Pinkamena stopped moving the saw towards Luna’s body, looking a bit puzzled. Discord took on a look of confusion as well for a moment. Though after a moment he apparently came to a realization. “YOU!”

“Yes, me! But actually, if you're a bit confused, I am actually Celestia in disguise!” Luna replied. Wait what, but Celestia died from extreme cold in the frozen tundra…

Discord obviously believed it as much as my fractured mind did. He crossed his arms and frowned. “Nice try princess, but we both know that fat plot can’t dreamwalk like yourself.”

“Don’t talk about Celestia that way!” I tried to say, but it came out as an unintelligible mumble.

“As you can see I am very busy at the moment,” He shooed at Luna like a pony would to a noisy bird. “so if you would be so kind as to take your jokes and leave that would be great!”

I couldn’t just lay here and let him degrade the princess like that. I gathered what strength I had left and stood up. I tried to take a step forward but was met with resistance from the shackle around my left foreleg.

Luna spoke up again from her position on the operating table. “How is a raven like a writing desk?!” What? Was she delusional or something? Was this some new kind of torture planned for me?

Discord looked a bit disappointed. “Luna, Luna, Luna. You were always too jokingly in serious matters. Pinkamena, if you would please continue.”

The pink hybrid turned to face Discord, her creepy smile returning with full force. “Okie dokie!” She turned to face Luna again “You ready to have some fun princess? This is going to be a party you'll never forget!”

The blades whirred and sliced the air to a point where noise was created. Chrysalis grinned. “Do you like my toy? I sharpened these blades myself. They were used when our pathetic pony slaves couldn't break through rock. I wonder how they will fare against your pathetic flesh?” She cackled with joy.

The saw began to cut into Luna’s foreleg. I cringed at the sight. I wanted to do something yet I couldn’t break the chains that restricted me. Before it got farther than a few centimeters however a surge of magic started to bend into itself like somepony would crumple up tinfoil. I watched as her eyes turned pure white and the restraints are ripped apart. My former fatigue faded as I witness her power manifest. The monster that had been pinkie started to disintegrate from merely being near here.

She turned towards me and I cowered a little. A bolt shot from her horn and instead of impaling me it shattered the pitch-black chains surrounding my hooves. I felt something unlock in my mind. This was merely a dream. A smile creased my muzzle at the thought of me being scared of a silly dream. I stretched my wings and turned towards my oppressor.

“No, this is my nightmare that I created!” He threw a hate-laden glance towards the door. “Chrysalis get back here and destroy the Princess!”

The queen of the changelings had quietly made her way to the exit in order to make her escape, typical coward! However, at Discord’s command she complied, almost robotically, before advancing towards Luna. Chrysalis jumped at the princess who took a quick step back, avoiding the attack. Instead of retaliating however she merely waves a hoof in front of the changeling. “I am not the one you want to attack.” Wait what… but chrysalis…

The changeling queen mumbles something back to her. Luna waved her hoof again, what is up with that? “Discord is your enemy. You hate how he treats you and wish to be free of him!” There is a slight buzz in the back of my mind, as if I should be remembering something but couldn’t.

Chrysalis’ eyes turn glassy and she turns towards Discord who is giving a bit of a pouty face. “Now that’s just not fair Luna.” He snapped his fingers and the image of chrysalis faded away. “Well, now that you’ve released him and have disposed of my conjurations, what are you going to do? Blast me?”

The lunar princess winks at me. “I have something more… creative in mind.” Wait, why is she winking at me, is she going to torture me as well?

I slowly backed away from her. The door was across the room, and with my broken wing it would be hard to navigate around her without getting caught. My legs started shaking again as I remember what happened last time I had been captured. I saw discord shift his eyes to me at my slight movement. He gave a slight smile. “Oh and what would that be princess. I have deeply ingrained myself in his mind, I have almost as much power as you do.”

“Ah, but you forget Discord, dreams are part of my domain. And every extra entity has a weakness within a dream, even me.” Luna retorted. I gave a slight smile. Luna was always better at the comebacks than Celestia.

Discord raised an eyebrow. “Well princess, I assume that you think you know my weakness?”

“Yes, your weakness is assuming all those around you cannot defend themselves or those around them.” She sounded confident and so sure of herself, so like the Luna I knew, it was hard to accept that this was all just another nightmare conjured by discord to break my mind.

“Oh? I don’t assume that, I KNOW that. You ponys have always been the weaklings of the planet. Even you and your sister couldn’t even defeat me the first time without the elements of harmony. What makes you think you can do so now?"

Luna’s demeanor changed from angry to confused. “I have defeated you before!” Well didn’t he just say that though? “But didn’t he say…” I mumbled but was cut off as Luna continued. “Wait, no I didn’t.” Wait what? “I'm not Luna, I'm john!” That sounds like a human name; a human that’s a pony. Why does that sound so familiar? “I just turned 25 a couple days ago.” That number, it was significant somehow!

Luna/john positioned herself in front of me like a bodyguard, or maybe a predator guarding her prey. I considered my options. Thanks to the interference by the unknown person/pony who now inhabited Luna’s body my mind had time to piece itself back together, barely. I looked cautiously between ‘Luna’ and Discord. The former seemed kinder, less likely to be one that wished me harm. The latter had already proven to be a villain many times over. Without much of a choice I choose the lesser of the two evils and moved slightly closer to the towering form of ‘John’.

“It does not matter who you are or who you were, you shall not stop me. Since you're not even Luna that increases your probability of failure.” He snapped his fingers and a black snake rose from the floor and wrapped itself around my foreleg before starting to solidify. Oh no you don’t! I jumped back, snapping the snakelike shadow. Discord frowned. “Seems like you need to be taught a lesson again.” He turned back to John, d*mn it’s weird associating that name with the princess’ body. “You on the other hand have outstayed your welcome. Be gone!” I watch in horror as his hand glows white with energy and her moves it towards John’s horn. She tries to escape but it’s like her hooves are glued or something. I move to help but see that another snake has coiled itself around my foreleg, forcing me to sit and watch my savior was destroyed.

His hand makes contact and a flash emanates. When the light dissipates… John is still standing there. His hands flash white and he makes contact only to receive the same results. “Huh, that usually works.”

I can’t see John’s face but I can hear the sarcasm in her voice. “Well, performance issues aren’t uncommon. Usually a one out of five cha-“ She is cut off by a punch from discord that sends her 10 feet. My mouth drops as she stumbles back to her hooves.

I don’t care whom this pony is or if she’ll end up harming me in the end. Anypony willing to take a hit for me will not be left on own. I pull at my forelegs. The black snakes stretch and discord starts making his way to John. If only I could bucking fly! I instinctively flap my bad wing, eliciting pain. No, I will not be stopped by simple pain; just pretend it’s not there. I flap again; the pain was diminishing. I continue flapping until I'm a foot off the ground. I grunted from the strain on my wings. Discord noticed this and turned towards me.

He grinned. “Ah ah ah, there’ll be none of that!” At his word another long snake shoots up from the floor. I decide to do something stupid and fly forward. The previous snake misses its target while the sudden release of strain on the others causes me to shoot forward. I overshoot their roots and do a flip allowing me to use all my energy to pull them up like the weeds they are.

I succeed and the snakes go flying, dissipating into smoke once they were disconnected from the floor. I smiled dangerously at discord. “You made a fatal mistake in setting Discord.” His cheeky smile had disappeared, replaced by a look of confusion. “I'm in my element here. Time to show you how I got my nickname.”

“Don’t you mean our element?” I don’t even need to turn around to know that John walked up behind me.

“How nice of you to join me, I don’t know who you are but you have style. As cool as your entrance was however, you better have moves to back it up.” I state.

Discord breaks out in laughter. “You really think you can defeat me? How sad.”

I spread my wings. “There’s a difference you know. Losers are the ones who go into a fight ‘thinking’ the can win. The victorious are those who jump in ‘knowing’ they will. I don’t know what will happen to me and john here, but as sure as Celestia’s sun rises, I'm going to kick your ass.”

"Oh, the cliché! It hurts so much! Anyways, I'm just trying to say that I don't care what either of you say, I just want to get this show on the road!" Wow that sounds a lot like the princess Luna I know…

“Ha ha ha ha.” Discord burst out laughing. “Way to kill it ‘John’.” I cringed a bit at his… her? crudeness, but did not otherwise show emotion. I had to keep focused.

I was done with this idle chitchat. I powered my wings and flew towards him as fast as I could go, aiming for the head. I hit him square in the jaw and rebounded away. “Well as horrid as it was I still prefer it over your voice any night of the week.” I taunted.

Discord frowned deeply and wiped a talon across his mouth. “You think those nightmares were bad? You’ll be broken by the time this dream is over.” Luna… John, maybe I should call him/her something else. Jona? Yeah. I cracked a small smile; I’d have to tell Fireball that one.

While discord was facing me, Jona quickly positioned herself behind discord. “He’s not going to be the one broken by the end of tonight.” Her hind legs hit him in the back so hard he slid to my hooves.

I wanted to make some kind of witty pun, I know Fireball would have instantly thought one up but I just went with a hoof to the his face. This was met with a growl. Discord grabbed my hoof and flipped me over onto my back. “Your weak, you know that?” The darkness grows more frightening. “You could never beat me.” His voice becomes prevalent. “I don’t see how you could ever become something.” I started shivering again, how could I become anything?

As the darkness closes in I hear Jona growl deeply. I manage to climb my way out of the suffocating darkness to realize that it was a dangerous growl. Discord’s throat suddenly constricts and he is thrown off of me with magnificent force. The darkness recedes as I pick myself up. Ha! What was I thinking? I could be anything I wanted to be! With Fireball living with me my life was practically never guaranteed a dull moment!

I look over to see Jona eye to eye with the God of chaos. "You make me sick Discord. Always belittling the ponies near you, always acting like one with power. In truth, you're nothing. My sister and I could've turned you to dust long ago, but we were held back by our morals." She growled out. Wait was she passing herself off as Luna? But didn’t she say that she was a 25 year old human?

She pulls her face away from Discord’s and beckoned to me. I hesitated. I still didn’t trust this pony very much and now she was pretending. Pretending to be who, I don’t know. However, she did just save me, twice. I move slowly towards her and stop a foot away.

“Punish him however you deem fit. This trash is not worth my time.” She said.

I walked closer and stared discord in the face. “You don’t have the guts to end me.” He spit up a bit of blood. “You guards are all the same, you have your morals, your standards.”

I laugh in his face. “Funny… That’s what my captain always said.” I scoop up a bit of the shadows with my forehoof. “I don’t really know how I'm doing this, but I can guarantee you that it’s going to hurt you soooo much.” His eyes go wide as I slam the ball into his face.

The darkness covers first his head, then his body. The form then dissipates.

Jona, or whoever she is smiles at me. I pounce on top of her, pinning her to the floor. “Okay I want answers, who the hay are you?”

She looked back at me and smirked. If she tries anything she is so getting a hoof to the face, I don’t care if it’s Luna’s body. “I knew you would be excited to see somepony else, but tackling them to the ground isn’t the best way to start off. Don’t worry, I’ll tell you everything…” She trails off and gets a thoughtful look in her eyes.

“Well it looks like you can speak just fine from the floor.” I responded.

“Well, for the story I'm gonna tell you, we may want to be a bit more comfortable before I start.” Hmph, as much as I didn’t trust her she did have a point. I slowly backed off of her so she could rise to a more comfortable position.

She stands up, stretches, and then sits on the ground; presumably to be more comfortable. “There, I’ve let you up.” I looked around. “Though I have to say, this isn’t the most comfortable place to be having a discussion.” I narrowed my eyes at her. “I don’t know what kind of pony you are, but if you try anything I will put your flank on the ground so fast it’ll break the sound barrier.”

She feigns a yawn. Ha, if this is how she expects to gain my trust this conversation won’t be getting far very fast. “And I could leave this dream faster than that. I mean, seriously, I just got sent flying across the night sky to this dream. Why? Because it was obviously a nightmare that needed to be taken care of.” I keep my face in the state of seriousness. Bah, to think anypony could do what Luna could was blasphemy. However, she did mention that this was a dream. Does that mean that this wasn’t real, maybe I should listen, it would at least explain things a bit more to say the least. “Anyways, I wont bore you with the details. But I will start my story. You see, it all started three days ago when I turned twenty-five.” Oh Luna, I better sit down for this, it sounds like a long boring story…

“And so, you should know the rest, seeing as how you were here." I’ve dealt with liars enough to know when someone is telling one. This ‘person’ who claimed ‘he’ was turning into Princess Luna was either very astute in the art of lying or ‘he’ was telling the truth.

“Alright, so let’s say I believe you, what’s this got to do with me?” I cocked my head questioningly.

"Think long and hard, Shadow. What's been happening for the past few days that connects us?" Well that’s an odd question. Well I guess I could try to humor ‘John’. I close my eyes and try to remember what happened before I started ‘dreaming’. I'm told that this is a very hard thing to do, but since I know that this is a dream and have become completely lucid it should be easier.

A memory passes by and my eyes fly open. I had seen myself, in two-legged form and suddenly it all came rushing back. “Oh sh*t, oh sh*t!” I back away from John and fall back on my rump. I take a long look at my hooves, unwilling to comprehend that what had happened was in fact part of my past life before I turned human. “I'm a… and you’re a… ahh buck…”

She extends a hoof to comfort me. "Hey, just ignore those memories, as far as I can tell, they're probably fake."

"Well, if they're fake, then how do you explain my memories of that discord character and some kind of curse he put on me? If I 'remember' correctly, it said something about me being sent away to a different world, in a new form, with my memories erased. How do you explain that?" I retorted.

All of a sudden she collapses to the ground, my secondary sense kicks in and I immediately rush over to her. She looked to be in extreme pain. I look directly into her eyes, trying to make contact. “Luna! What’s wrong? Princess! Speak to me!” She doesn’t appear to take notice of my speech. I need to do something, I don’t know why but I feel that I need to take care of her, despite the fact that I know her. I mean don’t know.

The dreamscape shifts and I find myself in Princess Luna's room. Disregarding the fact that this seems uncomfortably familiar I manage to get the Princess to her bed. Heh, seems like those work outs during boot camp really did do something. Wait, no! That's not me, I mean I never went to boot camp, I meant to I was going to but then all this sh*t happened and I aghh...

I'm jolted out of my self-confusion by Luna’s voice. “Ugh, what happened?” She sat up and placed a forehoof on what was probably the pony equivalent to her temple. She looks around quickly, apparently surprised with at her surroundings. She seems to not realize my presence in the room and lays her head back on the pillow. I'm content to let her sleep, but realize that this is a dream.

“Um, Luna, or John, whoever you are, um…” I start. Yeah that’s a great way to start talking to a princess, stutter. I clear my throat. “So, are you okay?”

“Well, let’s see. I just had a battle with the God of chaos in another world alongside a lunar guard, had to go through a three day story of how I'm pretty much turning into a pony and met my sister, almost had a brain overload from thousands of years worth of memories, met my equivalent, and then learned I actually am Princess Luna.” She brings her hoof to her chin in thought. So she’s princess Luna now? Okay. “So yeah, I think I'm actually doing okay with all that’s happened.”

“So you're actually Princess Luna? But you were… ah crap, this is going to happen to me isn’t it. Ah well life is life, not like I can change this anyways.” I pause and look around the room. “So, now that you're done banishing the nightmare and all, which I'm very appreciative for thank you, um can I wake up now? I have a friend whose also going through the same things as me and to be honest she isn’t the most responsible pony”

“Of course, dawn is just about to arrive,” not going to question how she knows this. “so I think it’s time for you to wake up anyways.” So that’s how dreams worked, been kind of curious about that. “Also, we need a way to contact each other. Do you have a computer with you?” Ah yes, a computer what did we do with Fireball’s computer again?

“Yeah um, I think we stuffed one into my truck, going to have get it out of the backseat somehow but unless something happened it should still be there.” Got to hoof it to Fireball sometimes, she can think when she wants to, that computer is apparently going to be very useful despite the fact that I don’t think I will be able to use it without hands…

She nods, seemingly pleased by my answer. "Good. Now, you'll want to go to fimfiction.net and send a message to the user 'We are the Meta.'" But I don't have an account on that, hay I have no clue what that is… I mentally smack myself. Fireball would probably know what the hay that is. "Really, it doesn't have to have anything to do with this, but just so we know who to send a message to until we can get together." She stops and squints at me. "You are going to be able to join up with us, right?"

I don't know how, maybe with my wings, but I shrug. "We'll as of right now we're on the road just outside of Perryton Texas. Got nowhere to go and it's my job to stay by you correct?"

She nods in affirmation to my question. "That would be correct." She rushes to finish her sentence. "Remember, send it to We are the Meta! We'll talk more then!" Then, the dream ends, and I wake up to Fireball, completely pony, standing over me.

“HEYA CAN YOU GUESS WHAT HAPPENED LAST NIGHT?!”

Next Chapter: Intermission: Discord and Fireball Estimated time remaining: 2 Hours, 9 Minutes