Author's note: It's been a while since I updated, if you're having trouble remembering what's going on, here's an entire summary of Part One. You can read the two prior chapters of this part easily enough, they're not long.

Sarathûl was surprisingly less alien than she imagined, except for the fact that the clouds were far too high to be reached by any pegasus or alicorn. And the fact that the weather was being controlled by nothing at all. Her first two nights here had been definitely out of the ordinary. On the first night, she had dealt with the general excitement of a new continent, and the general sense of foreboding, for it was a hostile one. Still, she was in the lands of her ancestors! On the second night, she had not only attempted to enter the dreams of a human, but gone straight for their Emperor! That had been more or less not worth the effort, as she discovered. Their Emperor was apparently on the verge of death and could no longer stop the events set in motion. So much for peace... Luna had resigned herself to inevitable battle. There was no point in trying to avoid it now.

“Well, I wonder who their next Emperor will be.” wondered Goldleaf, as they enjoyed their new command tent for this bold expedition into the realms of men.

“He mentioned one by the name of Îrilôs.” replied Luna. “But We do not know who he is.”

“These humans have such weird names.” Hemlock Farpeak stated, mildly annoyed. “Seriously, why do they have so many ôs-endings? Does it mean something? And why are we only dealing with their males? Do they not have females?”

“Such a curious young mare, isn't she?” Goldleaf muttered to Luna, before turning back to the pegasus. “They do have females, but we just never encounter many. Imagine an Equestria dominated by completely and only by stallions, and that's Sarathûl.” That notion made Hemlock scrunch up her nose in repulsion.

“Madness!” she remarked.

“I can't explain the ôs-endings, though. Probably just another human foolery.” The unicorn mused. “They have many fooleries, come to think of it.”

“Indeed.” Luna nodded, but as usual, her mind was elsewhere than the conversation. Goldleaf and Hemlock seemed to get into their own discussions while Luna feel deep into thought. She was deeply curious about this Vahâdrîn character Emperor Katastanîôs had told her about. All Luna knew was that he had pursued the human race, until he was defeated. A man that ate the souls of demons! How fantastic! Of course, Luna knew that eating the souls of demons was just that, a fantasy. Was it? That thing she had seen in the dream of her granduncle was proof that evil was a very real force in the world... At least it had been, once.

“How long do you think it will be before they realize we're here?” Hemlock asked, as the alicorn's ears returned to the conversation.

“I give them, at most, a few weeks. Probably less, until they all start trying to kill us.” stated Goldleaf, not without some apprehension. “I'm not looking forward to this at all, Hemlock.” confessed he, looking at his crippled leg. “At least you can fly, I can barely manage a single teleport. And running is dangerous at best.”

“Who says we'll have to run?” questioned the pegasus again. “Lady Silver told me that the human formations are tight, closely-packed, and not very maneuverable. Your magic could tear them apart.”

“I certainly hope so.” said Goldleaf. “And I certainly hope they won't need me out there, fighting.”

“You're one of the most powerful unicorns in Equestria-” Hemlock began, before the unicorn snorted.

“That isn't saying much, you know. I'm just a shadow of Starswirl or any other of my predecessors.” he stated, looking somewhat condescending.

“I hope you're selling yourself short.” remarked Hemlock, rolling her eyes. “I really do.”

“I'm just being realistic.” the unicorn defended, waving his bad leg at her.

“No matter how it goes, you may prove useful yet.” Luna interjected, before the two could get further. They did like to get into their little debates.

“I can do paperwork.” offered Goldleaf. “But I doubt we're going to have much paperwork over here... That's a relief, honestly.”

“Rest assured, it is unlikely that We will need you on the battlefield. Our granduncle has trained the other unicorns in how to fight in groups, but not you.” stated the princess.

Uneventful days passed on, as nothing of note happened. Luna returned to the city of man in the dreamworld; but was unable to contact any human. She was beginning to think that the dreamworld was some reflection of the real one, it seemed every location had a corresponding one there. This was confirmed by a visit to Everfree and Canterlot in one of her nightly adventures. Moving around was simply a matter of envisioning oneself in that location. But, she was able to go visit places she had never been by “physically” moving there. Of course, her body wasn't actually moving, her mind was the only part of her in locomotion. What was most interesting was how empty and quiet it all was though. It seemed as if no living thing was ever there besides her; not for long, at least. Ponies and humans alike flickered in and out, some stayed longer, some stayed shorter. Only the human Emperor had ever noticed her and stayed to talk. Maybe it takes a certain kind of mind to realize its dreaming while still in a dream..?

There was, however, something more pressing that came to Luna's attention: the issue of food. Water wasn't a problem, given their location in mountainous terrain, but food would be before long. Their ships only had so much supply, they would not last forever with what they brought. But this was bad land for growing any kind of crops. Thus, it was rather devoid of human touch. A blessing and a curse, one could say. They didn't have to worry about being discovered yet, but they did have to worry about how they'd keep from going hungry here. Luna supposed that it was always possible to send the ships back to Equestria for resupply, but that'd leave them dangerously isolated...

“What does happen if they find us?” Hemlock asked one early morning, after Luna finished her nightly adventure in the dreamworld.

“Then we fight.” Goldleaf told her. “Well, you do.”

“No, I mean, what kind of fight will we be looking at?” the pegasus clarified. “Human tactics, I've been told, are meant for open-field combat. We're far from any open fields.”

“I doubt we'll be going up against any heavy infantry. The humans enjoy their pike-and-shot formation, but it wouldn't work here. Too hilly, too forested.” spoke Goldleaf, furrowing his brow in thought.

“I guess we'll have the advantage of flight, too.” Hemlock mused.

“I don't know much about aerial combat...” confessed the unicorn. “Just hope they don't all aim their pikes up when you attack, though.”

Another few days passed without incident. The pegasi furtively scouted, and the unicorns got to work on constructing a palisade wall around their encampment. Luna just got more and more acclimated to her domain of the dreamworld. It was on one of these nights she had a pleasant surprise in this new frontier.

“Luna!” called a familiar voice in the distance, as the alicorn princess paid a visit to Everfree Castle.

“Aegis?” she asked, spying a golden figure far off. With the blink of an eye, she was right in front of him. “Aegis!” Luna jumped up and hugged him.

“Hello there.” said her granduncle, with a smile. “I see you're acclimating well to this place.”

“Oh, I am.” agreed Luna. “It's so strange, but... I think I like it.”

“Well, I'm glad. I think once you have it all figured out, we might bring more ponies here.” Aegis suggested. “It'd be a useful way to keep in touch. In fact, that's what we used to use it for.”

“We can bring other ponies here?” she asked, ideas suddenly racing through her head.

“Of course. You can bring any living soul here, should you choose to. You can drag them in kicking and screaming, or help them in willingly.” stated the golden alicorn. “But only a select few can bring themselves here.”

“The human emperor could.” remarked Luna.

“You met Katastanîôs?”

“Briefly, on the night before his death. I thought I was in his dream, but I came to realize he had entered the dreamworld. It's weird how there are two levels of it...” Luna glanced around at the world, squinting at the night. “There's this place, and then there's all the dreams of creatures. But only a few can come here by themselves?”

“Only a few.” repeated Aegis. “And not all of them should be sought out.”

“Oh... Is this anything like what I saw-”

“Yes.” he nodded, cutting her off. Aegis now looked around warily. “Try not to bring that up. Some things resonate more strongly in here than out there... Though most things in here will be weaker than they are out there. That does not apply to you, being the daughter of the Nightlord. You're the rightful mistress of this realm; it will bend to you, in time.But you are still young and untried, so be careful with where you go.”

“Why?” she questioned, very curious about these other things.

“There are powers in the world that rely more on deception and trickery than raw strength to achieve their ends. Be wary of whom you meet in here. They might not be what they seem.” Aegis gave a guarded stare into the distance, as if remembering something. “That was not a pleasant lesson to learn; I would be loath to have you go through it too.”

“What powers are these?” pressed Luna. Aegis didn't immediately reply. Instead, he conjured up a white rose, growing out of the ground in a matter of moments. He bore a heavy expression as he regarded the flower.

“Have you ever heard of shadow spirits?” asked Aegis in return.

“Well- actually, yes.” Luna said, remembering Goldleaf and Hemlock talking about a supposed spirit of shadow that would bring darkness to the world, and the possibly-related evil ice spirit of the north. “Just a few weeks ago.”

“Most of them are gone. Maybe all of them, by now; it's been several thousand years since I last encountered one. Even in that day, it was very weak.” began the old alicorn, his eyes not leaving the rose. “At least, it was weak in our physical world. I didn't expect it to pull us into the dreamworld. And that's where its deception paid off.”

“What happened?” she asked quietly. Luna could sense there was a definite weight behind his words. She didn't want to pry at her granduncle's life, given how long and troubled her parents implied it had been… But she had to know.

“Just one more change in the life of Aegis Vigil, that's all.” Aegis shook his head and closed his eyes. “The good news was that I managed to severely hurt the shadow spirit. I don't know what became of it after that, other than it encountering the humans long enough for them to name it. Thîran, I think they called it...”

“Why would it go to the humans? Wouldn't they fear it with their superstitious religion influencing them so?”

“Desperation. I denied it the fire of life it had sought to feed on, and then beaten it back. As a last resort, this Thîran may have attempted to feed on humans, a poor substitute for alicorns at best.” Aegis said without concern. “The reason I'm telling you this is because Corthunien and I were never able to account for the final three shadow spirits. Thîran's fate is unknown, the pegasi would say missing in action. The other two, we never even managed to find. It is comforting to think they starved to death. But...”

“Maybe they didn't.” Luna finished for him. “Maybe they're still hiding, and still looking for alicorns to eat.”

“Exactly.” Aegis nodded. “The dreamworld is the best hiding place there is. I have met some strange characters in this place... Who can say who they really were? What they really were? If those spirits have remained out of sight this long, there's no reason to believe they couldn't hide right under my nose. So be careful in here, Luna. Very careful.”

“It sounds like you think about this a lot.” noted the alicorn princess.

“The early days of the world were full of evil, like I told you. It's easy to bring down a fire demon that's laid waste to half a continent, they're not hard to find.” Aegis grimaced. “It's the ones that managed to escape us after all these years I worry about. They're the smart ones. That makes them the most dangerous when it's only Corthunien and I left to deal with them.”

“And here I was worrying about how the human's black powder weapons would interfere with our pegasi's tactics...” Luna said.

“Black powder, now there's something I appreciate.” Aegis said approvingly. “How much trouble we could have been spared if we just had as great an equalizer as black powder! It doesn't need much strength, it doesn't need much skill, you point your weapon and push a lever... a deadly hail of lead follows no matter what. A lot more souls would be among the living today if we had that back then.” Luna could only nod. Aegis looked back down to his white rose, and it began to wither.

“The ancient world is dying, Luna. There's hardly anything left of it. What is a shadow spirit or other ethereal entity against cannons and sailing ships and steel? Things have changed so fast in these past few centuries, that I can't imagine what is going to happen as you and your sister grow up. How long will it be until all the empty parts of the Earth fill up? How long until the wilds are tamed and the last of the feared monsters are driven to their doom?” Aegis smiled. “How long until our descendents can live free of the fear and hardship I have fought so long against? I think the best is yet to come, Luna.”

“You do?” She frowned. “But we're on the verge of a war...”

“I have hope we can get Celestia to see reason before this goes any further than warmongering pegasi getting killed a thousand miles from home.” said the golden alicorn, looking genuinely happy for once. “The road ahead isn't smooth, but the sun is rising on the world, Luna. We're finally coming out of the long dark.”

Author's Notes:

I didn't mean to be gone for well over a month, but things happen. Luna never has been easy to write, too. Well, I'm back, let's get our adventure moving again. I meant to have this up yesterday, but Comcast is really screwing me over with connection issues.