“Where did everypony go?” That was one of the questions that ran wild on the stallion mind. But as he tries to answer it, he heard some hoofsteps around the town, usually he will go and greet them, but a growl indicated that those hooves belong to monsters.

He did no longer needed the lantern anymore since he is outside, the daylight was providing enough light to continue forward, even with the fog preventing him to see the buildings, so he put it away on the bags, he need some extra firepower if he plans to enter the castle, so, what better place than the Archives he just exited?, after all, is daytime, he galloped and searched for the main door, he couldn’t opened it from the inside, so there is a chance the archives were blocked from the outside, once he reached the door however.

“Ok… this is new,” he said as he walked forward slowly.

The door to the archives was blocked by pieces of the roof and wood, Stormy used his magic blast and blasted away the debris, clearing the door, once he opened it though, he found the Archives were completely destroyed, the stairs leading to the second floor were busted, and the door leading to the reading hall was broken, the only thing he could find there was a spell scroll on the receptionist desk along with a notebook that had a flower shaped quill.

“That quill… is from my brother, he asked me to buy this from the same gift shop where I got the Posey doll,” Stormy said to himself, smiling at the memory.

The scroll reads “Double Spell Incantation”, basically, it allows the user to use 2 spells at the same time, Stormy read the scroll, memorizing the steps required to perform it, he will practice it as soon as he reloads his magic, and there is only one place he can rest at least enough to recover, his own home, it was far away from the library, but he can reach in no time. As he walked he remembered that he had some cupcakes left on home, made with red and green apples, those rations will prove useful, especially since he will be using magic a lot. As he hurried back to home, he took the usual street, right next to the restaurant, but when he turned around the corner, the road was destroyed, there was no way to enter the apartment building that way.

“Oh for Celestia sake!, here too?” Stormy questioned, annoyed that he almost felt to a hole again.

Stormy was trying to find an answer, he looked at his building, where his apartment was, and the hole itself, most of the buildings next to the hole are almost falling inside, but his apartment remains untouched, that means, there must be another way, he has to go back and take a detour between the Art Gallery, the radio emitted a faint static, on the fog, Stormy manage to indentify a hopping pony, he did not had time to fight it, so he ran away instead, the radio stopped the sound as soon as he was out of the creature range, seems that they were not fast enough.

Walking around the empty Canterlot, Stormy found out that the street right next to the Fairytale’s Bookshop Store had a little alley that could get him to the Art Gallery side alley and to his apartment, his wounds stopped hurting him, the bandages had dried blood on them, but the wounds were already closed.

“Ahhh, finally a break,” he exclaimed, as he walked around the alley, reaching to the west side of the apartment building.

He placed his hoof on the doorknob and open it, once inside the building, he had to go a couple of stairs up, as soon as he found out the huge “04” door, an expression of relief cross his face as he opened it, reaching to his humble home, it was still as he left it before going to see Celestia. Half way eaten cupcakes were laying on the floor, his video game consoles perfectly hooked up to his TV, his bathroom, even his bed, he searched his table for the cupcakes, but they were not there, he went to where he keeps his video games, once he opened the drawer, he found only 1 cupcake left, can he have already eaten all of them during the last 4 months?.

Well, cupcake found, so, now it will be the best time as any to practice the double spell he learned, he focused his magic into levitating the cupcake and then perform a magical blast on the half eaten ones to make them splat, although it was difficult, he managed to shoot small magical blast while using levitation at the same time, seems his magic blast is severely weakened while in use of a different spell, Stormy tried combining levitation with the illumination spell, the light his horn provided was not affected.

“Wait a minute… how come the magical blast got affected?, let me see that scroll again” he said as he took out the scroll from his saddlebags.

“This spell was specifically developed for non combat situations, if a combat spell is combined with this spell, the effects will weakened.” That’s what was written on the spell scroll.

“Great… I always have to forget to read the little letters,” said Stormy rolling his eyes to a side.

Well seems he will have to deal with a weaker magic blast while using levitation at the same time, Stormy carefully levitated the cupcake on a little cardboard box and store it on his saddlebags, Mint Cupcake, it was his favorite flavor ever since he was a little foal, Pinkie Pie usually makes them for him when he is feeling depressed, a small smile draw itself on the stallion face as the echo of another memory rang in his head, it was Pinkie Pie singing, and he even heard her bouncing happily, which is weird because it sounded that her voice came from the kitchen, he opened his kitchen door, and he was frozen in place, for what he saw.

“All you have to do is take a cup of flour,
Add it to the mix!
Now just take a little something sweet, not sour,
A bit of salt--just a pinch!

Baking these treats is such a cinch,
Add a teaspoon of vanilla.
Add a little more, and you count to four
And you never get your fill-a~

Cupcakes, so sweet and tasty~
Cupcakes--don't be too hasty,
Cupcakes~ cupcakes, Cupcaaaaaaakes! “

It was none other than Pinkie Pie herself, singing to a younger little colt, as she made cupcakes with him, Stormy eyes filled with tears, he noticed the little colt, was himself, and that memory, it was the first time he had saw Pinkie pie on Ponyville, during his first travel outside of his birthtown.

“...I guess a bit of mint might also work,“ the little colt replied looking at Pinkie

“Pinkie Pie!!” Stormy screamed jumping towards her

When Pinkie noticed, she smiled, Stormy tried to hug her, but he went through her like a ghost, he turned around and Pinkie Pie was no longer on there, neither the smaller stallion, however, the evidence left behind by them still remained in the kitchen, since the remains of cake mix and candies were all over the place, the fridge was also opened, with 2 green apple cupcakes inside, Stormy picked up one up and ate it.

Satisfied to had eaten something he smiled but his face still had some tears left, he store the other cupcake in the same box as the mint cupcake on his bag just in case, he felt as if a bigger amount of magic had returned to him. The smile, quickly turned into a sad expression, he imagined for a moment Pinkie Pie was even there, even though he already knew, he was all alone there, he tried hard not to cry, remembering he still have a mission to do.

“ I can’t waste anymore time now, I must go to the Canterlot Castle, if this Luna is real, then I must find her,“ Stormy said as he made sure to check his items before leaving the room.

He turned, ready to leave, he was aware that the green apple on the cupcake might spoil quickly, so he had like a 30 minute window for it, when he turned around to take a last look on the kitchen, he noticed something shiny on the bowl with cake mix, candies and vanilla, Stormy took it out, it was a key, with a cupcake in it

“What in the name of pink?, this is the Sugar Cube Corner Key, how in Equestria did this key get to Canterlot from Ponyville?!” Stormy was more confused that ever as he looked at the key from every angle possible.

There is no mistake, it was the key to the Cakes home and bakery, but Sugar Cube Corner was located in Ponyville, how did the key to Pinkie house get in there?, debating on the why would not serve any purpose other than to make him lose time, so Stormy stored the key in his saddlebags, it was starting to get full.

“Come on, im sure I had the extra space spell around here,” said the stallion as he searched his home.

In battle, some guards tend to use the “Extended Pocket” spell to allow themselves to carry spears and other weapons in their armor pockets, as part of Luna’s Moon Guards, he also had access to that spell, problem is, Stormy didn’t remembered where he put that spell in, he opened one of his old games boxes and there it was, the Extended Pocket Spell, he immediately applied it to have a little of extra space, of course, thanks to the apple cupcake he ate he could now do more spells, fully recovered and ready, he exited his apartment, the same way he enter it, and ran towards the Canterlot Castle.

As expected, there was no guards on the front gate, Stormy took out the key of the castle from his saddlebags and use it on the Castle Main Doors, the clicking sound was heard, Stormy moved forward, pushing the big metallic gates and getting inside.

“The Canterlot Castle... this is where I came to train to be a Lunar Guard,“ the stallion said to himself, as he caught a glimpse of the training grounds near the front gate.

Stormy remembered his first sword training, the attacks with magic that he learned from Shinning Armor, even he remember playing his ocarina at night on the training grounds, feeling a little nostalgic he slowly walked in to the main gate castle grounds and took his ocarina out, at first he played a original song to remember the old times, but a quick radio static sound snapped him out of the comfort zone and back into the fighting, a hopping pony was attacked by the song.

Taking advantage of the new learned spell, he held his ocarina with levitation and shot several magic blasts, the reduced force was enough to conserve magic, while at the same time, keeping the monster back and injuring it. Once the creature was silenced, Stormy played the Winds of Friendship song, to contact Princess Luna again, the amount of magic he used this time was less than when he first played the song, and this time, the ocarina this time reacted almost immediately, the princess had responded.

“Luna... I think I got the hang of this song, I do not feel the same fatigue as last time, you ok up there?” Stormy said, showing how quickly he dominated the ancient song.

“For the time being, yes I am” she said sounding exhausted. “Are you still far away from the castle?”

“Actually no, I’m in the main castle gate, just outside the main door,” Stormy informed the princess as he pushed a little the main door, going inside.

“Oh thanks my sister you're near.” She exclaimed in relief. “The sooner you get me out of here, the better. It's getting a bit suffocating...”

“Don’t tell me you have run into the same monsters I have already” Stormy reacted surprised, but going back to the topic “Where are you right now?”

“I'm somewhere in the gardens... Not sure exactly where. Everything is now twisted and confusing”

“The fog doesn’t help either, I will try to find you in your bedroom, think we can see each other there?” Stormy asked the Princess to a meeting point, he was in the lobby of the castle, just like the rest of the town, it was empty

“Sounds like the safest idea. I'll see you there, oh… before I go.” The princess interrupted. “I head some metallic sounds from the Armory in the first floor, be careful.” the glow on the ocarina stopped, Luna was not longer connected with Stormy via the magical song.

Stormy stored his ocarina back on his saddlebags and ate the second green apple cupcake, his magic has recovered to the maximum now, he was going to need it if the creatures or the Iron Mask Pony were on the Castle, specially considering Luna´s hint, Stormy got close to the lobby and from the far away desk to the right, there was a map he could use, looked at the quickest route to the Princess Celestia and Luna’s bedrooms.

“Ok… if I can cut from the kitchen to the south gardens and then to the guest rooms, I can reach the Guards Bedrooms and from it to the Princess Tower gardens,” he said as he traced the route.

The castle was intact, the armors, torches, carpets on the floor, even the curtains or the doors, everything was as if they never got damaged, the lobby had 4 passage ways, one took to the left observation tower and the left entrance and the left courtyard, the right one connected to the right tower supply warehouse and the rose garden, the 2 passage ways on top of the staircase takes to the great hall and to the outer hallway respectively. However, under the stairs it were 2 doors he forgot, one was an area for employees of the castle, that way take straight to the guards training grounds at the left and the kitchen in the right.

Stormy went up the stairs and tried the outer hallway door, this door usually leads to the Meeting Room and to the internal garden, there is a road that leads to the guest bedrooms and several ball rooms, sadly for our stallion. The door was locked, he kicked the door several times, but it didn’t budge, seems he would not be able to enter the hallway this way, Stormy tried to call the princess with another magical song but before he played the melody, he remembered that Luna said the Iron mask Pony was on the Armory, that is on the Basement B1, almost next to the dungeons.

“If I play my ocarina, even if this is a safe area, the walls will make resonance and will attract the monsters here, last thing I need is that monster in specific behind me,” Stormy rationalized as he stored the instrument away.

His instinct told him to check the throne room first, since Celestia spend most of her time there, she must have the key to the outer hallway, after all, that hallway is most of the time used for important guesses and political meetings, The throne room was on the 2F from the main lobby, in the same hallway that leads to the great hall, he moved there, but when he open the door, a blood trail goes towards the throne room, Stormy felt a cold chill heading down towards his spine as he followed the trail, he pushed gently the door that led towards Princess Celestia and Luna Throne Room.

“What in the name of harmony happened here?” he said to himself, frozen on the spot.

The stained glass showed the heroic deeds of the Mane 6, defeating Nightmare Moon, returning Discord to his stone prison, and even Spike saving the Crystal Empire, but those were the only things in the place that were clean, the whole throne room looked like it has been burned out, part of the throne itself was broken, and several bloodstains in the form of solar knights were present in the walls and ceiling, it looked almost as if the guards tried to contain something that was way far beyond their capability.

Celestia was nowhere to be seen, just her crown was there on her throne, along with a huge amount of ash making her silhouette, Stormy did not like the looks of this, should he inform Luna?, the crown had dried-blood in it, indicating that whatever happened to Celestia, it was waaay to long before he even got to the castle.

Below the crown was stained page that it reads “Princess Lullaby “ the paper used made it clear it was another missing song from the Harmony book, Stormy was going to pick it up but his radio started to emit static, he turned around and saw the Armored Shadow from the Archives, the armor he had to fled because nothing was able to hurt it, he could tell it was that one because it was lacking it’s helmet.

“Oh great, him again,” he said as he dodged an incoming attack.

Good news is, he had no need to use the illumination spell, since the light entered from the windows, bad news is, the creature seems to avoid the light that enters from the windows. Stormy concentrated and used a magic bullet attack on the creature, the creature took the blow but it didn’t do anything since he hit the torso plate, Stormy stepped back, as the Armored Shadow tackle him, he dodged to a side and almost immediately hit the shoulder section of the armor with his pipe, the piece was sent flying to the other side of the room, but the shadow pony was still ready to attack.

Stormy was not going to let this creature screw things up, so he started to attack as well, he managed to hit with the steel pipe another piece of armor, and noticed that the shadow pony made a face like if he was hurt.

“That’s it!, the Armored Pony is just a possessed armor, taking out each piece with a strong hit, will break the creature connection to it!” Stormy smiled, he seems to have found the creature weakpoint.

True, physical attacks to the shadow flesh are pointless, but not to the armor itself, the shadow pony used his own armor as weapon and hit Stormy on his stomach, making him move backwards, the creature tackle him again, making Stormy roll and hit the floor, when the creature tried to step on Stormy body, Stormy charged one magical bullet on a non protected part of the shadow body, the bullet hit it´s target, making the creature scream in pain, seems that light based magic is deadly to it if no armor is protecting it, perhaps that explains why it avoids the light from the windows. Stormy decided to take advantage of the natural light and stepped into one of the windows, then used his pipe to reflect the light towards the creature face.

“GROAOSS!” The creature yelled, the light blinded him.

Stormy charged another blast and finish the creature off, aiming at it’s head, the blast managed to kill the creature, leaving the remaining pieces of the armor on the ground.

“uuugh... for a shadow, it really had quite a kick, gotta take note on it’s weakness,” Stormy said to himself, looking at the armor remains.

Stormy took advantage of this moment picked up the page on the throne, it says that it was the Princess Lullaby when Luna and Celestia were little filly’s, used to be played by The Mother Alicorn, but the alicorn name was bloodstained and could not be read, the song was readable though, Stormy played the song, and it was not hard to master, and the magic consumed by it was very little, according to the page description, it has a magical effect of making anypony except the user, fall asleep as soon as they hear it, but since he was alone in the room, it didn’t had any magic effects, sadly the key for the outer hallway was not in the Throne Room.

That leaves the kitchen as the next destination, not before taking Celestia´s Tiara with him just in case that Luna ask what happened to her sister. When he exited the throne room, the radio burst into static again, he saw 2 Ceiling Filly on the roof, he was not going to waste time, before the creatures even came close to him, he fired his magic bullets, killing them in the process. Stormy tried to enter the great hall, but it was locked as well, with few options, he returned to the lobby and entered the staff door that leads to the kitchen, it smelled horrible, several ants were on the tables and the cooking pots had dried soup in them, he put his hoof on his nose for a while.

“Sweet Luna…. This smells horrible, hard to think 4 months ago this was used to make a wedding banquet worthy of the love princess,“ Stormy thought for himself, as he searched for the key, or something he could use

There was a note on the table, with a blood stained knife? It reads that for more flavor you could add 2 horns, 3 Pegasus feathers, a liver and a heart, Stormy was shocked when he read the note, it looked like somepony was cooking ponies, this made him instantly throw up, he did not want to check the pots or the fridge, he did not have enough courage for that, he exited the kitchen and headed to the warehouse garden, where the chefs can go to bring the fresh materials, there is a passage way that goes straight to the Guards Private rooms.

Yeah, each guard that chooses to live in the palace, get their own room, separated due to ranks, from the lower, to the highest rank, Stormy quickly passed the gardens and reached the tower where the rooms are, he heard a little static, seems there was a creature near him, but chose to forget it and move on.

The stallion checked room per room, most of them had the doorknobs broken, or the door was destroyed allowing to see inside, although, the rooms that were open had something at least of use, one room had a Energy drink, another room had a red apple, and from what it seems a soldier diary, this draw Stormy attention to the object.

“Hmmm, a soldier diary?, let see, the last page was from 4 days ago,” Stormy said as he read the contents of the book.

“I overheard some Lunar Guards last night, Princess Luna has not been able to sleep at all, is just like those stories that the Element of Laughter told us the last time she was here on royal duty, according to her, you lost your appetite for your favorite meals, also you look sad and tired, then the nightmares come and attack, I think the problem was caused due to the recent events with the Crystal Empire, the Princess wanted to help, but Princess Celestia insisted on letting Twilight Sparkle go, most of us the Lunar and Solar Guards, sometimes see her taking long flights around Canterlot and Ponyville with a few hours, maybe seeking advise from the Element of Magic?, I don’t even know now, I want to help our princess, but only Shinning Armor has the key to enter the Princess Towers, when is bedtime, all guards that are no on duty must leave, to let either Celestia or Luna sleep... what could be making Princess Luna stay awake even in daytime?” those were the words of one of the guards.

Stormy stopped reading, could it be? That the Luna he has been talking about, was another creature disguised as the Princess he swore to protect?, or that in reality, the Princess he is trying to find is the one he knows and that she is also suffering from terrible nightmares?, Could have he been connected to the princess nightmares in any way? As far as he is concerned, the only one that can enter the dreams of other ponies is Princess Luna herself, but anyone that is connected to her will be able to react and think normally, then if that is the case, How come he has not seen her yet?.

With thousands of questions in mind he exited the current guard room, he noticed it was a solar guard bedroom were he found the previous dairy, maybe other guards keep more information in their journals? He needs to be sure, so he searched the remaining rooms, he entered on a lunar guard room, besides their armor, a note was on the bed, looks like a journal entry, just what he was searching for, but this one was very strange, it had some messages missing, due to some black marker covering the words.

“No Sleep--------That raincoat colt----------- bad dream-------- “ the note continued stained for a while, but there was a readable part, it said ; “ I know his sin, and I will tell the princess! “

For some reason, those last words send shivers to Stormy spine, what could have the knight know to write that?, he tried to exit the room, but he felt something on his back again, the radio burst into static, it was a Ceiling Filly, those little devils were very good at avoiding activating the radio, just that this ceiling filly was different, besides the already usual look and screws they have on the head, they were wearing a remaining of what it looked to a suit, a cyan suit.

“Rwaaarw” the creature groaned.

“Damn it, How many of you are?” the stallion questioned, as he tried to shake the creature off.

“Groh?” the creature made a shrug expression to Stormy´s question before resuming his attack.

The creature lost it’s grip, the stallion took his chance and attacked him with the steel pipe, the filly evaded the attack and launched itself for a attack of his own, Stormy placed the pipe in defense, the creature ended up biting the pipe, Stormy swing the pipe towards the floor, making the creature hit the concrete hard, the creature got up, but Stormy used his pipe again on its head, the creature started to emit a painful growl, Stormy put all his strength on the next blow, making the creature to go quiet, it did not felt the hit, if there was a monster he still have issues facing in battle, are these ones, perhaps due to the foal-like appearance?.

He exited the room quickly and searched for other rooms, there was only 3 good rooms remaining, Shinning Armor room, his teammate and his superior on the Lunar Guards, Noirstar, and the room from the second in command from the Solar Guards, Starlight Sight, he checked Starlight first, he loved seeing stars at night, so perhaps he might have spotted something unusual when he was star gazing, he found another journal entry on the telescope in his room, Stormy seems to might be able to got some information on what might be happening to Luna

“Being an active solar guard provides me with a lot of opportunities to see things in town, but when night falls and I’m supposed to sleep, I feel myself cheating little hours of sleep to gaze upon the stars. How come we neglected that gift from Princess Luna is beyond me, but these are new times, on one of my usual star gazing nights I saw Princess Luna, crying in her bedroom, talking to Princess Celestia, seems she still has a hard time getting adjusted to the modern times.” The guard note ended there, Stormy flipped the page and found more info. “Concerned about the princess I started to investigate, I end up finding that some guards had overheard several rumors about Luna. According to some of the lunar guards, she had been suffering terrible nightmares, so awful that even Celestia was shocked when she heard them.”

Stormy paused for a moment, trying to reflect on those words. “Wait, so I was right then, Luna has been suffering from nightmares as well,” by some strange reason he was smiling, almost as if he found something he wanted to find, a sigh of relief was heard coming out of his mouth as he continued to read.

“I could not hear much before I was found by Princess Celestia herself. but I could noticed on the following weeks after that conversation, that Princess Luna was awake most of the time during the day, trying to be helpful in anything she could, one day she even took her battle armor and made guard with us for a whole shift, kind of humorous really, but still the same problems happens each time she goes to sleep, Celestia herself told me to keep this information secret, but I have to get it out of my head, she said that Luna had been having nightmares where she ended up murdering everypony on the castle, including Celestia, being possessed by Nightmare Moon again, could be possible?, that the Elements of Harmony had not eliminated all of the corrupted state of Luna, when she was Nightmare Moon?, only time will tell, she told me that she will try something to help her, let’s pray that Celestia knows what the hay she is doing,” those were the final words written on the note

That last page cleared it all to Stormy, or at least the reason Luna was also there, it was not a creature posing as Luna, it was actually her!, Luna have been having very similar nightmares as him, that’s why Celestia took immediate response to his plea of help, with more reason than ever, he wanted to get to the princess ASAP, she will not survive this hell all by herself, not with her fear being corrupted again eating the back of her mind, he searched the remaining 2 rooms, the one from Noirstar was opened already. As he entered the room, he found it was painted in green color, the floor was a little slippery and the closet had a spare armor, but the strange thing of the room, was a recent letter, addressed to Noirstar, Stormy read it carefully, Noirstar was one of his closer fiends on the force, but something on that letter didn’t felt quite right.

“My Subject, or should I call you Noirstar now?, I will get straight to the point, I didn’t send you to infiltrate the Royal Guard to make friends!, you are a drone remember?, something that lives to serve me, I own you, get it? I know that you have been very happy in Canterlot, you think you was the only changeling I send to spy on the ponies?, 6773 came in with his report yesterday, and let me tell you, that happiness will not last forever, one day, Celestia will know that you were always one of my subjects and will banish you or worse, all the ponies you knew will turn against you, so I will give you one final order, go to the princesses bedrooms and kill them both!, only like that you will be accepted back on the Hive!, otherwise… well, let’s just say that I will pray a lot to do not see each other again. Yours Truly, Queen Chrysalis, Changeling Queen “ those were the words on the letter.

There was something else on the letter, Stormy turned it around, it was green blood writing, and had a key attached to it, from what it looked, it looked like a remorse letter.

“I can’t do it!, but what if they never knew?, I want to be remembered as a pony, not as a traitor changeling, but this are my Queen orders…. For the love of Celestia!, I can’t take it anymore! Somepony... anypony... Help me!“ those were the green letters written on the back of the letter.

It was Noirstar writing, there was no question about it, this was too much info to digest, his best buddy, was a changeling?, that can’t be true!, if he was a changeling, he has been feeding on love from everypony, he could be easily kill Celestia or Luna, but why he hadn’t say anything?

“Oh yeah, the wedding invasion, if he had said anything after the wedding, Celestia would probably had locked him in a dungeon and banish him, maybe he was too scared to talk?” Stormy said, his smile quickly turned into a frown.

Maybe, just maybe, on the back of Stormy´s mind, he always had suspected that his best friend, was a changeling, the strange strength and agility, ability to fly without any visible wings, and his green magic aura when he shield himself, he should have seen the hints, but he couldn’t betray his friend in telling Luna or Celestia, despite everything, he is still his friend, and if he was really a spy of Chrysalis, he could have killed him at any moment, but he didn’t.

He inspected the room, besides finding several traces of broken shells; he found a photo album, full of moments between him and Noirstar, he looks so happy in them, contrary to what the letter indicates. There is no way around it though, if Noirstar is in the castle, he won’t do something against his friend, but if he doesn’t leave him any options, Stormy will defend himself if necessary.

“Please Noirstar, if you are in this castle… don’t make me do something I will regret” he said, putting the album back on its place.

Stormy took the key from the letter, it was the princess tower key, he place it on his saddlebags and checked the last room, it was Shinning Armor room, did he ever locked his door? The place had a big picture of Princess Cadance and the Armor he always wear in the castle, Princess Cadance sometimes visit Shinning Armor in his room, that is why the bed is big for 2 ponies, but with them married, Shinning spends most of the time on the Crystal Empire.

Stormy searched the room for something usable, after all, the outer hallway is still locked, there was a white stain on the bed, along with a lot of funny smells on the room that any adult pony would already know what happened there, but there was something on the bed, it was a magic scroll, it mentioned a more powerful version of the bullet spell, with it, he could fire more bullets using less magic, or even send energy to his sword, or in this case, pipe, to make it more powerful in each hit, it also explained how to generate a magical shield spell, but the amount of magic to use it was huge, he have to increase his magic limit before even thinking about actually perform it some of this spells, specially the magical shield, Stormy read it and store it on his saddlebags to practice it later, he exited Shinning Armor room and galloped full speed to the Princesses Tower.

“Ok… once I exit this building I can take the alternative pathway on the garden to reach the princess tower,” he said, galloping faster towards the exit.

During the way he was meditating about what he had found out so far, Celestia is nowhere to being seen, Luna had similar nightmares compared to the ones he had about murdering innocent ponies, and the problem with Noirstar, if all that information is correct, then he is definitely not on a dream, the another dimension idea seems to be getting more and more strength, feeling trapped on an endless nightmare.

Stormy reached to the tower after crossing the garden, but at least 3 hopping ponies were waiting for him, Stormy took the magic scroll he took from Shinning Armor room, and tried his improved spell bullets, this was going to leave him in the red probably, but he can ask for Luna to regenerate his magic since she is an alicorn right?. The magic bullets were shot from his horn and the hopping ponies took the fires, still it was enough to take them out with one shot, he then used the key on the doors and opened them, he could hear a metallic echo on the tower, Stormy heart jumped to his neck as the echo grew louder, each time he took a step closer to Princess Luna bedroom, he tried to enter Celestia´s room, but the door was locked, he reached to Luna room, and called her, the door was locked from the outside with a powerful magic on the doorknob, however, the radio had a very faint static sound.

“Princess… I’m here!” Stormy called to the door again, a little relieved to be near the princess door.

“Well yeah, my head is still attached to my body, so yeah I’m me, what are you doing locked in there?” Stormy joked, as he tried to kick the door down, the magical barrier repelled any attack

“I was trying to find you, but...” her voice then went a little lower. “I was spotted... They dragged me here and sealed the door”

“S-spotted?” Stormy felt a shiver down his spine, he was afraid of what he was going to ask. “What caught you?, was the Ceiling Filly?, or the Skeletal Mare?”

“Pardon me, but whom are you talking about?” the princess sounded confused at Stormy question.

“Oh... those are the names i gave to the creatures I had found so far, give me a sec“ the stallion stepped away from the door a moment.

Stormy searched for something to use, he ended up using a piece of wall and started to use his magic blast to draw a picture of the 5 known monsters he encountered so far, he slid the piece of thin wall under the door to allow Luna to see the badly drawn monsters, so the princess will known what to expect once she is out

“You see Luna... those are the creatures i have found so far... there is the hopping pony, which is the one with one leg, the Ceiling Filly that is a filly with bolts on its head and knives for front hooves, the Armored Shadow, which is a live armor revived by a shadow creature, the skeletal mare which looks like death, and the Iron Mask Pony based on what you told me, don’t ask me how, but that last creature is invulnerable to anything” he said waiting for Luna’s answer.

“Pray tell… how many of these have you seen?” Luna asked, trying to get more information

“Let me tell you, the Archives are flooded with these things, but the streets are deserted, with the exception of a few of these creatures” Stormy answered the princess question with honesty.

“This is the one that got me here…” Luna answered Stormy first question when she returned the wall piece with a circle on the Skeletal Mare.

“Oh crap, well, time to get you out” Stormy said, preparing a magical spell.

“Get my sister, she might know how to open the lock” Luna demanded to her guard, trying to avoid Stormy from firing.

Celestia?, what he was going to say now?, I’m sorry Luna but your sister is missing and all I found is a bloodstained crown. If he said that Luna could break, Stormy decided to follow Luna request and went down to Celestia´s bedroom without telling her what he had found, at least for the time being, he pushed the doors just to find her bedroom where she used to receive Twilight letters, next to the chimney.

“Probably Twilight old friendship reports are here...” he said as he closed the doors.

Neat and tidy as expected from a princess, he started to search for any spell scroll he could use to break a magical barrier; he ended up finding an old investigation that Twilight had sent to her mentor about the magical barriers created by Shinning Armor and Cadance, Stormy just to make sure, he sit on Celestia´s cushions to read the letter, as expected, it was written by Spike, his claw writing is impossible to miss.

“Dear Princess Celestia, as you might know, I asked my brother and Cadance to do their bubble love shield again to test their magical properties, as expected, the magic casted by an alicorn is strong enough, but my brother magic adds another layer of protection, while Alicorn magic alone is meant to last long as long as the target magic slowly drains, Shinning magic strengths the barrier and transfers some of its magic to Cadance, and viceversa, this “recycle” of magic allows the barrier to last almost indefinitely, until both ponies run out of magic, even when my brother magic runs out, Cadence can still keep the spell going, however… I found a little flaw.

These kind of barriers are fueled by feelings and most of the time requires the user full concentration and power, if the user falls asleep, then the barrier is immediately lifted, ending the spell. Hope you find these studies useful to strength your own barrier spells you out on the castle.

Your fateful student, Twilight Sparkle.”

Wait… barriers can be defeated by the user falling asleep?, kinda makes sense when you think about it, but Twilight last sentence ran wild on Stormy head, so Celestia set up barriers in the castle?, if so, then when she sleeps, so does the barriers, and what if the barrier that is on Luna’s door was made by an invisible monster? That might explain why he hasn’t seen anything but the radio had a minimal static noise when he is in front of the door, with the new information he went to Luna’s bedroom and took his ocarina out, he was ready to give the Princess Lullaby a second try.

“Princess… I didn’t found your sister… but I think I can take the barrier out” he said getting ready to play.

“Whatever you want to do, please do it.” Luna asked politely, she was sitting on her bed, a little tired of being standing around.

Stormy started to play the Princess Lullaby song, thankfully for him; the song description stated that the user is immune to the effect, and true to it’s word, Stormy was able to hear the peaceful melody, the sounds of the ocarina started to echo in the tower as the static sound began to fade, a soft thud was heard, like if somepony had collapsed on the floor, a snoring soon followed as the magical barrier started to dissipate, when the song ended, Stormy felt a little magic drain, it was not as big as when he used the Winds of Friendship song.

“No way. That actually worked?” he said with a confused expression in his face.

Stormy pushed the doors open, they were a little stiff, however, when he opened them and entered the princess bedroom, he found that the song effect actually got Luna as well, the princess was sleeping in her bed and it didn’t seem she was going to be easy to wake up, Stormy panicked, and started to do everything to wake her up, from moving her, blowing bad notes on his ocarina to make irritating sounds, to even shooting the door making a hole in it, finally, when everything else failed, he had an idea, he went as far as to find on the vicinity of the tower a Ceiling Filly and keep it levitating, once he was back on Luna bedroom however.

“Grooah!?” the creature reacted confused by the whole ordeal, as Stormy pulled its tail. “GRRRROAAAAWWW?!?!”

“Come on Luna!, this isn’t the time!” he yelled, throwing the creature out of the room. “Of all the hidden effects that the book could warn somepony about and it didn’t warn me about somepony being sleeping so heavily when playing the lullaby!”

“Graooow” the ceiling filly lay outside Luna’s bedroom, with its head on the floor, dizzy.

Stormy played the lullaby song to make the Ceiling filly fall asleep before it could react, this will allow the stallion to explore Luna’s bedroom, there must be something he can use to wake her up, he searched her wardrobe and found a lot of armors, including the one she used as Nightmare Moon, why of all things would she keep that if she is so afraid of becoming her again?.

Between the armors he found a little switch, Stormy pushed it and from where the mirror was, a huge TV appeared, with a few gaming consoles connected to it, there was even a collectors edition of a popular game.

“Hey, I haven’t actually played this one, maybe I ca-” he said a little happy, but as he picked up the game box and tried to open it, somepony tackled him “-aahh!”

“THOU SHALL NOT UNDO THE BINDINGS OF THAT VALUABLE TREASURE!” Luna yelled in her royal canterlot voice, she had tackled Stormy to prevent the game from being touched.

Really? She didn’t wake up with the creature yell or the party horn, but she wakes up as soon as somepony touches her stuff? Somepony really need to have her priorities straight. Stormy got himself up when the light entering the windows started to diminish, the siren started to sound, indicating the change of time, both ponies saw how the walls were slowly loosing their color, the TV started to get covered in rust and dust, while the games deteriorated, Luna saw how that even affected the one she currently had levitated, Luna let go her spell, as the hole carpeted floor lost the concrete, rock and the cold steel replaced it, the bed broke down, and the sheets were becoming moist with awful fluids both ponies do not want to even think what the heck they were, the wooden doors broken down, as they got replaced with iron gates, the Ceiling filly was not affected, being a creature itself, neither Luna or Stormy could see the moon, all they could see was darkness, Stormy pulled up the lantern to conserve his magic.

“Stormy, what is happening?!” Luna said with an expression of somepony that could not believe what she is currently looking.

“When I have a proper explanation I will have to let you know,” he said levitating the filly.

Although he had already killed several of these creatures, something in his heart prevented him to attack a slept enemy, Stormy put the creature on the altered princess bed and both ponies left the room, they went down the twisted spiral stairs, not knowing how much the castle had changed now that the shadows had overrun it.

Author's Notes:

Sorry for the delay guys, this was supposed to be uploaded last week ;_;