When she exited out the other side of the mirror Midnight found herself and her companions in something out of a storybook. She found herself outside a cliff side in an area completely filled with tall trees and green grass. There were blue skies and puffy white clouds like she had never seen before even when out on top of the dome, and she could hear the sounds of the ocean in the distance somewhere as well. It was like what she had seen in pictures of the world before the Dead Lands spread out across the continent. Seeing it in person was an entirely different experience than seeing still photos and paintings. She let out a long gasp as she looked around. She could hear Sweet Pea echo that gasp beside her, and Dove just giggled and cooed as she tended to do with everything.

"Welcome to what I like to call the World of Eternal Day," Water Shadow announced with a flourish.

"Not the most original name for a world I have ever heard. I presume it means the sun never sets?" Sunset said as she looked around the area.

"It does set, and we will have to leave before it goes does that, but it will take twelve years for it to set. Those twelve years will be like twelve hours on the other side of the mirror. Time flows differently between this world and ours; as you know it is not uncommon for different worlds to flow at slightly different speeds of time. I haven't been here in over eight centuries, and the amount of time that passed on this side of the mirror in that period can only be measured in eons," Water Shadow explained.

"Um, forgive me, but two questions," Midnight spoke up, feeling growing concern. "Where did the mirror go? It isn't behind us. The other is why is night so dangerous?"

"The mirror is still right behind us, it is this cliff. We can step through it any time," Water Shadow replied, gesturing back to the cliff face.

"And the danger?" Sunset asked.

"A lot of time has passed here, but I doubt it has changed. There are terrible things in the depths of this world. They lurk deep beneath the oceans and down in dark caverns. They are far worse than the undead, or The Mare of Shadows. The closest thing I can describe it as being comparable is trying to face off against Grogar within the borders of Tambelon. We can't win against such things, but they can't stand the light of this sun, nothing filled with dark magic can," Water Shadow said as she gazed up towards the sun. "But when the sun goes down, and the night finally comes they will try to come for us, and we need to leave. We will likely be headed straight back into the same situation we left, but we will at least have these twelve years to figure out some sort of way of dealing with that. Don't go out swimming in the ocean, and don't go into any caves. When I learned of what lurked there I barely escaped with my life."

Midnight couldn't help but glance around and look for any caves, and the sound of the ocean in the distance seemed far more menacing.

"Anything else we need to be concerned about?" Sunset asked with a narrowed brow.

"It has been the equivalent of millions of years since I last set hoof here," Water Shadow said with a sigh. "I can only guess at what the local flora and fauna is like at this point. There were some venomous snakes and insects when I was here last, a few smaller animals that made nuisance of themselves, but nothing too major. Still it is worth taking caution with everything. I don't know what is out there now. I doubt any form of civilized life, the things below seem to hate anything remotely similar to that."

"This seems like a foolhardy place to come to with all that information, Shadow," Sunset said sternly. The great golden alicorn looked around herself after than then sighed. "But I suppose it will have to work. If we can make this work for the full time it allows perhaps we can think of something to better do about the Mare of Shadows hunting us. It will also give us some time to figure out why Dove is so important to them. I am sure we can get some gauge on what her cutie mark means in that much time, she will be a preteen by the time we need to leave after all. I am sure it has something to do with that cutie mark, we had that earth pony colt born about two centuries ago that they never bothered us about. It was a shame he never was able to sire a continuation of his tribe."

"Wait, Dove isn't the first time one of the dead tribes was just randomly born?" Midnight asked, now clutching her happy filly. She had been under the impression Dove was the first such filly born.

"It happened two hundred years ago as I just said," Sunset answered her. "All the tribes' DNA types are floating around in your blood. You have earth ponies and pegasi in your ancestry somewhere if you go back far enough, and even the proto-pony tribes as well. You just have much more thestral, crystal pony, and unicorn ancestry when living in Ocid. It is still possible for those old recessive genes to pop up from time to time in the population, even if this is only the second time since we went under the Dome that it has occurred."

"What happened to him?" Midnight asked quietly.

"He was made to breed till the day he died. That stallion went out with a heart attack while screwing. We put him with every female we possibly could. Never got a single pregnant mare out of him, he was completely sterile," Sunset said with a laugh. "I suppose there are worse ways to die. I feel sorry for the poor mare that he collapsed dead on still."

"Do you think there is any possibility that Dove is sterile too?" Midnight asked. It had never even been a possibility in her mind that her daughter couldn't produce foals someday.

"Not something we need to concern ourselves with at this time," Water Shadow interjected. "Let's just keep focused on trying to get her to where she can reach an age where that can can be something we can be concerned about, because right now we haven't figured out how to get her past twelve yet. We are improving over what we were early today when we weren't sure we were going to get her to one year old alive."

"I really do want to thank you both for doing this for her," Midnight said, tears in her eyes. "I know this is a big sacrifice on your part. I don't know how I will ever repay your kindness."

"I am sad to admit I have ulterior motives, though I do want her to survive for her own sake as well," Sunset admired, looking down at the ground. "The Elder Gods want her dead or in their clutches. While we don't know why yet, I am committed to denying them anything that they want. It isn't the most heroic of reasons, or a reason to be proud of, but it is important to do whatever we can to resist them. I have lost too many dear friends over the years to the Elder Gods and their minions. Pinkie Pie lost to madness joined them, all the other Alicorns, the immortals other than Peridot, ponies I thought would always be there, ponies that were my family. I will stand defiant against the Elder Gods in any possible way that I can now."

"I have my own reasons," Water Shadow added in her own quiet voice, a sound like she was holding back tears in her voice. "You saw the monument outside? A foal being murdered is something I can't stand to happen. There have been many mothers over the countless centuries I have been alive that have lost foals far too early, but it is something I cannot and will not just let happen if I can stop it."

"I feel kind of like Water Shadow," Sweet Pea finally spoke up, holding a foreleg over the area that was still a bit flabby from her last foal. "What the Ponymother wanted to do was just beyond wrong. Everything about Ocid is wrong, but it could be endured. I can't endure knowing that kind of thing was happening. A pony needs to be able to say enough is enough at some point. Saying foals are to be sacrificed to that monster is a line that I will not cross and will do my best to stand in the way of anyone that tries to cross it. I also have my own foal to worry they might do that to someday as well, if they are starting to do such things now."

"Well, thank you all still," Midnight said, tearing up. It was disappointing though that her mistr--Sunset was using Dove as some sort of pawn in a fight, but it wasn't one she could blame her for doing, and Sunset did care about Dove still. Sunset wasn't the one that had made Dove the pawn, that was the Elder Gods. She wished she knew why, but it just reconfirmed to her filly was special; a feeling all mothers might have, but one that she had good reason for.

"It is time to focus on our own survival here for the time being," Sunset declared, taking charge of the situation. "We will find somewhere to set up a camp and then Water Shadow and I will take turns surveying the area. Keep your weapons ready still, there may be dangerous wildlife about. Focus is on shelter, food, and water for the time being. I want us well away from our entry point just in case the necromancer figures out some way of getting something through to us."

Midnight's considered what they needed to be doing. Food was probably the biggest concern, Midnight thought. She knew nothing about what plants were edible. She was still feeding Dove with her udders, but that was only good as long as she herself was getting fed, and that feeding method would need to come to an end in a few months anyway. She didn't actually have any idea how to prepare food, she had spent her whole life eating meal bars. She wondered if she would need to eat meat too as a result since her digestive system was so used to it. That meant hunting, which could be dangerous. Hopefully the Alicorns could provide.

This made her feel rather useless. She could properly use a gun to hunt, she had no clue what plants to eat, she didn't know anything about building a shelter, and her surroundings were so different than anything she had ever known. She might as well be a helpless foal herself for all the good she could accomplish. Sweet Pea at least seemed to know how to fire her weapon accurately. Midnight was best just donating her weapon to her friend, at least then it would serve a purpose.

She looked over to her cutie mark again. The little silver hearts were an enigma, and she wished she knew what they meant. It seemed almost worse having a cutie mark and not knowing what it was for than not knowing if you had a cutie mark at all. Chances were it was for something that wouldn't even be useful in this situation. She couldn't imagine it having to do with any of the things that they needed to be concerning themselves with now. Again, Sweet Pea was more useful than her, they had a foal to deal with and another on the way, and her friend's skills would be important with those.

"You look upset," Sunset said to her. The alicorn had come up to stand beside her. "I know that being in a totally new place can feel overwhelming, but I can tell you that it is something we can manage."

"Just feeling kind of useless," Midnight answered. Emotion was still boiling up and she now felt like crying. She was supposed to be responsible for Dove, but she had no idea what to do.

"I am sure we will have need of you, you're a Thestral, and when push comes to shove your instincts will kick in and help you. If danger comes there are no other pony races that can stand up to a fierce protective Thestral mother," Sunset said in a soothing voice.

"I don't feel particularly fierce," Midnight replied as her ears drooped down.

"You should have seen yourself when I first told you that they were intending to take Dove away. I wasn't sure if you were going to bite me right then. You may not be feeling it right now, but you are more than capable of protecting your filly here. I can't imagine any beast that will get near her," Sunset laughed. "Pick yourself up, and keep alert for danger. It is time to find somewhere to go make a camp that we can set up some sort of shelter in."

And so they all moved together away from the cliffs into the woods. The trees all had extremely thick, spiny looking bark on them, with large leaves as long as a pony's leg. From time to time Midnight would spot some odd looking fruits growing on trees, or some flowers blooming in the trees or on the ground. There was just so much color everywhere.

A strange sound caught her ears. Both she and Sweet Pea stopped walking and started looking around anxiously to try to find the source of the strange sound. The two Alicorns paused as well and looked at Midnight and Sweet Pea with amusement, but didn't say anything.

Eventually Midnight spotted the source of the sound. Nestled in one of the trees nearby was a collection of dried up grass that had been gathered together. She flew up to look closer, and in that mass of dried brown grass was a very small, very helpless little bird. She had never seen one in real life. There were pictures, videos, and descriptions in the computer, but those weren't the real thing. She had always wanted to see one, she had even named her daughter after a type of those long gone creatures after seeing her wings. Now she was seeing one in person, and it was amazing.

"What is it Midnight?" Sweet Pea called up to her, unable to see much more than the dried grass from her position on the ground.

"It's a bird, a real live bird!" Midnight called back down to her friend. She didn't know why she was so giddy about seeing one. It was like old things come again.

"A what? Um, Midnight.. your cutie mark is glowing," Sweet Pea called back up.

Midnight turned her head to look. Yes, it was glowing brightly. She stared at it in fascination for a moment. She was so entranced in seeing the phenomenon that she had to stop staring as she nearly dropped out of her hover because she forgot my to keep flapping her wings. She immediately double checked Dove to make sure the filly hadn't gotten loose from her saddle bag during the brief jerk in the air. After assuring herself that her daughter was still secure she looked back at her cutie mark only to find it had ceased its glow.

"It makes me happy too that there are birds here, but we need to get back to finding a good place to camp," Sunset called over to them.

Still unable to break away from her own training that demanded unquestioned obedience to her alicorn, Midnight brought herself back to the ground. She gave her flank another glance with her ears lowered. Was Sunset not going to explain to her what had just happened? The alicorn had to have seen it happen. Were cutie marks supposed to do that? She had never seen that happen to Sunset, Water Shadow, or Peridot. Nor had she seen it happen to any of the fillies or colts from back when she was living at Foal Services. Maybe it was normal and it just wasn't something that any pony ever noticed because they were always wearing their suits.

Sunset was right, they needed to find somewhere to set up camp and get far away from the cliff they came into this world from. She vowed to herself that as soon as they found somewhere to make camp that she would ask Sunset about the glowing cutie mark.

Memory was a strange thing. As an immortal it was stranger still to Peridot. Peridot knew she was having a dream, but this was more than a dream, this was a memory, and she was just helplessly watching it play out.

She was again near the borders of Tambelon, over a thousand years ago, and there were undead swarming them from all directions. Sunset and Water Shadow were blasting away huge amounts of undead in single blasts. They were much more powerful back then, as Harmony had not yet fallen, but all that power mattered little in the realm of Tambelon.

The rest of their party was just running along trying to keep up as they all ran for the border of Grogar's realm. Cozy Care was flying close to them, trying hard not to go faster than them, if she went to far ahead she would be caught in the swarms of undead. Peridot herself was running as hard as she could, she had fought hard in the close confines of the city itself where the creatures were bottle-necked in attacking them, but here in the open she was helpless. Hot Sticks ran in terror close by her. Icy Moon ran while endlessly ringing that infernal bell with her magic.

The bell itself was what was pulling the undead down on them. The ringing was drawing them from everywhere. Peridot had not understood back then exactly what that bell was. She had only understood that it was what was drawing the undead to them in unimaginable numbers.

"Please, stop ringing the bell! This is madness," Peridot in her memory yelled.

"Don't stop ringing the bell no matter what!" Sunset yelled back, not pausing in her attacks on the undead, and with the comatose body of Pearlwort on her back. "That was my order when we came here and that is my order still. We are almost to the border of the Lost Lands and it will be safe to stop then, but our lives depend on that bell ringing till we reach the border."

"Whatever that bell is keeping at bay can't possibly be worse than this," Peridot's past self replied. Oh how wrong she had been. She wanted to scream at her past self for saying such a thing, but in the present she was just a helpless observer watching this tragedy play itself out. She didn't want to remember this.

"You have no idea how much worse Grogar is than this. Keeping ringing that bell like your life depends on it Icy, because it very much does," Sunset snapped back.

So they kept as they had been. The undead kept appearing as fast as they were cut down. They would start rising up from the very ground that they were running over, and more than once Peridot had to cut her way through some newly risen undead that had pulled itself out of the ground in the midst of them. The Alicorns were clearing a path but that path was sealing almost as quickly as it was made. Peridot was sure they were all going to die here. It turned out they would survive this day, most of them anyway.

There was no way of telling how long they kept in like this. The constant assault made time seem to flow both more quickly and in slow motion at the same time. This was the most frenzied combat she had ever seen.

This wasn't her first combat action, she had seen a lot of action against the strange creatures that had once been ponies back home. There were always more emerging from those damned cocoons. But they had Pearl now, and they would find a way to make everything alright. They would stop the affliction, which then would stop there from being new monsters. They would also make things right with Peridot's sister, who thought Pearl dead, and had become increasingly unstable in her rage. Everything would be alright soon she had thought back then, just as long as they made it out of Tambelon alive.

Then she saw it, the border of Tambelon. It was like a perfectly made line where the heated rocky landscape of Tambelon gave way to the frozen snows of the Lost Lands. They were going to make it. Once they were in the Lost Lands the alicorns would teleport them back to Crystal Heart and work to quickly heal Pearl, and then Pearl would sink her magic into the Heart of the City and purge the affliction. Her sister would come back to her too, and everything would be alright. The nightmare of the last few years would finally be over.

"You can stop ringing that bell now, Icy. We are about to cross over to freedom," she shouted. She picked up her speed and gave a prayer of thanks to Flurry Heart as she felt her hooves come in contact with the snows of the Lost Lands. It was hard to imagine that she would be so glad to set hoof again in those frozen wastes.

The bell stopped ringing, and she had been so glad at that first moment she heard it cease. She glanced backwards towards the land of Tambelon now in the north and that gladness turned to horror. One member of their party had not crossed the border, Icy Moon.

The undead didn't pursue them, they all stood still beyond the border. Icy Moon also stood completely still, but that was because she was trapped back swirling tentacles of dark magic that held her motionless. Peridot could see fear and tears in Icy Moon's eyes as the dark magic gripped her.

Next to her that magic condensed and took shape. Two first eyes formed first, and soon a great demonic goat stood there. It glanced at them briefly, and then down at the line between his realm and the lands that they now stood in. Grogar turned his attention then back to his prisoner and seized the bell from her with his magic, before then clapping it back onto his collar. Icy Moon looked like she was screaming now, but no sound came from her. Then in a final terror filled moment jagged spikes of dark crystal burst from her body in all directions, leaving her impaled many times over.

Grogar laughed then, it was such a bone chilling sound, she would never forget the sound of that goat laughing. Then Icy Moon's eyes shriveled back into her head, leaving a black film of decay in the sockets that once housed them, and her body dropped limply to the ground.

"She should not have stopped ringing that bell," Sunset said quietly. "Her blood is on your hooves, Peridot. If she hadn't listened to you we would still have her with us. I am not going to punish you or have any other Alicorn punish you, but you will remember this. I want you to remember this until your dying day."

Then the two alicorns lit up their horns and teleported them all away. The memory came then to an end, leaving nothing but endless black nothingness.

Peridot knew she was still asleep, and she still wept like a foal in the darkness. Why was she remembering this again now? It had been years since she had thought about this. It still hurt just as much. That had been the first time a pony had died on account of her foolishness. It had not been the last.

"I have often wondered what had occurred that day. Thank you for sharing this with me, Peridot," came a voice that Peridot feared. The Mare of Shadows sat staring at her in the darkness.

"Why did you make me relive that? Do you just enjoy tormenting me?" Peridot accused.

"Hold your accusations, for I made you remember nothing. You were already deep in this memory when I entered into your dream, and I simply watched along with you. I do promise you though, Grogar will get what is coming to him one day. You will be long dead and gone, along with all of Ocid, but I will give you vengeance on him along with my own," the necromancer answered her.

"I thought everything would be better if we succeeded in that rescue," Peridot said quietly, her face and ears lowered, her posture defeated.

"Sometimes nothing you do can make things right. I can empathize with you though, little pony. I too seek to just make up for what once went wrong. It unfortunately has a high price to make happen, all your lives will be forfeit. I will see to it that I make things right though," the Mare of Shadows said darkly.

"And what possibly could be so important to make right that every pony must die? That is not making things right," Peridot demanded.

"That is none of your concern. Just know I do empathize with you. For now we have other matters to discuss. Matters far more pertinent to your current survival, and your precious Ocid's survival, and what costs you will pay for that," the demon replied.

Peridot kept hanging her head. It seemed there was going to be a chance that they were going to be given an opportunity to survive still, but she knew at this point she was effectively a slave to whatever the necromancer demanded. She hoped that ponies, both alive and long dead, would forgive her for it.

Night Mist missed not feeling anything below her neck, she actually felt mildly cheated that she wasn't dead. Perhaps it would be better if she were in her current state. She wasn't in pain, but everything felt weird.

"Are you okay, Mom?" Cotton Tail asked her.

That was a loaded question she didn't know how to answer.

She chose not to answer and instead brought herself to her hooves. One of those hooves didn't feel right at all. She could feel sensation through it, but it was muted sensation. She flexed her wings and felt much the same thing. She could feel them, but not the same way she had before. These weren't even her wings, they were something else, something that didn't belong on her.

She turned her head around to look at her flank, trying to ignore all the bits of things that weren't originally part of her before. On her flank sat the same cutie mark that she had before her magic had been drained, though it looked now a bit distorted. She could feel her natural pony magic flowing through her body again, and was glad that it at least was still somewhat the same as it had been before.

She couldn't help shivering as she saw all the things that weren't as they were before. What was she now? What had Moon Fury.. Discord.. done to her? She supposed she should be happy to be alive, but this all felt so very wrong.

She looked around her surroundings, the self proclaimed Spirit of Chaos said he would be back, but took off soon after rescuing her and doing this to her. She didn't even know how to begin to describe her surroundings, but they felt far less strange than she now felt. She would need to have a very long talk about this whenever he decided to return.

"I'm alive, which is more than I expected. I am still trying to adjust to this though. So much of my body is not mine. I know I couldn't have survived with all that I had lost, but I don't know if I am grateful or not yet. Just let me adjust. I am still processing this," she told her son.

She was still trying to shake the shock of everything that had happened out of her thoughts. There seemed like there should be many other things she should be concerned with right now. Where was she? What was Cotton Tail doing here? Had Moon Fury truly been that thing this whole time without her knowing? What was Moon Fury anyway? These questions should be answered, but at the moment the question the she couldn't get out off her head was not letting anything else come into focus. What was she?

She took her still flesh forehoof and touched it to one of the many metallic spots that now covered her body. She was a thing of flesh and metal. Wherever her flesh had been stripped away or body part destroyed there was now metal. None of it seemed to be mechanical or electronic in any way, these were not any sort of prosthesis. Her flesh and the metal fused together seamlessly and she could feel her natural magic coursing through the metal. Not only the magic, but she could feel touch on the metal, like a slightly numbed limb. It was all flexible, but clearly metallic, and extremely tough.

She looked at her wings. She had lost her old wings and now stared at these silvery things. They didn't look much like her old wings, but they responded just like the old ones. She wondered if they worked.

With a few quick flaps of them she brought herself into a hover as easily as she ever could. It felt a little strange, but the magic that let her get airborne had the same feel as it ever did. Wings were just a conduit for that magic, and these new ones conducted that magic as easily as the old ones had done before. Did this mean she was still a thestral? Could she be a thestral and still have a body like this?

One thing was for sure. She had been given a reprieve from her fate, and she didn't want to waste it. She would see to it the Bakery was put to an end. She didn't know how yet, and she didn't know what to do yet about seeing to it ponies were fed, but she knew she wanted it destroyed. Peridot's whole damn system was evil and they needed to find another way. The desire for rebellion had been rising in her since her capture, and it still blazed strong now.

Once Moon Fury set her free to return to Ocid she had work to do. Ocid would not continue as it had been. She would make sure of it.

Author's Notes:

Not feeling 100% or even 50% today, but getting this update out on time.