but the light of the orb.

She then moved both as quickly and quietly as possible. There was a third group of rocks that might've made an excellent hiding place, right on the other side of the small river. Her eyes were focused on the three, who themselves were trying to sneak up on the stones. One misstep and everything would be lost. Trixie stepped into the water, fully aware that if she moved too fast, or lift one hoof too high, even if she did it just once, could spell doom upon them all. Her movements were pretty graceful she thought, and the river, while wide, wasn't very deep. She took about half a minute to the other side, making no noise. The eyes of her friends were focused on her but none moved. That's good, she thought.

Not one single step produced a noise that would have given her away, she was a bit clumsy on normal occasions, but somehow it all worked out, as if an old friend was watching over her like a guardian angel. That's what she wanted to think, that and how there was a tower by the cliff, just waiting for her.

Reaching the other side she looked at the rocks and then at one of the holes, which lead into the blackness. She couldn't even tell whether it was a dead end or not. A smirk found its way to her face.

One step, another step, both very quiet. Then, just as she entered the hole she spotted a little rock in the corner of her eye and kicked it with a little force, the rock flew through the air and then hit a wall and the sound resonated through her ears. Suddenly, she felt the adrenaline rushing through her, her senses sharpening and regret kicking in. As the stone hit the wall the noise sounded like the hammering of a thousand drums to her, and it reached the three.

The mare called 'Sarge' reacted immediately and turned her staff towards Trixie. Without hesitation she let her hoof move over the gun and a split-second later the shot erupted with smoke and fire and Trixie's hat flew off her head, six holes in it. Trixie, while regretting what she had done immediately, only did one thing, the sane thing:

"THEY'RE ONTO US!" she yelled, "RUN!" and started galloping, hearing a voice behind her.

"Damn brats, after them!"

With a frightful shiver she picked up her fallen hat, before she galloped into the darkness, a smirk on her face. Her plan had worked out and for whatever reason she had decided to run into certain doom to leave her friends to find the Lunarium.

Why? She asked herself but found the answer long since engraved in her mind, ever since the night, the snow and the promise she had made.

This right there, right at that moment. This was all she could do to reach her goal. This was Trixie's might, Trixie's determination. If it meant to sacrifice herself to bring magic back, so it would be, but nopony Trixie called her friend would ever be hurt while Trixie was around and could do something about it.

Don't stop, the voice echoed through her head, You are on the right path.

Part 2: Chapter 2 ~ When You Hide (V2)

Just A Small Wound (Lyra I)

It was completely silent and neither Trixie nor the soldier ponies had returned. Lyra still couldn't believe it, how she had only been able to sit there and watch as Trixie went off on her own. The unicorn leaned against the rock and looked at the crystals around her, yet didn't look at them at all.

She had thought to bring joy to the other ponies and had found her magic in happy thoughts and laughter. At least, that's what she had thought but now, sitting here, she hadn't really done much. Not one joke had been cracked to lighten the mood, not once had she felt really giddy. Proud, yes. She had cast magic, that was an unbelievable thing and a great feeling but the reason why she had been able to summon that orb as it was was because she had wanted to make her friends a bit happier with it.

Her leg still itched, there where the scissors had scraped her. If there was a scar it was obscured by her fur. Yet, even though it was just a small wound she had felt it ever since she had regained both her identity as a unicorn and the powers that came with it. Luckily, it was only annoying and not really bothering her too much when she was walking. She let out a sigh and closed her eyes for a bit.

The sound of rushing water ran through her ears and the sand felt soft beneath her rear. She let the two frontlegs move in circles, imagining how she'd put fingers inside the sand, feeling the cold of the earth and then she'd move each of the eight and the thumbs, too. If you had hands, you needed them to have thumbs. Those were important.

A smile formed on her face and she remembered the first question she had ever asked Trixie: "If you're a wizard, then can you give me hands?"

Trixie had denied her that sweet thing, because magic had not existed. She would have never grown hands or walked on two feet. She had tried, once, twice, though. Standing went well enough for a bit of time, you could lean on things then. Walking was hard, it hurt her back and after but a few steps she'd always fall forward. Hugh had told her that ponies weren't meant to walk on just two legs, that's why they had four. And fingers weren't necessary for them, too. You could grab things just fine with hooves. Basically, ponies were fine as they were. Still Lyra had yearned for more.

She remembered the Celestial Hall and how she had sat there with her guardian when the celloist had gotten onto the stage and with a smile on his face, dedicated to somepony in the audience, began to play 'The Seapalace'. Lyra remembered her guardian, Tattletale, a light brown stallion with a blonde mane. She remembered how he had looked and had tried to enjoy it, despite everything. They had gotten the seats farthest away from the play, the ones where one could hardly hear anything and the ponies that had been seated before them just wouldn't stop talking. The two of them still tried to listen and soon enough, as the music reached its high and the orchestra started everything before them fell quiet. Everypony was looking at the stage with sheer awe and Lyra could only imagine what the celloist saw and felt in these moments. Waves of emotions as ponies felt what the lone seapony was struggling through and they all hoped for the story to have a happy ending.

She remembered widening her smile, so much that it hurt and turning around. Tattletale just sat there, his hooves covering his face, sobbing and crying. She looked at him and the music in the hall was exchanged with him saying one thing over and over again.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. . . "

He had died in the flames.

Poor Tattletale who had wanted to give Lyra a good home, poor Tattletale who had lost the mare he had loved and everything else that had made his life good, and poor Tattletale, who had called her filth and cut off her horn.

Poor Lyra, she thought, always looking for something that isn't there anymore.

The seapony had struggled, the seapony had yearned. Lyra had yearned, too. For how long she didn't remember but it was the seapony that inspired her to become proactive. She couldn't read but still she had asked everypony and had looked at every picture that could have hinted at the existence of humans and then she would draw pictures of them. Innocent things they had been and tiny, but important. Then, after a while, she had begun dreaming about them, being one of them and most importantly: Living in their world.

She had no concept what a world populated with humans looked like so she just imagined it like Equestria under the princesses, only in better.They would be ruled by the smartest men who only cared about making everyhuman happy and they could control the weather with mighty machines. In fact, they had machines for everything. For making food, for feeding the animals, for keeping the forests in good shape. Since humans were imaginative they would even do a better job with technology than ponydom. So good, that they probably wouldn't even know what pollution was, or racism. All the human parents loved their children, too, she thought. Nohuman was ever hurting anyhuman else and there was a day every summer where families would just go out. A mother with a sickenly sweet smile on one side, because life was just so good. A father on the other side, grown a bit fat because of the luxury and telling his wife how much he loved her and how he would never leave her or her child because of some differences in their skincolor. A child between them, her skin white as milk and her hair a pale blonde, wearing her finest summer dress and holding each of her parents tightly, not even thinking of letting them go.

"Don't worry," they said. "We love you. We will never leave you. Lyra. . . "

"Lyra!" She heard Twilight call. The Filly was leaning over her, her hoof touching the forehead of the cyan one. "What's wrong with you?" She asked. Lyra was amazed how scared Twilight appeared to be, but then it hit her again.

The poor pony was afraid of losing another friend, wasn't she?

"I-", she started, her gaze drifting to her left front leg. A dark spot had appeared faintly beneath her coat, she saw it, she felt it. "It's just a small wound, no biggie."

Lyra gave her best smile, "That and I'm a bit tired."

"We need to get going. Trixie. . . She knows what she's doing. She's smart and all," Octavia said from their side. She looked tired, too, if not more so than how Lyra felt.

The unicorn only knew that they now had one more reason to go to the Lunarium. If it would fix everything, then surely all this here too. Laughter would come back to the world and they would all be happy. That was what needed to happen, that was what they needed to make happen. This was Lyra's resolution now. She wanted everypony to be happy and for that matter, even if it meant sacrificing her own ability to smile, she would get to it. Being brave enough to do just that was what she decided to do.

Slowly she stood up. "Yeah;" Lyra said and looked to Twilight and gave her a smile, one she believed in herself. "We go on, Trixie's going to manage and if we find the Lunarium quick enough, maybe we can even help her."

That seemed enough for the little brown filly with the thin legs that could barely support her own weight and she nodded. Derpy offered Twily her help once more and their looks turned from where the river came.

Lyra already knew one thing, there was something she had gained while fighting Magia but she had lost it already. The feeling of hope, the faint magic she had felt. She knew the color of her coat was fading and the horn would soon disappear, she knew that the magic she had used was foul. She understood that now but somehow she also knew that that was just the reason to keep going.

She really would have liked a voice in her head to tell her where to go as she stepped forward, following the others. That thought lingered, just as the feeling of hopelessness did, yet it appeared again: The distant voice of something that waited.

Don't worry, no sacrifice will be forgotten and in the end, the laughter of the children will fill these caves once more.

Part 2: Chapter 3 ~ This Is Trixie's Might (V2)

I Dreamt Of Mommy And Daddy (Derpy I)

There was one dream she had. It wasn't the same every night and yet it was. The colors changed sometimes, different scenarios, too. There were times she dreamt of a brown stallion in a blue box showing her the face of the stars. Nebulae and planets, strange lifeforms and a million adventures with both despair and laughter filling their lives. There were other times where she dreamt of a village close to Canterlot. It was a place so crazy she would never have believed any of her dreams to be true, no matter how much she wanted them to be. She would almost always be the mailmare in this scenario, sending letters and muffins (especially those) to the ponyfolk, often getting them wrong. Sometimes she would live with an orange pony she called 'Carrot Top', sometimes 'Golden Harvest' and she would always eat everything in her fridge. There were times she dreamt of coming home after a day of work and opening the door to her apartment. It would be a small, dull thing with a kitchen, a bathroom, and a room to live in. Its walls were often painted grey and there was always something broken, often by her own mistake. It was a sad little place anypony would've gladly traded for something else.

Every time she opened that door, everytime she dreamt that version of her dream, though, she never thought it sad. Instead she would fly down to the house, get into it, greet the landlord and then open the door to her apartment, a little filly jumping at her and giving the grey pegasus with the funny eyes a warm embrace, laughing loudly while doing so and saying how this specific day was the best day ever. Derpy never got the reason why, because the filly talked too fast for her and she could only understand it if ponies were talking slow. All the ponies would eventually get irritated with her but this little filly would speak slow and say:

"Diamond Tiara said you were the worst mailmare ever and she and Silver Spoon are the worst bullies but Miss Cherilee stepped in and told them that my Mommy is one of the most important citizens of Ponyville and without her, the post would never find its way. This day is the greatest because Mommy is the greatest."

Nopony thought that Derpy was the greatest and she actually doubted she would make a good mother. Heck, even taking care of dolls was too hard for her, as evidenced by a sudden fire on the last Hearth's Warming Eve. Yet there stood the little unicorn filly and called her all that and more with a smile that told Derpy she was truly proud of her. She would always take the filly in her arms and hope that the moment would never go away. Derpy was wanted, needed, something they were proud of. There was despair in the dreams with the small town called Ponyville, but the laughter there was so bright and warm that she always yearned to return.

It was always the same dream, always such strange places and always something different and yet never changing. This time however was different, very different, because Derpy dreamt she was still in Canterlot and she never dreamt of Canterlot. She didn't want to be in Canterlot.

This time however she woke up in her own bed, the one with little rails – because she still fell out quite often – and the atrociously colorful bed linen. She opened her eyes there and looked out of the window, watching the red night outside. It felt weird.

"Rainy? Octy?" She called but nopony answered. "Lyra? Trixie?" She asked but there was nopony else in the room, so she got up. The other beds were torn up and the ground was dyed black with broken toys littered across it. The plush toys they had were there too, their white innards spread across the entire room. She tried not to step into anything, yet she was still a clumsy pony who couldn't do anything right and therefore with every step came a new cut, a new scar and new pain. She still continued, because there was only one road to take.

The filly then reached the hallway and looked across it. The ground was unsteady and everything seemed too big for little Derpy. She took a deep breath. "I can do this," the grey one told herself and took a step, the hoof landing steadily on the ground. A proud smile came unto her face as if she was successfully walking for the first time in her life. Then, she took another step, tripped over her own leg and then the world was spinning around her as she tumbled forward, hitting the rail of the stairs.

The next thing she knew was that everything came crashing down with loud banging and her cries were muffled by the rubble and the rocks, and she held her legs up to her face, to guard herself.

For a while there was nothing and as she let arms down she sat beneath a red sky with black clouds, thunder in the distance and Canterlot burning with ponies screaming. "Did I do this?" She asked. "But I didn't want-"

"Derpy," she heard a warm voice, a familiar voice. It belonged to Hugh and it was the sound of honey for a dream like this.

The little filly turned around, tears of happiness in her eyes. He had come, he would save her, he would rebuild everything once more, like he had done before Raindrops had come and he would be there for her and Mommy. Her uncle would be there for her when her real daddy wouldn't. He'd be her father again. She turned around and the laughter and the happiness of hers faded. Her eyes widened and she felt a horror like none before.

He had no fur, no skin and there was blood coming out of his eyes. He stood there, white on a black and red background and his mouth started moving, repeating the same five words, over and over again.

She couldn't take it anymore and turned away once more. She started running through the burning city and she heard the voices by her side.

"There she is-", they said.

"The one with the weird eyes-" The broken record continued.

The fillies and colts all pointed and laughed at her. Laughing at the pony with the funny eyes, the halfwit pegasus with no idea what was going.

"There she is-", they said.

And then all the voices changed and they repeated the one line, again and again. The one she feared most. It contained just five words.

She ran across the city until she reached the Canterlot Gardens. There she found the last pony. This one was tall and had a beautiful mane, one that looked so familiar.

"Mommy?" she asked.

The mare was turned with her back to Derpy and didn't budge as the filly's voice tore through the silence. Her head was held low and she was shaking all over. Derpy was surprised at this. Her mommy was strong. "What's wrong, Mommy?" she asked. Then, she asked again, taking a step forward. Now the mare's ears perked up. Once more Derpy asked and took another step towards her mother. That one now stood up and then she turned around.

Like her husband, she was but white without a coat or skin and her eyes were black abysses with blood gushing down her cheeks. Her left hoof went up to her neck and then her mouth started to move. At first there came no sounds, but then, slowly, yet steadily something was starting to build, a hoarse, tiny voice, growing stronger every time she finished the line. It became louder, more aggressive and harder to understand, like a beast's roar.

"What are you saying, Mommy?" Derpy asked, wanting to understand, wanting to hear.

Madame Hooves then spoke. She remembered the voice, the calm, soothing voice that was as sweet as honey and as soft as cotton. Teary eyed Derpy listened as the words were formed once more and the line was spoken, the dreaded five words that she had received before.

"It," a sweet mother's voice said.

"Is," an angry father's voice said.

"All," an old friend's voice said.

"Your," a strange doctor's voice said.

"FAULT!" The beast roared and extended its tendrils and fangs, clawing at Derpy and tearing off her wings. The pain rushed through her body both warm and cold and then the dark came. The silence and the dark and the monstrosity swallowed all the pieces that remained of Derpy Hooves.

Derpy opened her eyes wide. She didn't cry, she didn't whine, she didn't ask. All she did was opening her eyes and then she looked at the ceiling of the cave. Glimmering crystals greeted her and she felt that water was rushing down her lower half. Maybe for the better, she thought as she turned on her stomach, watching the side of the cave. She had somehow managed to roll more than four meters in her sleep, judging from where all the others lay. Derpy stood up, looking under herself. Her lower half was soaked but at least she was awake. Driven by thirst, she tried to step a bit more into the water but tripped over her own hindlegs and fell on her back, her entire body being submersed in the cold, clear wet.

She might've been unable to swim but luckily the river was very shallow, which meant almost no risk of drowning, even for her. She came up from the water and had all but forgotten the dream she had had, at least consciously. Her body was still stiff with fear. Derpy made a point out of ignoring that and stumbled towards the others.

They had walked forever after Trixie was gone. They had followed the river as long as their tiny ponylegs had been able to carry them, then Derpy had decided it had been enough and had simply let herself fall down, Raindrops had followed her example, but added some whining to her performance. Whining often did the trick with everypony. And it had worked, too. Not only that, but they had found the water drinkable, too.

It tasted like water with too much sugar in it and Twilight had suddenly announced that she knew that the rivers in the old Crystal Empire all were known to have had a fair sweet taste and smell to them. There were crystals all around them so they figured this was like those 'old' rivers up in the north.

Anyway, Derpy seated herself besides the other sleepyheads and just goggled at them. Madame Hooves had told her that she could watch her own kids sleep for hours. Everypony had a sleepface. Twilight looked mildly irritated, Derpy found, while Raindrops found herself with grin that showed her teeth. Octy was almost never moving and on only a few nights she would lift her hoof close to her mouth, sometimes going so far as to suck on it. The only thing about her was the grinding of teeth while she slept. Lyra never stopped moving and seemed scared of something, but Derpy just thought she misjudged that. She often did.

She had seen Trixie's sleepface back when they had all lived together. Trixie talked when she slept. Of a tower and never wanting to leave, of magic and finding something worth keeping again. Of course, Derpy had not quite understood any of that, but had still tried to be a good friend to Trixie.

After a while the others woke and they all got up and had a drink and did what else they had to do for morning hygiene. They prepared for setting out fairly quickly. Of course, there wasn't much to prepare, but Lyra found herself talking again quite from the start, Derpy and Octavia knocking themselves and each other into the river and Raindrops wanting to wait for Trixie again. Considering these things, they were fast, at least in Derpy's eyes and even if not, they found themselves moving up the river once more. Twilight leaned on Derpy again and had her eyes on the grey pegasus.

"You don't look like you slept well, Derpy," she said in a hollow ringing voice, breaking the silence that had until then surrounded everypony except Lyra. Derpy looked at her, she had bags under her reddened eyes and when she had taken a drink some had splashed across her face, sand was between her hair and coat and her legs were really thin, too. But they might have been that way forever. Despite all that, Derpy still thought she looked nice.

She giggled at the remark, though. "Actually, I dreamt of Mommy and Daddy!" Was what she told her friend.

"Oh, is that so," Twilight said, sadness ringing in her voice.

Derpy didn't care. Even though the details of the dream were fuzzy she remembered some things. She remembered her home, she remembered her parents and she remembered lots and lots of ponies around her. Those were good things and they made her smile.

Part 2: Chapter 4 ~ Only A Small Wound (V2)

Trixie Shall Become The Greatest Wizard The World Has Ever Seen (Trixie II)

She hadn't taken a hit. She wasn't stumbling. Breathing wasn't hard. She didn't need to take a rest.

"Where's that brat?" She didn't hear the voice behind her. She didn't hear because there was nopony there, because she had outrun those ponies.

Somehow she knew that wasn't the truth. She stumbled forward, through the darkness, alone, her hat with more holes in it than stars on it, her cape dirty and ragged. The left leg on her front was hurting every time she put pressure on it. She had looked down once and even though she couldn't see, she could feel that from hoof to knee it had been colored red. She didn't even really feel anything anymore. She felt half asleep as she nearly lost her balance. That and she didn't even know for how long she had been running. The only thing that stuck with her was that she had bumped into a wall once in a while and went around another corner. Up until this point, there had been no dead ends and the other ponies hadn't given up on finding her. She still heard one voice, not the one with accent, luckily, and not the sarge who hadn't hesitated to shoot her twice. She kinda hoped they had gone lost in this mess of a labyrinth.

Trixie knew she wouldn't find her own way back .There was always a faint hope that around the next corner her friends would wait and she kept the tears down just because of that. Somewhere deep down she knew, what it meant to run away from those things she wanted to cherish and protect. She had turned away from those things again and had just moved into the darkness.

That was when she stopped walking. In the middle of the blackness and tried to take it in. She felt the liquid dripping from her leg, she felt her eyes getting heavier and pain moving through her body. Such pain and she still wasn't able to cry. Trixie couldn't turn back, Trixie couldn't walk forward. In both cases she knew that she would find nothing. The end of her path was as black as the beginning. She understood that she had taken the wrong turn when she had decided to play the hero and she still wasn't able to cry. Instead the filly took one deep breath and moved onwards. Now, she was just one filly in the dark .

She didn't quite know whether she had gone blind or if it really was total blackness that ruled here. Maybe the filly should have been scared but she wasn't. Not really. The entire world but her drowned in the gloom, and an unending road she couldn't even see stretched out before her. Nothing more. The hunters, her friends, they were all gone now and the snows were falling once more.

"Tell me, what happened to your home?" The question of the filly rang through her head.

Her parents had been called Great Stars and Powerful Echo and they had been stage magicians. Everypony had said they had been bad but Trixie had seen their shows and they had always made her smile. The little filly remembered sitting there, grass blowing in the wind, the tower by the cliffs before her and her parents performing tricks for her. She had been amazed and bewildered, she had laughed and she had cried.

She remembered sitting beside her mother's bed and looking in her eyes, crying and saying that she shouldn't go. The mare smiled at her little daughter and told her: "I should be sorry for all those things I said to you. You have more talent in magic than both me and your father. You still have a life worth living and you still have something to fight for."

She remembered the sun vanishing beyond the horizon and her father sitting beside her. He put the cloak around Trixie and put the hat on her head. "Don't ever stop, daughter. You need to find the right path," he told her and went up the stairs. They creaked beneath each and every of his steps and Trixie looked at her mother.

"You need to wake up," she said. "He's going to hurt himself again if you leave now."

The creaking didn't stop and tears were running down Trixie's cheeks. "Trixie promises to be good," she said, saying her name to reassure her mother, "she'll be the best daughter you ever had, she'll be a great magician and everypony will like her shows and they will point and say that she is your daughter and, and..."

A door opened and then closed, and then Trixie remembered sitting alone in the room. She remembered sleeping, she remembered going to the bathroom a few times, but she would always go back and sit by the bed where her mother was. She stayed until the sun went up again and then vanished again. As it did, Trixie repeated the same words she had said last night. Certain spells only worked at certain times, her mother had told her. So she stayed for the same time again, finishing with the same words. Again and then again. On the sixth day she heard another door open and ponies entering.

Then, the summer snows were falling above Canterlot and she was in the orphanage with the filly by her side, the generous pony who had lent her her own new blanket, while she didn't even fuss about the cold. "You don't need to tell me," she said.

Trixie turned around and looked into those cyan eyes, "Who are you?" she asked.

"Why are you stopping, Trixie? You ran away for a reason, didn't you. Once when you realized that they would take you from the tower. The second time from the orphanage and the third time from the parents they chose for you. You ran away and then stayed somewhere else. Only you know why and you need to find the reason why. Trixe: Do not stop! Under no circumstance must you stop, ever! You are important, you are as important as everypony else on this journey and you might just be the one who does it. Stand up. . . I said, Stand. Up."

Trixe opened her eyes. She was lying on the ground and she felt the liquid on her leg. She didn't have much more time. The tiny piebald filly lifted herself up, slowly, as steadily as possible, which wasn't really that steady and then stumbled forwards once more.

She only closed her eyes for what she thought a split-second, but suddenly she saw lights, like stars, all around her, in the distance. Thousands of them. She turned around herself, trying grasp where she was, only seeing a million lights and not knowing where exactly she was. Then she stumbled forward again, her eyes looking down only once.

Her leg had turned blue beneath the red and all the other extremeties felt as if they belonged to another pony entirely. Still, her eyes shifted as she spotted on what she was walking. A small bridge in the middle of a starry sky, leading across some deep hole, where she was happy she couldn't grasp how deep down it went. The filly simply walked on, hoping that she would find something on the other side. A cliff, a tower, a bed with her mother in it, her father saying that she was his daughter. A friend would have been nice, too. A little pony whose parents ran an orphanage and who was called Rarity.

Crack, Crack, Crack!

"Hey, brat," she heard behind her and turned her head. The staff smacked her across face and she felt some teeth flying out of it. With the hit, her hat fell off and then slowly went down into the blackness. She just watched it and suddenly she was crying. He didn't care, instead knocking her down with the blunt part of his weapon. As she looked up again she could see who it was. Before her stood the tall and lanky pony and she could hardly make out an expression. The only thing she saw were his eyes, and they made him appear as scary as he was scared himself.

"I don't know why those things are down here, but they've already gotten Sarge and Apple. I'll kill you and any other brats I'll find on my way out and then I've got to tell both of their families," he said, panting. His uniform was torn and he looked wounded. "Aw, whatever, they're all probably dead and the two of them were bastards anyway. Well," he said and Trixie could swear he was smiling, "I'm going to enjoy this, at least. Any last words, little filly?" She could make out that he was pointing the gun at her.

She had told herself to run because she had a life worth living for, a life of her own that nopony else could control. It was given to her by her parents, alongside the hat and the cloak. They all belonged to her and she lived the life they never had managed to attain.

She groaned. The pain was sharp, but she wasn't going to break. Between sobs and tears, the pain and the sadness, the fear and the anger she was answering him and Rarity and herself. She answered them the one question, the one that was important to her, the one singular most important question that she had known until this moment and the one she had never known the answer for.

The question why she was still running.

"Trixie shall become the greatest wizard the world has ever seen!"

She yelled it out and assembled all her strength. With one swift motion she jumped to the side, to where the darkness awaited and then she rolled off the edge. She heard the shot, maybe felt it. Maybe it was nothing but a scratch, maybe she was already dead. Still, she was feeling the wind as she fell. Down and down and deeper down, still. She couldn't find the strength to blink or to move as she took a dive head first into the blackness. She went past her hat, which had now so many holes in it it was barely recognizable. Above her, the outcry of the soldier shattered the silence as the nightmarish beasts descended upon him. Trixie wasn't content with it. Instead she had already hoped that he would make it out of here. Not that it mattered now. She suddenly felt a sharp pain going through her body as she hit the ground and everything turned black.

Part 2: Chapter 6 ~ Trixie Shall Become The Greatest Wizard The World Has Ever Seen (V2)

I Always Wanted To Play The Cello (Octavia II)

Normally, when Octavia dreamt, it was of better days. She would dream of her parents, her friends and herself going to see her grandfather in the Celestial Hall. They would all sit down in the front row and wait for him to appear. The hall itself was filled with ponies and noise. Laughter and happiness knew no bounds in her dreams. Lyra made funny faces and jumped up and down on her seat and Madame Hooves told her to sit down properly with but a glance. Octavia noticed this, but her focus was somewhere else. She was on the edge of her own seat, her tiny hooves shaking with excitement. It had been so long since the fire in her dreams and since her grandfather had left this world but he had come back just to fill this hall with his magic again. Then she saw somepony stepping on the stage.

The first time they had slept the dream had changed. The pony who moved into the limelight was the most graceful mare Octavia had ever seen. Her coat was of a goldish gray, her hair dark grey with a lighter tint and her eyes were as violet as mulberries. Her face was a rock in front of the people and she looked over the many ponies with a cold expression, as if she didn't even care about them. Still her presence was undeniable the center of attention now and with every second passed the quiet settled itself in more and more. Then the other bandmembers appeared on the stage. The pianist laughed at a joke told off-stage, the brass-player tried to stop herself from giggling and the harpist seemed more nervous than anything. They all positioned themselves at their respective instruments. But what did the graceful one play?

As Octavia looked again she found the mare putting the bow to the strings of her cello and her eyes were fixated on the instrument and even though her face was cold Octavia could see the shining in her eyes. The glitter of nostalgia and happiness. She wondered who that mare was and then she blinked.

The mare took a deep breath and looked over all the ponies in the hall again. Tonight, music would fill these halls once more. She nodded to her compatriots and then she pulled the bow across the strings. As the first sound came the filly had woken up again.

Then the nightmares came, the burning hall, her parents laughing in her face while leaving the little filly in the greenish rain that hurt her eyes and every time she woke up scared and screaming. Once she even dreamt of Rainbow Dash and how she had left her in their hideout. She had told Rainbow Dash that she was safe, that somepony would come to safe her. She would keep her promise and come back and then she would always run to the castle. However, in the dream there was always a gunshot in the distance and within the realm of fantasies Rainbow Dash had died. She surely did make it, they only came to use their guns against ponies who were able to see and the pegasus was blind.

As they all lay on the bed of flowers Octavia dreamt a different dream, however.

This time they both sat in the ruins, on the stage where the curtains had long since turned to ashes. She felt so small beside the graceful mare. A tea-set stood between them and with one elegant movement the mare lifted one cup up to drink from it.

"I always wanted to play the cello when I was younger," she said that with a voice full of longing and melancholy. "When my grandfather died they forgot about him, too, you know? They all left him while his body was still warm and the instrument was left in the corner to gather dust. I looked at it every day until I picked it up and began to pluck its strings."

Her gaze went over to the little filly, the one who had started grinning. "I did that, too. Sad thing is, they kicked me out of my house for it," said Octavia, lowering her ears. "Did you find it, the magic in the notes?"

The two Octavias looked at each other and the older one started to laugh out loud, a different laugh, not at all elegant and classy but instead more like a childish, snorting one. They were of the same age a moment later and one simply pointed at her cutie mark.

Octavia looked at it.

"There is a magic in music," the other muttered. . .

And then she woke, amidst blue flowers that only scholars would be able to identify. The crystals above them gleamed with a pale light, like stars, and she felt the warmth of her friends all around her. There was no song here but the tranquil breathing and occasional snore. Octavia felt a certain tranquility but she had slept so well that she couldn't even close her eyes now. The whole world around her just seemed perfect at that point. She looked at the crystals above her and wondered if all this had really been designed by the alicorns, the old statue was the most certain prove but one could only make out that it had once been an equine. There was no more information to be found there.

Octavia stood up, looking over her friends, all of them still asleep. She smiled slightly as she started tiptoeing towards the lake. The little filly looked at the water, which was so clear that she could make out her reflection in the water. A grey filly with black mane and brown eyes, the smallest of the group and also the eldest. She looked at her reflection and then closed her eyes, as she opened them the mare looked back at her, but only for the blink of an eye.

She stared at her own reflection for a few more moments and thought back to Rainbow Dash, the filly whom she had left behind. She had lied to her, told her that everything would be fine, just to give her the kindness of hope.

She smiled. Even if Canterlot was gone, maybe Rainbow Dash had fallen asleep still clinging to the faint hope of that stupid other filly coming back. Maybe, because of that hope, she died with newfound strength. Who knew?

As she turned around the others were stirring. Twilight, though she had eaten quite a bit herself, still relied on her friends to help her up. Her sickness wouldn't be cured by food, sadly enough. Derpy seemed to be back to the unconditional smiling and Raindrops just took a moment to breathe before she, too, rose up. The last to get up however was Lyra. On her first try she screamed out in pain and Octavia immediately hurried towards her.

The green fur she had was falling off where the black spot was and the veins on her lower leg were going black, too.

"Lyra," Octavia started, but didn't continue. She just looked at Lyra who gave her a smile so wide it looked like it hurt her more than the leg.

"It's fine. Just blacked out for a second," the unicorn said with a small giggle.

Octavia took a moment, before her face and hoof met. Why now with the puns?

She couldn't help but smile, though. Lyra was still there and still as weird as ever, and nothing would hopefully ever change that. So Octavia stretched out her hoof towards her friend. "Come on, maybe some water will help."

Lyra looked at it, away and back at it again before she grabbed it and let herself be led towards the lake.

Crack

The water felt cool against her coat, but she didn't really care. Instead she took Lyra's hoof and stroke slowly over the black spot on her leg. The wetness did little for the thing itself but the face of the unicorn softened during the washing, so maybe it did help, after all. Octavia looked to Twilight for help at one point but all the other filly could do was look worriedly. Octavia didn't blame her for it. There was no way for any of them to know what exactly that black spot was or how to treat it. Water would do for now.

Crack

"Did you ponies hear that?" Derpy suddenly asked and they all peaked their ears. Nothing, absolutely nothing. Lyra shrugged and tried to stand on all four again, after a few seconds she brightened up.

"The water worked! I don't know how but it did it, the pain's gone. Whoopie!" Lyra laughed and jumped and hopped out of the water towards her friends. Octavia just smiled, since she still felt a bit tired after all. Despite that however, she decided to move back to where her friends sat. Next they needed to discuss where to go from here.

Crack

The sound echoed through the cave and all the ponies immediately guarded their ears. The sound of bones breaking and the sound of sawblades cutting through steel, creating a cacaphony of despair and fear. They all looked the way they had come, from where the sounds came and they heard that the beasts walked towars them. They heard and then they saw as the things emerged from the dark.

They wore their coats like the night sky, walked on two cloved feet, while their hands had sawlike fingers and their heads were horse skulls with one eye gleaming red while from the other a black liquid oozed. Their upper bodies were made of bones with loose flesh hanging from it and a blackness came with them into the cave, a blackness with claws and teeth and everything terrible in the world.

I always wanted to play the cello, Octavia thought, because that was the only way to keep my grandfather alive in this unfogiving world.

She was scared to death.

"Never forget who you are," he had told her a long time ago.

The creatures moved forward and they all hid behind her.

"There is a magic in music," the other one had said and Rainbow Dash was still waiting beneath the rubble of a dead city. . .

Wait.

That was the moment Octavia's eyes opened for the first time and the nightmarish creatures stopped in their tracks. That was the moment she realized what exactly she had told Rainbow Dash. She had told her what she had wanted to believe, no what she truly believed. Something simple, something innocent. She believed that because the filly with the many colored mane was her friend still, and she had made a promise which she intended to keep.

That was the moment the voice started to echo through her head.

That's it! Now you can do it.

The others looked at her in wonder at that moment.

"Octavia. . . You. . . You got a mark on your flank," was all Twilight could say and Octavia turned around at that very moment.

"Trust me and follow my lead, okay?" She asked, having found it, the flicker, the fire. She had something to fight for and by the Alicorns, she would fight.

The creatures screamed and leaped forwards and the darkness swirled all around them, intending to swallow them whole. Octavia didn't wait; that time was over. She wasn't scared anymore, she wasn't going to hide away anymore. She knew they were safe because they were on the right path and this was the moment she would take a dive.

Immediately she turned towards the lake and galloped, her friends didn't wait and did the same. As Octavia jumped, they jumped, too. The last glimpse she took was at her own reflection. At the dark grey mane with lighter tints in it and the mulberry eyes. There was still magic in this world. In music, in poetry and song. But magic was something else entirely. Magic was trust and hope and honesty.

The water swallowed them but the darkness never stopped clawing as the Night Terror tried to tear its worst enemy apart. The water went into a swirl but Octavia swam, down and deeper down. Only once she looked behind her and the others were following. Twilight clinging to Derpy who sank like a rock, Lyra actually swimming and Raindrops having a look of determination in her eyes.

None of them were scared. Trixie had sacrificed herself, Rainbow Dash was still waiting and the Lunarium was getting closer. They could do this. Yet the darkness started to surround them more and more and the strength was slowly leaving her arms. The current was slowly pushing them up again and suddenly it was gone. The strength, the force, everything as darkness overtook them and Magia's distant laughter became the last thing they would hear.

Her parents had looked at her in disdain back then. . .

And then Octavia cried something out, into the water, something nopony could hear but herself and suddenly there was a light and the rock beneath them was cracking. One moment later they were falling. They, the water and the stones. They were falling out of the darkness and into a different plain entirely. Beneath them was no ground but what looked like the nightsky. A sea of billion stars, going on eternally.

Everypony was screaming, everypony but Octavia who simply went in head first.

"Trust me!" She yelled, "We'll make this!"

The wind was moving against her and she didn't know whether or not everypony had heard her. She hoped they had. She really hoped. Then she felt somepony tipping on her shoulder and looked to her side where Derpy was reaching for her hoof. She took it. The grey pegasus held her and Twilight, while Raindrops held Lyra in both her frontlegs.

"Into there?" Derpy asked loudly.

"Yes! We need to go deeper!" Twilight yelled back and for the first time Octavia felt what a nose-dive was. She felt the wind blowing her hair back as she held as strong as possible unto Derpy and the sea of stars was getting closer still. She didn't even look back at what Magia and its beasts were doing.

She knew that they were only a few steps away now. As the stars grew bigger she couldn't help but laugh.

Just you wait, RD. I'll fix this world and there will be songs all around us and our dreams will be fulfilled. I swear it. The thoughts ran through her head as they went down into another lake. This time, as they blacked out they were surrounded by the light of the stars and the feeling that somepony was watching over their sleep.

Part 2: Chapter 7 ~ I'm So Scared (V2)

The Nameless Horrors That Shouldn't Be (Derpy II)

Don't stop now. Wake up!

The voice rang through her head. That was all it took, and a split second after they landed in the sea of stars, closing their eyes to rest, they immediately threw them open again, because it wasn't over yet. She was beneath the water, this time Octavia helped both her and Twilight up. This was one of those times where she regretted never having learned to swim.

They said after you ate you couldn't do it for an hour and somehow Derpy had always managed to eat something and then after an hour she had eaten another thing and therefore never even touched water deep enough to swim in. Still, she didn't curse her love for food or muffins, because muffins were worth most sacrifices. Though that sentiment appeared to be rather problematic at this very moment, it didn't come to matter much as they emerged from the water. Twilight immediately stated the obvious.

"It's another cave. Look, there's more crystals in the ceiling."

Derpy did as she was told and there really were a lot of crystals up in the sky, glowing in a strange, faint light. There also was a darkness, spreading from the hole they had just jumped through, swallowing one light after the other. They had escaped that thing for now, but it was still coming. Derpy looked at Octavia.

She looked different, not only her eye color but also a tint in her hair and something else. "That's a beautiful necklace," the grey pegasus said with a bit of a grin.

Octavia looked at her friend wondering, before she turned her eyes downwards and stared right at the thing that had appeared around her neck. It was gold with a gem shaped like a treble clef at its front. Really, Derpy found it very beautiful. The earth pony decided to ignore it, though, and looked around. That was when Derpy spotted Raindrops and Lyra, too. There was a quick exchange which ended in them agreeing that everypony was fine.

"We're in the middle of a lake in a cave we don't know the size of, and for some reason I don't think Magia isn't going to give up now," Twilight said, worriedly looking at the eerie blackness that spread out far above them. Derpy looked left and right then, not finding any land in sight.

"We're stuck," she said holding onto her friends so she wouldn't drown. Flying was out of question now with her wings wet, too. Because if everything could go wrong, it would.

"Actually," Lyra corrected her, "Look behind us."

They all turned to find a small patch of land leading to the exit just a few meters away from them.

"How convenient," Octavia quipped.

"Yup, first time I have to congratulate whoever designed this place," Lyra threw back with a laughter as they started moving towards it. Derpy had to agree, especially after that unnecessary long walk by the river. Still, as they reached the ground the ugly cracking began again, far above them, heralding the vile beast's wish to do bad things to them. Derpy understood that much and really, she didn't want to know much more. By this point getting closer to the Lunarium just meant getting closer to home once more. That's what she had to tell herself now.

They didn't waste much time and instead Derpy just helped Twilight out of the water, and they moved into the dark corridors of this hall, Lyra immediately lighting up another orb. Such a simple spell, yet it was probably the most useful thing they had. Derpy found that was only because of a lack of muffins, though. These things made everything easier in her opinion. Still, there wasn't much time to think on that as they hurried through another blackness.

Derpy noted for herself that the only difference between this one and the other had to be that you could actually hear and feel that something bad was happening all around you. All that, despite them being in just a dark corridor with nothing in it. The pegasus still tried to keep her act together. She was utterly terrified of being in the dark. Mainly because the other fillies in the neighbourhood had told her that Madame Hooves had lost her voice in the darkness. Really, she didn't feel like losing her voice. It was a wonderful voice and both her mommy and daddy were proud of it. She was glad to have Twilight by her side, that made everything so much easier.

As they walked through the blackness, though. She felt fear creeping up to her. Derpy needed something to kill the silence with, something good to talk about. "What were those things?" She asked and immediately regretted it.

"Well. . . I read stories about things coming with the Night Terrors. 'The nameless horrors that shouldn't be', they were called in one story and another called them 'shadows of a greater threat'. I think, they're the candy clouds from before," Twilight told her friend between breaths.

Lyra looked over her shoulder. In the light her aquamarine coat looked wonderful and she too had a golden necklace. "I liked them better when they had moustaches. They looked tasty then, now they're just icky." The aquamarine filly with the golden harp on her flank shuddered as she said that. Derpy felt inclined to agree with her, too. They were icky.

Then came the long silence and Twilight looked at Octavia, whose rump presented the same symbol as her necklace. "Tavi?" she asked.

"Yes Twilight?"

"That amulet you have there. . . I think, that's the one that belongs to the Element of Honesty." She said. There was a long pause.

"Well, Lyra and Derpy are wearing those, too." Octavia answered with matter of factly.

"Yeah, I noticed when we were falling," Lyra said. "I mean- Wait, Derpy?"

Everypony stopped and looked at the grey pegasus, who just stared in utter amazement at them. "What?" She asked and Twilight leaned a bit away from her.

"You even got a Cutie Mark. . ." The brown filly said utterly amazed.

"What does that mean?" Raindrops suddenly threw in. It was the one question everypony was asking themselves now.

"It probably means we're getting closer to the Lunarium. I've been hearing a new voice in my head, too." Twilight answered

Lyra threw her hooves in the air,"Uuuh, I heard a voice, too!"

"Me, too," Raindrops said and Derpy just stared in silent confusion, "A nice one, too!"

"That hopefully means we're on the right way. This is going better than I anticipated," Octavia told them and that was when the horrible noise appeared behind them again. A sudden screech, a cry of pain that made everypony yelp and frightened Derpy so much that she immediately sat down, since comfort and feeling safe were pretty close to the same thing to her.

There was a moment of complete silence and then the sound of rock cracking came.

"Did you hear that?" Twilight asked.

"Hear what?" Octavia replied.

Once more.

Everypony stared at Derpy who stood up and looked beneath her and the crack widened.

"What did you do?" Octavia asked terrified, as the crack reached the wall.

"I don't know," was all the answer she got and then the screeching came once more and the crack widened quicker, going up the wall, with small rocks breaking out of it. That was when Twilight's eyes widened in realization.

"Run!" she screamed and suddenly everypony found new, yet unused strength in their legs as they hurried down the corridor with the tunnel collapsing behind them. All but Twilight, who had immediately been grabbed by the pegasus and was carried on the back. Derpy didn't even know what exactly was going on, only that it was bad and that she had to get her friend out of here safely.

"What did you do, Derpy?" Raindrops screamed as they hurried through the darkness, everything falling down behind them.

Derpy only had one answer, the one sure answer. "I just don't know what went wrong!"

The moment she finished that sentence the corridor suddenly became wide as a room and the collapse stopped just with the tunnel, leaving the larger cave. Derpy was breathing heavily, trying to figure out just what had happened and what she had done wrong. She leaned down and Twilight got off her friend's back, shaken but otherwise as well as she was before. Derpy half figured everypony to be mad at her but found herself suddenly hugged by Lyra.

"You brilliant pony," the filly said with bright happiness, "now those things will never get to us."

The grey pegasus with the golden eyes and blonde mane found herself blinking, but the warmth sank in and a smile formed on her face. Bubbles she had for a Cutie Mark and her hooves felt that there was water in this cave once more, but only a little. Still, she had done something right, even though she hadn't intended to do anything. That alone meant the world to her.

As Lyra stopped her hugging Derpy was immediately embraced by Twilight. "Thanks," she said, "I don't think I could've outrun that on my own."

"It's no problem. Anypony would've done the same."

"I don't think so Derpy," Twilight told her, "I think that was very kind of you. Really. Thank you. . . Thank you." She said and was in tears now. Derpy didn't quite get it but decided to hug her back. That was the right thing to do. As long as her friends were happy, she was happy and that was all there was to it.

Part 2: Chapter 8 ~ I Always Wanted To Play The Cello (V2)

I Dream Of Music And Magic (Lyra II)

The caverns were filled with water. No matter where they turned, they never found a dry space. Not that anypony was complaining, the chase had woken them all up well enough and nopony felt like complaining about anything right now. Not even Lyra and she had every reason to. The moment those creatures had shown up her leg had started throbbing. The small spot, which hadn't acted up at all when the water had touched it was hurting more and more, she couldn't even put a bit of pressure on the leg without the pain making her want to scream out.

They had gone through the caverns, seeking to go deeper, but Lyra didn't find the concentration to cast another spell. On the other side of the collapsed tunnel a faint whisper could be heard. The one thing they had done was to move away from the noise and then they sat in a circle, the water touching their coats. They tried to pay as little attention to it as possible, instead keeping their ears perked.

"Not quite how I expected our first camping trip to go," Lyra tried to jokeafter a while and much to her own surprise, Octavia giggled at that. Raindrops and Derpy soon joined in, Twilight, too. Lyra just looked at them detached. Somehow she had forgotten how to laugh.  "I wanna go home."

"I don't," Twilight said bluntly. "It's scary, yet. . . We're going to save world. All of this is just one big adventure, like I never thought I'd have. Being the hero is super." The darkness was all around them but Lyra heard the sound in her voice, the faint sadness, the longing for something else, she could hear that there was truth in the words but also lies. "The only thing I ever had was books. I just read, and I think I hate books. I don't want to read about fantastic stuff, I wanna see it, touch it, live it."

"This here is better than the Dark. Sure, those things are horrible but we're together in this and that's wonderful," she heard Raindrops suddenly chime in, in quiet manner. "It wouldn't be if any of you weren't here, though."

Derpy agreed, "And if we'll stay together everything will turn out alright." Lyra heard the laughter, the heartwarming laughter of her friend.

She looked at the ground, at the blackness, felt the water. "I don't remember my parents," she said after the others shared a few happy moments. "I lived with uncle Tattletale. He could spin a story like no other but he only ever told me one story, every night. How he had met his special somepony. She was gone by the time I came into his life and he said that a unicorn was a filthy, luckless thing and that I would keep her away. So he tried to make me an earth pony. He proudly proclaimed me his niece once my horn was off, but still hated me and whenever somepony would find out that I wasn't what he said I was he would go on about how my parents had been bad ponies and I had been their punishment. He said I was responsible for why they're gone. I didn't even know them, but Tattletale said that nopony in their right mind would ever love a unicorn.

"When the Celestial Hall burned down he was beaten up in an alley near it and as the flames spread they reached him. They told me that and I ran, Celestia knows I ran. He had tolerated me, a unicorn, when even my parents had left because of it. He loved me and he took my horn because he did and stil I ran, not even knowing to where I would go."

The unicorn had no idea why she said all that but she felt the water running ever so slowly and the pain in her leg felt like it grew.

"Hugh and Madame never hurt me, they never beat me and they never did anything but smile and work for us. I want to believe that what we're doing is right, but they are up there and we are down here."

She felt a hoof on her shoulder. "Don't worry, it's as Derpy said," she heard Tavi's voice. "We'll make everything right and then we're going home and there'll be muffins."

The pain was hurting enough that she knew she couldn't stand for a while. "Thanks, Tavi. It means a lot," she said.

Lyra Heartstrings had always looked for a family and found it in this small group, or at least that's what she thought at this moment. Her coat was white and her mane of pale color. She looked at the world with eyes of a dark gold and found it so sad that at this moment, darkness was all around them and she couldn't see her friends at all.

"The Seapalace, your grandfather played that, right?" she then asked.

Tavi sounded taken aback, she could tell, "What? How do you know?"

"It's just. . . I was there and I guess I took something from it. There's magic in music, right? It can spread laughter and if music reaches all the corners of the world again, then harmony is truly restored, right?"

"That's how the tale goes," Octavia said, her voice hushed.

"I'm sorry," Lyra felt her own voice failing. She felt the pain in her leg and only now started to grasp it. There was a silence that would've been deemed awkward by any other pony but Lyra listened and the faint roaring had disappeared, the voices of the Night Terror and its minions had vanished. She knew why. "The river flows past me, south. I think we can bet that the Lunarium will be there. We should go."

"Really, you think?" Twilight asked and Lyra then knew that everypony was standing up and started moving, though only carefully. They still wouldn't look back, would they?

"Lyra, you coming?"

"I don't think I can," she said and tried to smile. For whom, she did not know.

There was no movement around her. "What do you mean?" Derpy asked, "Do you need help?" She was kind as always.

The whisper started in her head. "I want to sleep and dream of music and magic, Derpy. Just let me take a nap here."

Then she felt a spark as Twilight used her own bit of magic. She heard her grunt and she heard the magic spark but in her own eyes, nothing happened. Sure enough, Twilight wasn't a wizard. Lyra was a wizard now. Wizards could make anything possible, normal ponies couldn't.

She heard gasps around her but didn't understand why. Everything was dark around them still.

"Lyra?" Twilight asked.

"Yes?"

"Are you really feeling sleepy?"

"A bit. I'll just take a small nap, catch up to you later. You ponies go on."

"Lyra. . ." Twilight seemed to struggle for the next words. "Is there anything I can do for you?"

She thought about that for a moment, the pain growing, the whisper echoing through her head. "If you reach the Lunarium before I can catch up. . . Could you bring the laughter back? Tattletale cried when I last saw him and he probably cried when I left, he's still alright, burned maybe, but alright. Everypony can laugh at jokes but there's always something missing. I want that to come back, there's just as much good in laughter as in honesty or kindness."

"Lyra," she heard her friend say and then felt herself pulled into a hug. At first she only felt Twilight's arms around her, then the ones from the others.

Kill them.

They all hugged her, embracing her with such warmth it felt truly wonderful. She knew the feeling of every arm around her. She felt Twilight, who had so little strength in her little legs. She felt Octavia, who in turn was so strong and fierce she could've easily lifted Lyra up on the spot. She felt Derpy who hugged her so tightly it nearly stopped her from breathing and she felt Raindrops who smelled of fields and knew songs older than all of them together were. She couldn't help but smile. There was a whisper in her ears and in her head, though. It told her to do things.

Slaughter them, butcher them.

It told her those things with such bitter anger and dark terror. Lyra felt the embraces leaving her and with them the warmth of her own body. Was her time running out already? She heard the distant voices of ponies she had once known and the memory of life was slowly fading from her grasp. She sat there in the darkness, suddenly on her own, with everypony having left. Poor Lyra, she thought, always losing all the things she loves. And she felt her heartbeat, steady and normal. Then even it grew fainter and fainter as the pain from her leg took over her entire body and then every bit of feeling vanished. First from her hooves, then her arms and legs, her tail, her body, her neck and then her head stopped working.

Lyra Heartstrings laid on the floor as the black liquid was oozing from her mouth, eyes and ears. She had stopped breathing and her body was unmoving, until a faint green light found itself in her eyes. A poisonous thing that let her body twitch in ways terrifying to behold. The dead body stood up and turned around to where the filly's friends had run. The beast opened its mouth and more of the liquid splattered across the water. Then it let out it's terrible shriek.

Lyra was gone but she dreamt once more of magic, music and two ponies holding her hooves, telling her that they loved her.

Part 2: Chapter 9 ~ The Nameless Horrors That Shouldn't Be (V2)

I Will See You Again (Raindrops III)

The lands were green, she remembered. The grass was always wet in the morning and tasted so fresh, so good that her mother would always weep. And there was so much of it. From the Windswept Mountains where the gryphon lords held court to the great ocean where on the other side Equestria existed the land was made up only of grass. Lush green hills and great fields of it and during the spring and summer seasons the flowers were all over these fields. The land turned into a rainbow field, leaving a sight to behold when one flew over it. The flowers looked so neatly lined up from above that it seemed almost unnatural. Still, it was the most beautiful sight she had known and nopony would waste it.

A long, long time ago the pegasi had called this place home, when magic still ruled the world and the Equestrian Unification was still centuries away. This had been their kingdom, the vast rainbow fields with a country in the clouds above. That was right, back then the pegasi still lived in houses made of clouds. They had lived there, their numbers beyond count and never knew about earth ponies or unicorns. They knew little of the creatures who dwelt on the land and hardly bothered. They were warriors and the only other people who could satisfy their taste for battle were the folk who called the rough peaks of the Windswept Mountains their home. The gryphons. They were organized in great houses, even back then. Families old and powerful with many retainers. They believed in the honesty of war and the weight of the spoken word more than anything. Ever since the fall of magic, little had changed and even though most pegasi had long since left for the milder climate of Equestria the ones that remained had fallen under the protection of their old enemies, or war buddies, whichever description you'd rather take.

One group had always remained in the fields, even after magic ended and the clouds dispersed and even the pegasi became bound to rock and dirt and fields of grass. One group of pegasi had roamed the fields for centuries, hoping that one day the old order would be restored and they could live in the sky once more, have mock battles with the gryphons in honour of the wars of the past and shape the clouds as they wanted them to be. They were a lone tribe that was shrouded in myth and legend.

On a field of grass, lying beneath the stars she told her child that. The filly stared wide-eyed at her mother, not really understanding, but still seeing how grand it all was. She asked if they were that group and her mother answered: "Yes, we're always that group and one day, our roaming ends and we will sleep in beds of clouds again."

She had liked that idea, just like the thought that her mother would always stand by her side and nopony would ever think about hurting her. She had laughed much back then. Old Stone Heart would always look at her with an angry expression, she never liked a pony laughing. The filly would also always play with Forest Mist, who'd always have a new idea up his sleeve.

"Good, you've grown again," he said, "Now you're a filly big enough for this one game I know. . ." And then he would smile and she would smile, because she was had grown and he would play big filly games with her.

Passion always looked sad, though, the others called her 'Slimy Git', a liar and a thief and she always swore, even though saying hurtful things hurt her more than those she directed the words against. The filly knew that from her father and decided that she could like Passion well enough, she never hurt her and that was good.

She always smiled back then and one day, beneath the stars her father looked at her and told her: "We will sell you to one of the gryphon slavers. With the money, we can go to Equestria and make a new life for us."

And they had called her ugly and a disease for the group but the filly didn't understand. Suddenly they were throwing rocks and suddenly they were all hating her and she could only cry. So she hid beneath a rock and her father looked at her one last time, his eyes full of hate and sadness. "Don't you even think about coming out there. We'll sell you for our own benefit," he spat at her.

She saw the tears on his face as he burned and the songs he had sung so often rang through her head as the one-eyed gryphon lord's underlings set her family on fire. Under her rock she lay and quietly sang to herself a song to beat the sound of burning ponies.

With wings of light

On wings of night

We beat against the sky

And our songs will never die

As Pegasi we reach out

To scatter all the fears

To bring out all the joy

As we sing through our tears

Of the skies we conquered

On wings of light

With wings of night

We beat against the sky

Heaven will hear us cry

As our wings swing about

We scatter around the clouds

To cry out loud

For we are the biggest crowd

That ever conquered the skies

On wings

Of light

With wings

Of night

She was crying then and the flames flickered around her and the gryphon girl looked under the rock and saw her.

"I'll get ya outta here," she had said but the filly didn't remember, she didn't know why she was there to begin with. Some other filly's parents had burned to a horrible, horrible death but she was still alive, wasn't she? She hadn't even been there. Instead she had been with the gryphon. The one with the white feathers, the brown fur and the black beak.

"What're ya called?" The gryphon had asked and the pony looked to the sky. It was nighttime but no stars were around, she remembered now. Not even the moon dared to show itself that night, only clouds of a darkest black. She closed her eyes and leaned on the gryphon who carried her, her wings beating against the cold wind.

"Raindrops," she said and let them wash over her face. Another filly had died beneath the rock that day, had been horribly burned beside her parents, but she was still together with them and their songs beat the silence of death with the happiness of the great lives lived.

Then Raindrops woke up, shaking heavily. "Urgh," she exclaimed loudly.

She closed her eyes and opened them as the world stopped moving around her and she looked into the golden eyes of a white filly. "Lyra?" she asked carefully.

"Get up sleepyhead, we're going to the museum!"

The water went to their knees, which was one single blessing. The loud roar of the beast behind them wasn't. She really hadn't understood why they had left Lyra behind but they had run. The shriek that had filled the cave seconds later had felt even worse than the ones before. It hadn't just been the shriek, it had been a voice.Raindrops had known it and even though Derpy had wanted to turn around, Twilight had told her not, too. The unicorn was clenching her teeth and tears were falling from her eyes.

Raindrops didn't get it, she really didn't get it. She wanted to, but she couldn't.

They hurried through the caves, following the stream, which grew stronger and stronger. That was good, the filly thought and they went on quick hooves, closer to wherever their target was. Maybe a better tomorrow, maybe a better world. Twilight lit the way, although the orb she had produced was smaller and flickered more than Lyra's had. Still, there was no time to complain, no way to look back and they had to move on.

She hardly felt her hooves after a while but they still went on, a feeling following them, a fear creeping up on them. There was hardly any time to check what produced that feeling and even the thought of looking back just felt plain wrong. She didn't even want to know why.

What she really didn't want to think about, even more than whatever was behind them, was what was around them.

Another filly had once heard stories of a beast as old as time called The Silence And The Dark, long forgotten and a herald of the first age of magic. It had haunted the universe before the first light had come and as the first Alicorn, the one called World had slain it, from its carcass the land was formed and from its blood came the seas and after it died all silence vanished and was replaced with life and sound. Truly, the other filly hadn't known silence the same way these ponies did. Still, sound was a constant companion but this time there was only the faint noise of the horrors behind them and the sound of hooves trampling through the water beneath them. That was all there currently was to their situation, even though Raindrops would have liked a bit more.

She would have felt safer then, but right now, she knew that they could hardly do anything.

Octavia took the lead, Derpy helped Twilight, Raindrops sort of trailed along, like she had done from the very beginning of this journey. They were galloping and the same time, Raindrops felt a distance to this place.

Another cry echoed through the caves, the voice and intent both clear. Tavi stopped almost immediately. "I'll try to stop that thing," she said, her voice filled with both confidence and fear.

"No, you can't," Twilight answered, almost shouting. The brown unicorn stopped, too and all of them looked at Octavia. The orb flickered, but Twilight regained concentration immediately. They all felt the fear, they all knew what was coming, but Octavia stood her ground, smiling at them so earnestly, so trustworthy.

"I'm not going to fight it. Just delay it a bit. We need to get to the Lunarium but we'll get there together, so don't worry," Octavia said, gray was her coat and black her mane and the light of harmony filled her heart.

Twilight stared at the earth pony, her eyes flickering. "Don't die, just don't. . . Follow us, please."

And then Octavia nodded to her friends, putting on that brave smile of hers.

"I'll come back. I'll come back and we'll finish this together," she said with such honesty Raindrops felt that she meant it. She ran past her friends and pushed into the darkness, right into the arms of whatever horrors awaited her there. Derpy didn't say anything, she just put on that stubborn expression of hers and moved on.

"When we reach the Lunarium, it'll get better," she said. Raindrops didn't follow, she looked back and listened. Rocks were falling somewhere away, down into the water, splashing. She closed her eyes for once and the first scene went through her head.

In the distance, something moved and something fell and a certain pony wouldn't come back.

Raindrops opened her eyes and turned around, looking back once more, hoping to hear a sound, a noise but she only heard something approaching, too slow for Octavia, too different from a pony. Raindrops hurried after her friends.

Octavia plucked the strings of her cello in some unmelodious way that nopony really got, not even she herself and Lyra was standing there with a huge smile. Raindrops sighed and pushed her away, looking at the mobile above her bed, with the stars slowly turning around the moon. Lyra looked, too.

"Those are for babies," she said. "Why do you keep one anyway?"

It reminded her of another filly's home, a home she had once seen and thought very beautiful.

"Having your sandwiches cut is something for babies," she responded instead, defiantly.

"It's also something nobleponies do," Lyra defended herself.

"Then nobleponies are babies," was the flat response to that.

Lyra looked at her, her expression comically grim. Octavia still plucked her instrument.

"You know," they heard a voice behind them and Lyra turned, only to be picked up immediately, "from my perspective you'll always be my little babies." Hugh said that with a grin on his own as he lifted Lyra up only to put her back on the ground and give her a raspberry. As she was laughing and rolling around he lifted his head up. "Come on, the museum awaits!"

She looked once more at the mobile, wondering and then jumped out of her bed and into the museum.

More specifically, the café and Octavia sat on the other side. Raindrops however looked at Lyra who smiled gleefully as Hugh cut her sandwich into pieces of size appropriate for her tiny mouth. It was one of the things that made her wonder how much of a big filly any of them really were.

She then looked around. The museum itself was huge and had many pieces from the different equestrian ages. From the discordian antique over the imperial age, they even possessed reconstruction of early pegasi armour, from when armor had still been forged from dreams and stars. Obviously, the knowledge had been lost, but the reconstructions were painted to at least invoke the look of the old starmetal bardings.

"That's your history isn't it?" Octavia asked as they suddenly found themselves standing before one.

"What do you mean?"

"What do I mean, indeed?" Octavia said. "Let me rephrase the question: Why do you think running away will solve anything?"

The eyes of the filly were on the barding, it reminded her of a mother who had dreamed a century old dream. "I still need a nightlight to sleep," she told herself more than anypony else.

"You don't want to let the light die because you always had a million stars to guide you through the night. You are one of the few who still see the intent as it was once truth. You still see them all watching over Equestria."

"No, I'm just scared of the dark," the pegasus insisted, "I'm a little filly, I'm scared and I'd rather not have any responsibilities at all."

"Your mind has so little left of the filly that lived with Hugh Jelly and Madame Hooves. That filly was born through circumstance, because you didn't want to acknowledge what had happened and you made the falling rain that filly's first memory. You ran."

"Trixie started wetting her bed once she lived in the orphanage and everypony said it was fine, it happened with ponies her age. We're children, we're allowed to be weak, we're not strong. The winds may carry adult pegasi, but little ponies are carried by the adults."

"You are so much wiser than that."

Raindrops blinked and turned her head. She looked at Octavia and looked into her eyes. Those cyan eyes who seemed to belong to a person as old as the world itself, filled with the emotions of thousands of years and the longing of a person who was still waiting for something to happen.

"Tell me, child, if you are weak, if you need to be carried, then why are you trying so hard to hear my voice?"

Why are you longing to change something?

The water went down. It came from a thousand holes, some above them, some beneath them, some just on their height. On their right was a wall like cheese with holes, to their left was a pool of stars, like the one they had fallen into before. Maybe the same one and they just were on another side. Raindrops didn't know. The feeling in her legs had nearly left her and they all knew that Octavia wouldn't come back now.

Not she or Lyra.

Maybe hours had already gone past but she was gone and would never come back. Twilight had grown weaker, the light was flickering, disappearing for seconds and then reappearing weaker than before. The filly that produced it had had trouble standing before, now Derpy had to carry her, since she couldn't even barely bear her own weight. Raindrops knew now that Twilight would leave them soon, too. The caves were dark and she felt something creeping up behind them, still. That was the worst part, that they were followed and couldn't do anything against it. And Octavia won't come back.

They walked on, following the wall, not knowing where they were going, not saying anything. Silence pathed their way as much as the water did. Twilight was half-asleep now, Derpy was moving more with stubborness than actual strength and Raindrops simply trailed along.

"She wanted to go home, I want to go home, too," Derpy suddenly said and Raindrops felt what she said. They were only little fillies, not meant for these things. They shouldn't see them happen, they shouldn't try to fix them. That was what big ponies did, not they. They were kids, they were meant to be hugged by parents, to cry when they were scared.

"Yeah," she said.

Twilight blinked, her eyes on the water, since she lay across Derpy's back. "We need to get to the Lunarium, we can fix everything," she said weakly. It sounded like some kind of mantra, like saying it would already make their situation better. It didn't, though. They were still in the darkness, wet and cold and all alone.

"Derpy, turn a bit, we need to get out to the water," Twilight suddenly said and Derpy followed suite. Raindrops would have said stupidlym but as she looked at herself she found her own legs were guiding her the same direction, away from the wall and beneath the gazillion crystals that lit up the dark cave.She looked at the sight of it as they moved slowly, the water never going above their knees.

Then they stopped. The walls were gone and they were in the middle of an ocean, made of stars. A gazillion stars all around them, Raindrops found herself thinking.

Then they heard it, slowly, dripping into the water. They heard its breath and Raindrops felt a cold chill running down her spine. Unknowingly, she turned around. Derpy, too. Twilight slipped, falling into the water. Rising up slowly, her eyes fixed on the thing.

Aquamarine it stood, with black liquid having ruined it's dead face and a horrible smile on its face.

"H-h-h-h-" It breathed.

HELLO!

The yell felt like it shattered her ears and her innards felt like they were turning around themselves. She felt dizzy, her head pounding. Just from the noise. It had sounded like Lyra and Octavia, both of them crying out in a pain that Raindrops was unable to imagine yet could grasp so easily. Like another filly's vision of her parents burning.

The beast cackled and laughed, the sound of it like two metal saws rubbing against each other hardly, trying to break each other. Raindrops didn't know whether it was happy that its own attempt at producing a word had worked or whether it was just enjoying their pain. She felt her legs giving in. She was scared to death and didn't even want to stand on her own four legs anymore.

Why was she trying so hard to hear the voice anyway?

Derpy cried out and Raindrops looked at her, the kind pony who had been as close as a sister to her. She looked at her and watched her running towards the thing that had once been Lyra, water splashing beneath her hooves.

And then she saw the anger in the grey pegasus' eyes, the pain, the fear. She didn't blink, she saw Derpy crashing into Lyra and then she saw the black liquid solidifying, stabbing Derpy through the arms and legs and wings and lifting her up, while the stuff itself came out of Lyra, turning and twisting while doing so. Raindrops was scared, so scared. She wished any other filly would take her place, she was scared.

So scared.

The creature had no shape, but there were bladed tentacles, now piercing through the tiny grey filly like spears. She was crying, not making any recognisable sound and Raindrops could only look at her, tears coming from her eyes. She was so scared.

Raindrops then made her decision, turned around and ran.

Cyan eyes were fixed on her.

Open your eyes, the whisper said.

Raindrops didn't.

You will make a decision down the line, whether it will be right or wrong only time will tell. Right now, however, you need to open your eyes.

It was a kind whisper and so Raindrops opened her eyes and looked at the stallion before her. Her eyes widened, because she recognized his shape and colors.

"Hey, kiddo," he said with that smile of his and the voice that had once beaten against the silence everynight.

"Dad," she could only say.

"Kiddo, how're you doing?"

She looked at him, his broad shoulders, his kind face. "I found another family," she said after a few seconds. "They love me dear, I found a sister and friends."

"That's good, isn't it?"

"I'm losing them, too, Dad," she admitted and the tears were running again. He stopped smiling, then and she felt his wings moving around her, pulling her into a hug.

Rain was falling on her face.

"You're still asleep, kid. Nopony's losing anypony."

"You're gone. I saw you burn."

"Let me tell you something. Magic can't bring back the dead, but it can bring them rest. I know you want to see us all again, but bringing back what's gone is impossible. We're all still in this world, lingering in pain. We're all ghosts of the chaos of the world. Magic can't bring back the dead, kiddo. The Lunarium will not help you get us back."

She felt his heart beating in his chest, the warmth of his feathers and she knew his words were true. "If I get to the Lunarium, this moment'll end then? I don't want it, too. I ran, but I never forgot. I'm a little filly, I want my parents. If I can't have that, then what's the point to it all?"

"If I were you, I'd probably say the same, but kid, this moment will end anyway and all dreams die once you wake up. Your sister is alive, your friend is alive, theirs are not moments that should end anytime soon." She felt his hoof under her chin, lifting it up and she saw his beautiful eyes. "Remember your heritage, remember who we are and that we are pegasi. We gave you your name because of that, because you'll need to be a light in the darkness and you'll need to protect what you still have. You have our strength for that and if you can keep those around you alive, then, my daughter, you will find that those in your past will have died proudly protecting you."

She closed her eyes and opened it, looking at the nightblue mare the mane like a carpet of stars. "Are you ready?"

Twilight lifted herself up, using what little strength she had left. She needed to save Derpy, she wouldn't lose another friend. Never again. Her eyes looked at the beast, not at the remnants of Lyra's defiled body. She was fixed at it but it wasn't fear she felt, it was pure hatred. An anger that was seething through her entire being, slowly turning her rage into strength. She would kill that thing, even if it meant using its own magic.

She gritted her teeth and then for a second she looked at Raindrops and the anger fell. The purple eyes looked at her so calm, she could barely feel her own wrath.

Raindrops then turned around and even the beast looked at her. For a moment there was silence, then he threw Derpy's body down beside Twilight. The pony looked at Raindrops, who in turn seemed to take a deep breath and looked to the ground.

"Thanks dad," she said, "I will see you again when I reach the hunting grounds."

The beast laughed, slowly starting to disentangle from itself and starting to move around them like a cascade of darkness, a whirl of blades and screams. Then Raindrops looked at it, focused, yet with a calm anger around her.

"I'll make sure," she said and Twilight could feel the heat in her voice, "you will never hurt my friends. . ."

Her wings were spreading and the amulet around her neck was glowing.

"AGAIN!" The Pegasus cried out and a light erupted from her, flames engulfing Magia and its laughter turned into a cry of pain, as its form dissolved and the crystals around them turned the darkness of the cave as bright as the sun itself. Twilight couldn't help but cover her eyes.

After a few seconds, she lifted her hooves to the ground. She felt stronger, for some reason. Her hooves were purple. She then knew that she could stand without problem.

"What's going on?" She asked and looked around. The entire cave was filled with the light of a warm, harmonious magic so powerful she could scarcely believe it. Then her eyes went to the pony in front of her, the pegasus who had just went along with them quietly and never had done anything outstanding. She seemed tall like a giant now.

The pegasus was of rose color with blue hair and purple eyes.

"Raindrops?" Twilight asked. The pony gave a cocksure grin.

"Long story short: From here on out, you can call me Firefly."

"What?"

"As I said, long story," she said as she trotted around and looked at Derpy.

"You fine?"

"I can see clearly now, the rain is gone," came the feverish answer of the pony who tried to stand up again.

Raindrops- no, Firefly laughed, "I hear you."

"It doesn't hurt anymore. It's not red or black or anything," Derpy said, looking at her own hooves. "How?"

An Element of Harmony has been unleashed near the Lunarium, that's why, the voice in their head spoke. You will need to move quickly now, follow the trail of stars, follow the river and follow my voice. You are close to me but Magia will come after you now, no more apparitions, no more beasts or champions. You need to come to me quickly. No sacrifice will be forgotten and the whole world needs its heroes to stand up. Run, my little ponies, run.

Part 2: Chapter 10 ~ I Dream Of Music And Magic (V2)

And With It A New, Long Night Without The Stars To Guide Us ~ PART II FINALE

The water spiraled around her, bubbles moved towards the distant surface. Her world was black however and she only felt the cold around her. It stung through her coat and flesh and cut deep into her bones. She was aware of it, though only faintly. There wasn't enough strength in her body to move and even something like breathing felt like a hassle right now. She did not try. Neither breathing nor moving would really help her now anyway. There was blackness around her and she didn't even need to open her eyes to see it. She simply let herself be carried by the water. Down and down and deeper down.

She felt the chill growing stronger with every second. Funny, it was the only thing she seemed to feel. She found herself unable to determine where exactly she felt the chill, since her entire body was far beyond her control already. She was growing colder, that she knew. It was too much of a hassle to struggle against it. Instead she let herself drift farther and farther. To where, she did not know but hopefully it would be somewhere else.

"You tried leaving again?" Rarity had asked.

She remembered it, the last time she had seen the most generous filly she had ever known. Her eyes had been fixed on her, as the white filly had seated herself by the bed.

"I know you don't like it here, but mum and dad are really trying their hardest," she had said and tried to smile. Trixie had thought in the beginning that Rarity never felt the brunt of the force but that had been wrong. Her parents hit her like any of the orphans, hardly treating her like their own, or maybe they were treating everypony like their own. Trixie couldn't quite figure that out.

"Certain spells only work at certain times," Trixie said and she remembered as she drifted, there hadn't been snow nor rain that day, just a few white clouds on a blue sky with the sun shining and a mild breeze moving through the leaves of the trees.

"Spells won't work. Magic won't work. Magic doesn't exist, if it ever did."

"I'll make them work. I'll bring magic back and make the spells work." Trixie remembered the eyes of the filly. They reminded her of how her mother had looked after the life had faded from her. They were without light in them, looking at a place so distant and wonderful, yet knowing that she could never reach it.

"You won't. You'll run, they'll find you and hurt you. Please don't run anymore. I don't want to see you like this anymore." She had been generous, shedding her tears for Trixie. Nopony had done that before, so Trixie laid her hoof on the other filly's head.

"Everyday I wake up in a world without magic, Rarity," she had said, "but I'll find it, I'll find magic and then I'll make everything better. Just you wait."

She had forgotten and now she was drifting through the darkness. The memory of Rarity embracing her lit up a tiny light within her but it wasn't enough. The chill was strong and swallowing her and the water was like a cascade that threw her deeper into the darkness.

She remembered her new parents and she remembered how often they hit her, because she clung to the gifts her real parents had given her. She remembered how they'd hit her so hard, she would need to go to the hospital. They would tell the doctors that Trixie had fallen off the stairs, that she had gotten into a fight with other kids, that she was a unicorn and they did stupid things more often than any other pony. They never said the truth and they told her to lie, too.

Trixie never cared, so long as she could keep her cape and hat. They had been her last link to that tower by the cliff and two magicians who had raised her to be as great and powerful as they had been. Maybe she could've done it, too. Now she wasn't so sure anymore. But in the short time she had never given up, not once had she taken a step back and not once had she even thought that she could've been wrong.

She remembered running from her new parents once and huddling up in an old warehouse, filled with stuff thrown away and forgotten by the ponies. She had wrapped herself in the cloak and put the hat on, both had been too large for her and the hat especially kept falling down her face. After the fifth or sixth time she hadn't bothered pulling it up again, instead had just looked at the darkness inside of it. Thinking back it seemed like a far different blackness than the one she was experiencing at that moment.

"You got a nice hat, are you a wizard?" she had heard the pony ask, the unicorn who had lost her horn and hope, the one who had long since given up her dreams of music and magic.

Lyra she was called and she had told Trixie that magic didn't exist, while also trying to convince the wizard to give her hands and make her human. Trixie had always thought that Lyra had been mocking her but now she wasn't so sure anymore.

She had met Twilight and had wanted to show her a world filled with magic, yet instead, Twilight had shown her a world of change and horrors. Was that what magic was? Or had it been a bad dream she had after her new parents had whacked her over the head with some metal thingie again? Could it be that? Or maybe all of this had been a test. She didn't know and she knew that she didn't care. There remained only one question that truly meant something to her, before she could leave the cold and the darkness and this horrid world forever.

Is all magic truly gone from this world?

The question rang through her head and she was drifting. The chill was so cold it felt like a fire burning through her entire being. A flame so cold, she would've never believed something like it to exist. She had known cold, back in the orphanage but there had always been a fire lit, a warmth by her side and a generous pony to share every moment with. She needed to end it, she knew. Trixie felt the wetness against her coat and thought of every time she had tried, of every spell she had cast and how she had waited by her mother's bed until the strangers had come to pick her up and take her to the orphanage.

Everyday she had woken up in a world without magic and yet never had stopped dreaming. The dream was at an end however. Her friends were gone and probably dead, just like she herself and everything she had ever hoped to achieve was impossible now. Nightmares and eldritch terrors would haunt the equestrian plains forever and the thing she had believed to be magic would never start to exist. There wasn't a speck of hope left in her.

Just a hope, just a dream, that's what it all had been in the end. Just like Lyra had always hoped her own laughter had been real. Just like Octavia had hoped that with her honest play she would reach somepony. Just like Derpy who had hoped that her kindness would reward her with muffins. Just like Raindrops whose hopes Trixie never had grasped. They all were ending in nothingness in the end.

Trixie felt content with that realization. She felt like she had grown up a bit and maybe she could tell her parents and maybe they'd accept it, too.

That moment she let go of the cold and the darkness and a different kind of strength was coming into her body. The strength she needed to leave it behind. Trixie took a deep breath, inhaling the air that wasn't there to begin with and then opened her eyes.

She was somewhere else now, Trixie knew. There were stars all around her and little else. She turned around herself, looking up and looking down but she didn't spot anything different. She turned once more, and again, but there were only stars and the black space between them. She didn't know where she was or why she was suddenly here. Was she truly–

She blinked and then something had changed.

A mane like the the starry night and a coat of deep blue. There she sat before Trixie, tall like a giant and with cyan eyes that told a story of a thousand years. The alicorn didn't smile, instead she simply looked at her with little to no expression on her face.

"It is coming to an end," she said. "Tell me, Trixie, do you still think you can dream of magic?"

The tiny filly looked at her. "Who are you?" she asked, scared of the stranger.

"I am Luna, the princess of night and dreams and I put all my hopes into you and your friends."

Luna looked so strong and proud but her voice and eyes both told a different thing, that was apparent even for a little filly like Trixie. The mare before her was old, so old in fact, that it scared Trixie. Her thoughts turned to the princess of love who had lived and died, to Celestia who had died with magic. Legends had said her sister had vanished, maybe died, too. Was she still alive?

Trixie looked around. "Where are we?"

"Each of you was destined for a decision. This here, as is apparent, is the plain of your own," Luna told her without moving an inch.

"My decision?"

Luna's eyes went up, as she gazed at the stars. "Magic died a long time ago and we with it. I am the last of the alicorns, the last piece of an era long gone. The dragons died, the gates of Tartarus vanished and the world lost what made it itself. Now a piece of it returned, the first piece of magic."

Trixie blinked, "Magia?"

Luna nodded, closing her eyes. Suddenly her horn began to glow and a wind blew, throwing the grass around them into the air and suddenly, a black cascade was above and around them. Trixie looked at it, with fearful fascination. She knew what it was, she had seen it once and it had nearly gotten Twilight.

"Magic wasn't originally a part of this world. It was a world without magic,a world which would develop on mere chance without divine intervention or anything else. Magia didn't belong here. I cannot even tell you from whence it came. However at one point it arrived in this world. A shapeless terror that went into the minds of the creatures that inhabitated the world," Luna explained, pointing behind Trixie.

A herd of ponies was sleeping on the ground, they were all earth ponies, looking normal from Trixie's perspective and yet something didn't feel right. They were sleeping without fire, as if they didn't need it. Something was definitely off about that. The darkness swirled around them, still, and moved in closer. Trixie could feel how it manipulated the sleepers and they started to move, even though they did not wake.

"This is the dawn of magic," Luna suddenly said. "Magia came to terrorize the creatures of this world but its presence changed this plain and its interaction changed the inhabitants."

The scene changed to a young looking creature sitting on top of a tree. His head was like a horse's with a mane like one, too and he had an antler and a horn on top of it and one long fang in his mouth. His eyes looked weird, the pupils having different sizes and a snake's tongue went over his lips. He had a goat's beard growing and his extremeties were as weird as his head. His right arm belonged to a lion, his left to an eagle. The legs of a lizard and a goat were crossed atop one of the tree's branches. Adding to that came what Trixie would've described as a batwing and a pegasus wing. Then his tail was like a dragon-like snake's tail with a white tail tuft. Truly, this creature didn't seem normal.

They both were in the air before the creature, but Trixie knew she wasn't even really alive anymore, so that was probably normal. Still, she noted how he looked. He seemed astounded at himself, looking at his hands and touching his beard carefully.

"With the Night Terrors fear spread and with fear the creatures learned of madness. Some turned insane and then they spread chaos. There were emotions were like never before, powerful like never before and so the first of the dragonequui was born. A creature whose only purpose it was to become an avatar of chaos. There were five of them, each defining a different aspect of chaos. By the time Celestia and I appeared however, all but one were gone."

The dragonequus looked at his claw and then snapped his fingers. A cloud appeared above him and suddenly it started pouring frogs. They fell and seemed utterly perplexed at where they suddenly where, some clinging to the branches, others croaking angrily at the beast that had summoned them. He seemed to find the sight utterly amusing.

"Discord used the influence Magia had spread for his own gain, thus becoming the first magic user in the world. Alas, he thought everything a joke. A reason why his empire was in such terrible shape that it needed to be saved in the first place. In the beginning however, he spread magic. It was a joke that grew bigger and bigger. He tried to teach rabbits and hamsters, sadly failing, but with every spell he cast the power solidified more and more in the world. And all the while he managed to stay out of the Night Terrors' sight."

The scene drifted away and suddenly they stood by a crystal clear river in the middle of the night. The sky was filled with stars and forest filled with dark shadows was all around them. Trixie stood close to Luna, for which she was glad.

"Magic became more entwined with the world and then something happened in a herd of ponies that roamed the wild lands," Luna said and looked over her shoulder. A mare walked past her, stopping by the water to look at her own reflection. She had a white coat with a green tint to it and her mane was green as grass. And she had a horn.

"What is going on?" She questioned, like she didn't even understand the words that were coming out of her mouth.

"The first unicorn, Trixie, the first actual pony."

Luna sighed and looked at her. "She later called herself Dreamcatcher and she was the one who convinced the dragonequui to help her end the night terror's reign. There are no memories in the world of the event itself, but the bond between those six was strengthened through magic. On her deathbed, that bond became tree and it was the harmony of it that allowed me and my sister to be born into the Everfree Forest to begin with."

Trixie looked at her, as they stood on the fields of grass once more. "Magia is back now," she said.

Luna smiled bitterly. "Yes, but its defeat allowed something new to be born. An alicorn is something that has never happened before, it is always something new. Celestia and I were the Elements of Harmony. But first came Magia's defeat and the hope that the world would grow restful."

There was a bright light and suddenly they were amidst thousands of ponies and other beings, even the five dragonequui were assembled. The light was not of the sun, Trixie quickly found. Instead it came from a balcony. They were at a palace? Maybe. The light originated from the rough silhouette of an alicorn. Trixie couldn't make anything out, only a strand of red hair and smile like the dawn of a new day.

"Bright, isn't it. Warmth filled that day but like dreams, days end and then comes a darkness so scary and a cold like fire."

A house flew past them, upside down, the earth shifted and divided, it rained chocolate frogs and fire was kindled with water. Chaos ruled and Trixie saw a world without sense.

"This was before the fall of the Crystal Empire, may their souls rest peacefully. Discord was the only remaining dragonequus, a mad demi-god whose only thoughts were of mischief and whose only actions ended in chaos."

She saw him laugh and then vanish into a light.

"What happened?"

"Trixie?"

The tiny filly looked at Luna and noticed they were on the plain once more. Dark clouds had gathered above them and she could feel the rain starting. "Y-yeah?" she asked.

"Discord, the first alicorn, the dawn of magic, they are all linked to one being."

Trixie looked at her for a moment, not really getting it. Then the realiziation came and her eyes widened.

"Discord was the first being using Magia's magic, his abilities were a piece of the king of the Night Terrors. He had helped spread it through the world and he had used his abilites to teach others magic. He may even have been involved in Dreamcatcher learning her own magic, and even if not, her powers can be traced back to the Night Terrors, too. She was gone by the time of the first alicorn and magic had grown strong on its own. However, it still needed a link, a piece to keep it together. Discord was that piece, even though he did not know it. When we banished him into stone, we killed the magic in this world."

"But. . . Magia came back." Trixie said, the rain falling heavy down on her, covering the grasslands in water.

"And with it comes the break of a new, long night without stars to guide us. And then the return of magic," Luna explained, sadness filling her voice just as the world was flooded with water. "The rise of a new discord maybe, another story like the one of me and Celestia and another tale just like yours. Going on in an endless circle."

Trixie looked at her and smiled. "It's fine then. . . That I'm gone I mean."

"No, without you it won't happen, the dawn of a new age, a new era. The age of my little ponies and a new magic," the alicorn said and looked at Trixie, with a sudden smile. The filly wondered what the alicorn meant, but lucky for her, Luna decided against being cryptic. "I waited for one thousand years, I worked on it, I guarded it, I protected it. Now there is need for a pony who can make the Lunarium work. I am the princess of nights and dreams, I can't do magic. Trixie, you however, you and Twilight, your talents involve magic and you both carry the hope within you, the dream of a world filled with magic."

Luna looked at her with those old, tired cyan eyes and in that moment she seemed so alive and so young once more. Then, she looked up. The water was up to Trixie's neck, the filly suddenly noticed. Luna however, calmly turned towards her again. "It is time for your decision. Trixie, alicorns are always something new. You can do it. I trust you."

Trixie was left alone, the water slowly coming up and the rain coming down from above relentlessly. For a moment, she still had decided to leave and closed her eyes.

“I’ve seen you a few times,” she had told Twilight, “and you’re always looking somewhere far away. I doubt you have seen anything of Canterlot, so I could take you somewhere wonderful and maybe show you a thing or two."

Then she decided again and the water was all around her, a black swirl that threatened to take her into the deep darkness. A cold flame was burning in her body and she couldn't really feel anything but now, more than anytime before she had decided to do it. She would fulfill the promise she had made, even if it wouldn't bring her parents back.

She was drowning and kicking and screaming and swimming and then she felt something touching her, warmly covering her, protecting her and taking her up again. She tried to see it but couldn't. Something was with her in the water and was helping her and she couldn't make it out.

Trixie woke up by the side of the water lake. Covered in the remaining rags of her cape. She was lying on her back with her eyes fixed on the point from which she had fallen and suddenly Trixie was laughing. She was alive, she was well. Maybe her friends were, too. No, surely they were. It wasn't like them to give up or fall to some monster. Trixie wasn't scared of nightmares, even if they were real and Trixie wasn't afraid of losing her friends. She had never dreamt of dying before and she sure as hay would have some muffins again. She felt alive, truly alive as she lifted herself up with a grin on her face and a feeling in her horn that would lead her to her destination.

She was on her way again to become the most powerful wizard the world had ever seen and nothing would stop her from achieving that goal, now that she knew what would happen if she and her friends failed. She would change this world's fate before it would happen because she was ultimately the Great and Powerful Trixie.

Part 2: Chapter 11 ~ I Will See You Again Pt. 1

I Will Never Give Up

The crystals had a strange glow about them but Twilight had begun to understand why. She figured it to be due to some sort of connection to the princess that warded the Lunarium. It was the best explanation she could come up with. A real princess was down there. She was Luna and she was waiting for them, that had been it. They should follow the right path, she had said and then she had been gone.

Twilight didn't quite get the feeling in her own body. There had been a surge of magic, for sure and it felt good now. She felt better, could even stand and walk all on her own. The thing was she had felt just as strong before. This was Magia's magic, Twilight knew, even if she didn't understand how Firefly, a pegasus, could handle it. Twilight was so baffled about it that she couldn't quite think straight.

The trio moved through the dark corridors, lightened up by the crystals, and fast. They had run past the large hall, away from the water and had followed the only path that had appeared lit up. It was like walking beneath a clear nightsky, something Twilight had never done before. It made her remember how she had spent her days before just sitting in her bed and reading. She longed for those days and at the same time didn't. It was weird, it felt like something was messing with her head. She should be sad and worried, Twilight knew, but she wasn't. Maybe that was worrysome but somehow they simply went forward.

Okay, maybe not simply. It was all they had done. With all the chaos around them, all they had done was plunge into the dark head first. Twilight thought that sentence again, wondering since when she was able to think like that. She had struggled through most novels with great endurance and when the books were of a more sciency nature she had merely looked at the pictures and not even understood those. Yet, she felt like she had changed.

Her train of thoughts was broken by Derpy. "What is the long story?" She asked that looking at Firefly, the quiet pony they had known as Raindrops. She lead the group now and seemed so much taller than before. It was a weird sight but somehow Twilight didn't feel much about it. Maybe she was just so lost that she couldn't even grasp anything anymore, she thought with a bitter smile.

Firefly threw her head back, "Remember how that griffon girl got me to your family and told you my name? We flew all the way across the eastern sea from where all pegasi once came. I was part of the last remaining herd who still with the old way. They went and I was left behind, so to speak and I really wanted to think that it hadn't happened. Or at least I wanted to think that it hadn't happened to me. My mother named Firefly, she told me, since she saw a fire in my eyes and knew I would fly to the highest heavens."

There was pride in her voice but Twilight had seen the pony's eyes now. They were different from other ponies she had seen. Not in color or shape but that it truly seemed like she'd been staring into this pony's burning soul. She had created a circle of flames with magic, too.

"You come from the east?"

"Yeah and I guess I'll need to go back someday. It is said that when the old magic returns, the old cloud poleis will appear again and I really want to see them. We've been waiting for centuries for that to happen. It'll be great." Firefly laughed.

Derpy didn't appear to be happy about that. It appeared that she felt the same way Twilight did. Aware that she should be sad but at the same time wasn't and if her weird misplaced eyes were anything to go by she was saddened by that thought more than anything else. Now with Firefly saying that she would leave, it appeared to hurt her even more.

At that moment, Twilight wished herself back into her thoughts. Raindrops and Derpy had lived together and were more like sisters than friends, that much she had understood. Frankly, she couldn't even say anything here. She wasn't even a pegasus or knew that much about their story.

Firefly noticed the mood, too. "Don't worry, Derpy. We'll find our parents,"  she seemed sure of it, "and when we're ready we'll all fly east."

Derpy looked up to her sister and Twilight found herself smiling. "That sounds like a good plan," the unicorn said, looking down. Her coat was lavender and her mane purple.

"What're you gonna do when this done, Twilight?" Firefly asked.

"I don't know. Maybe I'll write about magic, the first real modern spellbook. I really wanted to bring my family together but. . ." she tried to think of what to say next. She had struggled together with them all as they had followed the river after Trixie had distracted the soldiers. That alone felt like a thousand years ago. She could still see the face of the pony with half her teeth missing engraved in her mind. She remembered how she had woken up after she had collapsed on the streets and how Trixie had prepared her magic show.

She remembered meeting Lyra who had asked about hands, Octavia who had plucked her strings and insisted that she was just 'prattling on'. She remembered how there had still been muffins left for her on the strangers' table and she remembered their taste. She remembered how Derpy aided her until this point and how Raindrops had cried out after Lyra's first miserable attempt at magic. Of them she had more memories than she had of her actual family and none of them had ever looked at her as the weak littlle filly who only caused problems with her illness. The taste of muffins lingered in her mind and she knew what to say.

"Well, first I'll shout at Trixie for running off like she did and then I'll help you find Hugh and Madame and after that. . . Well, I don't know, actually. I don't think there's much left for me."

"You could stay with us, then, both you and Trixie. Everything's gonna be better with magic, I'm sure of it and nopony's going to mind a pony as nice as you." Twilight just had to notice the fire with which Firefly spoke, the passion in every word. It seemed so completely different from the pony she had known before. Her parents were gone and she was far from home. Twilight couldn't really relate to that but she was sure it had been hard, maybe too hard. Maybe Firefly had learned something, considering how much development everypony had seemed to go through.

Yeah, maybe that was it. They had been through a lot together and Twilight had been a part of it, she was glad of that and the sheer optimism that came from Firefly was contagious. "Yeah. . . Let's do that." The answer came easy now, because all this would end well. It had to.

The crystals were still shining as they went through another corridor and at its end there were stairs carved out of the rock. They went down and Twilight looked back for the first time. They had followed a gutfeeling, or rather a trace but nothing had truly indicated that they had been on the right path. This should have worried Twilight but it didn't. Instead a different word was on her mind.

Magia.

It was coming now, even though she had thought that the darkness that had shrouded them by the waterfalls and taken Lyra had been it. But the more she thought about it, the more it seemed like a different thing. Magia had been different. There was a hurt in her mind as she tried to remember how it looked. All she remembered were eyes of such blackness that it was blinding to stare into them. The thought that the creature even possessed a visage sent shivers down her spine.

"We should hurry up," she heard herself saying.

"Yeah," Firefly agreed and Derpy looked at Twilight.

"You look pale, are you okay?" The gray pegasus asked.

"It's-" Twilight started, suddenly starting to feel a cold. "It's coming."

There was a faint laughter in the distance. The bright laughter of playing children, the laughter of the beast that had destroyed Canterlot. Twilight knew that it had found them and was trying to get to them. Why specifically them, she didn't even bother asking. The Lunarium held all the answers and if not, it would at least hold a solution. Twilight clenched her teeth. The wise goat had told her that she could change everything and she had believed in his words. Now was the time to believe in them, in herself, once more.

"We need to go. Now," she yelled and then they were galloping down the stairs into the darkness, barely making out the steps beneath them. There were no crystals in the walls and Twilight didn't even dare to try to use magic. For some reason, though, she found herself leading them through the dark. The laughter was following them with every step, coming closer and closer. From one moment to another she felt the cold in her growing and even though she tried to block it out the thought of its visage came into her mind, the memory becoming clearer as it approached. Twilight felt sweat running down her face and even tried to speed up. Fear started taking over.

It was the same for the others, though the images in their heads, their worst nightmares were shaped differently. Twilight didn't know since she was in front of them but the image of a burning field moved across Firefly's mind and Derpy heard them shouting once more, accusing her once more. Whatever had given them strength and hope vanished more and more as the laughter grew closer and they realized more and more the situation they were in.

Three fillies in the dark, all scared of the coming nightmares.

They hurried down the steps and Twilight almost slipped more than once. She became clumsier as the laughter became louder, shriller, more terrifying. She remembered its face now. The white skull of an equine with a red liquid, swirling in circles where the eyes should have been, and a body of bones and shadows. Back in Canterlot it had stared at Twilight for a moment, before its cackling had become a cacaphony in her ears. The whirlwind of shades had closed in on Twilight and claws had formed all around her. The memory of the taste of her own blood came back. It didn't scare her, since the dream hadn't really died.

She remembered a pony with an ethereal mane and a white coat smiling at her and calling her her faithful student. She remembered her parents smiling and her brother. She thought of Trixie, Lyra and Octavia, of Derpy and Firefly. She thought of what she had gone through until this moment and then she stormed into wide hall of stone with large pillars leading to the starry ceiling. She noticed statues on the sides but didn't bother looking at them.

They galloped as fast as their legs could carry them, which for some reason felt faster than before. Then she heard rock exploding behind them and the laughter growing into the same cacaphony again.

I'm not scared. Nightmare's belong into the realms of dreams and this here is the real world. I'm not scared and I will never give up! She screamed that in her mind, moving closer and closer to the bright light and whatever was awaiting them behind it.

She heard the pillars breaking but didn't bother to look behind her. Trixie hadn't looked back, Tavi hadn't looked back. They were gone now but they had left with confidence in their skills and the hope that they'd all make it behind. Now it was Twilight's turn to believe that. She felt the darkness swirling and noticed the same creatures that had attacked them by the waterfalls moving, she also heard hooves on the ground behind them. The doorway was getting closer and she knew that they were closing in on their target.

Now came the final part of their journey and the Lunarium awaited them.

Part 2: Chapter 12 ~ I Will See You Again Pt. 2

Sticks And Stones May Break Our Bones

A rush of adrenaline was what she felt as they stepped through the light. The path had been wet, liquid splashing at their hooves again, and here it appeared all of the water gathered. The waterfalls from countless holes went down into the sea. Looking at something like this for the first time, all Twilight could do was stop and just open her eyes as wide as she could, taking in every single bit of it.

The hall they entered was bright as day and wide as Canterlot itself. They came out on a ledge, overlooking the scenery. From the walls all around them water fell down. Underground rivers, Twilight thought, while hurrying towards the edge. The sea beneath them was clear and in the middle of it was a bright, wide light, down in the farthest depths. There were some holes on the water level, too, some seemed dry and had patches of sand before them. All of this reminded Twilight of something but she didn't quite know what.

For a moment they all stared at the bright light before them, before they heard stone cracking and Twilight made the mistake of turning around. She saw the entrance, a simple one with runes engraved on its sides, telling something in a language that had probably stopped being used a long time ago. It was of beautiful white rock, contrasting its grey surroundings and was clearly built by somepony. It would've made sense if Princess Luna had had a hoof in all of this. She couldn't have built the caverns themselves, but some parts, maybe.

"Do we need to dive again?" She heard Derpy ask but her mind was on the door. Why had there been a noise, where was Magia, why was nothing happening? Questions were racing through her mind, she wasn't really getting it. Something was happening, something had to happen. A spell? Warding spells shouldn't work. Magic was gone for centuries and even now it hadn't really returned, it was just them being able to scratch some off Magia's surface, so to speak. She didn't get it, but somehow she felt it again, the beating of her heart and the returning of the hurting in her chest.

Firefly answered something but Twilight didn't register. A shadow had moved beneath the door and for one more moment nothing happened. A few seconds later she would think that they really should have used that moment. The rock cracked open and stone went flying in another exlosion, as tendrils of pure blackness pierced through it and Magia lunged through it all. The shape had changed but the eyes remained. It was more shadow now, but as it opened its mouth to roar there were teeth like nails, some were blackened and full of holes, others had a greenish, sick tint to them and others again were dyed in the red of blood. She couldn't count how many teeth the beast had. The tendrils were lots and lots, too, swirling around, changing their places, making it impossible for the little pony to count them all. There was no shape to the thing and as its unholy shout filled the hall, it wasn't even looking at them. Still, as the broken rocks hit the ground around her, Twilight felt weird, as if she couldn't look away from it. Her legs were shaking and her breathing was getting faster.

Then, one eye fixed on her and suddenly she saw Lyra, black liquid oozing from every hole in her head, her mouth opening to a painful shout. Twilight couldn't do anything but turn away. She saw Octavia, looking at her for a second, before dark tendrils grabbed her and dragged her into the darkness, the filly was too surprised to even scream. Twilight then heard the sound of limbs tearing and closed her eyes and wished her family was there. Then, she heard someone's breath and opened her eyes.

Her father smiled down at her, warmly, like in the dreams. He opened his mouth, moved it but the words didn't seem to reach her, she moved closer, trying to understand and then leaned closer to his mouth, yet she still couldn't make out what he was saying. Suddenly, his teeth sunk into her neck and he ripped at it. Twilight felt the pain stinging worse than anything she had ever felt before and started screaming and crying. Then she felt something grabbing her and pulling her into the darkness.

"Snap out of it, you two!" Firefly yelled and Twilight woke up, noticing the world around her. She felt Raindrops hoof, she had grabbed her, and she saw Derpy in the other arm and the look on her face, she was so terrified.Twilight looked behind them, hoping not to look at its eyes again.

They were flying, moving closer and closer to the sea, Firefly struggling to even keep them up, and the blackness that was Magia swirled around in a cascade upon the ledge. Twilight asked herself what the beast was doing but her question was answered as suddenly the swirling stopped and the black mass moved together only to reform itself, sprouting huge black wings, a large tail and a massive bonehead like a lizard's. She had heard of such creatures before, she had read all about them. They had been the terror of every inch of the world, the most feared monstrosities upon equestrian ground and even the dragonequui had always tried to avoid fighting them.

"It's a dragon," Twilight said, her voice so hollow, feeling her heartbeat more and more. "A full grown dragon."

Bones shaped upon the creature, like the inside turned out and then the beast was opening its mouth, but it wasn't roaring, it was laughing. It knew how futile their escape attempt was and Twilight looked at Firefly, asking herself if the filly was as scared as she was. Firefly wasn't. The fire was still burning in her eyes. She seemed so much taller and stronger at that moment.

The pegasus noticed that her sister hadn't quite recovered. "Derpy, it's as they say," she said with a grin on her face, "sticks and stones may break our bones, but don't you go bloody thinking that a dragon can hurt us."

They didn't say that, nopony says that, Twilight thought with disbelief.

"I'll even prove it to you, we'll do this. You hear me Derpy, we're in this together and we'll get out of this together!"

The shout echoed through the cavern and Derpy slowly turned her head towards Twilight, her eyes full of tears, her face still frozen with fear. Twilight gave an encouraging smile and a brave nod. Derpy took another second, then regained her composure and nodded back.

"You can let me go now," she then said and Firefly complied. For a moment Derpy fell and then. . . She hit the water, turning three times around herself and flapping her wings completely wrong. The grey pony's head came out of the water a second later.

Firefly looked back and made to turn around, yelling: "Why are you so clumsy!"

"Really, I just don't know what went wrong!" Derpy yelled back, struggling to keep herself above water, and then the dragon lifted itself from the ledge, towards Derpy, with a speed that topped Twilight and Firefly easily.

"DODGE!" Firefly yelled, turning around once more, hoping the dragon was after them and not Derpy.

Twilight held unto her friend with all her might, yet still very clumsily, as Firefly speeded away from Magia. The beasts red eyes were unto them and its laughter rang like the one of a little filly who had just gotten a chance to play her most favorite game underlayed by a horrible shriek. The dragon was above Derpy and the little filly stopped her struggle at that very moment, letting herself sink.

Then, as Magia was right above her, time seemed to stop for Derpy, she saw a small movement on the wings and suddenly black lances were piercing the sea all around her, only missing her by a few millimetres. She let out a horrified scream underwater, letting out all of air.

The lances disappeared as quickly as they had appeared and the dragon lifted itself up, roaring again, to slaughter the two other fillies. Twilight didn't even dare to look at it, instead closed her eyes and held Firefly as hard as she could. The pink pegasus with the blue mane had a grim expression, the fire gleaming in her eyes, sure she would outrun the beast. She was a pegasus and she could be quick, even with baggage. She had made a decision and now she was strong, she was finally strong!

Then, a tendril scratched the arm that held Twilight. Firefly loosened her grip because of the pain. Twilight blinked and felt the air pressing against her coat. The purple unicorn was falling, all of a sudden, not even able to scream and the dragon closed in on Firefly, who stopped middair and turned around, her head looking down at her friend, panic written all over her face. "No," she said.

Twilight blinked thrice, then.

The first time she saw how the nightmarish dragon opened its mouth, filled with a thousand teeth, like nails and swords and lances, closing the final metres between him and the pegasus who now hovered in the air. Firefly turned her head towards the beast.

The second time she saw how Firefly opened her mouth, saying with a hollow voice: "No, no. No! No--" She was interrupted by the dragon closing its mouth and tears filled Twilights eyes.

The third time she saw the dragon stopping in the air, slowly turning towards them, like it was gloating. Twilight saw smoke coming from its mouth, wondering what was going to happen next and as she hit the water she heard and felt the explosion that tore Magia's form apart.

Lightning danced around Firefly's form as fire burned through the dragon's head, and what would someday become the true Element of Generosity gleamed around her neck. Her eyes were filled with the fire again and she had a hardened expression. She looked like a full-grown mare, her mane swirling in the wind created by the shockwave, no hint of fear on her.

The beast reformed itself into the form of a wyvern, rearing a deformed head and its eyes looking at her, filling her with memories of her burning family and the thoughts of her dead friends. Firefly gazed into the abyss of the monster's eyes and there was only one thing on her mind right now.

"I said: No!"

Part 2: Chapter 13 ~ And Then A Night Will Come, Long And Dark And Without The Stars To Guide Us Pt. 1

The Beasts Have Names

The ball of light was gleaming brightly by her side and her eyes were fixed on what was happening in front of her. Not that there was anything happening in front of her but Trixie thought it better than falling down a hole. Really, she had had enough falling for today.

She would have called this place a basilika, since there were columns everywhere. Otherwise it was empty. This was the largest hall Trixie had ever seen, yet its sole purpose seemed to be to hold the ceiling up, for whatever reason. However, from the constant water dripping down from every bit of it, whatever was above the ceiling was incredibly wet. Not that it mattered, she told herself.

The orb was shining brightly, lighting up the hall just enough for her to see a few meters before her. There were no crystals her, no stars and the memories that had followed her seemed so distant now. Still, if Rarity was somewhere out there, maybe this would aid her and her family. That knowledge was already good enough to keep Trixie going. The fact that her friends would reach the Lunarium soon was one more.

She had found the remnants of her hat by the side of the water, torn and without the stars. She hadn't even been able to identify it at first sight. Still, she had wanted to pick it up, but had then decided to leave it behind. That thing and the cloak could rest now.

She carried her parents in her heart now and that was all that was needed. Their spirits needn't haunt her further, since she had found the drive to finally achieve the goal. Her walk was slow but unflinching. There was no strength left in her legs and so Trixie slouched forward. Every part of her body screamed that she should stop but here willfulness kept her going. She knew where, she knew why, there was nothing keeping her.

Columns of hard stone and an orb of light were the only things in the room, both weren't really worth any attentioning. Especially the orb, the light almost seemed to keep itself steady on its own and there was no effort needed to keep it going. That was good, Trixie thought. It meant she could think of other things. The beasts have names, she thought, Night Terrors and Magia. She knew what they were now and was really glad that the soldiers had unwantingly led her to a shortcut to Princess Luna.

She nodded to herself and walked on, in silence through the dark. Her mind was drifting to the world above, her parents, her step-parents, Derpy's parents. All these adults she had known, some of them had been fun, others had been horrible, but in the end her friends were all that mattered. Family was hard to acquire and she'd rather have five sisters than two parents nowadays. She decided to apologize to Lyra later on and listen to Octavia playing again, eat some muffins with Derpy and just hang out with Raindrops. And she would still have to show Twilight Canterlot, if anything remained of the city.

Her mind wandered and she lost focus of what was before her. Hard stone with cold water dripping from it, forming a rhythm of its own, playing on its own. She listened to the tune absent-mindedly but in her mind, she was in a better world. A world that would hopefully come on the morrow.

So, you're a wizard now. Any chance for hands now? Lyra's voice snapped her right out of her thoughts.

"Huh?" She asked and looked straight forward. She saw Lyra standing there, green and grinning excitedly. What was weird, though, was that Trixie could see through her. "What? What are you doing here?"

Lyra waved a lantern around, laughing. I kinda, sorta. . . died, she said with a stupid but honest grin.

Trixie looked at her for a moment, an awkward silence surrounding them both. "What?" she asked finally.

The aquamarine filly just continued to smile at Trixie, Yeah and the Lunarium is keeping my spirit here. It's kind of spooky, down there, what with all the ghosts. Actually, Tavi's already there, too. Hugh and Madame aren't, so they're fine. I think, on a spiritual basis, that that's awesome.

Trixie was just staring at her, taking what the 'ghost' of her friend had just said in, yet not really. "Tavi?"

Lyra didn't stop smiling. Yup, she grew up too quickly. She says she regrets not meeting RD again but was happy that the filly was still alive. RD's a friend of hers, if you didn't know. Well, I hope you and the others make it, turn it around, you know.

"Why are you here?"

This time Lyra stopped smiling. The Lunarium is a burial ground, remember. The spirits of those ponies who died ever since Luna cast her final spell have gathered here. No sacrifice will be forgotten, she said, no sacrifice will be without meaning. Trixie, creating a spell is easy, she told us. But creating a branch of magic is almost impossible. Creating magic from nothing, that's an entirely different pair of booties. Sacrifices will be needed, even of you. She didn't want to tell you until the end but I couldn't. Now she stopped. Lyra looked worried at her friend. Trixie, there's-

"I know," Trixie answered, giving her friend a smile. "Don't worry. I'm a wizard now, right? We wizards can do impossible things without a problem."

Lyra simply looked at her. Okay, she said, and Trixie? Just so you know. Me and Tavi are rooting for you but so are the others, all of them. All of them.

She blinked and then Trixie stood alone before a magic barrier that kept the water from spilling into the hall. She looked at where the ghost, no, her friend had stood. There was a story about how all ghosts were given lanterns to help them remain on the roads to the land of the dead. Maybe that was a true legend, then. Trixie sat down, looking at the water and the fishes behind the barrier. There was so little there.

A smile formed on her face as she remembered the first question Lyra had ever asked her: "If you're a wizard, then can you give me hands?"

She was sure she could do it now, and they'd both laugh and everypony would congratulate Trixie and Lyra would hug her and everything would be fine.

Trixie couldn't hold the tears back as she shrunk down, breaking down into sobs that resonated throughout the hall. She would have liked to cover herself with her cloak but it was gone. She would have liked to hide beneath her hat once more but it was torn. She was alone in the great hall and she had been unable to do anything. She hadn't even seen it, yet she heard the words the apparition had told her repeating in her mind. Lyra was gone, Octavia was gone. Even if the others were still alive, Trixie would never see those two again. She would've finally been able to show Lyra the truth behind magic and how wonderful it was to be a unicorn, and she could have done so much more.

She couldn't now. Hard rock was around her and water was dripping from every corner of the hall, forming a rhythm of its own. She heard it and took it in with all her heart. The cold drumming on the watery floor for that moment felt like the requiem for her friends. There was a power in that, a magic in the music.

She heard a voice and looked up and saw the pony's face. It looked worried and spoke some words Trixie didn't hear. She didn't think, just stood up and walked towards the pony and closer to its voice, stepping through the barrier. Water was all around her and she couldn't breathe.

Their song was the thing that she heard before she fainted then and that gave her hope. She never would see those two again, but still, this wasn't the end of her journey.

Part 2: Chapter 14 ~ And Then A Night Will Come, Long And Dark And Without The Stars To Guide Us Pt. 2

I Am Sorry

She looked into its eyes. They were like red mist, swirling in the dark, an unnatural sight that sent shivers down her back. As she gazed into them, she saw her parents burning once more but it didn't put fear in her like it used to. This journey had given her peace already. Her wings flapped, firey heat all around her. She already knew that she was using Magia's power against it but for now it worked. That would be fine enough. She didn't need to finish it, all she needed was to give Twilight and Derpy some time to figure out what to do next and then they could escape.

The form was taller than the dragon, Firefly noted, with larger wings, too, but the head was the worst. There was no symmetry there and while the dragon's head had been mostly bone this one had the black liquid drooping from it constantly, whatever remained of the bones was bent and beaten and broken, so were the few bones on the wings. The pegasus considered herself lucky, if there had been flesh upon those bones, she probably couldn't have looked much longer at Magia. Or maybe she wasn't lucky and the king of the Night Terrors had started taking her seriously after her little demonstration. Her eyes remained on him and suddenly she felt a different kind of fear in her bones. She had never fought anypony before and this? Some god-like black goo that could transform into the worst looking monstrosities, ever?

Suddenly all of this started feeling like a very bad idea.

Then a few more moments passed, only for Magia's head to suddenly lurch forward in a way that Firefly would have considered physically impossible. The teeth didn't bite into anything, as Firefly closed her wings and let herself fall. Wind went through her mane as she saw the heavy figure of Magia lifting itself into the air. Her eyes went to Twilight, who looked utterly scared.

We could run now, she thought but at the same time she already knew that running away was going to be useless. Magia was hardly going to be stopped by water. So she spread her wings before she hit the water and with a beat she was flying past her friends.

"Follow the lights, I'll distract Magia," she shouted and she didn't know why. Firefly saw Twilight shaking her head. Were those tears or just water?

Wind was swirling around her as she flew upwards again, her eyes fixed on Magia. The beast was far above her, turning around and coming down hard, a mighty, dissonant roar erupting. Now it just annoyed Firefly. She couldn't defeat it, she told herself, but that didn't automatically mean that it could defeat her. Flapping her wings as quickly as possible she drove towards it, her thoughts drifting towards Octavia and Lyra. Anger was rising within her and she felt the heat of the flames forming around her. Magia's mouth opened, like it had before, moving in to eat her.

"You won't listen, won't you?" she asked, gritting her teeth. She flew right into it, like a fireball and as it closed its jaws the heat melted and burned the black liquid Magia was made of. The amulet around Firefly's neck was burning and the pink pegasus was cutting through the monster like a hot knife through butter. She emerged from the back of the beast, while it screamed and fell. Firefly was grinning as she hit the ceiling with her hooves to turn around, her mane moving in the wind that had been caused by the action and ember was falling down, remnants of the firespell that had embedded itself into her very being. She couldn't help but feel a bit satisfied as she saw Magia above the water, transforming again. Now it just had to be angry.

She didn't waste a moment, she could hurt it. She couldn't kill it, she couldn't win in the long run but she could actually weaken it, do something unto it that it had done to them. She went in, her arms stretched before her, like a lance of fire and lightning. Magia screamed the scream of a thousand dying children. It didn't transform into another beast, however, instead a lance of pure black launched towards her, with a speed that greatly exceed her's.

"I!" She shouted as she and Magia's lance met.

"Said!" She shouted as her own magic tore through Magia and turned whatever-it-was-made-of into cinders.

"NO!" She screamed as she tore through its main body again, this time leaving a sizeable hole in the black, swirling madness that was the king of the Night Terrors. She halted just above the water, in which the ashes and the liquid both fell. Still it's clearness hadn't changed. Firefly looked around but couldn't see Twilight and Derpy diving. She wondered why and then her look went to the side, where both of her friends were moving unto a patch of land. Her eyes widened. That was wrong.

Suddenly the laughter of children erupted. The sound of fillies on the playground and young colts playing soldier in the garden. The giggle as a child was tickled by a parent. The most lovely sound in the world, she thought, like she had never thought before, like she was one of those mares who stood by the side of things and thought of how their own childhood had long passed. Something has changed. She turned around and she saw something moving, flying.

A cloud of black mist was above her, swirling like whirlwind and she saw pegasi flying with it. She didn't know where they had come from but she saw a lot of them wounded, of some she saw the bones in their wings, of some she saw the burn marks. The burn marks, she thought, they all looked so horrible. She was flapping her wings, squinting her eyes, trying to figure out where they had come from. She looked at them, tried to make out who they were and then she saw the face of a stallion, muscular and tall, who had once sung his songs in the silence.

Each of you will make a decision.

Firefly blinked, everypony's eyes were on her and then she heard Twilight scream. The pegasi growled and screamed with pain and fear filling their voices. Then, her own family and all she had ever known came sweeping down upon her. Maybe it was meant as another scare tactic, however she had already made her decision and nothing could bring back the dead. She gritted her teeth and looked angrily at the uncoming storm. "I'm not gonna repeat myself," she said lightly and then fire met the darkness.

"I want to help her," Derpy said, anxious.

"Yeah, I do, too," Twilight responded. She looked at her friend fighting off what appeared to be an army of pegasi spawned by Magia's vile powers. "But we can't."

Raindrops had been a pony of mere black, which had been a rather common color amidst ponies and then she had turned into a pegasus, her mane blue and wild, her coat pink and rough, unwashed even, and her eyes filled with a lively fire. She had grown, not just mentally but physically as well. Now she looked like a full-grown mare, fighting off the darkness and the sight of her alone going up against this creature they had run from should have been awe-inspiring. But she hadn't cried when Lyra and Octavia had died and she couldn't feel inspired now. She was simply worried.

She looked like a lone firefly in the night, fighting off the blackness. The pegasus kicked and rammed into the others, evaded more of those lance-attacks Magia did, maintaining a look of grace and elegance Twilight had thought impossible. She had never heard of a pegasus fly so well. More importantly, she had never read about a pony fly so well. Looking at her fighting off the nightmarish hordes seemed so utterly unrealistic.

And it is. You know, you should've heeded her advice and just left.

Twilight's ears perked up as the voice rang through her head, "You?"

Yes me and quite frankly: I am happy to have a conversation partner again. Anyway, you should leave. All you need to do is take a dive, like I said before.

Twilight shook her head after the wise goat finished. "We already took a dive and we took it together," she said, grim. Derpy looked at her, scared for a moment. Not knowing what was happening.

Twilight, the friend you called Raindrops is gone and the pony called Firefly made her choice already. I told you, trust in yourself, just like she does and everypony else. You are able to change everything. Just go, please.

Twilight looked a the spreading flames, tears welling up in her eyes. "I won't leave anypony behind again," she said, there wouldn't be one more Octavia or Lyra or Trixie. They'd make this together, they had promised. They would all go to Firefly's home and then...

Twilight Sparkle. You are a most magnificent pony and in any other life, I would have liked to be your opponent but larger things are at stake. You need to take a dive, before Magia does. They are waiting for you, the Princess is waiting for you and so am I. One more dive before you can save the world. I beg of you.

Twilight Sparkle looked at the sky. Firefly was fighting for them, she was doing this for them, if they made it out she would follow. Twilight was shaking, her heart was beating against her chest and it felt like it would soon burst. Panic was within her and tears rolled down her cheeks.

"Twilight?" Derpy asked and Twilight looked to her.

"We need to go," she said weakly.

Her hooves landed in the faces of two more ponies with faces she had once known but her own was a cold mask. They weren't her family and she could make it. She beat the air with her wings, launching forward, somewhere in between, trying to get herself into a good position to attack Magia directly. A pony suddenly tackled her and she was falling. Only at the last second she rolled midair and threw her attacker off and into the cold water, where it immediately dispersed. She found herself panting and the amulet around her neck wasn't glowing as strong as before. She couldn't go on much longer.

Her eyes suddenly widened and she lost altitude as another black lance came from behind and this time it hit her. She felt its tip piercing through the feathers of her left wing and she was falling, too. Right into the sea, and the pegasi followed her. The water engulfed her and the beasts crashed against the surface of the water, turning into black goo as soon as they touched it.  She found that the nightmarish creatures couldn't make it into the water, all but Magia itself, for the lance was still stuck in her. Her mind raced for a moment, but she understood, these things couldn't make it into the water, except for one. Pain surged through the wound of the lance and blood spilled into the water. She hadn't hurt Magia, she hadn't slowed Magia down and if she ran now it would come after them. She closed her eyes for one moment.

She had been on the burning field that day and after this was over, she would go back to it. Her friends didn't deserve to die, none of them. Her family hadn't, too. Back then she hadn't been able to stop herself, though. She hadn't been able to stop Lyra and Octavia from leaving, too. One of them always had the largest smiles, she remembered, and it already seemed so long ago. The other had been plucking her strings and there had been magic in her music. For some strange reason she still hoped Trixie remained alive.

What could she do now? Run and maybe live, while Magia remained on their trail, or sacrifice one thing so that the others might reach their goal. A long time ago she would have said that she was a little filly and that she wasn't able to bear such responsibility. Now, she opened her eyes and there was no more pain, the glow had returned and the fire in her heart had been enkindled. She was ready to do this.

Raindrops didn't take a dive, Raindrops decided to fly higher than ever before.

She spread her wings and moved her arms and legs, swimming towards the surface. Now it. Was. On!

She emerged, water splashing around her and the heat around her, a lone firefly fighting against the darkness. She felt Magia's eyes upon her and looked up. Amidst the black whirlpool from which the pegasi emerged, screaming as they were living through their most painful nightmares, were two eyes of red swirls, with black liquid drooping from them and beneath them a grin of a thousand rotten teeth. She decided to go against her better judgement and take the beast on directly. All it would need was one hit and if done right, she could hopefully do some damage. All she had to do was go for the eyes.

Firefly spread her wings and practically dived upwards, wind blowing against her face. The pegasi around her reacted seemingly slowly, so it seemed to her, but she was, despite the angle she was going at, only growing in speed, fuelled by the thoughts of her friends and family and what she still had to protect. She was a pegasus and the pegasi had been warriors and defenders for a thousand years. She was going to live up to that legacy right in this moment.

Magia laughed, she heard, a broken cacaphony of a laughter, but it was still there and then she saw a thousand needles launch at her. It didn't matter anymore, she wasn't scared, she wouldn't evade. So she didn't. They were piercing her and cutting her, feathers fell and blood rushed from the fresh wounds as black spots formed where she had been hit. She screamed something, mirroring a friend as they had jumped down a hole: "CADENZA!" and hit the beast's red eye.

She was blind and falling, somewhere between this world and another, somewhere where warm water was and green plains awaited, maybe she was still alive, maybe she was already gone. She didn't quite know. That saddened her, since no matter what was right, the end would be the same. I am sorry, I truly am, Twilight.

Firefly took a deep breath and then looked at her hooves. They were small again, normal even. She spread her wings and they were fine, too. She smiled and looked before her. The fields weren't burning this time. Instead, they were the greenest green and spread from the Windswept Mountains to the great ocean. Some flowers already bloomed and soon these fields would form an earthly rainbow, more beautiful than any the sky had to offer. Rivers ran through some parts, she knew. They held fresh water, so clear you could see to the ground far beneath and so cold, like they were still at the spring. These fields had been the home to her family for centuries and here they had waited for the return of the old ages and the coming of true harmony.

Firefly looked up to the sky and yes, it was the sky again, the old and beautiful one. Her sky. Thousands and thousands of stars were spread across a carpet of black and blue, most were lonely but there were so many, they formed rivers of milk across the heavens. There were some brighter than others. The crystal light, the most northern star was the brightest of all and the great constellations seemed so clear from this point, too. Yes, she told herself, being home again really felt the best.

The moon looked down on the world, a bright, white ball with the head of a unicorn on it. There was a word for that in old equestrian. It had been a word she had heard somepony tell her once, a name given by Celestia herself: 'Family' and it was said to be both a promise and a reminder, though for what, nopony knew. Even now she didn't understand what it meant.

She heard somepony beside her and turned around. Princess? From the sound of her voice she already knew that this wasn't her physical body anymore.

I am sorry, I truly am, Luna said and reached her hoof out. It held a staff with a lantern at its end. In it was a group of fireflies, happily chasing after another. The lantern itself had stained glass, on each of the sides a picture from Firefly's life. Her birth, her family, her second family and her death, the most important things that had happend to her. The glass was held by wood with golden ornaments, finely crafted work that made the industrial produced stuff she had seen in Canterlot look downright amateurish. She knew what it meant.

I'm going to see my mother and father?

Luna looked at the plains before them and silence overtook the moment.

The two of them simply sat there, looking at the seemingly eternal ongoing plain before them. Some trees stood their lonely watch amidst thousands blades of grass. Wind brushed softly against the leaves and they moved slowly with it. It looked like a dance, even if it was a fairly unenthusiastic one.

What is magic? I asked myself that for a long time, my little pony. I asked myself what it was, why we need it and where it comes from. Magic is casting spells, we need it since it makes life easier and it comes from the ley-lines that formed through Magia's presence in the past. That was the first answer I came up with but as my sister laid down and we talked for the last time, I found that without Tia there would be something missing from the world. A spark of laughter, a bit of generosity and a whole lot of its magic. My sister's death opened my eyes to what magic was and to what it should be. I want you to aid me, Firefly. Take the lamp and leave for wherever you want to go, or follow me and rescue this world from its rotten state.

There was the sound of grass moving in the wind and Firefly saw leaves falling in the distance. Magic, she said. If Magia hadn't come to this world, what would have happened?

Somepony would have found this world's own magic and given us an age of true harmony and from there, I don't know. I guess Celestia and I might still rule, you and your friends would all live different lives and partake in different adventures.

Firefly let herself fall on her back. Do you think I would know this sky?

Mayhaps everypony would know this sky, but I do not know, sadly. I never knew it, myself.

There was a song in the grass, an old song that filled her with pride.

On wings of light

With wings of night

We beat against the sky

And our songs will never die

They'll do it, Princess. Twilight, Derpy and Trixie, they'll finish it and then it will happen, this age of true harmony. Don't you worry about it.

I had known there would be sacrifices, but once more I find it hard to believe that anything will come of my plans. You lost your lives and even if everything works out you will not see the world that comes tomorrow.

Firefly smiled, Don't worry. I'm just a little filly and I lived more from the moment I met Twilight than I had done ever before. It's all going to be fine.

With those words she stood up and took her lanterns over the shoulder. I guess we should go to the rest, Princess.

Luna looked up above them and she looked so old and dead at that moment, like she had never lived her life and now longed for it to return. These stars are beautiful.

I really don't want to leave them behind, you know?

Part 2: Chapter 15 ~ Here Is Where The Night Won't End

Might I Confess Something

She liked that the snows were always falling here. It made the whole world seem a bit calmer. Rarity agreed, although she preferred winter because pony fashion seemed so much more elaborate during this season. Fashion was something of a pet-peeve for Rarity and something Trixie never cared much about. Still, hearing Rarity talk about it was nice since she was so enthusiastic about the entire thing. The way she threw words around neither of them really understood was great, too. Big words made them feel like big ponies, which was something that needed to be treasured.

Rarity's parents weren't that big on orphans. They never had been and they never would, she knew. Instead they made them feel bad about it, weak and small and such things.

She had hated the constant stress but Rarity had helped so much. She wasn't friends with most orphans. For some reason they all hated her, even though she wasn't anything like her parents. That was really wonderful but nopony but Trixie seemed to notice. And despite Trixie getting a lot of anger from them, too, they thought she was their favorite. Rarity laughed at that, saying that she didn't know them liking anything.

That's how it had been. The night sky was filled with grey clouds and snow was falling softly once more as Trixie sat where she always sat, this time she was alone with her thoughts. The other orphans were all sleeping and Rarity, too. Trixie imagined her friend dreaming of dresses and galas to visit. She herself looked at the box she kept her things in.

She had often imagined living life as a wandering magician, putting on shows for the ponies to enjoy, moving from one town to another, showing them flashy tricks and bringing smiles to their faces. That was how she wanted her life to go. Instead, she was stuck here in an orphanage, with nopony ever asking where she had come from and who her parents had been.

Nopony except Rarity, who had been so delighted to hear that they had been magicians. That had been a relief.

Trixie looked at the falling snows outside and a sudden urge overtook her. She was young still, four or five years old and they still hadn't beaten the intrigue of the world out of her, not that they ever would, not truly. On silent hooves she sneaked through the room and opened the old door, closing it behind her. Through the corridor she walked and past all the rooms of the orphanage to the front door. She didn't even put on her boots, instead just going through the door and into the white.

She walked out slowly and stood beneath the sky, letting the snows fall on her head. Nopony else was here, nopony else was coming, Trixie noted. She was all alone in this house. There hadn't been any orphans in their beds, Rarity had left and her parents, too. She remained.

"Might I confess something," she asked the sky. Her voice was so hollow she barely recognized it herself.

A mass of grey cut her off from the starry night sky; the sky that Raindrops had admired like nothing else. The whole world seemed grey like that, now that she was the only one that remained. So she walked to the front gate of the orphanage, noting the sign with its huge letters.

'DON'T GO, TRIXIE'

She didn't care, instead just moved on, down into Canterlot, that ugly city she called her home. And the snows were falling.

The road to Canterlot had been the most beautiful road in the world, back in the days of the old princesses. Trees stood by its side and birds chirped and behind them were vast fields and forests, some towns where ponies lived their lives happily and without knowing of the misery to come. Now, all roads to Canterlot were ugly. The acid rain had long since killed every plant on the ground and what remained of the trees was hollow wood with twisted branches that fell off if one touched them, even if just lightly. Still, amidst the snows even this dead land looked somewhat beautiful and as Trixie felt the pavement starting beneath her feet she felt a certain sadness.

The road to Canterlot had been the most beautiful in the world and she really would have liked it to be true once more.

She walked the streets of the town, right through the industrial district. She didn't know how many chimneys there were, but for once none of them were smoking. She stopped before one of the many, many places and looked through an open gate. She saw the furnaces and remembered how little, miserable fillies and colts had always worked there. She remembered one looking at her. A stallion of some strength, older than her, nodding as a court greeting. Then she had seen his sister behind him, a brown filly with a blonde mane, who had seemed underfed and too weak to carry the coals she did, but her brother urged her own, nuzzling her and whispering things to her with a soft smile. She had later met them outside.

They were heading back to Ponyville, their apple farm was in bad shape and they needed the extra money. The little one, called AJ had told her that, and the big one had nodded in stoic agreement. If she would ever find herself in Ponyville, she should buy some apples, AJ told her and Trixie had answered that one day, she would.

She hadn't seen those two again but she had heard how young and old ponies were dying during the work in this district. She hoped it wasn't true for them and instead moved on.

The old marketplace was next. Here the orphans had walked one summer day and she had seen a very interesting booth. 'Pie's Rockfarm Products' it had been called, they had sold rocks and gems of all sizes and colors and every member of the family had an expression just like the rocks they sold, and with that she meant hard, not beautiful. The rocks were really beautiful.

However, she spotted one pony with a fine straight mane at the side and she looked like the saddest thing, so Trixie went to her.

"It's sad," the pony told her, "how everypony doesn't know how to smile. I'd rather have laughter than money, but laughter can't buy you food."

Trixie asked her why she couldn't have both. Sell those rocks with a smile or something. The pony giggled. "It's dull, that's why and the puns you could make are all very rocky."

It went from there and Trixie remembered how they were telling each other bad puns and were laughing. Pinkie's parents had frowned at her and told her off and that  she shouldn't fill other fillies' heads with her nonsense. She had turned around Pinkie had still grinned. That pony had understood laughter, though not puns. The snows were falling and as Trixie was turning around she smiled a sad smile.

The unicorn walked up the steps of the old palace, her eyes fixed on the ground beneath and as she reached the top she turned around and looked at the dead city. Its colors were ugly greys and browns and even the snow could not fix its ugliness. This had once been a hub of art and craftsmanship, but Trixie saw none of it remaining. If there had ever been something of worth in this place, it had been long gone. Only ruins remained of the old days, and one day, they, too, would fade.

The remnants of the castle spread out before her and they seemed to be without end. Snow was covering most of them up, but the destruction was still apparent. Trixie turned her head, looking at every part that could be seen from her position and found it an ugly mess. She turned around once more and moved into the old castle.

She only stopped where once the throne room had been and sat down, looking at where once Celestia's throne had stood.

"I don't think I want to go on anymore."

There was no roof here and the snows covered this place as much as any other. There was nothing alive in this place but Trixie and she truly wished that this would end. "I didn't even see them die and I couldn't do anything. I thought I had protected them, that I had helped them. Yet they're dead and I'm alive."

And then a light broke through the clouds and a gust of wind rushed over her. Warmth filled the place as the snow suddenly melted away and the light grew brighter and brighter. She spread her wings, Trixie saw, the most majestic wings she had ever seen. The mare stood before her, her coat the purest white and her mane many colored and ethereal.

"You're-" was all she managed to say as Princess Celestia smiled down upon her.

But a remnant of a memory, Trixie Lulamoon. I died a long, long time ago and only the thoughts of my sister kept part of me in this world.

"Why are you here? I said I don't want to go on, I lost.I- I..."

Celestia looked at her and Trixie couldn't help but feel the warmth of the sun on her coat. Oh little Lulamoon, we all lost so much to Magia and the things it did were horrible. The city outside, the ponies you met. They are all products of its influence. It coming to this world pathed out the destiny of this nation. Our demise, the rise of foul technology and the fall of my little ponies. Still, there is a chance to fix the world. She spoke softly and the friendly, trusting smile on her face was all Trixie needed to focus her attention on the princess.

"I don't wanna lose anypony else, I want to go home. I don't care about magic anymore. I just want it all done and gone."

Then why didn't you move away from Canterlot just now? Why did you come here?

Trixie looked at Celestia and then turned around. Why? She could have left all this time, she knew, she could have just gone somewhere else, but she hadn't. Why did she come here, why had gone to this place?

Loyalty, Trixie, like every other piece of harmony is gone from the world. Ponies started caring more about themselves than others after our demise and even Cadance couldn't fix it. Oh, she tried hard, but in the end even her love didn't reach them. Loyalty, Trixie, is what made you come here. You can say that you don't want to go on anymore, but that's wrong isn't it? There are still ponies who need you, aren't there?

Two ponies sat before the throne the princess had long ago sat on. "Will there really be more sacrifices?"

In the end, Trixie, there will be laughter, kindness, loyalty, honesty, generosity and above all else, there will be magic and harmony.

She nodded, after all, this wasn't over and she couldn't just mope around. She had met many ponies whose lives had been worse than hers, many ponies whose lives she could fix if she did this. There was hope and why not dare to dream of a better tomorrow?

"Princess?" she asked, her voice growing in strength.

Yes, Trixie Lulamoon?

She bowed before the alicorn named Princess Celestia, the princess of daylight. "Thank you."

Part 1: Chapter 1 ~ Everyday I Wake Up In A World Without Magic (V2)

Everyday I Wake Up In A World Without Magic

As her eyes opened only pieces of the dream remained. She remembered herself standing by the side of five ponies. All were trembling, shaking, and all stared at the thing before them. For but a few moments she managed to hold her gaze, yet she felt how its presence alone tore into her very sanity, and madness had already begun to consume all of five of them. Her own heart had yet to stop beating wildly.

Even now she was shivering and covered herself as much as she could with the blanket. In the dream she and the other ponies all had stood before the same being, if it could even be called that. She remembered everything and nothing. It hadn’t looked like anything from this world, that much she could say. It had not even been something her own mind could come up with, even though it apparently had.

Twilight Sparkle wasn’t scared of nightmares though. She was a big filly and she knew that they weren’t real. Still, she shook beneath her blanket, and her eyes remained fixated on the small light that passed beneath the door. If there was light then no monsters would come. It was safe. . .

It was safe.

What seemed like an eternity came to pass before she finally managed to calm down and come out from beneath her fluffy shield. She laid down properly, resting her head on the pillow and stared at the white void above her. Twilight remained there. Her eyes were open, her breath slowly calmed down. Yet her heart was still beating violently against her chest.

The doctors had said that she should keep away from things that excited her. They had told her that the pain would return if she got excited. Twilight didn’t know how to stop it though – how to not react to the dreams. She didn’t know how not to fear the things she saw, even if she knew they were not real. She was shaking.

First she felt a sting in her chest, then a pain in her tummy. Knowing what it meant, she couldn't stop the tears from falling. She didn’t want to hurt again, she hated it. Twilight rolled herself to a ball, hoping it would somehow ease the pain. It didn’t. A wail escaped her as the pain grew. Then, she felt cold and hot at the same time; her stomach acted up. The small filly felt her dinner returning, something the doctors had described as physically impossible for anypony except those with the same condition as hers. She coughed once. Then the room went from dark to black, and the pain grew only to fade into nothingness.

This time, Twilight dreamt of both her parents. They stood in some kind of hall with green walls, large enough to fill up with hundreds of ponies. She found herself standing on a floor checkered black and white. It was more elegant than anything the filly had ever seen. Not only was it large, no, there were also rows and rows of seats, all turned towards where she stood, or rather the chalkboard behind Twilight.

The filly herself stood before some kind of cart with straw in it. She looked at it, curiosity peaked, and tried to stand up on her hind legs to look inside it. Her eyes were fixated on what laid on the straw: A dotted egg of purple. A dragon’s egg. Twilight, feeling herself tremble, looked to her parents. They looked different than usual though. Her mother’s mane had the most impossible color, purple with white streaks and her father was blue all over. Yet, somehow that wasn’t important to her. What was important to the small filly – who could stand on her own and was so smart and admired by everypony – was her parents, smiling and nodding in encouragement. She turned around to the egg, and then she started to focus.

A purple glow emitted from her horn as she thought of a chicken keeping her own nice and warm. Despite the concentration she had to bring up there was also a fuzziness within her. She felt something surge through her as the egg cracked, saw five ponies walking through the darkness and heard a voice calling her:

Take a dive.

She awoke the next morning to a nurse hovering over her.

“Hello, little Sparkle,” she called her. A pale blonde mane and a deep brown coat that allowed Twilight to recognize her immediately. Instantely she came up with the best smile she could. Yet the filly was tired and only managed less than she wanted to. That, even though the sun shone through the windows and outside the roar of the factories could be heard in the distance. Not only that, she felt incredibly weak.

“Hello, Miss Red-,” Twilight spoke up, but before she could finish the nurse's name the filly broke out in heavy coughs.

Twilight felt a hoof begin to scan her forehead, and then heard Redheart mutter under her breath: “It’s getting worse.”

Twilight had been here long enough to notice the small things: The disapproving glances, the comments made behind ponies’ backs and all the like. She had learned that from reading Sherclop Pones. Details always were the most important thing, so it stood in the the books. Nurse Redheart was not approved of by quite a few doctors and certain nurses. She got too emotionally involved, they said.

Twilight didn’t understand why that was bad. She liked Redheart the most.

“Miss Redheart,” she asked, “is Papa coming to visit me?”

An uncomfortable smile formed on the older mare's face, “I don’t know, last I heard he was busy. Your brother, too.”

“What about Mama?” Twilight immediately followed. Yet all she got for an answer was a look of pity. It was that look that made her remember, even through her grogginess: Her mother was only there in the dreams.

She always stood there with a queer coat, and encouraging her daughter with nothing more but a look and a smile. Outside the dreams Twilight only knew how she looked from the pictures, because her mama had died long ago. Yet that made her feel even colder, because there was nopony else here but her and the doctors, and they were always busy.

“I’m scared to be alone again.”

She did not want to sit there, shaking and hurting. Not on her own, not without somepony to hold her hoof. The doctors and the nurses only appeared when the pain was too much, when her cries were too loud, when her heart was about to burst and her coughs stained the blanket red.

Nurse Redheart looked at the small pony for a moment, concern and pity reflecting in her eyes. “You know what, Twily,” Twilight liked that nickname the most, it always came with good news, “there’s another filly in this ward, your age, all alone in a big room and in need  of a roommate. Would you like her here?”

Twilight brightened up as much as she could manage. She felt tired and hungry and the shaking had started again, yet still this was wonderful news.

“Yes, yes, yes, yes, YES!” Despite the cold and the fear that the hurting might start again, she took to shout out her excitement as well as she could.

“Alright. I’ll see to it, then.” Redheart said, her smile never reaching her eyes. She was murmuring something about the head doctor before she turned to Twilight again. “First things first, though. We’ll need to get you some breakfast, ” The nurse informed her and took her leave. Some days, it felt like the mare was the only pony who really cared about Twilight.

Some doctors and nurses didn’t like miss Redheart but Twilight figured that that was only because none of them had ever been patients in the hospital before. She couldn’t really figure out any bad traits to the pony. Miss Redheart cared about her work and the ponies she was working with. Not once had Twilight seen her without a smile, and when she promised something, she kept her word.

Twilight Sparkle loved her like a mother, mainly because Nurse Redheart was the closest she ever had to one. The filly had spent most of her life in the Canterlot hospital. The doctors had urged her father to move to Ponyville or Appleloosa, somewhere with fresh air. Everypony knew Twilight’s condition wasn’t going to heal. Still they insisted, Nurse Redheart even more than the others. Papa’s marefriends were here in Canterlot though, so they couldn’t move.

Then she was on her own in the room, left alone with her thoughts and the dream coming back to her. She looked at the blanket and then at her legs and hooves. Twilight had a black mane and green eyes, like her mother’s had been in the pictures, not the dreams though. Her coat was a light brown, her extremities only skin and bones. They were so weak that Twilight was barely able to hold herself on them.

Yet in her dreams, both standing and walking came easy to her and both her parents were alive. Her coat was the finest lavender in the dreams too. Everything was so wonderful there, Twilight thought. And she could cast magic. Shining had shown her how to teleport cookies out of the jar right into their hooves and she had watched her parents pushing winter away with a spell. All these things happened in her dreams, in that wonderful world.

None of them were true. Her coat was brown, not lavender. Shining had never stolen any cookies with her and winter wasn’t something a pony could just wish away. Twilight lifted her hoof up.

“Everyday I wake up in a world without magic,” she muttered, touching the decorative bone on her forehead, the thing that had given her species the name ‘unicorn’. It looked fair, yes, but otherwise it served no purpose at all. She had tried to read a book about it, but it had been way more complicated than the other ones she normally read: The ones with the pictures or the ones with the stories, the adventures and the fantastic places.

Sometimes she thought, if magic would exist everything would be better, happier.

The filly turned her eyes towards the window. The sun crept slowly across the sky and the clouds that moved towards Canterlot were grey and black. Surely they were storm clouds and soon their thunder would drown out the beat of the machines, all while Rain would stain iron and wash the filth off of the streets. She liked rain well enough, somehow it managed to make a city like Canterlot look beautiful.

The city had been a marvel a long time ago, when the legendary princesses had still been alive. It had housed every form of art and had been known as the greatest town ever built. Nowadays, all Twilight saw when she looked at the city was the smoke from the furnaces, the dirt on the streets, and the angry looks on everypony’s faces.

Her meal was scarce, even though it was more plentiful than usual. Nurse Redheart had put a few flowers and sauce along the straw, and the water was clean too. The nurse even sat down beside Twilight and watched over her for the whole meal. A sad look remained on Redheart's face throughout the whole ordeal, but Twilight ate with a bright grin on her face. It made her felt better to have something in her stomach.

She gulped down her medicine afterwards, silently praying to Luna that she might gobble up her sickness in the night. It was a futile hope she knew, but she wanted to be strong. The nurse took the tablet off her and asked her if she wanted to read one of her books. Twilight nodded.

She had many books and the nurse always brought her new ones. Twilight was smart – everypony said so – but few ponies admired her for it. She had learned to read as quickly as she could and her first book had been the story of a certain Daring Do. It had been long, yes, but also great. Until midday she would read a book of short stories. Twilight had to admit that she didn’t really care about the writers. She could remember certain names but that was the extend of it. There were so many other things that interested her, mostly the stories themselves and she was easily absorbed by them.

A weak, small thing like her loved to dream about adventures and dragons, magic and princesses. These were all things she herself would never see. Things she would never be able to touch or do. She was completely engrossed with those worlds of fantasy. So much in fact, that it took her three stories until she laid her head back and looked at the white hospital wall, her own cage from the world.

“What are you in for?” Twilight was startled out of her daydream and turned to the source of the voice. Another bed, a small piebald unicorn in it. Brown and white was her coat and she had a mane that was half black and half the color of straw.  It made her look weird.

“Wha-?” was all Twilight managed at that moment, clutching her book and wondering when the other pony had arrived here. She cursed herself for getting too involved with the story.

The other filly sat in her bed, her forelegs and head covered in bandages. One of her eyes was black and she was clutching some kind of box in her hooves.

“I asked why you’re here,” the strange filly said, her voice impatient and the look on her face seemed to scream her annoyance out.

“I-I’m,” Twilight stuttered, the other pony scared her. Where was nurse Redheart? She felt her heartbeat growing stronger again.

The filly gazed over Twilight before her eyes and mouth widened, a silent eureka moment happening within the confines of her tiny head. “You’re one of the regulars, aren’t you? I’ve seen you a few times over the year.”

Twilight only nodded. She had no idea how to respond, but it was the truth.

Then the other filly then started to smile. “I’m Trixie,” she said, “Trixie Lulamoon.”

“Twilight Sparkle,” she answered meekly. She felt weak, she felt her heart crashing against her chest, again and again. The pain was coming back. She was nervous, she didn’t want to feel the sting anymore. The shaking started up again.

Trixie didn’t seem to notice, “That’s an awesome name!” There was a lisp in her voice. “What have you got there?”

Twilight looked at her, the filly seemed genuinely interested and with her eyes shone with a light that made Twilight overthink her opinion on the other filly. At first Twilight had thought her to be menacing, evil, just from the first glance. She had thought that the other filly might have had it out for her. But now? The honest smile across Trixie’s face told Twilight Sparkle everything she wanted to know about her new roommate. She answered: “A book.”

“Woah . . . You can read?”

Twilight nodded, but broke off, "What?"

"I don't know many ponies who can read. That's so cool."

Twilight watched her flip out on her bed. This filly seemed genuinely happy to have somepony to talk to and was strangely happy about somepony understanding the written words. Honestly, Twilight didn't get why Trixie grinned the way she did, but she never had talked to somepony her age before. A smile formed across her face.

"Thanks."

Trixie laughed out and Twilight noticed a few of her teeth were missing. That’s where the lisp is coming from. Still, she suspected that some of those teeth shouldn’t be missing.

“Wow,” the piebald said, “I totally can’t do that.”

Twilight didn't know what to answer, but the hurting was gone and she was free to look somewhere else. So she looked at the box in Trixie's arms. Could there be books in there? That might've been, but Trixie had just said she couldn't read, right? Maybe she could ask?

Struggling, Twilight felt her eyes pacing across the room, but she had to make up her mind. Somepony to talk to, she thought and resolved herself.

"What're you holding, then?" she finally inquired and pointed at the strange box.

Trixie's smile grew more wry, as she tapped the box with her left hoof. "Do you want to know?"

A quick nod escaped Twilight. She was truly excited about seeing something new in this tiny world of hers.

However, Trixie betrayed her expectations entirely and took the blanket off herself. Twilight couldn't even react when the other filly jumped to the ground, yelping out and lifting one hoof up. Clearly, she was hurt.

“I can show you,” Trixie said despite the pain, “but only when we’re outside.”

Twilight was shocked, “Why would you want to leave? Nurse Redheart is here. There’s warm pillows and our families might come and here is the medicine that can make any pain go away.”

This filly was clearly hurt, so Twilight couldn't even begin to guess why she would want to leave. Not only that, but what if their parents would come? She thought that, but a part of her couldn't help but smile at the promise. It was the one part of her that knew where she was.

They looked at each other. Twilight not grasping what the other unicorn meant and Trixie moving towards the window. The filly opened it up, letting the reeking air of the city in. Balancing the package on her back, she turned back to Twilight.

“I’ve seen you a few times 's the truth,” she said, “and you’re always looking somewhere far away. I doubt you have seen anything of Canterlot. So I could take you somewhere wonderful and maybe show you a thing or two. I’ll bring you back whenever you want to, too.”

Twilight looked at the other filly in wonder. Trixie was her age but unlike Twilight, she was strong and her face showed a warm smile beneath all those bruises and cuts she had. The box remained on the back of Trixie, and Twilight's curiosity had reached its peak. She had dreamt of something like this, that somepony would take her away and show her the world. Thing was, she just hadn’t expected it to happen so quickly.

Her papa and brother hadn’t come over the last months. They had probably given up on her, just like the doctors. Only nurse Redheart remained but eventually even she would leave and if she didn’t, Twilight knew she herself would. Her heart was pounding as she took the blanket off her tiny body. She stepped unto the ground for the first time since she had collapsed back home.

She felt her heart going against her chest, she felt the pain starting up again as she walked a few steps, clumsily. Then, too weak, she fell.

Trixie caught her mid fall and looked at her, even though her face was widened in shock. “Whoa, are you alright?”

“I want to see Canterlot, more than anything else,” Twilight whispered as she used Trixie as a crutch. After few seconds during which Trixie was working her mind on what she should say, she finally nodded.

“Don’t worry, you’ll see it."

Even though Twilight knew she would leave this world soon, that sentence alone gave her some hope. By this point it was midday and the rain clouds were above Canterlot. It was at this point where the two fillies who had just met climbed through the window and towards freedom. Nothing stood between them and Canterlot. Yet, despite all that, a dark was already upon the world and dusk was coming.

Chapter 8 ~ There Are Dreams And There Are Dreams (V2)

Trixie Is Not Amused With Your Shenanigans

That came as a shock to Twilight. Earthquakes were a rare thing and even if they did happen, they didn't give the ponies much trouble. Under normal circumstance, so she had heard, the damage was only minor. Two earthquakes in two days and now... half the city. That was a size she couldn't even hope to grasp. Neither seemed Lyra, although there were hints of it in her face. Something was off, incredibly off.

Twilight was a smart filly but she didn't understand. Still, she reassured the other fillies that at least she was fine and that they didn't need to worry about her. She didn't tell them that she had collapsed because she had used magic. It wasn't often you get to tell somepony that you'd broken the laws by which reality worked and she was quite sure none of them would quite understand it. She herself had little to no idea about it and she was a smart filly.

This was when Twilight got her first glimpse at the life in this house. From her bed she observed Raindrops hovering above the ground, her tiny wings flapping like those of a bee, with Derpy trying to catch up, throwing various things to the ground with that dangerous technique of hers. The two pegasi were really bad at flying and it didn't surprise Twilight that even if they were only a few centimeters above ground, they still only landed face first. Octavia had taken her giant cello to the kitchen and plucked it there, while Lyra seemed to be in an endless talk with Madame Hooves. Hugh was still out. Twilight had heard that he had left immediately after the earthquake and hadn't come back ever since.

Trixie sat by the side of the bed while the pegasi played around, looking to the ground. She and Twilight both felt that this would probably a good time to talk.

"So...,“ Trixie started. "Has that 'wise goat' thing talked to you again?“ she asked.

"Yeah,“ she answered.

"He said that you could do magic.“ Twilight noted how hollow Trixie's voice sounded.

"Y-yeah,“ she said, with a bit of hesitation but also pride. She had to be the first unicorn since forever to be able to do magic.

"Trixie was born in a tower by the cliffs. There were fields of grass all around us and a small town if you followed the road for half an hour,“ Trixie suddenly said. "Trixie's parents were called Great Stars and Powerful Echo. They gave Trixie the cloak and hat and told her that she would become the greatestest wizard in the world if she tried. They were stage magicians, you see, but nopony had liked their show, so they had bought the tower and lived their remaining days out by the cliffs, until they went to sleep and ponies came to take Trixie to Canterlot. The cloak and hat were taken from Trixie and she had to get them back. They're all that's left from them, that and that she's going to become a great and powerful unicorn. Just, I can't really do any magic.“

Trixie looked to the ground. She seemed a truly downtrodden and broken thing at that very moment. Twilight Sparkle didn't know how to respond, other than a: "I'm sorry.“

Trixie didn't cry, Trixie didn't show any emotion on her face. Trixie simply left the room and left Twilight there.

The third earthquake shook the foundations of Canterlot even more than the last two. The power of it all caused the walls and the ceiling of Madame's house to crack and five fillies huddled up around Twilight Sparkle. Afterwards Madame Hooves wrote them that she had to see if Hugh was alright and they would need to wait here. She intended to go out and followed up on her promise by storming out of the house, even leaving the front door open, or so Lyra told her. Twilight only laid there and wondered how Canterlot looked after three earthquakes. Probably not good.

She spent the following time in the bed, shivering all by herself. The cold wasn't going away and she felt herself growing weaker by the hour, as if something was draining her energy, more and more. The filly couldn't help but be a bit scared.

You know, I couldn't help but notice a small thing. Tiny, really. You know. . . It is actually quite a bit funny, so I thought I'd tell you. You see, I have actually noticed that you haven't really moved towards the gardens. Why?

She looked at the ceiling when the voice said that. "You talk too much and I don't understand what you're saying.“

It's simple, really: Go to the gardens, get to the Lunarium, save the world.

"But the magic nearly-“

That's not because of the magic but rather because other than a talent you've got no connection. It's complicated, all you need to know is this: Get Magic back, you get better.

There was a pause, Twilight said nothing.

That's not what you want, though, right?

The others were by the front door, waiting, she knew. "Even if I get better, Shining's gone and papa...“ She couldn't finish that sentence.

So, you don't think going to where I tell you to isn't going to help? Even if I'd tell you that you'd revive the princesses there and get harmony back to the land?

There was a pause. "What?“

Go to the gardens, the old castle plaza. Twilight Sparkle, take a dive and change the fate of the world. You are the pony to do it. You'll get stronger as the journey will continue and in the end, I'm sure, you might even become a bearer of an Element of Harmony. Trust me on that, Twilight Sparkle.

The voice was reassuring to her. She sat there, looking at the ceiling and the mobile above her, still no idea why Raindrops had one above her bed as she seemed way too old for one. But now those stars told her something. Revive the princesses, bring back harmony. She had read stories, she had heard so much about the old world, how wonderful it had been, how Equestria had flourished and peace had been there. Most important: How family had mattered. Twilight decided to do it. With a stern expression on her face she stood up, standing even more shaky on her hooves than usual. She threw off all blankets but the most colorful, that one she'd wear like a cape, for it was also the warmest and snuggliest of them all. She needed something to snuggle.

Then she moved, step by step, slowly stumbling towards the first door. She reached it and then went to the floor, setting her sights on the front door. Six ponies sat there, looking away, hoping for a mare to return that wouldn't do that. Twilight somehow knew it. Somehow she felt like she knew this entire scene. Every step felt familiar, every time she blinked everything felt like she had seen it before. Deja-vu that feeling was called, or so she had memorized. That didn't matter however. It was time to play hero!

Reaching the door, Lyra was the first to react to her: "What are you doing?“

"Going on an adventure!“ The declaration came easy to Twilight, she felt good, even though she felt weak and cold.

The other ponies looked at her for a moment, mouths agape.

"Trixie is not amused with your shenanigans. You should rest,“ Trixie said, trying to be the voice of reason.

"Anypony want to go with me on an adventure? We might even see Madame and Hugh on our way,“ Twilight asked.

A few seconds later Derpy declared herself with a "Woohoo,“ and Raindrops followed, Octavia looked at Lyra who lifted her hoof to the air and made some kind of battlecry and Trixie seemed to have found new resolve, how or when, Twilight didn't know.

"We're going to follow that voice?“ she still asked.

"Yeah. We're going to revive the princesses and save Canterlot!“ That declaration got the group even more excited and Twilight knew that, even now, as her heart was smashing against her chest and her legs were trembling under the weight of her own body a good ending was in sight for her.

Part 2: Chapter 5 ~ I Dreamt Of Mommy And Daddy (V2)

I'm So Scared (Raindrops II)

Somewhere out in the world there was a place with a gazillion stars and another filly had lived there and she had been beautiful and loved. Yet everytime she closed her eyes Raindrops was there and not the filly. Nopony loved her and she was ugly. Her parents looked at her with spite in their eyes and the ponies called her names and threw rocks at her. She stumbled away from them and wished them gone and gone they were.

Somewhere out in the wide world was a place as beautiful as a paradise. The most gorgeous place and it was burning in her dreams and they were all screaming as their eyes melted, just as their coats turned to ash and they tried to run but their legs turned to cinders.

Raindrops sat at the side of it all. The first time she'd been alone and she woke up kicking and screaming. She remembered that she called out the names of the other filly's parents. Not her own, never her own, Raindrops had no parents but the other filly did. She also remembered that the tears wouldn't stop and that the others were scared, too.

The second time she was alone again and the third time, too. The fourth time, she tried to avoid as long as possible but then she was sitting there again. She was bruised from the rocks and broken from the insults but what hurt the most was seeing all these ponies hurting. None of them were ever dying, instead they were going through constant pain. That was what scared Raindrops the most, because she had wished for it.

"They hurt me," she said.

You are getting closer.

"They abandonend me," she said.

You are moving deeper.

"I never wanted to leave," she said.

You can do this.

Then she tried to look to who was talking to her but she woke and the dream died and not even the memory of the strange voice lingered.

There was no way they could tell what time it was, but by now, Twilight was looking the best of them. Lyra was shaking all over, her aquamarine coat was dirty and her hair a mess, while a black spot had formed on her leg. Octavia had stumbled so often over her own legs that they were bruised but she led on, alongside Lyra. Much like Derpy and Twilight they were keeping each other up. Yet it was who Derpy looked worst of them all. She was always trotting about with a smile and she just wouldn't wake from the nightmares, she was always fighting through, no matter how much she cried and yelled in her dreams. One time she nearly drowned in the river, only to get up and continue walking like nothing had happened. Truly, she was the most stubborn pony Raindrops knew, but she understood that Derpy kept her going. The grey pegasus was the closest thing she had to a sister and right now was the moment where she had to pretend to be strong, to be able to go on no matter what. The only reason she could still walk straight, though, were her wings. She kept them unfolded at all times, giving her extra balance. It made things only marginally easier.

What was even worse: Trixie hadn't reappeared at all and much like Canterlot, everypony had left her behind already. If they'd reach the Lunarium they could save her. Nopony knew how, though. They didn't even really know what the Lunarium was and what the information they had gotten from a voice in Twilight's and Octavia's head they had now both dismissed. Raindrops wasn't sure whether this situation could get any worse.

On the fifth night she dreamt a stranger's dream.

She sat on a terrace of white wood. Before her stood a table with lemonade on it and around her were cupcake trees and birds looking like oranges flying through the air. She took the glass of lemonade and drank it. The glass was tasty, the lemonade she then put on the table again.

"Do you like it?" her new friend asked.

"Yeah," she answered.

She couldn't quite make him out, even though he was sitting right on the other side of the small round table. She knew however that he was smiling.

"You know, I wondered. Did you know that you will die?"

She didn't answer this time.

"Because you will and then this world is going down," he said with a snicker. "However! You can help me, help you. All that's needed is for you to stand in front of me and do something that doesn't make any sense, something that isn't planned, something that nopony could comprehend."

She looked at the lemonade that stood on the table in front of her, "Why?"

"Why indeed? Tell me, little filly. What are you right now?"

There was a pause there, for she didn't know what to answer. She cast her eyes down. No, maybe she already knew the answer but was still pretending to be like her sister. That's how children did, they pretended to possess somepony else's strength.

"I'm scared," she answered, tears starting to fall down from her eyes. "I'm so scared..."

"Well, that's as good a reason as any. It's a little something we all need in our lives. The very thing that keeps us going, that keeps us excited and amazed at the universe. What good does magic and peace do to you when you are in a situation like this. What you need now is the one thing everypony yearns for deep inside. What do you need a plan for and order and dreams, when what you need is simply the void and the darkness around you. Let it make you strong. I can help you, because I am. . ."

He smirked then, but never said the last word.

She woke up by the riverside and Octavia stood above her, bags beneath her reddened eyes. "Come on," she said, only to be interrupted by her grumbling stomach. How long had they been down here, without food, with only the water to drink? She didn't know anymore.

Raindrops stood up, but she was close to her own end now. She knew that soon she would collapse and then she'd go to the Night Terrors again. That's what the dreams were. The Night Terrors of old had come back and they were feasting on fear of the darkness. She didn't say anything. Instead they all moved on and everypony kept their silence. With grim determination they walked by the riverside through the crystal caves.

During the sixth night she them dreamt of the burning plains again and was crying beside them. She knew what was happening. She saw Stone Heart, the old, grim lady who never talked. She saw Forest Mist, who had told her that he'd teach her some games in the future. Even Slimy Git - or Passion - depending on whoever you asked. Amidst them, the father of another filly burned, a filly he had once loved and then abandoned. They all burned and little Raindrops was despising herself for it.

A harp played in the background, a lonely melody she could hardly make out at first, but then it became clearer. A song pierced the darkness around her and the flames before her became smaller as a beautiful, wonderful, yet sad and lonely voice started to sing a melody she was well familiar with and yet had never heard before.

Take my heart away

Take it far from me

Lead me astray

So together we'll be

And sing our song again

As the truth awaits at the end

And we will let the earth rend

Our hopes will all come true

And I would never of ask you:

Do you still dream of magic?

No wait, that's wrong

Raindrops opened her eyes, Lyra sat amongst the group and was trying out another lullaby, seemingly calming everypony around her down.

"What're you doing?" Raindrops asked and Lyra turned towards her, smiling at her stupidly before she started to sing 'Cider in the keg' in a hushed voice. The little unicorn couldn't help but smile and closed her eyes again.

This time she slept peaceful, even though she felt herself starving and soon she would need something to eat. But on the morrow the river continued on and they went farther into the mountain and this time, they didn't stop for a break even though Raindrops started to complain, because everypony was walking with their last bit of strength. Hunger was leading them now. Hunger and the hope of finding something that even just looked edible.

"You need to think positive," Lyra started, "Think about. . . uhm, being robots. Yes, robots don't need food."

"What's a robot?" Derpy asked.

"It's a thing that doesn't need food."

"Not even muffins?" There was scepsis in Derpy's voice.

"Yeah."

Derpy laughed, "That's stupid, how can anypony live without muffins?"

Lyra tried to explain but by then Derpy had fallen snout first into the sand. "Hey?" The green unicorn moved towards her friend, "Derpy? DERPY!" Twilight stood on wobbly hooves beside them both. She looked at the darkness before them.

"Wait," she said. "Do you hear that?"

Before them water was rushing. "A waterfall?"

Lyra turned around. "Maybe there's something edible there!" She tried to help Derpy up and Octavia was quick to help her. Raindrops took it upon herself to aid Twilight. Then, there wasn't any more talking and they just continued their long walk.

Patches of blue flowers at the sides of the cave and two waterfalls with a statue whose features had long since been washed off by the water between them, and a lake in its middle. Raindrops didn't care, Twilight didn't seem to care, nopony cared about all that and they immediately hurried towards the flowers. Even Derpy, just woken by the smell of them, and then they started to feast like they had never eaten before, munching down the blossoms and the stalks. For Raindrops, every bite felt heavenly and she lost the empty feeling in her stomach more and more. The taste of these flowers was the best thing about it all, for they reminded her of that place where muffins had often been on the table and a sweet scent had lingered in the kitchen.

Soon after they all sat amidst more flowers than they could ever eat and they lay in a circle and suddenly Lyra started to hum another song. First her own lonely voice sounded through the dark and then Octavia started up too, in her high-pitched way. Soon enough Derpy was clapping her hooves together and Raindrops did the same. The last to add her voice was Twilight, whistling the leitmotif of the little seapony and all together they created the most beautiful version of The Seapalace.