Luna was desperate and alone now, her mind was quickly losing grip on the reality of the situation, the usage of the Elegy of Chaos managed to corrupt her, at least the enough to allow Nightmare’s influence to affect her again, and under that influence, she made the worst choice, she believed that allowing Stormy to awaken the moondust magic would put the scale in their favor against the monsters, but instead of going the traditional way, she tried to force it by making the stallion face his own darkness, although the results were successful, the consequences weight heavy on Luna conscience, she was hurt and regretful, not only by the fact that the only colt that was there when she needed him was dying, but also, because of her betrayal she was so blind to his feelings.

Yes, she knew that Stormy had a crush on her, for Celestia sake she can see the dreams of everypony if she wanted to, more tears were falling from her eyes, as she remembered one specific dream she visited from Stormy, when she was still exiled.

She remembered a particular nightmare, she was on her home, Canterlot Castle, but everything was dark and each step she made, a soft sound was heard, she look down only to see the corpses of her guards and even the servants, all of them, burned to death, her mane and tail was stained with blood, and the most terrifying thing for her, is that she was normal, she saw a puddle of the blood of the victims, and the reflection was what she feared the most, the reflection, was Nightmare Moon, she started to cry, when she felt a hug on her legs, when she turned around, it was a little white colt, with a Ocarina and swords cutie mark

“Don’t cry princess, please don’t, “said the little colt

“But…I killed them all, they fear me, and attacked me, I killed them because of that, this is what I will do when I return…. Everypony fear me, so everypony will die by my hoof, “Luna said, crying

“No princess, not everypony fear you, on the contrary, they remember you and love you, nopony has forgotten you ,“ The little colt said to Luna, still hugging her

“But…” Luna was still confused

“Luna, I never feared you, I am waiting for your safe return.“ the little colt said with happiness on his voice. “Even if everypony turn against you, I will not leave you alone.“

“Why is that little one?” Luna asked, feeling a little better

“Because… I really like you Princess, you don’t deserve to be treated badly, or to be feared, you bring a beautiful night that everypony enjoy, even if they are asleep, especially me” The colt replied with an upbeat attitude.

“I…” Luna cried, but these tears were not sad ones.

Luna hugged the little colt, as she tried to see her reflection in the blood, she realized there was no longer any blood, in fact she was no longer in Canterlot, she was on a city, a big city, with too many lights in the middle of her beautiful moon, she was in Manehattan, the big metropolis of Equestria, the little colt was wearing a cyan suit, but only his face was visible, he held Luna’s hoof, and took her to the roof, where they could see the moon and the stars perfectly well, during that dream, the little colt showed Luna how did the ponies live their lives not only during daytime, but also in nighttime, she didn’t had knowledge of nocturne ponies during her time before Nightmare Moon. But when they get to the mayor office, the dream usually ends, it always ends there, like if a part of Stormy’s mind, had terrible memories on that building.

Reality started to kick in; taking Luna out of that memory, the building in his dreams could explain why she wasn’t able to see Stormy’s Nightmares for the past 4 months, they were mental barriers.

“Ahahahahaha, hahahahaha” Luna started to laugh, as her left eye was showing the features of Nightmare Moon.

Luna took a quick look at her hooves, she was almost next to Stormy, due to inertia she hugged him tightly, trying to prevent him from losing temperature, ashamed of what she had done, however, nightmare laugh still exited her mouth, she was loosing grip at an alarming fast rate.

“Ahahaha, n-no” she said, trying to stop laughing. “I cannot, I cannot let her win”.

She let go the hug, a splashy sound turned her gaze from the stallion and back to her hooves, they were bloodstained, he was not going to survive if the wounds were not healed, she looked at Stormy’s ocarina and the ancient book, that’s it!, both Stormy and her knows the ancient songs, if she could perform the healing song before she lose her last bits of sanity she might be able to fix the damage she caused.

Nightmare influence was not making things easy, as her coat colors seems to absorb Luna colors, darkening them out, she opened the book right next to Stormy and took a quick look at the pages he had collected so far, they were magically restored to the book, so it was hard to tell that they were once torn apart from the book., she searched the current pages, hoping to find the right one, from the 7 pages collected so far, the Song of Refresh was the one she was looking for, with her magic skill she could perform the song effects perfectly, she tried to sing the song, but Nightmare influence kicked in again, preventing her voice to come out, she could not speak, as she kept hearing in her mind the same voice she feared.

“What are you trying to do?, save him, hahaha, you insolent buffoon!, you doomed him yourself!” Nightmare influence started to taunt the princess.

“Get…out… of my brain!” Luna yelled in her mind, trying to stand up.

If she cannot sing, she will play the song with the last of air she has, Luna levitated the instrument and started playing it, she felt how her magic was quickly being drained, directing the healing effect to both Stormy’s wounds and to her surprise, her own body, his flesh was slowly regenerating and repairing the damaged tissue, his damaged organs were being repaired, in the princess case however, her eye that looked just like nightmare started to lose that shape, Luna felt almost as if her body was burning as the darkness that was covering her was getting removed, she closed her eyes hard and when she opened them back, hey pupil had return to normal, puking some sort of black blood, dropping the instrument.

The song itself was sweet and kind of sad at the same time, maybe reflecting the exchange of all magic to save others?, either way, seems the song was working well, since the wounds healed up perfectly, and the black blood that came out of Luna seems to have evaporated, she could no longer hear Nightmare’s influence. Once the song ended, Luna began to breathe heavy due to the lack of her magic, seems that Stormy was still knocked out cold, but his temperature was slowly recovering, she was thinking of carrying him to the Canterlot Hospital, but she couldn’t without her magic.

“Stormy, please open your eyes,” Luna said, hoping the stallion would react.

Luna plead to Stormy once again, but seems it will take a while for him to regain consciousness, the good news are that he at least is now out of danger, and with the moondust unlocked, he might be able to perform more songs, Luna searched on the stallion saddlebags, since her magic was drained, she will not be able to perform the illumination spell or any spell for that matter, so she took Stormy’s lantern, she also took found Celestia´s tiara, looking at it for a second and looking at it’s bloodstains made the princess look at the knocked out stallion once more.

“Silly guard, you only found my sis tiara, not my sister, next time you find things like this, tell me,” Luna said to the stallion, despite him being KO.

After she placed the lantern on her saddlebags, she reflected on what happened and is better for her to keep it, along with Stormy’s ocarina, just in case.

Meanwhile he wakes up, she searched the throne for the spare key, she hesitated for a moment, remembering the throne aspect in the “other“ world, but right now it looks perfectly normal, she found out the key they needed to get out under the seat. The castle had a more normal aspect, she opened the door to the throne room and searched the castle for something that can be useful before leaving with the stallion, she checked the kitchen, and the area was normal to say the least, it didn’t had any pony body parts being cooked, kind of strange, well for both Luna and Stormy, seeing this normal was a good thing at least, she checked the fridge, and she found out a Zap Apple Pie Slice, this was enough to recover either Stormy or Luna total magic, so she carefully packed up the Zap apple pie, and store it on her saddlebags, maybe she and the stallion could share it?, after the kitchen, she tried to check the guards room, but the doorknob felt, the door was damaged.

“What´s this?... the door is broken?, but I was sure this was working before,” Luna said with a little disbelief.

She also tried to see if she could find something on the Armory, but the door was also broken, seems that when the castle returned to normal, most of the doors got damaged, making it impossible to search areas Stormy or Luna had previously visited, almost as if something in the environment wants them to proceed, some sort of divine guidance perhaps?.

The princess noticed she could still exit the gardens and enter the Royal Quarters, she didn’t wanted to leave Stormy for too long, so she rechecked the tower once more, she tried her room, but the door was locked again, from the inside this time around, the last place she could check is Celestia´s Bedroom, this door opened normally, nothing unusual, just the fireplace, the bed where she rest and writes the letters to Twilight Sparkle, even the stars curtain was on the wall, but she did found out something on her sister bedroom, it was a page, very similar to the book Stormy has.

“Huh, a page of the Book of Harmony, how did it get here?” Luna questioned as she rested on her sis bed and read the paper.

As Luna began reading it, she found out the page was actually the Unicorn’s Path song, the song description says that it reveals hidden things in the room, also it provides a temporal amount of magic, like a boost, even if the user didn’t had any energy left, that could help her since she is drained right now. Luna took Stormy’s ocarina and started playing the song she found, she felt like a little spark on her horn, the magic of the song worked, part of the song effect is that the hidden will be revealed, but the song didn’t mentioned how, Luna noticed how from her horn some small stars were making a path and ended on a curtain that began to shine with little sparks of light, she checked where the sparks told her, and found out 2 scrolls, one is a magic scroll to increase the magic blast power and shield duration, but… the last one, contained information about a certain incident in Manehattan, why Celestia kept it hidden?.

“Tragedy in Manehattan… a group of 3 ponies was found killed in a small house on New Orange, the victims were an adult stallion, a little mare and a filly… only 2 survivors found…. Names… “ Luna froze as she saw the survivor’s names, only the first letter was visible it was a B. “oh….. Dear….” She continues her reading.“ The younger colt was hospitalized, found in Ponyville, currently… no… I cant read anymore.”

Luna left that report where it was… the more she read it, the more painful it became, maybe Celestia kept it to find the culprit?, either way, she exited her sister room quickly and returned to the gardens, storing the page of the book in her saddlebags, but when she got out of the tower she noticed something, something was not right, the fog was more dense, also it had a like a violet tone.

“W-what happened here?” she questioned, walking cautiously.

She noticed that a purple smoke was floating nearby, at first she thought it was just an anomaly on the weather, like the rest of the fog, until a certain laugh instantly froze her in place, she took out the pipe and ran towards the door out of fear, all she could hear was hoofsteps, more and more closer to her, and the more she ran, the more the purple smoke was surrounding her, as the color became more and more strong, until it reached a point where she could not find the door in the middle of that dense fog, she attacked with her pipe, trying to clear the smoke, she did made it take a few steps back, but it quickly reformed and surrounded the princess.

She never felt this amount of fear before, except with maybe King Sombra´s dark magic. Luna flapped her wings, taking altitude, she seems to resist a little her previous wound, but something caught her and made her crash land into the ground, she could see that something had her trapped by her back hooves, it was the smoke that hold her, it slowly started covering her legs, Luna began to scream, scream in terror as the smoke took form a form of a black female alicorn, with deep white eyes, it seems to smile as it opened her mouth, ready to trust its fangs on Luna’s neck.

“No….. get away!, get away from me!, GET AWAAAAAAAAY!!!!“ At the last second, she used her royal canterlot voice, hopping somepony will hear her.

But her voice echoed through the emptiness, the creature moved its head towards her, Luna took out her wooden table as shield, by miracle it worked, the creature lost concentration and let go the grip on Luna’s legs, she took this opportunity to use her remaining amount of magic, there was only 2 options to get out of that trap, try the illumination spell on the creature, or use the Unicorn’s Path song to find the way to the door, the gardens never felt so big, so she took her chances and played the song, this time, the notes echoed hard, she felt no additional increase of magic, but noticed the little sparks in the middle of the dense fog, she follow the sparks, and she could still hear the smoke coming towards her, but this time, as she was running, slowly the fog was losing the strong color, and was shifting towards its usual white color, seems she was heading in the right direction, as soon as she noticed the door, she ran more quickly and entered the Castle, once inside she locked the door and put the nearby furniture to block it.

“There is no way in Equestria, that I will be opening that door again!” Luna said to herself, reassuring herself from that statement.

Luna quickly exited the hallway she was, it took her to the main hall, taking a little bit of relief it was time to check back on Stormy, after all, the previously near death experienced blocked her thoughts and as soon as she was on a safe area, her thoughts began to kick in and she started to worry about Stormy, she ran to the throne room hoping that nothing has gone close to him, as she entered the room she noticed that Stormy was still on the floor, much to her relief, tired of her little exploring she walked to him, sitting next to his side, and closed her eyes.

“This is not the time, to be sleeping my friend,“ Luna said with a warm voice.

“uuuuggh… my head hurts like a dozens of apples trees being kicked at once,“ Stormy finally replied, opening his eyes.

Finally Stormy had woken up, the princess instantly hugged him, Stormy, kind of confused, could just only blush, before realizing that Luna was hugging him, he broke the hug, ashamed again, but a little bit angry since Luna used the Elegy of Chaos son on him, as she was being scolded on by him, all Luna was thinking was on how relieved she was that the song worked, Stormy got up, but instead of continuing his scolding, he smiled back at the princess and told her that he forgave her, if she do not use that song again. Luna told her companion that she found out the key… and some unpleasant things, including that purple smoke, Stormy was listening to Luna carefully.

“After the song was used, I was able to find a way to the door,” Luna told the stallion, giving him the page she collected.

“Great, now we have a smoke following us that somehow is sentient, ok is official, after we get my bro out of that Hospital, we need to find someplace safe,” Stormy said with a little bit of annoyance in his voice.

“We could try Manehattan, in such a big city there is bound to be a safe place, we cannot stay in Canterlot anymore,” Luna suggested with confidence.

Stormy froze for a minute, why in the hay she wanted to go to Manehattan?, The most cosmopolitan city in all Equestria, Stormy was visibly not liking the idea at all. But she was right in one thing, staying in Canterlot could be fatal if that purple smoke had the ability to make you lose your way, if each time to find the correct path, they have to use the Unicorn’s Path song, Stormy and Luna will be losing magic constantly due to that smoke, The princess give Stormy his ocarina back and the stallion quickly remounted the page back to where it belongs, to the book, before they go, Luna decided to keep the lantern, as well as both ponies took the chance to read the magic scroll to increase their magic, after reading, both of them walked out of the throne room and reached the lobby, next to the door was a sword Stormy knew very well, it was Noirstar Sword, it was better to keep it as it may come in handy, Luna used the key she found opening up the front doors of the castle opened, allowing them to go outside, they quickly set route to the Canterlot Hospital, as they left the castle behind, a faint sound of a building collapsing on itself was heard, both ponies saw how debris and a piece of one of the main towers was now covered the main entrance, seems returning to the castle is now impossible.

The fog was present everywhere, and it was kind of hard to see, however, they did manage to find the hospital front doors without much of a problem, it was kinda hard to miss with all the empty ambulances and stretchers, both ponies tackled the door and quickly lock it behind them before anything moving had a chance to catch a glimpse of their location. Once inside of the Hospital, Luna took out her Zap apple pie, it was only one slice though, but Stormy and Luna manage to share it with themselves, each noticed how their magic recovered to its maximum, but they also felt a little extra magic thrown in with the sweet taste of the fruit still fresh in their mouths, both ponies searched the reception, but they didn’t had much success since all the doors were locked, kind of strange, Luna manage to find the Hospital map, Stormy on the other hoof tried to save time and blast the door open, but as soon as the blast exited his horn, the doors reflect it back.

“Duck!” he yelled, dropping himself to the floor.

“ARE YOU INSANE?!” Luna yelled as she shielded herself with a bubble shield.

The blast bounced on Luna shield until it made a hole on the wall next to the desk, Stormy saw this and took the map, it seems that the wall leads towards the files room, then to a secondary entrance, used for staff only, the princess however, although this mishap ended up being beneficial for both of them, scold Stormy due to his lack of foresight. Both of them entered for the secondary entrance, near the Laundry entrance, once inside Stormy was starting to look pale, almost as if something in the back of his head was filling him with dread.

“Stormy, are you ok? Perhaps was I too harsh on you?” Luna asked

“No Luna, I’m not ok.” Stormy stopped, putting his hoof on his head with a visible concerned look on his face “Ever since I got out of the secret room Celestia put me in, I had this feeling that my brother might be in problems, something so serious that I should remember, but my mind is blank and I can’t remember what it was, all I know is that I need to find him, I need to make sure he is safe.” The stallion finished, with visible concern for his little bro.

“But, where do you think he is?” the princess said as she checked the building integrity.

“I don’t know, I won’t be leaving this hospital without him,” Stormy stated, shaking his head and recovering his coat colors.

Luna wished she could say the same thing about her sister, but without any trace of her she doesn´t even know where to start her search, as for the mission at hoof, the hospital being extremely long building didn’t helped to create a “safe” area to return to heal, as both ponies reviewed the map, they found that the hospital had 4 floors and 1 basement, they have a lot of ground to cover.

Both ponies agreed to start their search on the first floor director office, aside from a lot of medical records about a lot of ponies, there was nothing on interest in the reception. When they got to the hallway, the radio started to emit static, no enemy’s could be seen on the floor, despite being daytime, the lights inside the hospital did not provide enough brightness to see, Stormy assumed the enemy was a ceiling filly and shoot one magic blast towards the ceiling, but there was nothing there, Stormy used the illumination spell to have a clear picture of the room and found out the same mare from the Canterlot gardens exiting from a wall, this time, it was Luna who took the initiative and attacked the creature with her pipe, the creature lost it’s balance a moment but enough for Stormy to come close and finish it off with Noirstar Sword.

“Having something with an actual blade make this even now…” Stormy taunted at the fallen monster.

“Not funny you know” Luna said, puffing out her cheeks.

They continued to the director office, as they open the door, a little earth pony noticed both the princess and Stormy, startled, he began to run, his cutie mark was a pair of gears with a lightbulb, the little colt ran towards the hallway, leading to the second floor, Stormy ran following the little pony almost as if he had seen a ghost, but in reality, he just found what he was searching for, the princess though was getting behind the stallion.

“Mistshine!, bro don’t run!, it’s me, Stormy!” he replied, desperate to catch the little colt attention.

“Stormy, wait up!” Luna yelled using her hooves to finally catch up. “I don’t think he remembers you, I mean, he ran away like if he was afraid of you. “

“That cannot be Luna!, I know I can talk to my brother or get him to listen, then I will take him out of here!” Stormy said, even more determined than before.

When they got to the second floor of the Hospital, they saw Mistshine enter a bathroom, Stormy and Luna entered the room, they could hear a soft crying on one of the cabins, both ponies checked each cabin, until they got to one closed from the inside, the crying was a little more softer this time, Stormy just came in closer and knocked on the door, resting his head on said door.

“Go away,” the little voice said, visibly afraid of something.

“Shhhh, is ok, I’m not going to hurt you bro,” Stormy said, in a kind and concerned voice.

“No, you do not understand, he is coming for me,” the little voice seems to break a little.

“Who?, the iron mask pony?” the princess said, launching a wild guess at the air.

“Please, sir, miss, just go please,” the little voice beg one more for it to be left alone.

Stormy remembered the nightmare he had on the Elements of Harmony hallway, so he took out the Posey doll he had found on the Other Canterlot Castle, surprisingly, despite being burned out by Stormy´s doppelganger in his last battle, when he pulled it out of his bag, it was intact, he pressed its belly, the doll released a soft “Yay” that suddenly made the crying of the foal stop.

For a moment, an awkward silence was present, until the sound of the lock being released from inside the cabin indicated to both ponies that the little pony was ready to come out, at first only his hoof, which he extended to touch the doll, as soon as he recognized the fabric he opened the door fully and took the doll hugging it, the princess was quick to notice the resemblance between the 2 ponies, it was in fact, Mistshine Brave, the little bro of her guard.

“Brother!” Stormy yelled hugging the little colt

“…” Mistshine didn’t say anything, he just held on his brother with his hooves, closing his eyes.

It was hard not to notice the little colt shabby clothes, it was a very damaged engineering vest along with a damaged scarf with burn marks, almost as if he was just out of a fight with something that knew fire magic, but the strange thing was that despite being as real as Stormy, the radio was emitting static, similar to the one that identify when the monsters approach, but this one was more softer, almost as if it was a broken music box playing a sad tune.

The princess was a little happy to see both brothers reunited, but could the pony in front of her really be Stormy little brother or just another creature posing as Mistshine?, she could not take that idea from her mind, specially with the soft static the radio was making.

“Thank you Stormy, I though I lost it this doll years ago,” Mistshine replied, hugging the doll and his brother.

“No problem bro, now we need to get out, Luna and I are going to Manehattan,” Stormy said, relieved to find his bro.

“M-m-manehattan?” Just like in the castle, Mistshine reacted with fear when the name of the town was spoken.

“W-what’s wrong bro?” Stormy questioned, he felt how his brother broke the hug.

“Why do you want to go there?” Mistshine voice was filled with fear as he questioned.

“Is there something wrong child?, I was the one who suggested the idea,” Luna said to the little colt

“It will be safe… I hope,“ Stormy replied, having doubts on his next destination

“NO!, is not safe!” Mistshine screamed, breaking the hug and running away scared, yelling. “You know what’s in there!“

After this, Mistshine ran away, he was absolutely terrified about the idea of going to Manehattan, both the princess and his brother followed him, they ran until they found Mistshine was entering the door that leads to the staircase towards either the third floor (up) or back to the first floor (down), sadly, they couldn’t open it, as Mistshine locked the door from the other side, why his little bro had locked them in?, the radio emitted static again, but louder, Stormy and Luna turned around and some creatures were coming closer to them from some of the rooms with broken door locks, they were a little different this time around, they had wings, indicating they were pegasi, said wings were either feathers less or one whole wing missing, their hooves were surrounded in bandages, their faces lacked eyes and mouth, as it seems those has been surgically removed, combined with a slight bleeding from their ears and nose, on their flanks they shared a common ground with the other creatures the cutie mark was torn apart, but the more grotesque was that on their backs, they seems to have a tumor shaped like a newborn foal, apparently, controlling them, the creature was clearly a mare, their manes were messed up and dirty.

“Oh crap, Stormy, duck!” Luna said as she shot a magical bullet, hitting one of the creatures.

“AAAARRRGGGGH!!!” the creature roared in pain, as well as the tumor on their backs.

“Luna, hit the tumor on their back that is controlling them, the body is just a puppet!, hey I just though about what to call these,” Stormy attacked using the sword from his friend, taking out another creature.

“Don’t!” Luna objected, but Stormy was already moving his lips.

“Puppetsi!” he exclaimed, dodging one of the creatures attacks.

“Equestria give me patience,” Luna said facepalming with her wing.

Stupid name or not, Luna could notice Stormy cracked less and less jokes mid attack, the creatures tried to grab him and choke him with their hooves, but they were only focusing on him, allowing Luna easy targets, however, Stormy was more ruthless in battle, even going as far as to put a lot of his strength into the attacks to behead the creatures. True, Luna may not have met all her guards by name, but she knew that it was very uncommon for one of her knights to become ruthless mid battle, almost forgetting what is that separate the ponies from the creatures that haunt Everfree. Once the radio was silenced, Stormy and Luna searched for an alternative exit out of the second floor, the princess kept an eye on her guard.

“So, the secondary entrance and the third floor is out of question from this side, we can try the main entrance,” Luna said looking at the map.

“Could be, or we can also cut off using the elevator to access the other floors, we will have to unlock the doors leading here though” Stormy said with a quick solution, putting away the map

As the pair began searching the rooms for something they can scavenge, they found a way to open the doors leading towards the reception area on the first floor, they decided to pry open the elevator doors and use that to go down to the first floor, the previously closed areas were opened by the attacks of the monsters, most of them contained either healing apples or more Puppetsis, however the examination room remained locked, locked by a magical seal similar to the one on the throne room in Canterlot Castle, fearing they were going to need a special key to open it, both Luna and Stormy agreed to use the elevator on the floor they are currently in to check the last remaining floors, since the door leading to the stairs was locked out on both the first and second floor from the other side by Mistshine.

They tried floor per floor, but none of them had the hallway door opened, in fact, each elevator room that they reached on had the doors busted, suddenly, after they checked the 4ft floor, a button to the 5ft Floor flashed, Luna pressed it, and both ponies got up to the last floor, a room not in the map, in it, there was a large hallway with opened doors, when the princess and the stallion entered the hallway, they could feel something was not right at all.

The fact that a room that was not in the map materialized out of thin air is one thing, but feeling on their skin that the air of the room is as cold as the winter blizzard was an alarm waiting to ring. As they went in further, the windows showed clear indication of being broken and smashed by something powerful, allowing the fog from outside to get in, however, instead of the usual white fog sneaking in from outside, it was a purple mist, Luna freaked out the most, as she from all ponies knew better what this meant, she yelled at Stormy to perform the Unicorn’s Path so they could find the exit quickly

“Play the Song, PLAY THE SONG!” Luna yelled desperate.

“This is the purple mist you mentioned before, I don’t see-” Stormy sentence was cut shot by the static of his radio.

“AAAAH!!! GET AWAY!! “ Luna screamed, in complete desperation.

Despite the ponies walking a long path blindly, Stormy turned around just to see the princess being covered by the purple mist, but only her though, Stormy fortunately was unaffected but with enough control to witness this new form of attack, the purple mist was more darker than before, Stormy shot a magic blast, but it only seems to be feeding it, each hit made, the mist grows darker, with his main attack busted Stormy started to pull Luna from the mist by hoof, as she begged to him to play the song.

Stormy was not going to hesitate this time and dropped his guard to perform the Unicorn’s Path, a couple of bright white and shinning stars started to show the way to the exit, but the mist was not letting Luna go, despite being a little weakened by the song effects, Stormy put away his instrument and resumed pulling Luna out by hoof, trying to take Luna away from that purple mist, for him, it was kind of sticky, like goo, or something similar on his hooves, but for the princess, it was like air, just that more tighter, struggling to suffocate her, and preventing her from moving, half of Luna body was surrounded as the same figure from before showed up, the Black Alicorn, Stormy was not letting go Luna’s hooves, the Black Alicorn this time, limit herself to watch their struggles.

“Stormy!, go!, you will not take me out in time!” Luna begged, losing hope, only her head and front hooves were visible.

“…” the Black alicorn seems to smile at the princess desperation.

“Forget it!, I will not leave you!” Stormy started to concentrate on the moondust magic. “If what you said about me earlier was right, I pray to Celestia this works.”

“……………………………” The Black Alicorn did not open her mouth until it got closer to Luna ears… then she heard a very but not so pleasant familiar voice.

“The Night….. Will last….. Forever!”

Luna instantly began to cry as she heard those words, Stormy heard them as well and feared the backlash from the Elegy of Chaos on the princess mind, he prepared his spiked shield on the princess but focusing on the moondust magic that she mentioned was sleeping on him, the shield reacted to the novice command and created spines on Luna’s body out of stardust that caused the mist back away for a moment, it worked all because the black alicorn inside the mist forgot that Stormy was there.

Luna fainted from the fear; Stormy quickly carried her on his back and started to run towards the exit, marked by the little stars of the ancient song, Stormy kept his magic going around the princess to prevent further damage as well as her falling off from him. As he ran, they passed a big double door, with only a few seconds to spare, he closed and locked the doors, he could hear the black alicorn trying to take the door down, being a wooden door though, meant it was not going to last long, especially since a sharp horn almost stabs him on a side of his face.

Stormy took the stairs down to the 4F, he slowly opened the door to check the hallway, in there, no monsters were present, the radio didn’t emit static, this gave him an idea, since they won’t be returning to the fifth floor Stormy used an enhanced magic blast to destroy the stairs leading towards that floor where the purple mist is and blocked the door with the debris he made, the banging on the door stopped, they managed to escape the danger for now.

“I hope I never face that thing again, now, were do we rest to catch our breath?” Stormy said to himself, searching the most suitable room.

Taking advantage of the magic boost that he still have left, he used the unicorn path song again, it seems that besides revealing hidden things, it also works fine to find places with no monsters or with items, the little stars appeared on one specific door, it was room 410, Stormy entered, still with the unconscious princess on his back, there was a bed in good shape, a green apple on the table, and it seems that a page of something, Stormy placed the princess on the bed and read the page, it was a patient description, it reads the following;

“Patient suffers from a heavy blow on his head, his central neurologic system, actually shows a hemorrhage, indicating severe traces that increases the possibility of long short term memory loss, is unlikely to know when he could wake up, but for the records, his chances of recovery are very low, since his cerebral cortex is damaged as well, Patient --------- has been declared in Coma.“

“This medical report, the name is not legible, but,” Stormy said, but before he could finish, he felt something behind him.

“Whaaa!!!, brother!!! “ a voice cried.

He turned around only to see a semitranslucent colt, crying next to a doctor, the colt was him, when he had the same age as Pinkie Pie, on that time, he was wearing a cyan suit, on the bed where Luna was resting, there was another semitranslucent little colt, connected to several machines, it had bandages on his head and he was holding the Posey doll, the little colt had the same size as the Cutie Mark Crusaders, but maybe a little more older, almost as old as Featherweight.

“I am sorry, we did the best we could, but he is a coma,” the doctor said to the ghostly Stormy.

“Will he wake up?” the ghostly Stormy asked with a broken hear.

“No, we will try, but there is a chance he might never wake up,” the doctor replied with a mixture of sadness and pity

“Nooooo!!!, brother!, Mistshine, please!, open your eyes!!!, don’t leave me alone little bro!!” the ghostly Stormy cried and begged on his brother bed.

“Mistshine, this room is, ” Stormy could not say anymore.

Stormy tried to place his hoof on Mistshine Ghost, if it could be called like that, but as soon as he did that, he, the doctor and even his younger self disappeared, he seems to remember something about his brother, could those ghost be memories from him? If they are, what are they trying to say? Either way he felt as if his heart was stabbed by a dagger or something similar, he haven’t saw his brother in a long time, maybe his brother not longer want him near?, the princess started to wake up, making the stallion feel a little relief, Luna felt Stormy’s hooves, like if he was out of himself or something

“Stormy, Hello?, I am awake, say something,” The princess asked, kind of dizzy from before.

“Something,” Stormy replied, not paying much attention

“Did something happened when I was unconscious? “ the princess asked again to her companion

Stormy told Luna what he saw and gave her the medical report, she was confused, if Mistshine is in a Coma, how in the wild name of Equestria was he doing moving around the Hospital, without any problems?, not only that, but his appearance and personality was strange, Mistshine had the body of a normal colt, but not as tall as Stormy (since Stormy was royal size, nearly as tall as Fancy Pants), but his personality was of a Little Foal, as if his body did not matched his mind, Luna got herself out of the bed, looking at her companion a little concerned.

“Stormy, if this is correct then the colt that we saw, ” Luna analyzed and thought the best she could about the situation. “I think you should stop searching for him.”

“Princess, how can you say that?” Stormy felt betrayed by the princess words “he is my only family, ghost or not, I will not leave him here alone this time, even if he is not my brother, I will find the truth” Stormy sound determined to find an answer to the situation

“I see.” Luna seems to sound sad, seeing her guard resolved seems to help “ ok, I will help then, sorry if I held you up “

“By the way, what in the name of the moon was that alicorn?” Stormy asked, referring to the Black Alicorn from earlier

Luna froze cold, should she tell her about her?, but, after all they have gone already, she felt she can trust him, specially since he already trusted her his brother condition according to the report, as both ponies exited the room searching the whole floor for the Examination room key, she started to told him her recent nightmares, she told him that, there were times that she was afraid to look herself in the mirror, because, each time she look at it, she saw Nightmare Moon reflection on it, some other times, in her nightmares she saw herself being trapped by the purple mist, turning her again into the wicked mare of darkness, and hurting everypony she was in close range, including her sister, her recent dreams were not much different that the ones she had while in exile, just that this time, they were more frequent and more darker, recently, almost one week, before Stormy talked to Princess Celestia, she had one of the most horrific nightmares, Stormy listened to the princess with attention

In the recent nightmare, she was in a hospital, very similar to Canterlot Hospital they are in now with one small change, she was only following a long and almost interminable hallway with all doors out of reach even if she flew, along the way she heard voices whispering, each voice said things like “turn back “, “please stop “, “don’t do it”.

Although she did not understand most of them, a big double door with moon carvings in it caught her attention, she heard one last voice as soon as she was able to touch the doorknob saying “only suffering and despair awaits you, My little pony“.

“I do not like where this is going,” the princess said with her voice forming an echo on the hallway.

As she opened the door, a huge dark room awaited her, she walked further into the darkness of it and continued until she felt her hooves touched air, at that point she started flying into the big dark room until the door closed by itself with a loud bang.

The room had one source of light though, a tiny little candle in the middle of the room, with no other options she went ahead and touched it, but as soon as she did, she felt her hooves burning, everything became clear and she could see perfectly where she was, she was burning because she was ripping Celestia heart out of her, her sister had a shocked and sad look on her face as her light left her eyes.

The princess of the night screamed as she saw this dropping the candle, that quickly turned the tiny flame into a hellfire, her voice was not heard no matter how hard she screamed due to the fire, almost as if her pleads of help were swallowed by a psychotic laugh, that exit from her mouth. Luna closed her eyes for a moment wishing she would be back on her bedroom but when she opened them again, she was not on Canterlot, she was on a big white place, her hooves still had Celestia’s Heart, she dropped it out of fright making it hit the ground, as soon as it touched the floor, the whole placed changed from white to red, and she again, felt her hooves burning, the blood on the floor was climbing on her, melting her flesh,

“N-no!, somepony!, anypony!, help me!” she yelled, but nopony heard her plea.

She started to flap her wings to fly, but the blood from the ceiling felt on them and the same problem on her hooves happened with her wings, they were the first ones to melt, she could see her internal organs falling from her body, she screamed as hard as she still could, closing her eyes, waiting for death to give her some comfort that the pain was going to end, until her senses blacked out.

When the princess opened her eyes again, she was again, in a long hallway… this time, the floor was like grass dry grass, as she walked, a darkness behind her started to chase her, she ran and flew as hard as she could, but she could not got away, when the darkness catch her, she felt like if somepony had made a hole in her back and exited from her torso, when she looked down, expecting to see her own heart beating one last time before stopping, but instead of that she saw a black hoof trying to exit her own body.

Luna felt a sharp pain, despite the fact she was not bleeding from where the hoof was coming from, from the wound another hoof came out and the more and more the new figure came out, it was more than clear who it was, it was none other than the Black Alicorn, just that this time, she had a full new body to show and was smiling at the sight of Luna terrified face.

“Expecting somepony else little fool?” those words echoed on Luna’s mind, but were said by the creature on her chest as it came out.

Needless to say, her coat color was a very dark violet, almost next to black, just that she had her eyes missing, and had multiple dark red areas on her body, indicating she recently got bloodstained, she had a broken green with blue armor, and helmet, her mane and tail were grey colored with white sparks, but her mouth had fangs, her cutie mark was a red full moon with grey clouds surrounding it, the creature just smiled before taking a bite from Luna’s neck, she started to pull hopping to rip the Princess head off. As she let one final scream, the nightmare usually ends after that.

“…” Stormy did not said anything, be was more pale that he already was.

Stormy felt chills going down on his spine, after hearing the princess nightmares about the Black Alicorn. He feared that this new monster, this “mare” if you could call her that, would be something similar to the Iron Mask Pony that is following him, and if that is the case, neither he nor Luna could defeat it in a solo battle, he could see the princess was scared and her eyes reflected that, even if her body did not, Stormy kindly used his magic and pulled the princess closer to him, giving her a hug much to her disapproval, yet, something about this simple gesture was more than enough to allow Stormy to do it, perhaps not the right solution, but damn well it was something that somepony could use after experiencing such dreams.

The princess let go a soft cry on him, venting a little bit of her accumulated frustration. Once Luna finished her story, both of them finished checking all the remaining rooms, but all they could find was a green apple, some bandages and what it seems to be wrench, it had Mistshine signature.

“This is my brother wrench, he used to carry it all the time,” Stormy said as he watched the tool with a smile, before taking it with him.

“A wrench?” Luna questioned with a surprised look. “Does your brother works with machines and electricity?, that’s extremely unusual in Equestria.”

She was right, Equestria don’t have big machinery or technology for that matter, the most it has are the transport trains, spa and beauty salon equipment and in general, basic tools for Parties and living… but nothing extremely advanced. Manehattan might be the exception to the rule though, as so far is the only town in Equestria with any hints of tech in miles, but Stormy was more focused on Mistshine wrench, it look like it had a lot of use, more than normal coming from an engineer pony, then again in the special hell he is right now, anything is possible.

“As a matter of fact, yes he does.” Stormy replied to the princess smiling “He is not an normal engineer pony, he is inventor; he used to create a lot of things using steel and sometimes wood, he is a genius when it comes to pony anatomy and medicine, but…”

“But?, Stormy what happened to him” Luna questioned, worrying the mental state of her guard.

“He is on a coma Luna, you saw the medical report, if he ever wake up he will be a kid inside a stallion body, and it would be a miracle if his body will be able to recover the mobility he used to have.” Stormy let some tears escape as he explained.

“So that’s why he looks like a little colt when we found him, wait” Luna was smiling before rational thinking kicked in. “If Mistshine is in a coma, how in the name of my sister is he running around in the hospital?!”

How come a pony that is supposed to stay glued to a machine due to coma is moving around?, True, that question made Stormy lose a bit of faith in believing that what he is experiencing might be reality, but both his and Luna’s injuries might claim otherwise, still the princess did not get an answer from the stallion, and he just gave a “beats me expression”, it must has been painful to him to remember his brother condition, but staying away or questioning what is reality and what is fiction won’t fix anything either,

“Ghost, dream or changeling you need to find him, if he is really your brother, he will love you and give us some answer, but staying around won’t help” those where the princess words before moving away from her guard opening the door back to the hallway. Once they finished with the forth floor, they searched the third, there were some monsters on that floor, Luna shot a couple of magical bullets to them while Stormy used his brother wrench on the Ceiling Filly, taking out theirs screws on their heads, the creatures immediately died from bleeding however with a smile on their faces, something that made the knight shiver.

On the third floor, in one of the rooms, they found a page from the Book of Harmony, it read “Celestia´s Plight” the song description reads that the song allows the user to raise the Sun or lower it if Celestia is not capable of doing it or if she was too tired to bring it out, also as a side effect, the melody itself could weaken black magic creatures. Alternatively, if used during night time, it would control the Moon instead.

It seems that the song was made in case that if either princess was injured to the point of raising the Sun or the Moon was an issue, but as a little bonus, it can weaken some enemies, Stormy decided to play the song, as he was trying to mimic the notes, an Armored Shadow came from a side of the room triggering the radio, Luna shot a light based magic blast, but it didn’t work, the creature shield himself with the armor, as soon as it draw the sword it was carrying however, Stormy had just finished performing the ancient song, a flash of ligh blinded everypony in the room when both the princess and Stormy could see, the Armored Shadow had frozen, literally, it was just standing there, as if something was holding him, Luna took advantage of the situation and started to shoot magic blast towards him, without the ability to move it was easy to hit him, the creature screamed as it disappeared and the frozen armor pieces felt on the ground cold as ice.

“Wow, I...” Stormy said, storing his ocarina with a confused look on his face, a headache was nailing on his head constantly “I think I played this song before.”

“Is a good thing that you know the ancient songs then,” Luna replied with a smile

“Thanks princess,” Stormy smiled.

On the third floor they finally found the key to the examination room, alongside that one however was a special key, Stormy saw that the key was shaped as his cutie mark, so he gave it to Luna to keep it from now, strange, Stormy didn’t remember that key ever existed, Luna also found it strange that he gave it to her, instead of him to keeping it.

With the examination key in their power they set route to the first floor, they descended to the second floor however, as soon as they opened the double doors.

“Oh sweet Celestia, not again” Stormy said, his previously brave face and personality switched to an afraid one.

“Are you ok?” Luna asked, seeing Stormy’s body language, he was cowering in fear.

Stormy nodded negatively, to both ponies surprise, the second floor looked exactly the same as the one of his first nightmare, including the damaged aspect and rust everywhere, as they explored the door closed shut behind them and was unable to be reopened, both ponies started walking around a little bit but the further they walked in, the more Stormy was becoming more and more paranoid, even his levitation magic that he kept on the sword handle was coming on and off.

The stallion mind instantly froze in shock as a metallic echo started to sound on the walls, he tried to open the door leading towards the patients rooms, but it was locked in place, he quickly checked the map to find an alternative route, at first Luna was not amused with her guard reactions but as another metallic echo rang, this time more closer to them, Stormy had now fully panicked and jump, Luna was getting a flashback of how she reacted when the Black Alicorn appeared.

Stormy opened a door to the left, it seems this one lead towards the patients area, however, he was greeted by the Iron Mask Pony silhouette on the patients hallway.

“S-shit!,Luna MOVE!” Stormy yelled as he closed the door shut hard.

Stormy sadly did not reacted in time and Luna turned around to see a giant blade destroying the door lock and Stormy pushed Luna away from him before he was grabbed by the creature, Luna saw what Stormy feared the most, The Iron Mask Pony.

“L-let me go!” Stormy pleaded, his courage has gone down to hell.

“hahaha~” the creature did not said anything, it just smiled, laughing.

The princess was also scared, but she more worried for Stormy right now, for him, is that If he was seeing the Death itself and his little squeals as the creature tighten his grip on Stormy’s neck with magic did not helped either, Luna reacted and attacked, to which the creature with a single blow from his weapon sent Luna towards the opposite side of the room.

Stormy kept struggling, quickly grabbing his brother wrench and start hitting the creature with it, but to no effect, the creature lifted the stallion above his head and threw him up, awaiting for Stormy to fall on his giant knife, this caused the stallion to drop his brother wrench.

A Slash attack was all Stormy could see the creature was preparing before closing his eyes in fear and putting his hooves on them, however.

“Step away from my friend!” The princess words echoed on the room.

Luna was returning Stormy the favor when he saved her from the Black Alicorn, the Iron Mask Pony turned around with an amused but sick smile, but Luna had prepared a charge attack using Mistshine’s Wrench, the hard blow she unleashed was enough to make the creature let loose a grunt. The princess saw this as a chance and pulled Stormy to her and carried him away with levitation, she ran downstairs and once they were on the main floor, Luna put in a quick magical seal on the door and blocked with some nearby furniture to give them some time. Stormy was breathing heavily refusing to open his eyes, Luna this time has to be the one pulling him together

“Stormy!, calm down for my sister sake,” Luna raised his voice to him, moving him with her hooves back and forth.

“You saw it!, he is coming for me, I still don’t know why he is so obsessed with me” Stormy said with fear in his voice, shaking.

“Then fight it next time, you taught me that, you can’t run from that thing forever,” Luna said to her friend, remembering what he did when she was imprisoned on the purple mist

“….. Fight it...? “He questioned, raising his face, removing it from his hooves.

Stormy stop to think for a moment, fight that thing?, Luna must be out of her mind… but… she did had a point, there is going to reach a point sooner or later where there will be no place to run or hide, and eventually he will have to face that thing, Stormy smiled a little ashamed that, the Princess he swore to protect, was the one giving him the advice, laughing at the irony of the situation, as they walked on the broken hallways, with no static on sight, he started to look far more relaxed.

“Shouldn’t I be the one giving you advice and saving you?” Stormy said, in a kind of sarcastic tone

“Maybe, but you have done that already, besides, this the Princess of the Night you are talking to, not some ordinary mare “Luna said, in her usual royal tone feeling mighty proud.

“Yeah, you are right princess,” Stormy said with relief

They opened the lock that leads towards the reception, but before entering there, they checked the other rooms for something useful, not much to see in the director’s office, but there was something that got Luna attention in that room, it was a medical report, but had the royal seal, meaning it was a important notice, both ponies read it

“The patient presents a corruption that is slowly taking over her mind, massive changes has been produced in her body, her bone structure is becoming more bigger and stronger, also her coat seems to be changing colors due to the possession, not only that, her cellular structure seems to be constantly changing, and turning her mane and tail into purple dust, the patient keeps crying for help, and I don’t know what else to do, we had tried everything and the patient remains unchanged, her wings and horn also are growing… Princess Celestia…. I’m afraid there is nothing else we could do for your sister, Yours Truly: Doctor Butterscotch” That’s what the report said

“…” Luna was silent and tears felt from her eyes into the report.

“Luna,. This description.is yours isn’t it?” Stormy said to the princess looking at her reactions

She nodded in a positive matter, when she was turning into Nightmare Moon it was not instantaneously as may ponies were told, it was a slow but painful transformation. each sector of her body that changed hurt like a million knifes stabbed on her, and the more the corruption grew, the more aggressive and lonely she felt, the doctors, the more advanced unicorns at the time, tried to stop the process via magic, but it was not enough, she was constantly calling for help, because she didn’t want to be alone when she could no longer resist it, but she don’t remember where did she get corrupted, or if the hate on her heart towards her sister created its own mind, but the fact remains, she has hospitalized in Canterlot Hospital, and all the doctors magic was able to keep her conscious, but the pain didn’t stop, before she lose consciousness, she saw the Black Alicorn on a mirror and then everything faded to black, all she could see, was what Nightmare Moon was watching.

She was feeling it again, a fear that she knew perfectly well what it meant and despite putting on a brave act, that was not enough to make her sadness go away. She took one sad look to Stormy, before bust into tears, deep inside of her she knew what that fear was, her mind was screaming for that awful memory to stop tormenting her.

Stormy alerted by the princess crying saw how she was literally frozen in place, Stormy tried to talk to her coming closer, but instead he received a quickly but effective freeze spell that froze him solid, the princess ran away, not before taking the examination room key from Stormy saddlebags, much to Stormy surprise, when he finally broke free he tried to follow her, she used a magical shield, preventing him to entering the examination room, Stormy knew something was wrong, one quick look to the princess eyes revealed something he feared, one of them was shapeshifting into Nightmare’s ones, Luna realized this and covered it with her mane.

“I’m sorry!, I’m so sorry, but I can’t continue with you, someday she will return!” Luna panicked, as she opened the examination room and enter it, closing the door from the inside undoing the spell

“Luna!” Stormy yelled, hitting the door, trying to take it down

This was something Stormy wasn’t expecting, the princess just ran off and leave him?, there must be something odd, Luna could hear the constants hits on the door by Stormy Steel pipe, trying to get in and begging her to open up, she felt terrible for leaving him, but she didn’t want him near her, not after they read that report, her left eye was proof enough, she was finally losing grip, the darkness in her heart is returning.

The examination room was closed, there was no light on whatsoever, she used Stormy´s Lantern and saw the examination room, all rusty and old, like if there was no use in ages, Luna knew that Mistshine was there, maybe talking with the little brother will help her resist a little bit more?, but when she took a step further into the room, instead of Mistshine, a little filly Alicorn appeared, it was translucent but Luna saw that the filly had a crown, her mane was a very light azure and her coat was light phthalo blue, she dropped the lantern in shock, she was looking at herself when she was a little mare.

“Hey you!” She came near to her younger self

“Stay away!” Said little Luna as she ran towards a door and disappeared

Luna picked up the lantern, why did her younger self ran from her?, she walked and opened the door from where her younger self left. Once inside there was nothing but darkness, the lantern proved to be useful, until some extent, she heard a soft click from the door, she has been locked in.

One step in further on the room made her feel that there was no longer floor under her hooves and she felt, she started to flap her wings to keep herself airborne, but since one of her wings had been damaged earlier, she had a couple of problems, once she could see the floor she focused and spread her wings to glide, landing safely on a fence floor, the siren went off and from the fence floor, something was forming, when she look up to see in front of her however, she saw nothing else but a mirror, also she saw the little filly in front of it

“A mirror? here?” Luna questioned herself

“No pony appreciates me or love the Moon and starts I so deeply created, if no pony loves me,“ the little filly said, as she placed one hoof on the mirror

“oh no, don’t do It please!” Luna tried to reason with the little filly, as if she knew what was going to happen, she ran towards her.

“Then I will MAKE everypony loves me!, even if I had to keep the Moon out for a whole day by force! “ Said the Little filly as the mirror reflection changed

The younger version of herself disappeared just as the Princess jumped to the filly, passing right through her and putting her hoof where the filly had hers, the mirror reflection only showed up Luna current form being slowly taken away by a corruption she knew very well, as that reflection moved on its own, independent from the princess own movements, a sick smile on the reflection could be noticed before it draw near the mirror and to much of the princess disgust, the reflection exited the mirror, it was flesh and bone, but the new creature voice.

“Long time no see eh?... Princess” Said the Black Alicorn from her own nightmare, but this time, it took a more clear form to Luna

“N-n-n…” Luna due to fear, had problems telling the mare name “ Nightmare Moon! “ she finally could pronounce the name…

“Well well, well, it seems that you still remember me, it been a long time Luna you know, but I saw what you did lately, heh, kicking that colt from your side was a terrible mistake, now there is nopony that will rescue you once I recover what it is mine.” The Black Alicorn said with a overjoyed smile, she might have Nightmare Moon form but that doesn’t stop her from messing up with the princess mind.

“N-no!, I can beat you! I did not wanted to risk him that’s all,” Luna replied, trying to outwit her foe, this just made her foe wingpalm herself.

“Let us catch up with times shall we? “ Said The Black Alicorn, opening her wings and taking a fighting stance

Luna keeping the lantern floating with her magic, she took out the Steel pipe that Stormy gave to her and used it to reflect an incoming attack, she remembered the advice she gave to her guard and applied it on herself, the main reason she shoved him away was to finally put an end to the nightmares she was suffering and with Stormy fragile state of mind on the Hospital, Nightmare could easily corrupt him.

Could this overconfidence in herself be influence of the still sane hope that Stormy has about her brother?, Meanwhile Luna fought, on the reception, there was one stallion alone, he had gave up in opening the door, as he tried to find a alternative route, the hospital started to look rusted and the crimson color of the steel was evident, the siren has gone off and neitherless to say, it looked exactly like the first nightmare the colt had when in Celestia Secret room.

“Shit shit shit “ Stormy said to himself trying to catch his breath, the metallic echoes on the building put him nevious. “Come on you stupid pony, pull yourself together!, ok, ok, Im calmed”

A loud metallic echo made him squeal, so much he quickly ran and hit under a bad shaped bed, covering himself with the nearby blanket. The door of the hallway was busted open and he saw his biggest fear searching the reception for him, he tried his best to remain still, trying to scan his foe for any weakness, but a quick look at the creature back made him feel sad, Iron Mask was carrying a Glass Mare,

“MMPPMSH!!” The creature muffled screams could be heard by Stormy.

Stormy could only see how the Glass Mare was thrown into the ground, she desperate crawled into the bed where Stormy was, Stormy saw face to face something unusual on the monster face, absolute fear, she was caught by a magical aura and she started to yell, Stormy felt pity and quickly held the creature bone hoof, in a desperate attempt to try to spare her from being killed by the same creature he is so afraid.

“… hmpf” the Iron Mask Pony exclaimed as he raised his weapon.

A Splashy sound was heard and the Glass Mare stopped moving, still holding for dear life on Stormy hoof, the metallic echo could be heard moving away, busting out a door to be more precise, with the coast clear, Stormy moved the Glass Mare hoof, he knew he could be attacked by the creature, but nothing happened, curious by this, he got out of his hiding spot, just to find he was holding only the Glass Mare upper body, her body was cut in half by the Iron Mask Pony, and her internal organs were spread and splattered across the room.

“uuurk, i-I think I’m going to throw up” he said, but without dropping the creature body.

Sure, he has killed this monster before with Luna, but never so salvage or heartless, he did more in self-defense than anything out of malice. He did not understood why, but he started to cry, his tears were mixing with the monster blood, as a gesture of pity, he put the bed back together and put the Glass Mare corpse on it, finally, he covered it with the blanket without letting the creature hoof let go his, until he covered her was when the grip was loosen enough for him to stop holding her and move on.

Stormy noticed that a unlocking sound came from the door he was trying to open, almost as if somepony was welcoming him, he didn’t hesitate in the minimum to enter, in fact, he jumped inside the reception, when the door closed, a soft “yay“ sounded on the floor, Stormy saw this and noticed the Posey doll, could his brother had used the doll to open the door for him? He took the doll and place it on his saddlebags again, he entered the examination room, passing the reception office and found out a door with Luna cutie mark in it

“oh come on! Another closed door!?“ Said Stormy trying to open the door, he already pissed charged a magical blast.

“You can´t help her” said a little colt voice behind him

“What?” Stormy turned around only to find his little bro, holding a Key with Luna cutie mark on it. “M-mistshine?, bro what are you doing here?”

“You can’t help her like that mister she entered there alone, so she has to get out alone.” said Mistshine still holding the key “Unless you are prepared for the truth”

“The truth? What truth brother? “ Stormy replied

He had to talk with his brother, but he was not getting to where was his brother going with this, downstairs, the princess and her nightmare counterpart battle and things were not looking good for the Princess of the Night, and Stormy could not help, since the door was locked and his brother had the key, time is on the essence here, he has to get that key fast, who knows how much Luna can hold alone.