There came a point where I couldn't tell if I was trapped in a horror movie or an action movie.

Oh, there was plenty of horror, at least for me. Apparently not happy with exploiting my fear of mannequins- after we'd brought down sixteen of the damned things, anyway; it was getting harder and harder to be afraid of them after watching Luna gleefully fill them with buckshot- the place had decided to attack my baser instincts and start trotting out something that looked like a spider crossed with a xenomorph from the “Aliens” movies. Almost the size of Luna, matte-black, slimy and capable of skittering out of almost any dark place imaginable, though definitely not immune to bullets- but despite now toting a veritable hand-cannon of a firearm after having emptied my Taurus, I was finding myself running low on all the ammunition I'd managed to scavenge earlier, and Luna was similarly almost dry.

“Putting these things down is not the easiest task to accomplish,” the alicorn murmured, lifting the last four shells from my hand- she must have had fine control over her magic to manage that without actually touching me with it- and sliding them into the shotgun's magazine.

“Yeah, no kidding. If they were actually alive it'd be different, but we're basically putting holes in empty shells.”

“With my ability to use magic so limited, I for one shall not complain about the efficacy of these weapons.” With the weapon fully loaded, Luna let it hover just above her shoulder, barrel pointed down towards the floor. “Though I certainly wish I possessed my scythe at the moment.”

I paused to glance at her. “I guess I shouldn't be surprised that you have a scythe, but... you have a scythe?”

“Indeed. One I crafted myself, well before the founding of Equestria, when these lands were not nearly so tame. A haft of enchanted obsidian, and a moonsilver blade whose edge may never dull, capable of cutting through the thickest armor. It saw much use before ponykind was able to secure itself a safe home.”

“Hell, I might actually like to see that.” I finished loading what rounds I had remaining into the Desert Eagle magazines- never hurts to consolidate your ammo when you've got the chance; half-empty mags make Peter a sad panda- and tucked the two spares into the back of my pants; my holster wasn't designed for them. The empty magazines I left on the small table as I got up. “Okay, breaktime's over. Let's get moving.”

Surprisingly, we weren't set upon the moment we left the small room we'd taken refuge in- in fact, the long, darkened hallways, lit only by Luna's magic and the occasional flickering fluorescent lamp, were disturbingly empty. “Okay, this is making me a little nervous,” I said, fighting the urge to have my weapon pointed at the nearest shadow at all times.

“Aye, I understand the sentiment.” As we cleared a corner, one of her ears twitched. “Do you hear...?” she whispered, coming to a halt.

I stopped beside her, straining to hear. “...no, I don't-”

tink-tink-tink tink tink-tink

It sounded like knives being dropped on concrete, distant and arrhythmical, echoing along the halls. “...what is that?” I questioned, my voice as quiet as Luna's.

“I... do not know. Let us proceed, cautiously.”

It was a tense few minutes in complete silence, broken only by the clinking of Luna's shod hooves and my own feet on the dark floor. I wanted sorely to believe that this place had already run out of inspiration and was resorting to cheap jumpscares, but I certainly wasn't going to bet my life on it. “Are we getting closer to one of those tears?” I asked.

“Incrementally. I would like to proceed faster, but incautiousness in this situation is ill-advised.”

“Well, so long as we're making progr-”

SCREEEEEEEEEE

In a heartbeat, Luna and I both had our weapons pointed down the hallway we'd come along. “This is seriously starting to fracture my calm,” I growled.

A tight frown decorated Luna's muzzle. “Aye. Perhaps haste is called for.”

Both of us turned... and froze. The light coming from the alicorn's horn illuminated... something crawling out into an intersection in front of us. It looked for all the world like a naked, emaciated man, skin so pale as to be nearly white, bones jutting awkwardly underneath. From what should have been its hands sprouted a set of claws longer than its forearms, metal gleaming in the light, each producing that light tink sound as the creature settled its weight on them.

And then it turned its head, and a pair of jet-black eyes far too large to be proportional to its head caught the light from Luna's horn, reflecting it back at us like those of an animal's. Slowly, its mouth opened wide, lips parting past where ears would have been on a human's head, revealing a maw full of tiny, glistening teeth and a tongue that snaked back and forth as though possessed of a mind of its own.

BANG

The instant my gunshot sounded out, the creature moved, dodging the heavy bullet with a jump onto the wall; its claws screeched across the stone, then stretched out towards me as the thing leaped in my direction.

BOOM

Black holes opened in the thing's body as the shotgun blast knocked it off-course, causing it to slam back-first into the opposite wall, leaving a smear of some dark substance behind- but the creature showed no signs of pain, practically springboarding off of the wall and landing nimbly further down the hall, where it skittered out of sight with the sounds of its claws echoing around us.

Luna racked the shotgun's slide. “What manner of creature is that?!”

“The kind we run from! C'mon!” We ran past the long gouges the claws had made in the thick rock wall; I wished more than anything that I could ride on Luna's back, but the risk of me disrupting her mental shield spell- and the place getting access to her thoughts and fears, which probably outranked my own by ridiculous degrees- was one I wasn't going to take unless it was absolutely necessary. “Dammit,” I muttered as Luna led me down one corridor after another. “Fuck this place, fuck my life, and fuck that all-night creepypasta bender I went on last summer!”

Luna led me through one corridor after another, all of which looked the same to me, and I had to trust that she was leading us towards another of those tears. I was so intent on scanning the corridor ahead of us for threats that I didn't immediately react to her coming to an abrupt stop-

“Peter! Down!”

-and ended up dropping into a feet-first slide under what seemed to be a retracted shutter, the razor-sharp claws being swung towards my face instead slicing through the air just above my head. As I rolled onto my side, I saw the thing hanging by its feet from the shutter's handles, starting to swing back up; Luna didn't have a shot from her position without risking hitting me, but I had a much better angle.

BANG

The .50AE round blew a fist-sized hole in the thing's belly, the force jerking it about- and sending the shutter rattling down out of the ceiling, slamming closed between Luna and I. As I climbed to my feet, I heard her shotgun sound off once, twice... and then silence. I engaged the Eagle's safety, tucked it away in the back of my pants- stupid, I knew, but the thing wasn't going to fit in my holster or any of my pockets- and then slid my hands into the shutter's handles, pulling upwards, only to find it locked securely in place. “Luna?!” I called out.

“Peter! Are you unharmed?”

“Yeah, but I can't open this thing! What about you?”

“I am untouched, but the creature has run off again. Stand away from the barricade.” I did so, and heard her hooves slam against it- but aside from a slight rattle, the blow had no effect. “Blast,” I heard her growl. “It is proof against my strength! I will attempt to use the shotgun-”

“No. Save the shells. I get the feeling this place wants us separated now, and if you couldn't make a dent, the shotgun probably won't either.”

She was quiet for a moment. “...agreed. But how will you make your way without light? I cannot cast an illumination spell on you.”

Now that my eyes had adjusted to the darkness, I could see a faint beam of light a short distance away. “I think I see something that'll help. Can you tell me what direction you think the tear is in?”

“Were you to stand facing this barricade, 'twould be almost directly to your right.”

“Okay, got it.” I had a fairly decent sense of direction, and tended to be good with mazes; I just had to hope that this place would play by those rules. “Let's both head that way and hope that we can manage to meet up again.”

“Very well. Please be careful, Peter.”

“Yeah, you too.” After I heard her hoofsteps fade, I turned and headed towards my sole remaining source of light- a small tactical flashlight, left lying on a dusty metal chair, that attached neatly to the Eagle's Picatinny rail. So this means I have to hold up a four-pound handgun just to be able to see, I thought, but the alternative is to try to fire this behemoth one-handed while I hold the light in the other, and I think I prefer my wrist unshattered, thanks.

Now that I had a way to see where I was going and a general sense of where I should be headed, I started forward.

(-)

Blast and hellfire. This manner of creature is what humans invent as a pastime? “Creepypasta” indeed!

Luna had truly grown weary of the creature by this point. Her shotgun, now bereft of ammunition- save for one shell reserved for extreme need- and serving the much less advanced role of a basic cudgel, was fairly coated with the monster's “blood”, but whatever physical damage she managed to mete upon it served only to stun and dissuade, not stop. She could only be hopeful that her own difficulties meant that Peter was proceeding relatively untroubled.

After a particularly long hallway that was thankfully empty, Luna found herself in a peculiar-looking small room, lined on both sides with mostly-empty shelves- though the small, half-empty box of shotgun shells she found did not go unappreciated as she filled the weapon with them- and a solid-looking door with an inset glass window. She tried the handle to find it locked, and she was just contemplating how else she might get it open when she saw light and movement on the other side of the room beyond it.

“Peter!”

The human was standing behind an identical door, having found a light source of some sort to attach to his weapon. She saw him catch sight of her and bang on his door, calling out something to her- but whatever sound he made didn't make it to her. She tapped the door and shook her head, indicating that she couldn't get her door open.

He seemed to be in the middle of contemplating what to do when a light inside the room between them snapped on, and what Luna saw within made her breath catch in her throat- it was Peter, or a copy of him, secured to a reinforced steel chair by a series of metal clamps. This other-Peter was unconscious, head hanging down as much as the thick leather strap across his forehead would allow, only shallow breathing showing him as alive at all.

Then she somehow heard humming through the door, the sound of which made her freeze in place, her eyes going wide.

Is that... my voice?

A different door opened, and into the center room stepped a copy of herself, humming the very same lullaby she'd sung for Peter in his dreams after he'd been captured. She nonchalantly approached the unconscious other-Peter with what looked like a rusty toolbox in her magical “grip”, setting it down on a table next to the chair and opening it, never faltering in her humming as she took out what looked to be a small rotary saw, its wicked-looking teeth caked in dried blood. With a soft click and a hum, the saw began spinning, the loud noise somehow not drowning out that humming as other-Luna raised it up, bringing it towards other-Peter's head.

bzzzzzzssssshhhhhhrrrrrrkk

Luna was no stranger to blood and gore, but the sight of the unconscious copy's head literally being sawed open, blood splattering around the room- somehow not touching her duplicate- left the alicorn feeling nauseous. Once she'd finished sawing a circle around other-Peter's head, other-Luna took hold of his hair with her magic and tugged upwards- revealing the duplicate human's brain, glistening in the light. Other-Luna set the saw down on the table and retrieved a scalpel and a set of tongs. “Hmm,” she said. “I will need to excise some troublesome things. Like this.” The scalpel plunged into the exposed brain, neatly cutting out a section. “Free will? This can only cause issues; out it goes.” She tossed the bit of meat aside. “Self-determination? Unsuitable for my designs. Hostility, anger, this annoying tendency towards self-defense... farewell.”

With that done, other-Luna picked up a small toy figurine of an earth pony, rotating it around a couple of times. “What better way to ensure your compliance than to force you to care for the very ponies who have so tormented you?” she murmured, before plunging the toy into other-Peter's brain. The process was repeated for a tiny toy unicorn, pegasus, and then alicorn. “Hmm, but that might not be enough,” other-Luna mused, looking into the toolbox. “Ah, yes! This will help to seal the deal.” She retrieved a different toy this time- a small, perfect replica of a griffon hen. “One who has gone through the same trials as him, an outsider to our culture, but familiar enough with it to bridge the gap.” She turned the figurine around, examining it from every angle. “He will come to trust you, depend on you... even love you. An invisible leash with which to yoke him.” With far more force than was necessary, she jammed the small toy into the vulnerable brain before her.

SLAM

Luna hadn't quite meant to kick the door open so hard that it literally stuck into the wall, but it suited her purposes well enough. The copy of her looked up, her expression more annoyed than anything else. “And what do you think you are-”

BOOM

A shotgun blast to the head from fetlock-length range seemed an adequate way to express Luna's opinion of her double's actions. The copy disintegrated into ash, as did the duplicate of Peter still strapped to the chair; Luna racked the shotgun's slide, listening with no small satisfaction as the spent shell rattled about on the floor, before turning to the far door. A small button on the handle released the lock, and she opened it to find the human huddled in a nearby corner, staring listlessly down at the floor, his handgun cradled in both hands. “...Peter?” she asked quietly.

He glanced up at her for a moment, then back down.

“You... wished not for me to see this, did you?” She sat beside him, noting with some consternation how he flinched away from her. “This... this is the deepest of your fears, is it not? Not of my world or its many dangerous creatures, not of the forces of magic which are still alien to you, not of the ponies who did you harm, not even myself or my sister directly... but that what you feel for Sveti Windwhisper was forced upon you by me as a means of control.” He remained silent and motionless. “Peter,” she said, her voice pleading. “I understand that you do not trust me, but if you believe only one thing that I tell you, let it be this: I did not. I tell you now, I swear upon my very soul, that your feelings for her are borne from nothing and nowhere but your own heart.”

Watching his shoulders slump and his head lower felt like a dagger of ice had been plunged into her chest. “I believe I understand better now,” she murmured. “You value your freedom immensely... but here you are, subject to creatures you do not understand, believing yourself bound with invisible strings and unable to even know when they are being pulled. I am not unfamiliar with that feeling, Peter.” She lowered her head to look him in the eyes. “But you know that you have friends, those whom you can trust to watch out for you. Those whom care for you. We shall see you through this, and see you home safely- not for our own designs, not for what can be gotten from you, but simply because it is the right thing to do, and no more than what you deserve.” She stood again, letting her voice become firm. “And those friends await your safe return, Peter Collins- Sveti Windwhisper most of all. Now will you stay here and allow this place to defeat you, or will you get back on your feet and show me what you are capable of?”

He looked up at her, his expression slowly hardening in anger- but not at her. “Okay, yeah,” he said, pulling himself up. “Sad-panda time is later; right now, we've got an exit to find. Think you can get us there?”

“Indeed.” She brought him back into the center room, resolutely ignoring the splattered blood, searching around for anything useful. A tall cabinet in the very back proved interesting. “Peter,” she said. “Look at this.”

“Oh, hell yes.” He fumbled with what looked like a lock of some sort for a moment- then drew his handgun and smashed the thick glass pane with the butt of the weapon. From inside he pulled what appeared to be a strange fabric harness which he quickly donned, slipping the handgun into a holder under one arm, and then he withdrew what was obviously another firearm, roughly the size of the shotgun but with a much more slender barrel, and a magazine set behind the grip and trigger. He checked the magazine, pulled a small lever on the side of the weapon, and grinned. “Always wanted to use one of these,” he said, retrieving several more magazines and tucking them into his harness, and giving her two full boxes of shells which she quickly stored within the void of her mane. “Okay, Luna, truth time. Have we got a real shot at that tear?”

“Aye, but we must move quickly.”

“Okay then. Let's get back in the game.”

(-)

CRACK CRACK CRACK

Going into a combat situation with a weapon I'd never received formal training on? Stupid.

“Fall, abomination!” BOOM

Going into said situation with an armed alicorn I'd previously punched in the face now watching my back? All things considered, maybe not so smart either.

CRACK CRACK CRACK

Storming into a rainy, nearly pitch-black night, wandering around what looked like an abandoned military base, knowing that that refugee from the Internet's collective nightmare was still out there somewhere? Suicidally insane.

And yet as I emptied the magazine of the rifle, fumbling just a little with the somewhat-awkward bullpup configuration as I reloaded, I found that I couldn't bring myself to care. This entire place was insane- how else could I explain the fact that I was playing run-and-gun with armed mannequins and rejected stand-ins for Starship Troopers? Let alone the fact that I'd given my handgun to Luna, who was quite simply having the time of her life with two exceptionally powerful guns?

“Peter!” I heard her call out from a little ways ahead. “Come hither! I espy a way out of this place, and a route to our destination! We need only-”

thwack

My blood seemed to freeze. “Luna?!” I shouted, already running as fast as I could to where I'd heard her voice. “Lu- shit!”

By the time I realized what I was seeing, my rifle was already shouldered and I was staring through the reflex sight at a downed alicorn and a clawed creature already reaching up to drive its blades into her vulnerable flesh.

I was just a hair faster. My first shot took it in the side of the knee, and it dropped into a crouch, trying to prepare to jump away- but I wasn't letting it, each consecutive shot keeping it off-balance and driving it away from Luna as I made my way towards it, until I unloaded a three-round burst into its groin to knock it on its ass, rushed up before it could recover, then stuck the rifle's barrel into its mouth and emptied the rest of the half-full mag into it, turning its head into a dark splatter on the ground... which I smeared under my shoe for good measure, before turning back to Luna.

The alicorn was just starting to get back to her hooves, sporing a wicked-looking welt above her left eye- but aside from that and a set of shallow scratches on her barrel, she was unhurt, and I found myself letting out a breath I hadn't known I was holding. “You okay?” I asked, wanting to help her up but worried that touching her would disrupt her magic.

“Aye,” she murmured, looking around. “Where is...?” She saw the mess I'd left on the ground, and nodded in satisfaction. “Well done,” she said. “And thank you.”

“Let's save all the thanking for when we get the hell out of here.” I glanced back the way we'd come, seeing far too much movement for my liking. “Please tell me we're close to that damn tear,” I half-begged.

“That platform, there.” She pointed with a wing. “I should be able to open the tear from that location. It will take some time.”

The platform she was indicating looked like a half-finished helipad, basically a metal overhang jutting out from a rock cliff. A number of girders and mostly-unmarked crates were stacked haphazardly on it, most low enough to serve as cover from an attack. But it was what was marked on one of the crates near the front that made my jaw damn near hit the ground.

“M134D-T ROTARY MACHINE GUN W/PEDESTAL MOUNT”

“Holy shit, it's my fucking birthday.” I turned. “Luna! While you're working on that tear thing, can you help me with this?”

Thankfully, the alicorn was exceptionally good at following the helpfully-enclosed directions while I kept the hordes at bay with my rifle's dwindling ammunition reserves, thankful that the ramp leading up to the platform was a natural chokepoint. Just as I was loading my last magazine, I heard Luna shout “Finished!”, and turned to see what was undoubtedly the most beautiful thing ever to grace my eyes- a mounted minigun, hooked up to its battery and ready to fire, with the included fifteen-hundred-round ammo box already attached.

“Luna, I swear I love you right now,” I said, laying the rifle down next to the minigun and taking a firing position. “Cover your ears, because this thing is gonna be loud.”

“I shall.” She returned to the edge of the platform to concentrate on her spell; I turned back towards where we'd come from, and saw that the area was absolutely crawling with those alien-looking insectoid creatures. I knew what was happening- that the place was simply pushing me into employing violence so that it could feed on my feelings of aggression- but I honestly didn't care. I had a goddamn minigun, I had a whole mess of targets in my sights, I had some anger to work out, and I had the perfect one-liner to use before I squeezed the trigger.

“I hope you all packed your umbrellas, because I'm bringing the FUCKING RAIN!”

BRRRRRRRRRRRRTTTT

Everything caught in the red stream the tracers left behind disintegrated. 7.62x51mm rounds tore through the crowds with ridiculous ease; all I basically had to do was select large groups and more or less tap the trigger to watch the pieces fly. Casings and links spilled from the weapon even more heavily than the raindrops, spilling across the wet metal beneath me, and with the loud report overwhelming my ears it took me a moment to realize I was laughing like a maniac the entire time.

Eventually- and all too quickly for my tastes- the weapon emptied, and the few shapes still moving didn't pose much of a threat. I stepped away from the minigun with a satisfied sigh, snatched up my rifle and turned towards Luna- who was staring at me, her horn still glowing. “I want one of those,” she said, tilting her head towards the gun.

“Yeah, well, if you're a good Princess, maybe Santa Claus will leave one under your tree.” Even if the understanding trick didn't tell her what I was talking about, I was sure that Twilight had relayed my Christmas folktale to her heads of state, and the amused smirk she gave me proved me out. “Now when the hell can we get out of here?”

“Two minutes, perhaps less.” She glanced back at a shimmering circle hanging a good distance away from the cliffside.

I looked at it, then back at her. “Well how the fuck am I supposed to get to it?”

“With the proper care and preparation, I should be able to shield myself from your magic-absorption property long enough for us to escape this worldlet.”

“You can do that? The shielding thing, I mean.”

“Aye. The spell I use is specifically designed to resist draining and degenerative effects and should be sufficient. It will not be easy, but it needs be done only for a short while, in order to protect both of us from the Astral Plane itself long enough for us to return home.”

“Great, finally. Think you can pull it off?”

“If I am given the chance to-”

FWOOSH

Both of us turned towards the sound, which resembled nothing so much like the sky sighing. The thick rainclouds in the distance were blown apart by a violent burst of wind, showing the just-rising morning sun- and something was approaching rapidly from that direction. And when I realized what it was, I had to resist the urge to let out a groan.

“Do you think that I'll allow you to return to Equestria and endanger my ponies?!”

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Luna give me a flat look, and I turned to scowl at her. “It's a valid fear, okay?!” I shot at her.

The dark-coated alicorn turned back to my mind's representation of her sister. This version of Celestia was much angrier looking, dressed in a full suit of golden armor, her wings tipped with bladed gauntlets and her boots lined with spikes. “Perhaps we might be able to reason with her-” Luna began.

The sun seemed to shimmer in the distance, and a magical aura surrounded Celestia's horn- and almost instantaneously became a blindingly-white beam of energy that sliced across the end of the platform behind us, easily cutting off the corner.

“-or perhaps not!” Luna spun around. “Peter, onto my back, now!”

Half of me wanted to ask about those preparations she said she'd need to do. The other half of me was more interested in not catching a sun-powered laser to the face, and so I practically vaulted myself onto her back- and heard her let out a hiss of pain at the same moment that I felt the familiar light-tingle sensation of magic hit me. I had barely gotten a grip on her mane- without sparing a second to wonder how that even worked- when she galloped up to the end of the platform and spread her wings, gliding off just ahead of another lance of light. In desperation, I raised the rifle one-handed, sighted down the reflex sight as well as I could, and emptied the last magazine at Celestia... to no effect; little flashes of light showed that she was literally vaporizing the rounds before they even reached her. “More proof that violence is your only path!” she shouted.

“Dammit, I wish I'd saved the minigun for her,” I groaned, tossing the rifle aside.

“It would have had no effect, I am certain.” There was an edge of pain to Luna's voice. “This place aims to prevent our escape and will no longer allow resistance. We must evade until we can escape.”

“Goddamn overpowered bullshit. I hope you're fast!”

Despite her obvious discomfort, she grinned back at me. “Allow me to show you. Hold on tightly!”

And damn if she didn't show me. I suddenly felt as if I was holding onto a fighter jet instead of a pony, Luna's quick rolls and turns keeping her just ahead of Celestia's solar laser as it sliced and diced the landscape far below. One beam got close enough to where I could smell burned hair and couldn't be sure as to whether it was hers or mine, and I swore that I saw a few of her outer feathers actually leaving a smoke trail- but all that left my mind when there was a bright flash of light and I saw a deep-black hole suddenly floating in the air. “Luna!” I yelped. “There's our ticket-”

FWOOSH

And then suddenly there was Celestia, directly between us and the opening, pure hate in her eyes as she lowered her head to point her horn at us; the tip began to glow-

BOOM

I hadn't seen that Luna had been levitating the shotgun beneath her as she flew, so the blast took me by surprise as much as Celestia. Unfortunately the shot did little more than jerk the white alicorn's head back slightly- and without missing a beat, Luna spun the weapon around and slammed its stock into Celestia's muzzle hard enough to shatter the polymer, then turned herself around and delivered a twin-hoof buck to the sun alicorn's chest. That actually managed to budge Celestia, driving her back a few feet, just enough for Luna to get clear of her and speed towards the opening. Yet despite the fact that we were closing in on it at considerable speed, it wasn't growing as large as it should have. “Oh hell,” I breathed as realization struck. “It's closing!”

“I am aware! Hold onto me as tightly as you can; present no part of yourself to the wind!”

I all but plastered myself against her in response, sticking my head into her strange substanceless mane- and finding that, although my view was blocked, I didn't actually feel anything against my face, and I could breathe without any problem. “Okay, now what-” I began.

THWOOMCRACK

I was fairly sure that I'd just felt her break the sound barrier- and if I hadn't been clinging to her, my neck probably would've followed suit very quickly. But before I could comment on that, I felt something strange slither its way around me, covering every inch of my body that wasn't pressed against Luna, feeling like nothing so much as wet plastic wrap. “Do not move!” she commanded, her voice straining. “And do not attempt to look about! The mere sight of the Astral Plane through unguarded eyes can drive mortal minds to insanity!”

I was perfectly okay with following that directive- the weird, ghostly starscape that made up her mane was one hell of an in-flight movie, and was doing a fair bit to calm the feeling of rising fear in my gut- but there was something else worrying me. Almost my entire body felt like I'd stepped into a disused meat locker, a sort of pall-like feeling of cold, but several places where I was touching Luna seemed to be heating up, especially my hands where I had them pressed against the sides of her neck. I felt the alicorn tense up beneath me, and after a moment a scream of pain came back towards me, along with the by-now too-familiar smell of burning hair-

-but before I could do or say anything, something took Luna's legs out from under her, and I tumbled off of her back... and onto a cold, hard marble floor. It took a moment for my vision to adjust to the sudden light, but soon enough I could see that we'd both come to a crash-landing back inside the clean room where all this had started.

“Peter!”

And then everything was honey-colored and furred as Sveti practically tackled me, her forelimbs wrapping around my head and my arms reflexively doing the same around her chest. “Thank the Ancestors,” she sobbed, pressing her beak against the side of my neck. “I was so worried about you. Are you hurt? That smell....”

I took a moment to check over myself- no wounds I could feel, but I'd lost the harness I was wearing and everything else I'd gotten from the worldlet. “I'm okay, but I don't know what was going on with Luna....” She let go of me enough for me to look behind me, letting me see the medical ponies that were approaching- and when my eyes reached Luna, I froze in place. “...oh my God,” I murmured in a small voice.

The lunar alicorn was sprawled on the floor a few feet away, her eyes half-closed, her teeth clenched as gasps of pain passed them. Smoke rose from several burn marks all along her sides... and on the sides of her neck, where I'd been holding on to her, a pair of hand-shaped burn marks had scorched her hide away down to the muscle. Celestia was standing above her, the white alicorn's horn shining brightly as she poured magic into her sister's body, while a number of medics opened boxes packed with vials of liquid, tubes of paste and other supplies. I staggered my way to my feet, Sveti close behind as I unsteadily made my way to the fallen Princess's side; the medics who were coming to treat me objected, and I shooed them off. “No, dammit, I'm fine,” I told them, pointing at Luna. “Help her!”

Luna's eyes flickered open as I spoke, and she raised her head slightly, wincing at the movement. “You... are unharmed, Peter?” she asked in a voice tinged with pain.

“Yeah. Yeah. What....” Realization struck me. “Oh, hell... that's what happens if a pony keeps using magic while I'm touching them, isn't it?”

“When it's a large amount of magic, it seems." Twilight was levitating a number of complex-looking devices as she approached. "I'm amazed you weren't burned as well... maybe she directed the effect towards herself to protect you. Celestia? Will she be alright?”

“Yes.” I couldn't keep from letting out a sigh of relief at that single word. “Here in the physical plane, the wards that protect her body have reasserted themselves... but the healing will, and must, be somewhat slow; even we alicorns are not immune to the dangers of overly-rapid regeneration. I expect it will take her two weeks or so to fully recover.”

“God damn. It was only a couple of minutes, too....” I shook my head slowly. “Can't you give her something, or...?”

“Rest easy, Peter. This is not the worst off I have been.” Luna managed a smile as she looked up at me. “Certainly you understand by now that I am no neophyte when it comes to physical conflict.”

“...yeah. I picked up on that.” I slowly dropped down on one knee, doing my best to not look at the horrible-looking wounds I'd left on her. “I'm sorry,” I told her quietly.

Her eyes looked into mine, and I swore I could see all the wisdom of the ages in them. “As am I,” she replied.

We didn't have that weird understanding thing going on that we'd had in the Astral Plane, but at that moment I grasped every shade of meaning in those simple words. “Yeah,” I said, nodding slowly. “Look, uh... maybe we can talk more about the whole dream thing later, alright? Just to, uh, settle things. And maybe Sveti and I can see that scythe of yours too, because I think that'd be a good conversation piece. You know, after you've healed up and all.”

“Aye.” Luna laid her head back down and closed her eyes, wincing as one of the medics carefully applied some kind of cream to the edges of her wounds.

I stood, with Sveti still at my side- her gaze locked in horrified fascination on those burn wounds- and started to head for the back of the room, where Twilight was motioning for me to join her... then I stopped and looked over my shoulder. “Oh, yeah, one other thing,” I said.

Luna's eyes opened again, and one of her eyebrows arched.

“Everything else aside, Princess... that was actually kind of fun.”

The slightest of smiles crossed her lips. “Aye. 'Twas.”

Having said everything I could think of to say, I left the downed alicorn to her sister and attendants. Sveti switched to a three-legged stride, one of her claws coming up to grasp my trembling hand, and I squeezed it gently in thanks.

(-)

“...how is she doing?”

Celestia lowered her cup of tea as she took a moment to watch the activity in the clean room. “She's healing as expected,” she told Peter. “I don't doubt that she'll be holding Night Court and her monthly astronomy conferences again soon.”

“Good. Glad to hear.” The human glanced over at his griffon companion, who had scarcely taken her eyes off of him the entire time the three of them had been in the “prep room” adjacent to the clean room. “Princess, not mean disrespect, but wonder why you wanted talk to me.”

“It's quite alright, Peter. I simply wanted to thank you.”

He gazed at her for a moment over his coffee cup; Celestia was both mildly amused and somewhat confused at how naturally his hand held it. “What for?” he asked.

“For what you did for Luna while you were both within the Astral Plane.”

“For... wait. She rescued me, Princess. Why you thank me?”

“From what she's told me, Peter, that rescue was not nearly as one-sided as you say.” She settled her teacup down on the table. “She told me about your encounters, the weapons you used. About how you and she fought together, and the fears you faced.” She saw a split-second expression of confusion cross Sveti's face; the hen was a perceptive one. “You say you are not a warrior, and I believe you. But you are a fighter, a ferocious one when pressed, and it says something significant about you that you have only shown the full measure of that ferocity in defense of my sister's life. For all that some ponies have called you a monster, I have seen you act as all but one.” She gave him her warmest smile. “So yes, Peter. Thank you. Thank you for fighting so hard to bring my sister back safely, and thank you for caring for her welfare, especially given your previous history.”

He returned the smile, looking down demurely at the table for a moment. “Luna, I understand each other better now. And I owe her my life. She is true warrior.” He looked up at her with a curious expression. “You, her do much fighting in the past?”

“Long ago, yes. They... are not fond memories for me. I never had the passion for conflict that Luna has.”

He nodded. “Did what had to, though? Can respect that, Princess.”

“So much of life is about that, as no doubt you understand.” She poured herself a bit more tea and dropped a pair of sugar cubes into it, watching as the steam curled its way through the air. “Luna also told me of what you last faced before escaping the Astral Plane,” she said. “Now, please understand that I am not angry. In fact... I am ashamed that you came to see me as so threatening, so unforgiving. Perhaps some of our problems could have been avoided if you had seen me as somepony you could trust.”

“I not able understand you then, Princess. After Luna and I talked... maybe I see a bit better.” He leaned back in his chair. “Still... I sorry for all that happened.”

She shook her head. “You have nothing to apologize for. We've all made mistakes, suffered from misunderstandings. I believe there is much we could all learn from what's happened, to make ourselves better creatures... and that's a far better result than some others that could have come about.” Motion from beyond the nearby window caught her attention; Twilight was waving at them from the clean room. “Well, it seems that Twilight is ready for us,” she said, setting her teacup down again. “Let's go ahead and see about getting your path home ready.”

There was an almost imperceptible slump of Sveti's shoulders at those words, and Celestia felt her heart go out to the young hen. Be strong, she thought. If all goes well, you won't be losing him. He'll come back to you. And I feel sorry for whatever would choose to put itself in his way.

Twilight spent no small amount of time reassuring Peter that they'd rebuilt the runeshape from scratch and run it through a full-power test just that morning. Though she would never show it, Celestia was furious that somepony had put so many at risk out of a callous desire to harm Peter; Twilight had instructed the Guard to prioritize discovering the saboteurs, and Celestia knew it would only be a manner of time until they did. She had largely abolished rule by fiat long ago, but this was one of the few times she wished she still had the ability to pass summary judgment on a citizen of her nation. Luna had already agitated for immediate petrification.

Eventually, Twilight had the apparatus prepared and Peter was once more standing in the center of the runeform. “Able, calibrate the gateway stabilizers to my Earth-side beacon spell,” she said.

“At once, Princess.” The assistant went to her workstation, flipping a variety of switches and glancing repeatedly at an entire line of gauges. Celestia spent a few moments idly wondering what changes access to human technology would make to all of this; with the ability of magic-like screens to display data, electric “brains” that could calculate things much faster than even the most acute pony mind....

“Princess Twilight?” Able Assistant's voice couldn't quite hide her concern. “I think you had better have a look at this.”

Twilight quickly made her way over, and stared hard at a gauge that Able pointed at. “...that can't be right,” Celestia heard her former student murmur. “Recalibrate it.”

“I have, Princess. Five times. It's not the instrumentation.”

“But that means....” Twilight glanced over at Peter, who was watching the proceedings with a visible expression of worry. “No, it can't be,” she said, turning back towards the entrance of the clean room. “Sergeant Beryl!”

The pegasus in question came to attention. “Princess?”

“Prepare an expedition to the Everfree Forest. Airborne carriages with the standard precautions for Peter. I'll be contacting Rainbow Dash, Discord and Zecora and asking them to be ready to meet with us at our usual gathering point at the edge of the Everfree in four hours from now.”

“At once, Princess.” The guard immediately left to follow his orders.

“Twilight?” Celestia trotted over. “What's wrong? Why are you involving Discord in this?”

Twilight's eyes ran over the instrumentation one more time, as if desperate to find something that wasn't there. “Celestia... we can't make contact with the beacon spell I placed on Earth.”

(-)

It has to be a localized problem with our beta point in Canterlot. It has to be.

Non-Princess Twilight would have paced a torus-shaped groove into the dirt waiting for everyone to arrive. The training she'd had since her ascension kept her from doing so, but it didn't do much to alleviate the worry she felt. There was absolutely no logical reason for the science team to not be able to reach that beacon spell; the clean room had been completely voided of latent magical energies after the planar breach, essentially scrubbed clean of all traces of magic. Nothing should have been interfering with any attempt to re-establish contact with the far end of the “tube” that connected Peter with his homeworld.

It's okay. It's going to be okay. We'll just bring him back to his entry point, re-establish the connection from there and use a different beta point. No big deal. At most it'll add another month's wait before we can open a portal and get Peter home. What's a month?

And yet she couldn't shake the elevating sense of worry that was plaguing her mind. Even despite her training, she was practically prancing in place by the time the carriage bringing Peter showed up, with Sveti flying close behind; to her surprise, Zecora arrived carefully balanced on Dash's back shortly after. “That guard you sent to come get us sure seemed like he wanted us moving in a hurry,” Dash explained. “So Z didn't mind me giving her a lift.”

“Indeed.” The zebra bowed her head as she approached. “The need for our help was easy to see. So let us bring Peter into the Everfree.”

The need to move quickly was definitely present- it was already mid-afternoon, and nopony wanted to be stuck in the Everfree at nightfall- so it wasn't long at all before they found their way back to what Twilight had designated “Zone Alpha”. She quickly teleported in the thaumatically-insulated package of probes and asked Peter to set them in a circle in specified spots; she wanted the purest reading she could get, and Peter would drain any latent charge from whatever he touched. “Alright, that's everything,” she said once the equipment was set up. “Now where the hay is Discord? I need him!”

“Oh, Twilight! You don't know how long I've waited for you to say that!” The draconequus literally pulled himself out of Twilight's shadow, a bouquet of flowers clutched in one strange paw and a small velvet box in the other; he was dressed in a tuxedo and bowtie. “I knew you'd eventually give in to your feelings! What Fluttershy and I had was nothing; I was saving myself for you! I-” He glanced around at the assembled creatures, all of them staring at him in various stages of confusion and amusement, and sighed. “...oh. I see how it is. You just want something from me, don't you?” He threw the bouquet and box over his shoulders; the box opened on impact, releasing the four scorpions that were inside. The small arachnids skittered off into cover. “And I was saving those for Fluttershy, too,” he murmured, before turning back towards Twilight. “Well! I'll be sending the Crowns the dry-cleaning bill for the tux. In the meantime, what do you need?”

She fixed her eyes on his. “If you're done clowning around, we have a serious situation that I need your help with. I can't get in contact with the beacon I placed on Earth, and I know you know a thing or two about dimensional boundaries, so I want you on hoof to observe and consult with just in case.”

“Oh, well, I'm all about pushing boundaries.” He pulled out a small collapsible camping chair and a glass of lemonade from somewhere, settling himself in, still wearing the tuxedo. “In your own time, Princess,” he said impatiently, twirling his claw.

Twilight repressed a sigh of irritation and instead turned her attention to the probes. “Okay, here goes everything,” she said beneath her breath, channeling her magic into the point in the center of the probes. She felt the energies travel down the “tube”, twisting away from what she knew to be her reality, towards a world completely different from hers...

...only to slam into a metaphysical barrier as solid as any brick wall.

Discord's glass dropped to the ground as he visibly winced. “Ow. Who put that speed bump there?” he wondered. “I thought you said this was a clear road, Twilight!”

“That... that didn't happen before!” she countered. She sent a second, more powerful pulse along the path, only to have it hit that same barrier. This time, Peter winced, wrapping his arms around himself. “Peter?” she gasped. “Peter, what happened?!”

He was exceptionally pale. “I... not know. Felt like... like sledgehammer to my soul.”

“Oooh. Now that's some interesting stuff.” Discord got out of his chair, flying a slow circle around the human. “Something's definitely different about you. New hairstyle? No, no, the same boring old mop. New eye color? ...no, too much to ask for, I guess. Hmmm.” He glanced over at Twilight. “What's our dear boy been up to, Princess?”

She gave the avatar of Chaos an abbreviated version of what had occurred the day before, leaving out what had happened in the Astral Plane itself. Once she'd finished, Discord stroked his goatee. “What a crazy, unpredictable development,” he said, turning towards Peter. “I love it! If half of what I've heard about you is to be believed, you've just been a fountain of chaos ever since you came here. I've honestly been dreading the time when you leave... and now it looks like you don't have to!”

Twilight froze in place. “...what do you mean?”

“Oh, here, let me demonstrate for the poor unfortunates who can only perceive four dimensions.” He pulled off one of his horns and stretched it out as if it were made of rubber. “Let's pretend that this is Peter's connection to his homeworld. A little stretched-out, sure, but it's doing its job just fine. But then, somepony went and threw our little human into the Astral Plane- in three-dimensional space, that'd be aaaaabout right over here.” He stretched one end of the tube about four feet away, forming a three-point line and causing it to quiver with the strain. “And since we have an anchor point here in Equestria... it's sort of like a rubber band being pulled over a hinge. Eventually something's got to give, and it can't be the hinge.” The far end of the tube seemed to break off of whatever was holding it in place, floating aimlessly about.

“Oh no....” Twilight stared at the thin tube in horror. “The connection's been severed? But how can that be?! Peter still has his magic-draining ability; where is it going?”

“Oh, it's still going down the tube. Not out of it, though.” Discord snapped his talons, and the floating end of the tube began to bulge. “There's no 'there' for it to go out to; the void between dimensions is really just that- a void. And magic avoids a void.” He snickered at his own joke, glancing around to see no one else joining in; he cleared his throat. “No appreciation for humor. Anyway... the problem dear Peter has is that he's already had this siphon going for a while, so it's sort of like dealing with momentum.” The end of the tube continued to swell until it seemed to reach its breaking point. “Eventually, though, that little 'tube' is going to have taken all it can take, and all that magic is going to push back the way it came.” The tube deflated, expelling a stream of brightly-glowing sparkles through the other end.

An expression of pure horror crossed Sveti's face. “...through Peter?!”

Discord paused a moment, looking at the griffon in confusion, then frowned. “...oh. Oh my. That... that's a good point. Say, Peter, your atoms wouldn't happen to be encased in crystalline quadrahedral carbonite, would they?” He studied the human's blank expression for a moment, then shook his head. “Then... um... well... I guess look at it this way. You'll... be going out with a bang?”

“...what?!” Dash took to the air, zooming up to Discord's face to glare at him. “That isn't funny, Discord! Did you expect us all to laugh at a joke like that?!”

“This is no joke, Rainbow Dash. For once I'm being deadly serious.” He turned towards Twilight with an almost frighteningly uncharacteristic somber expression. “Whoever sabotaged that runeform of yours didn't just strand Peter here, Princess. They doomed him.”

Everyone else turned horrified eyes towards the human, who had turned back towards the spot he'd first entered Equus, one arm reaching out. “...one month,” Twilight heard him say, his voice flat. “Was just one month.”

He fell to his knees, slamming both fists against the ground. Sveti immediately ran to him, wrapping her forelimbs and wings around him, keening softly; Dash dropped onto her hooves in shock. “It's not fair,” she half-whispered. “It isn't fair, Twilight. He was just about to get home! And now he... he....” She shook her head. “If I ever get my hooves on whoever did this to him...!” She went silent, trembling with impotent rage, trying to fight back the tears that shimmered at the edges of her eyes.

Zecora laid a comforting hoof on the pegasus's shoulder, her own cheeks wet with tears. “I echo Dash's sentiments; I'm nothing more than stunned. Princess Twilight, truthfully... is there nothing to be done?”

“You've got your work cut out for you, Princess.” Discord said. “You're working against basic laws of nature. But if I can help....”

She glanced back at him. “You would?”

“Of course. I know during my history I might have seemed a little... callous, but I've always hated death. There's nothing more static, more boring. More... final.”

Twilight closed her eyes for a moment, her mind seeming to spin around in bewilderment. Just two days ago she'd been preparing for the scientific and cultural event of a lifetime; contact with an entirely new species on an entirely new world! But now thanks to the misguided actions of some malcontents, not only had that opportunity been lost... but an innocent living creature- her friend- had been given a death sentence.

“...I'm not going to let this happen,” she said quietly, raising her head. “Sergeant Beryl!”

The normally dour-looking pegasus broke out of his depressed expression. “Princess?”

“Bring Peter and Sveti back to Canterlot, then have the Lambda and Epsilon science teams assemble and await my orders. I'm going back to my library in Ponyville to find any information I can on transplanar ruptures and magic dampening; I'll send directives from there.”

“Yes, Princess.” The pegasus saluted, but Twilight was already in the middle of her teleport.

(-)

Applejack couldn't describe the atmosphere inside the library any better than “angry silence”.

Not that she could blame anypony, honestly. After Twilight had gathered them all together, given them an overview of what had happened over the past couple of days, and asked- begged, really, if she was being honest- for their help in researching a way to save Peter, nothing that wasn't absolutely critical to that research had been said, the only sounds to grace her ears coming from the turning of pages and the occasional cough or sniffle. Twilight had a half-dozen tomes spinning around her like a strange turnstile, pages flipping each time one of the books passed her eyes, while the rest of the Bearers, Spike and Zecora sat around the large table in the middle of the library, each of them with a list of words and phrases to search for. She paused in her reading as she came across one of them, taking a pencil in her mouth to make note of the book's title and author and what page she'd found it on, being as careful with her mouthwriting as she could so that the eggheads in Canterlot would know where to look.

She set the pencil down, and took a quick moment to look around the room. She'd seen serious, contemplative looks on the faces of Rarity, Fluttershy and Zecora before, and Spike was no slouch when it came to researching something he found important... but to see Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie each bent over an enormous book, a hard-as-stone expression on the pegasus's face and a nearly blank one on the earth pony's....

It hurts, she realized. This is hurtin' all of us. Just knowin' that a pony done this t' Peter, it makes me feel ashamed, an' like I oughta be out kickin' some teeth in rather 'n sittin' here with a book. But what else can I do? The Princesses have prob'ly already got the Royal Guard lookin' fer the culprit, an' I won't feel the least bit sorry for the jerk when they git their hooves on 'im. She could feel the anger building up in her, her teeth grinding against each other and her heart speeding up in her chest... and with a deliberate effort, she forced herself to let it go. Gettin' angry won't do nothin' fer Peter. He needs the help of his friends, and th' only thing we kin do fer 'im right now is find information that th' eggheads kin use t' save 'im.

She completely lost track of time as she leafed through page after page, fighting fatigue and eyestrain, until a wide yawn popped her jaw and a glance out the windows showed that the sun had already set. Twilight had apparently heard the yawn. “Girls,” she said quietly, “I think we've done all we can do here tonight. Thanks so much for your help; I'm going to take everything we've got to Canterlot for the science teams to look at.”

Twilight approached the table to take their notepads- AJ noting with some pride that she'd produced five neatly-written pages of references- but stopped when she got to Pinkie Pie. “Pinkie, let me have your book and notes, please,” Twilight said.

Pinkie put a hoof down on her notepad. “I'm not done yet.”

“Pinkie, I think we've found just about everything we can hope for tonight-”

“No.” The party pony wouldn't look up from her book. “There's gotta be something in this book. Or another one. I wanna keep looking.”

“Sugarcube, I know ya wanna help,” Applejack said. “But it's late and yer as tired as th' rest of us. We can come back at it in th' mornin', bright an' early-”

“If you wanna quit, AJ, go ahead. I'm not gonna.”

“Uh... h-hey, c'mon, Pinks.” Dash put a hoof on her friend's withers. “It's great that you're so dedicated, y'know, but AJ's right. Staying up all night isn't going to-”

“I... I don't wanna stop, Dashie.” Pinkie flipped a page of the book in front of her. “Petey needs us! What if there's something on this next page that'll save him?! Or the next book? If I stop now, I might miss it! And he'll... he'll....” Tears started to roll down her cheeks. “I'm not gonna let it happen!” she said. “I'm not gonna let some meanie take one of my friends away from me like that! There's gonna be a way to save him, and we can get him home, and then he can come back with more friends, and then he and Sveti can be together like they ought to be, and I can throw everypony a party, and... and....”

She broke down in tears, laying her head on her forelegs and sobbing quietly. Everyone else in the room gathered around her, trying to comfort her. “Pinkie,” Zecora said gently. “To carry on with tired eyes could mean that you might miss the prize. A good night's rest for me and you will let us face this task renewed.”

Pinkie sniffled heavily, lifting up her head. “I... I guess you're right, Zecora,” she said. “I just don't wanna let Petey down.”

The eight of them went to the door. “Dash,” Twilight said quietly. “Would you...?” She tilted her head towards Pinkie.

“Yeah, you bet. C'mon, Pinkie, I'll help you home.” Dash trotted carefully along with the despondent pink mare leaning heavily on her shoulder.

As the rest of them headed home- Fluttershy insisting politely but firmly that Zecora stay at her cottage for the night so that the zebra wouldn't have to traverse the Everfree in darkness- Applejack found herself trotting next to Rarity for a moment. “Poor Pinkie,” the earth mare murmured. “She's takin' this really hard.”

“I shan't blame her.” Rarity's gaze wandered across the ground in front of her. “I'm so... so furious right now. Peter's done nothing to deserve this fate! Who could do this?!”

“All I'm sayin' is, once they find the jerk, they better not let me get inside 'a kickin' range, 'cause bad things 'd happen elsewise.” Applejack scowled.

“Save me a spot in line behind you. I expect it would be a long one.” Rarity shook her head slowly. “This is a nightmare. How could all this happen in just two days? Poor Peter. Poor Sveti.”

“Yeah. This must've been a kick in th' face for both of 'em. Mah heart's out to 'em.”

Eventually their paths parted, and with wishes for a good night's rest, Applejack and Rarity went their separate ways. After the long and quiet walk back to Sweet Apple Acres, Applejack found Big Mac waiting for her in the living room. “Granny an' Apple Bloom are both asleep,” he told her.

“So how come yer still up?”

“Wanted t' know what was goin' on. Princess Twilight don't pull ya away from the farm like that anymore 'less it's somethin' important... and judgin' by that look on yer face, it was.”

The emotional turmoil and physical exhaustion must've taken more of a toll on her than she'd thought, because with hardly any persuasion from Mac at all, Applejack found herself spilling out all the information she'd been given. Her brother's expression would've seemed as stoic as ever to anypony else, but AJ could read him like a book- he was getting as angry as her. “Ain't right,” he rumbled once she'd finished. “Lousy Canterlot politics is what that is. Dun care if th' common pony gets trampled in their little jamboree.” He looked up at her. “T'morrow I'm comin' wit'cha to th' library.”

She blinked in surprise. “Ya are?”

“Peter an' Sveti are a part of our family now. Even if they weren't, after what they did t' save that filly in th' Everfree, don't we owe 'em whatever we can do t' help? If readin' a bunch of books is what we gotta do, then count me in.”

She gave him a proud smile. “Awright then. Be up bright an' early t'morrow.”

“Always am.”

She was asleep almost as soon as her head hit her pillow, but one thought remained in her head: Whatever it takes, we are gonna save Peter.