“But now let’s have a surprise, let’s have a dream which isn’t under control, where something is gonna happen to me that I don’t know what it's gonna be… And finally, you would dream where you are now. You would dream the dream of living the life that you are actually living today.”
– ‘The Dream of Life’, by Alan Watts

“Everything in this world is magic, except to the magician.”
– Dr. Robert Ford, Westworld, ‘Chestnut’

A battered, pressed plastic flower.

That was what, cupped in the palm of his hand, Stephan had been staring at for hours tonight, while he sat at Trixie’s bedside in the Palace. The first present she had offered him for Christmas… or Hearthswarming, that night in Iceland. He had initially thought it a bad joke, when she handed him an empty box to open… then she’d asked him to close it again, and one puff of her horn later, once he reopened it, out popped a bush of fake flowers. Silly, and a cheap trick, and the warmest gift a young miss had ever given him.

Now this was the only flower he had left, tucked safely in his shirt pocket at all times.

He’d thought he would be leaving her soon, that day. But as the saying went; ‘Man sieht sich immer zweimal im Leben’. ‘You always meet twice’. How differently might things have gone, if Daniel and Alicia hadn’t spotted his attraction to their camp’s chief entertainer and got them together under the mistletoe! And how lucky he had been that she hadn’t minded his awkwardness one bit.

“What I wanted to say… I will miss you, too. From all the people I already meet… well, you are somewhat special for me.”

While in the background, the late Queen Chrysalis had smiled wanly at his English, a lot more broken then than nowadays, Trixie’s had blushed furiously. If he was awkward, at least they could be awkward together.

“Oh… well, yeah. I think that. That I’m special for you... I think you are special for me too!”

Looking away from the flower, Stephan turned his eyes to their other memento, held in his left hand rested upon his knee. The metallic Zippo lighter engraved with a skull design, and the words ‘Rock and Roll’ written beneath. A present from a military man. Just why in the hell had he given her that thing? She didn’t smoke, nor did he. He must have thought it would be ‘cool’. Three years back, he’d been a younger man.

She still carried it on her person for her every mission.

“Major Bauer, sir?”

Stephan looked around. “Corporal Harwood,” he stated. “At ease. What’s her status… I mean, her condition?”

“As far as I can tell?” Harwood replied. “She’s reasonably stable, to put it mildly. That’s as far as I can tell, without going into technical details, sir.”

“Thank you, Corporal,” Stephan nodded. “The work you’ve done for us on treating these special case patients, including Discord, ever since the brickyard incident, is well appreciated.” He paused. “Although, a report got back to me about your long-time comrade, Corporal Bjorgman. Didn’t she enter a three-day coma shortly after the events?”

The medic cleared his throat, in a manner now all too familiar to the bemused Stephan.

“She… did,” he replied tentatively. “Ana is recovering well enough, but I fear I’m not at liberty to discuss it, unfortunately. Orders from higher up.”

“Who?”

“You know him, sir. The bloke with the umbrella.”

Stephan pulled a face. “Don’t mention him.”

Harwood chuckled. “Ah, sir, you were lucky enough to be on the mainland. His grip’s a fair bit tighter than it was before ‘16, and you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone who isn’t in his web.” He gestured, towards Trixie. “Don’t fret yourself much, sir, the lady should wake up soon. I’m no expert on the… odder aspects of magical healing, but I see no reason not to disprove the Princess on that.”

A thought crossed Stephan. “Corporal, this Miss Bjorgman of yours… how long have you known her for?”

“Five years, give or take a few months,” Harwood replied, as he tidied his gloves. “Although time out at sea, well, screws up your sense of time, don’t it? Poor girl thought it was still 2019... or was it 2020... when we arrived at port in Jakarta. Given who she is, heh, I can’t tell if it’s her, or if the sea got to her.”

Stephan folded one arm upon his knee.

“So many of us appear to be slipping into mystery comas nowadays, Harwood…” he said, very quietly. “Somewhere, a part of me wishes we could let them sleep through this war, wake up when it’s over… what’s going on inside their heads can’t be a worse nightmare than we face everyday.” He paused to think. “At this rate, you might have enough to build a medical thesis on. The women just seem to swoon and faint when you’re close by, doctor.”

“Thank you for the thought, Major,” Harwood replied casually. “But I’m more of a hands-on type of fellow when it comes to medical matters, not that I’m implying anything. Though, since we’re discussing this,” he added, glancing at Trixie, “if I had to add something, let me tell you, the girl’s a lightfoot.”

“She did learn from the best,” Stephan agreed.

“I was talking about Ana,” Harwood retorted with a roguish grin, and a twinkle in those green eyes of his. “Godspeed, Major. I’ve got a sleeping beauty of my own to return to.”

With the medic gone, Stephan’s attention returned to Trixie.

She hadn’t moved. Her breathing still came out in small, shallow bursts, and they had barely got her temperature under control. No doubt was allowed, here lay a sleeper in some distress. Nothing romantic about this at all. Yet the way her baby-blue mane fanned out on both sides of her pillow, it did lend her a touch of grace...

Sleeping beauties, huh? It had been, after all, a wicked queen’s doing that she’d fallen asleep. Albeit more for her and everyone else’s safety. And Chrysalis probably wasn’t lying when she claimed she hadn’t expected that her coccooning, combined with sedative, would be so potent.

Unwillingly, the seed of an idea took root in his head. He had to chuckle ruefully at that. Here they were, Trixie taken from him because someone had robbed her mind, and he had no control over his own fantasies.

Stephan stood up, quietly pushing his chair away. Just as quietly, he came closer to her bed, careful not to disturb her... Yes, this was silly. He knelt before the bed, taking in the sight of she whom he loved dearest, gently brushing a strand of hair from her face. Her lips had parted, invitingly. Closing his eyes, he leaned forward to kiss her...

… And he backed off, mere inches away from touching her lips.

He blinked. What on Earth was he doing? Trixie was asleep, maybe never to wake up. Was this to be his memory of their last kiss? Or, worse, suppose she woke up, and this still proved to be their last time together. After what had gone down, if she returned to the waking world, now, she might recoil from his touch.

Her mind had already been robbed from her. What right did he have to steal this kiss?

‘Meine Liebste,’ he thought, forcing himself to stand despite the weight on his chest. ‘I wish we’d had more time together.’ He reflected on what he knew of her counterpart’s fate. ‘You’re your own worst enemy, Trixie. But I promise, you won’t stay trapped. You’ve got a magic I believe in.’

This clock struck nine. He had to leave her. He wouldn’t be gone long. However, before he’d headed out the door, Stephan did turn tail, and went to plant a quick peck on her forehead. It felt only slightly too warm.

Waiting up the corridor, Luna and Cadance saw Bauer exit and march away from them.

“One thing I don’t get,” Cadance whispered, staring after the man’s receding back. “I thought the Major didn’t want to enter her mind. What made him change his, uh, mind?”

“I had a little chat with him, following the first attempt,” Luna explained. “Without… sugar-coating our embarrassing failure,” she pursued, noticing too late as Cadance winced. “Given time and effort, we could save Trixie ourselves. But time and effort are luxuries we cannot afford. He can help us. He knows her better than we do.”

“I wonder,” trilled a third, snakelike voice which set Luna’s fur on edge. Chrysalis had sneaked up behind them, treading so quietly as to make almost no noise. “Does he? Duty kills romance. Not to mention, she’s broken property. Isn’t he merely picking up the pieces?”

“‘Property’?” Cadance echoed doubtfully. “You think?”

“Bauer’s the only human Lulamoon’s had meaningful interaction with, in her time on Earth,” Chrysalis explained. “I’m not sure she likes humans that much, but she finds them preferable to the Tyrant. Not that I blame her, of course. And I do know Lulamoon’s type. She’s a gold-digger. An opportunist. Sticks to those who’ll carry her on.”

“Maybe she was,” Luna said, frowning a little. “Could a mere opportunist fight so bravely, so passionately? Besides, the Trixie Lulamoon who pledged to become my Student sounded like no such weasel.”

“Regardless,” Chrysalis said. “It’s my belief Bauer and Lulamoon are a pair of fools settling for the next best thing. He’s reluctant to visit her mind, because he may not like what he finds. About her, or himself.”

“Maybe,” Luna acknowledged. “Or maybe this won’t be so bad. Now, let’s get ready.”

The two other mares nickered in acknowledgement and followed her inside, where servants had already provided their bedding. But as Luna glanced at the comatose Trixie, once again, the image of Celestia’s face, twisted out of shape, flashed in front of her eyes.

Incoming call from: MH.

Setting aside the stack from his desk’s inbox, Marcus swiped a finger across the iPad’s surface to answer. The Umbrella Man wouldn’t call this number, or indeed, call him, if it wasn’t urgent. The older man’s face popped up on screen, looking harried, which in and of itself was unusual.

Marcus frowned. “To what do I owe the pleasure, Mister H–”

“Spare me, Colonel,” the man interrupted sharply. “We might have a new situation on our hands.”

“Goddammit,” Marcus muttered. “What is it?”

“It’s the Doctor. Doctor Bowman,” the Umbrella Man answered. “He's gone missing.”

“Missing,” Marcus repeated, his frown deepening. “You mean he’s gone?”

“Indeed,” the Umbrella Man said. “No sign of his TARDIS. No response to any of my attempts to communicate.”

Marcus sighed. “Could something have happened to him?”

“Either that, or he’s decided he’s truly done with us,” the Umbrella Man replied, sighing. “Which is frustrating. His assistance in various matters might still have been a boon, to say the least.”

“Shit,” Marcus said quietly while rubbing his chin, grimacing at the shadow from the rub. “You’re right.”

The Umbrella Man paused. “I realize he is… preoccupied, but do you want me to forward Major Bauer this information?”

“Later,” Marcus told him. “Later. To each day its burden. Stephan’s... got something important he’s got to do first. We’re still picking up the pieces, so we need to be at our best. Keep searching, but be discreet, I’ll call if anything on my end shows up.”

The Umbrella Man didn’t look happy, but nodded. “Very well, Colonel. Until then. I suppose this’ll constitute a late addition to the report I’d promised Princess Celestia tomorrow morning.”

“And to think,” Marcus said, considering the Englishman on the screen, “I’m the one she was planning to share a spot of tea with right after. Figured we’d earned it after all this bullshit.”

The mind was any individual’s most important aspect, according to Luna. However, process of entry into another’s mind, in and of itself, was less difficult than he’d assumed, at least on a logistical level. As such, Stephan was now preparing, together with three extraordinary mares, to dive into Trixie’s mind, where Luna’s magic would keep all five of their inner landscapes connected on the same plane. Of course, seeing how the whole ‘mental connection’ angle made everyone a little uncomfortable, a most solemn vow had been coaxed out of Chrysalis that she wasn’t to peek into their secrets, and vice-versa. Cadance, rather jarringly, had sounded excited at the prospect of this excursion. She had spoken at length about wanting to see how Luna kept busy in the night.

Stephan, on the other hand, would have been content not knowing. He knew he was last in preparing for bed, head abuzz with worried thoughts of what Luna and the others would uncover about his personal life once they entered his lover’s mind, conjoined with his own. Although he tried to feel confident – Princess Luna was supposedly experienced at entering other’s dreams, after all – his true, secret fear was of whatever unknown threats they might encounter in there. Or whatever they might bring along with them.

Still, those were concerns that could wait until they began. Standing before the door to Trixie’s palace bedroom once more, his Army sleeping bag slung over his shoulder, Stephan paused only to garner his strength, and entered.

“Good evening, ladies,” Stephan greeted them, his voice adopting a jokingly smooth lounge-lizard tone as he moved to place his bag close to Trixie’s bed.

The two Princesses and the Queen were already in their own beds. Not full-sized, giant beds like in their personal sleeping rooms, but more like giant pillows for each of them. Luna had picked a spot in the middle of the room while Cadance lay on one side of Trixie’s bed and Chrysalis across the other.

None of them wore bedclothes, he reflected, but that was nothing out of the ordinary, anyway.

Luna gave him a welcoming smile, although it seemed forced. “Major. It’s good to see you could make it on time.”

“Nice outfit,” Chrysalis said teasingly. “Even if it doesn’t match your eyes.”

He’d chosen to wear his new pajamas tonight, a pair of long silk pants and a buttoned-up shirt, with short sleeves and a chest pocket. Cut from dark blue, his favorite color no less. Trust Rarity to make something like that for him, just in case. If Marcus had received this gift, he would have declined it, misconstruing her action as bribery, yet Stephan took it at face value. Besides, a long time had passed since he’d actually worn anything decent for bed.

“Yeah,” Stephan said. “I had to take care of things first, but that’s over with. Decided to follow Princess Luna’s advice about trying to make myself comfortable for this.”

True, personnel had given him strange looks as he passed them by, but nobody said a thing. At least, not in hearing distance. He didn’t doubt there’d be some ‘amusing’ scuttlebutt doing the rounds for weeks.

“Did you follow my other piece of advice?” Luna asked.

“About the talismans? Yeah,” Stephan told her, holding up the plastic flower and Zippo lighter from his pyjama pockets. “To make sure I don’t forget I’m in a dream, right? A bit like in the movies, or that one movie.”

“Not quite,” Luna explained patiently. “Call it insurance. Pulling physical objects in and out of the dream realm is a very risky, tricky business I wouldn’t recommend, but with my magic, I’ll make sure that wherever you are in the dream, these objects are never far. If not on your person then somewhere close by, as a beacon or a magnet.”

“And of course,” Cadance said, “their sentimental value for you might help us track you down, those of us with love magic, anyway.”

Stephan grinned wanly. “You’re the experts.” He lay down, easing into his sleeping bag. “I really hope this works.”

“You mean the rescue mission?” Chrysalis smirked. “With me around, I daresay, you’ve got a pretty good chance, since these two would be helpless within the complex catacombs of a Changeling mind. But if you mean the outfit... funny things, dreams, we appear in them as we basically perceive ourselves ... so don’t be surprised if you turn up naked, human.”

Stephan almost bolted upright. “What? Really?!”

“She’s teasing you, Major,” Cadance called from behind Trixie’s bed. “Ignore her.”

“Trying to lighten the mood, is all,” Chrysalis harrumphed. “We need it.”

“Major,” Cadance said reassuringly, “if there is one pony who can help, it’s Luna. Besides, I’m here too. And Chrysalis… has a special skillset. We can do this.”

Luna surveyed them all gravely.

“Remember,” she began, in the voice of a lecturer. “This is not one dream we are entering. These are five. Continuously mixing, overlapping, reforming. It’s my best technique to slow the barrier within Trixie’s mind before it can notice us and seal us off. It’ll be like travelling a maze where, when one door closes, another opens. Our goal is to reach the center of this maze. Though I think we do not risk death, Trixie is in danger of losing her mind. Only by finding the ‘center’ can we help her. Are we all clear?”

“Affirmative.”

“Yes, Auntie.”

“Hm? Oh, yep.”

“So…” Stephan added. “Princess Luna, any advice for what my last thoughts should be while falling asleep?”

“Try to think about something pleasant,” Luna replied. “Otherwise, don’t force it. I may have trouble finding you within your dreams if you overthink. Again, I do not have much experience with human dreams, but I shall do my best.”

“Okay. Sounds simple enough,” Stephan whispered, resting his head on his arms. “I just don’t think I can sleep yet.”

Luna raised an eyebrow. “After all that’s happened?”

Stephan gave her a rueful smile. “Especially after all that’s happened.”

“Maybe a lullaby will help?” Cadance offered helpfully. Nobody said anything for a moment. “What?” she asked, somewhat indignantly. “It helped Twilight.”

“Don’t you think we’re a little too old for that?” Chrysalis asked, exasperated. “Well, alright, maybe I’m not that old. And you still fresh out of fillyhood, Candy... although, hope you’re looking forward to the immortal centuries stretching ahead! Now, Woona, on the other h–”

“What harm could it do? I say we try,” Stephan interjected, cutting any new bickering straight in the bud. He looked over from Trixie’s bed to Cadance. “Anything good in mind?”

Cadance chuckled, her laughter tinged with sadness.

“Well, as it happens,” she said. “Twilight and Lyra are only a few of the fillies I’ve looked after, then or since. Even today, I wonder if some of them did find beautiful dreams.” She paused thoughtfully. “I’ve been listening around. Maybe a song from the human world will help them find their balm… and my other self did have much to teach me there. So how about it?”

“Whatever...” Chrysalis lay her head upon her forelegs. “You should tell the other you she needs to get more sunlight, with that whitish complexion of hers. Just give us something upbeat to hit the sack on. I hate those soppy, mournful tunes which make the little boys n’ girls scared they’ll never wake up.”

Luna smiled wanly. “Lead us on, my niece, Keeper of the Heart. Help me weave our souls together in the ties that bind...”

And Cadance began to sing.

~An autumn night descends on the Negev,
And gently, gently lights up the stars,
While the wind blows on the threshold,
Clouds go on their way.~

~Already a year, and we almost didn’t notice,
How the time has passed in our fields,
Already a year, and few of us remain,
So many are no longer among us.~

First Chrysalis closed her eyes...

~But we’ll remember them all,
With their beauty,
Because friendship like this,
Will never permit our hearts to forget.~

~Love sanctified with blood,
Will once more bloom among us,
Friendship, we bear you with no words,
Gray, stubborn and silent.~

… then Cadance, still singing away.

~From the nights of terrible terror,
You remained clear and lighted,
Friendship, as all of your youths.~

~Again in your name we will smile and go foreword,
Because friends that have fallen on their swords,
Left your life as a monument,
And we’ll remember them all…~

Stephan’s eyelids felt heavy and his body felt calm as he listened to the Princess of Love croon her lullaby. He had to admit, Cadance was a natural at this. It took only a few short minutes before he fell asleep. Darkness consumed him, yet its embrace was comforting as a mother’s.

As all this happened, Luna kept a watchful eye on them. Only once they had all drifted off to sleep did she begin to use her magic. Lines of blue light slowly emerged from her horn and moved to the others in the room. Except for Trixie. Even though she had already worked on a way to enter the baby-blue mare’s mind, Luna didn’t want to take too many risks yet.

Luna closed her eyes as soon as she felt the last one make connection. She concentrated and thus entered the realm of dreams...

Far away, in a grand chamber apart from the waking world, a sea-green alicorn with a golden mane stepped off her throne.

“Again, a doorway opens, a ladder descends, and a bridge takes shape,” she whispered. “They have begun.”

The Captain of her Guard looked her in the eye. “What do you plan to do?”

“Follow, as a phantom,” the alicorn said simply, “and watch. To meddle on their plane, uninvited, remains beyond my power. Such is the cost of being a dream within a dream… once they reach the center of the maze, only then will we stand on the same plane. And I shall confer with Princess Luna.”

“By the Golden Lyre,” said the Captain. “That is a tall order.”

When Luna’s eyes opened again, she was standing in a pale antechamber with three doors.

One was painted green with a black frame. Obviously Chrysalis’. The second was a rosey pink with a crystal heart motif. No question whom this one belonged to. The third door, however… Luna felt uneasiness well up inside her. It was an old and plain wooden door, nothing special like the Queen and Princess’s. Still, her belly tied into a knot just from staring at it. She would always remember what happened in the Crystal Empire, and wonder what Stephan Bauer had seen to send him into a uncontrollable rage. Whatever lay behind it, she hoped to find the Major there in one piece.

First things first. Luna turned towards Chrysalis’ door and walked through it.

She emerged inside a Changeling cocoon.

Not a pleasant sensation. A sickly-sweet-tasting, slimey green mucus-like substance covered her all over, in uncomfortable spots, no less. Now, she understood how Celestia must have felt after the invasion of Canterlot...

Then a new image returned to her. Twilight Sparkle’s emaciated body, entrapped within in a pit full of grasping, black vines.

It sent a jolt through her entire body. Snarling, Luna pushed, with all of her might, against the oppressive substance. Hearing something snap, she found herself falling, face-first through thin air, and landed on the rocky ground, painfully.

Good thing the dream-cocoon was weaker than the real thing. Having nursed her snout, Luna shook and wiped all the green wax off her body she could, then, satisfied, proceeded onward, deeper into the hive.

Princess Luna loved the darkness of the night, but she felt no beauty in this place’s darkness, only the cloying grip of the depths.

“Aah, Princess Luna,” spoke a hushed, sibilant female voice. “We’ve been expecting you.”

Luna spun around. Back up the way she’d came, a Changeling was standing in the middle of the grotto, smiling at her.

“You have?” Luna whispered.

The Changeling nodded. “Yes. Our Queen told us of your arrival. Please, follow me, I will lead you to her chambers.”

Doing as told, Luna followed the Changeling through the labyrinth of corridors crafted in the massive stone. She felt many eyes on her, following her every move. If this was the dream version of a hive, she didn’t want to visit a real hive anytime soon. Soon enough, they had reached a giant set of double-doors, no smaller than the doors to Celestia’s throne room. It looked similar to the door she’d walked through to enter the dream.

The Changeling attendant knocked.

“ENTER!”

No mistaking that shrill voice.

The doors opened with a noise of rock grinding on stone, and a waft of steam struck Luna in the face. Eyes watering, she had to blink before she could see what lay behind the doors. Looking past the mist, Chrysalis’ throne room bore many similarities to the one in Canterlot. Huge pillars and stained-glassed windows, but with a key distinction; a poisonous, sickly green covering it all, filling in the spaces that weren’t simply black, thanks to torches of green fire on the walls. Between the pillars stood more drones, armored and silent, wielding cruel spears.

But what caught Luna’s attention were the sounds of heavy thuds upon wood. In front of her, obstructing her view of the throne, were two treadmills, each occupied by a behemoth drone. Half the size of a baby Ursa, armored with thick chitin plates, though the treadmills’ insides were swathed in cloth to muffle the noise, her alert, sensitive ears knew that one stomp from those hooves would crush skulls. She wondered whether these were just dream constructs or if Queen Chrysalis truly kept such brutes back in the Badlands.

Princess Luna walked onward, head held high and proud, like she always had whenever visiting another kingdom. Her own kingdom was one she’d taken centuries to renew ties with. Those lumbering creatures might have stopped a grown minotaur in his tracks, but not she, a warrior-princess from the days of yore. Approaching boldly, she stepped through the gap between the treadmills, to be met by a most curious sight. At the foot of the throne, carved into the stone floor, was a bubbling acid-green pool. This was where the steam was coming from, produced by giants’ labor. In the middle of this stifling hot tub, bobbing along, eyes covered by two slices of cucumber, reclined the Queen, lying on… and Luna almost lost her composure when she spotted Chrysalis’ inflatable raft. Pony-shaped, white-coated and blue-maned, with a stopper stuffed in his mouth, it was Shining Armor.

Sensing her approach, Chrysalis looked up, peeling off the cucumber slices.

“Oh, nice to see you made it, Princess,” she smiled craftily, taking a bite off one. “How’d you like this fancy setup?”

“Greetings, Queen Chrysalis,” Luna said evenly, trying hard not to stare at the uncannily lifelike Shining. “I trust I’m not interrupting anything?”

“Nah, don’t worry. I was just finished with my nap. Excuse me.”

With a yawn and a stretch of her legs, Queen Chrysalis leapt off the raft and into the hot liquid, creating quite a splash. She started paddling towards Luna, but then, as if by afterthought, she paused to unstopper the inflatable stallion, letting the air escape. Despite its plainly rubbery texture, Luna couldn’t help but shudder as she saw Shining’s face slowly crumple up and disappear beneath the boiling watery surface, eyes last.

Unconcerned, Chrysalis clambered out of the tub and, without any warning, shook herself dry, splattering Luna all over. Before Luna, now soaking wet, could splutter out her indignation, her companion just smiled and spoke.

“I guess it’s time to save Girl Blue?” Chrysalis asked, brushing her own damp mane.

Luna was surprised. “You already know this is a dream?”

Chrysalis chuckled. “Oo~h, my sweet princess. You’d be surprised what else I know.”

She walked past Luna, who, following after her, had to wonder what she could mean by that. The Queen stopped halfway and turned to the stopped treadmills, eyeing the two giant Changelings.

“Bruh, Mak, boys, you two keep watch while I am gone.”

“YES, HIGHNESS!” Their booming voices echoed through the room like thunder.

“Kids,” Chrysalis sighed happily. “They grow up so fast these days.”

As the doors closed behind them, Luna addressed Chrysalis. “Alright, I shall now try to get us into Princess Cadance’s dream. But please, be nice once we get there.”

Chrysalis rolled her eyes. “Of course. No disrupting her dear heart with my presence.”

“Just be nice. That’s all I ask of you.”

Luna concentrated and her horn began to glow. Blue light covered them both and with a flash, they departed.

Next, Luna popped out of a giant multistore cake.

“Oh, what is it with me and getting disgusting gunk in my fur today...” she grumbled.

At least this was an improvement over the horror from before. Shortly after, Chrysalis’ head popped out from the other side of the cake. Both of them looked at each other. For a change,it was Luna who experienced no small amusement at Chrysalis’ glare of annoyance.

“Please tell me this won’t become a habit,” Chrysalis groaned.

“Don’t worry, it only happens from time to time,” Luna answered in a half-sarcastic tone. “Mostly if you enter a certain pink pony’s dream.”

Chrysalis grumbled something about giving Luna an even harder time as the two jumped to the ground and began picking cake pieces from their fur.

“Mon Dieu, what happened?!”

The unexpected voice made Luna and Chrysalis turn their heads towards… a crystallized Shining Armor wearing a chef’s uniform, complete with a massive white chef hat and a ridiculous mustache. While Luna could only look at him in surprise, Chrysalis could barely hold back her chortling laughter.

“I am truly sorry about the mess,” Luna apologized courteously, holding up a hoof.
“I was just not careful with my teleportation spell. It won’t happen again,”

Chef Shining Armor gave Luna a suspicious look. “I needed WEEKS to create this beauty! WEEKS! And now, it’s all gone!” he cried, throwing up his forehooves dramatically.

Luna lowered her ears. Even though this was only a dream, it hurt her to see that she’d caused someone harm. Chrysalis, by contrast, seemed quite amused by the scene.

“I will pay for the damage, if this helps,” Luna offered.

“Bah!” he harrumphed. “I don’t need your bits. All I need is time, and a good excuse for the Princess, to explain why the cake won’t reach her today, even if it was planned.”

“Then I’ll go and talk to her and explain everything. I am sure we can come to an agreement.”

The Chef sighed as he calmed his nerves. “Fine. But you also tell her why the cake’ll be late. I need at least a week to undo the damage. You will find her in the royal chambers. Make sure to knock.”

Luna felt something pick at the icing in her mane. She turned, in time to see Chrysalis licking what was left of it off her forehoof.

“What are you doing?” Luna scowled.

“You know, I take it back,” Chrysalis smiled. “You royal ponies do taste so much nicer once you’ve been… sweetened, as Cadance can attest.”

Somehow, even remembering the Cadance Floss, Luna managed to keep her cool.

“Don’t you try me...” she began.

“Too late,” Chrysalis giggled.

Shaking her head, Luna turned her attention back to chef with a nod.

“Thank you, sir,” she said. “We shall be on our way. Again, I apologize for what happened.”

The Chef waved a forehoof at her. “Oui, oui, just leave already and let me do my work. I also need to get my helpers, and Celestia only knows where they go in their free time.”

As they moved towards the kitchen door, Chrysalis eyed a few scraps of the cake greedily.

“C’mon, Luna,” she whispered, hoof edging towards the table. “Sure he won’t notice…”

“No,” Luna shook her head again.

Normally, she would have grinned at how this brought Celestia’s bad habits to mind, but for two details. One, this was Chrysalis. And, two, all thoughts of Celestia were painful right now, when they kept returning to the Tyrant.

“Wouldn’t be good manners. And this is dream-food, anyway. It wouldn’t fill you.”

“Fine…” Chrysalis pouted, snatching her hoof away. “But I warn you, all this concentration is making me hungry. Next time I spot something, I’m going for it, whatever you say.”

With that, Luna and Chrysalis took their leave. They walked out the kitchen and followed the hallway to the royal chambers. They passed several guards, all of them more duplicates of Shining Armor. Luna had to admit, coming across Chrysalis with the creepy Shining-shaped raft was one thing, but this? She hadn’t visited her niece’s dreams in a long time. Maybe now was the time for a little heart-to-heart about obsessions.

“My, my,” tutted Chrysalis, “and I thought I was possessive of Shining. The difference being, our relationship was of a strictly business-like nature.”

Luna turned to the Changeling Queen with anger and shock. “You call the attempt to take over Canterlot a ‘business’?”

“Oh, don’t you play innocent, Moonbutt,” Chrysalis answered mockingly. “I could tell you things about your big sister you wouldn’t believe.”

“My sister and I share all our secrets. There is nothing between us.”

“Is there now?” Chrysalis walked past her, head held high and a sinister grin on her face. “Good that we talked about it here, and not somewhere anyone could eavesdrop.”

Luna stood staring at the back of Chrysalis’ head for a minute, until she she went to catch up with her again. She took the lead, and after some time had passed them by, as well as countless guards who looked like Shining, they reached the bed-chambers. Luna knocked at the door, which opened automatically.

Inside was a giant, heart-shaped bed. Lying on it was a sleeping Cadance, surrounded by a little army of Shining servants.

“Okay, this is getting ridiculous...” Luna muttered, suppressing the urge to groan.

Chrysalis only had a cheeky smile on her face. “Oo~h, I really wonder why that little pink princess and I can’t handle each other. By the look of this, we are actually twins.”

“Don’t push it,” Luna warned. She walked up to the bed together with Chrysalis, the army of Shinings showing no interest in the blue Princess and the Queen.

Luna coughed. “Cadance?”

From between Shinings, the pink alicorn murmured herself awake, eyes fluttering. “Hello, Auntie,” she smiled. Her eyes then fell upon Chrysalis. “Hello to you too, Chrysalis.”

There was a short, heavy pause. From one second to the other, Cadance stiffened up, her eyes shot open, and she screamed in utter outrage and horror.

“What is she doing here?!” Cadance screeched, pointing at the Changeling Queen.

Luna rose a hoof and replied, “It’s alright, Cadance, Chrysalis won’t cause any trouble.” She then gave Chrysalis a stern look and snarled, “Right?”

Chrysalis cleared her throat to calm her amusement. “Yes, I will behave. We won’t be staying long anyway, so don’t be so alarmed, harem princess.”

“Chrysalis...” Luna said in a warning tone.

Cadance calmed down enough to step in front of her aunt and her arch-nemesis. “You could’ve at least told me you’d be getting us in that order. Then I might have dreamt of something else.”

“Oh, like a–” Chrysalis started, only to be shushed by Luna.

“Still, we need to go now,” Luna said. But I warn you two again, I cannot say what we’ll see when we enter the Major’s dream.” She looked around. “However, we should access a more remote area. I don’t want to risk taking more of your dream with us.”

“But I wanted to take a plaything along,” Chrysalis whined playfully, eyeing one of the servants.

“No, you are not,” Luna said. Unwillingly, she thought back to the vision she’d seen of Twilight Sparkle and her ‘husband’. “Now let's go.”

Chrysalis and Cadance gave each other a glance, yet quietly followed Luna away from the heart-shaped bed.

“I will now try to get us into Bauer’s dream,” Luna announced. “Be ready for anything.”

She lit her horn and the three of them were wrapped in a blue light...

From the wild abyss, this womb of sapience, and perhaps its grave, from which the dust beneath the worlds emerges to create more worlds, from this wild abyss did the wary alicorn, golden mane ablaze with the stuff that stars are made of, clamber to the brink, and there, at last, stretch her wings.

She looked about a while, back the way she’d came, then ahead, pondering her journey.

“May Lyra’s grace guide my path...”

Luna opened her eyes to find the three of them lying in a grey space, familiar yet also alien to her nocturnal senses. She looked around, wondering where they were meant to go next. No helpful source of light broke the gloom.

“Huh,” Chrysalis commented staring into the fog, unimpressed. “Never thought the Major’s mind would be so… I don’t know, empty.”

“As I said,” Luna replied, holding back a bitter taste in her mouth, “the human dreamscape is not like what I’ve encountered in any other creature on Equus. Maybe the Major hasn’t entered his deep-sleep phase. That’s the moment where conscious dreams begin to take form.”

“Does this mean little pink princess’s’ song failed?” Chrysalis asked, a smug grin on her face.

“You wouldn’t be here if it hadn’t lulled you to sleep,” Cadance shot back.

“Only because it was so boring.”

“It was supposed to be relaxing, though some may call it otherwise.”

“So,” Chrysalis retorted, “even you agree you can’t sing?”

Before the argument could escalate, Luna stomped her hoof, staring daggers at the two as if they were petulant children.

“Cease this petty bickering at once,” Luna growled. “We are here on borrowed time and we must keep moving forward. Cadance, Chrysalis. Can either of you hone in on the love imprinted on Major Bauer’s talismans?”

Both mares fells silent, the time to close their eyes in concentration, and shake their heads.

“Sorry, Aunt Luna,” Cadance said. “I can feel something, many things, but this dream stuff is too strange for me. I can’t lock on.”

Chrysalis raised an eyebrow. “Really now?” she asked earnestly. “I’d understood Luna has been starting to teach you the ropes. And we’re asking you to detect love, not get creative with weaving dreams.”

“You’re not doing any better,” Cadance pointed out shortly. “It isn’t that easy when you’ve practiced one talent your whole life in the waking world, and are suddenly expected to apply it in a wholly different environment. It takes time to learn.” She paused. “Though I don’t think you care much about learning, or education.”

“Oooh, whatever do you mean, little Princess?”

“You’re lazy, you live in a hovel for a hive, and besides, you can create any pretty face you like to wrap any fool you want around your forehoof. Why would you bother?”

“Suuure, Cadance,” Chrysalis rolled her eyes. “And I’m sure you first got Shiney’s attention by flashing a pair of... books his way.”

She sniggered as Luna and Cadance exchanged confused glances

“I don’t get it...” Luna said. “Not that it matters. Neither your barbs, or this hurdle we face. We will find him, sooner or later.”

Chrysalis let out a bored sigh. “Better be sooner. I don’t know how many other jokes I can make about our Loveboat Princess before it grows stale, even for my tastes, and what’s more, I’m still getting hungry!”

Cadance scoffed. “Your jokes are never funny.”

Luna coughed an ‘ahem’ for their benefit. Chrysalis and Cadance, getting the idea, instantly fell quiet, yet they were still giving each other the stink-eye as they trudged deeper and deeper into the fog. On and on they went, and Luna found nothing but greyness around her. Here and there she thought she glimpsed a picture, a fleeting memory. But it was too blurry to tell. This was beginning to get frustrating. She would have known what to do, if only she’d had permission from Renee and Bauer to visit human dreams from the day they arrived.

The laugher didn’t make it easier.

Wait. That wasn’t Chrysalis’ laughter. She already knew it too well. She perked her ears, focusing on the source.

“I hear something. This way!”

She galloped towards the sound, hearing the other two follow behind. A large square of light floated there, a tall picture-frame much clearer than the others. It looked like a school hallway, the dullness of a drab autumn afternoon pouring in through small windows at eye-level only to a human adult, lockers adorning the walls on both sides.

As Luna phased through the square and into the old memory, she was greeted by the sight of many human children, gathered with their backs to her in a semi-circle around something. Invisible to them, Luna advanced and saw what they were looking at. One taller boy with light brown skin was pointing at a shorter and slightly plumper boy, saying something in Bauer’s native language.

“Is that… him?” Cadance asked in surprise, as she took a closer look at the plump boy.

“It is Stephan!” Chrysalis said, delighted. “Ooh, who’d have suspected the Major had tire rings when he was younger.”

“Don’t be mean,” Cadance said. “I think he’s a cute little boy.”

They observed in silence as the taller boy marched upon the younger version of the Major and poked him in the belly. Luna didn’t need translation to understand this was a bully, and their unknown words were taunts. Then she saw a glare light up the younger Bauer’s eyes, and from one moment to the other, he lashed out, the back of his right hand hitting the much taller boy across the face. The taller one stumbled backward, stepped over his own feet and fell to the tiled floor. The other children just stood there and watched, unsure what to do next. Some walked over to the downed boy and lifted him up, others walked over to the young Stephan, while glaring at the problem child.

Another voice yelled from behind the crowd, drawing everyone’s eyes, the Royals’ included, to look behind them. Luna was sure that this was a teacher or some form of executive. He pointed at both boys, spoke a few harsh words, and then left with both in tow, grasping the scruff of their jackets.

“Poor Stephan,” Cadance said, her voice soft with sympathy. “He must have had it rough in his early years.”

“Well, lose a few kilos, it wouldn’t have come to that,” Chrysalis replied. “Though, the Major today looks pretty healthy compared to his younger self.” She smiled and licked her lips. “Mmh, kid’s got plenty of meat on him, but the guy today, heh, I wouldn’t mind taking him for a ride, as humans say.”

Cadance continued staring at the receding figure of the younger Bauer, thinking.

“Oh, my, you just thought of it, didn’t you?” Chrysalis asked, affecting a tone shocked at the Princess of Love.

“What?” Cadance gasped. “No! I love Shining Armor, with all my heart.”

“Just because you love him, doesn’t mean you can’t have some fantasies of your own, right?”

Cadance remained silent, refusing to give Chrysalis some more fuel for the fire. Disregarding, their bickering, Luna kept her eyes open for a gateway, an entrance, something that didn’t fit with the scenery of the school. Before too long, she had found one.

Between two lockers, this door was a rich, varnished brown wood, not sterile white.

“I’ve found a way out. Follow me.”

She opened a door, and together with the other two, looked into a bar. There she spotted Bauer once again, a little older, in the company of a few of his friends. Daniel, Mueller and others she didn’t know by name. They seemed to be having fun, drinking and joking around.

“Boys will be boys,” Cadance mumbled.

Chrysalis smiled. “Remind you of anyone?”

“Shining has always been a good colt,” Cadance protested. “He wasn’t much of a party colt, even before we got married.”

“Suuuuure,” Chrysalis rolled her tongue, not believing a word.

Especially not since the bachelor party Shining’s friends had pulled him to. He was quite eager to throw some spare bits the way of the Changeling mare who had pole-danced for him, under the guise of an exotic zebra performer, naturally. She still remembered how she’d seen Shining’s mouth hanging open through the eyes of her servant, Cerci.

Good girl, that Cerci, and reliable.

Wasn’t that why the lass frequently doubled as her decoy? It had made finding spare time for her private conversations with Miss Cutter so much easier.

Luna kept watch on the Bauer and his friends, who had eyes on some female humans wearing body-conscious clothes. Daniel was first to stand up, tapping Bauer on his shoulder and gesturing him to follow. Bauer’s cheeks turned red, but he followed his friend to the girls.

“Looks like the Major and his friend are out for some fun,” Chrysalis said lusciously. As Bauer, trailing after Daniel, passed her by, she reached out, level to the men’s hips...

But nothing came of it, as Luna slapped her forehoof away. “Chrysalis. That’s just creepy.”

“Ah, be a sport,” Chrysalis sighed. “It is still not the ‘real’ him. Just another memory.”

“No,” Luna confirmed. “But if I weren’t keeping the wards in place, you might start getting noticed by these projections, and that could lead to all kinds of funny business… some of it more perilous than the rest.”

“I wouldn’t want to stay longer than necessary,” said Cadance.

Luna had spotted another door, a door at the back of the bar, in a row next to two others clearly marked by the human pictograms for male and female, whose meaning she had no need to decipher. This third door was unmarked.

“Through here,” Luna said, waving them to follow.

Carefully, she opened it, entering what appeared very similar to an old mare’s home, complete with tea services and old black-and-white pictures on the tables, plus an enormous, perhaps over-designed carpet.

No sooner had they spread out did Cadance’s voice echo from her left.

“Found him!”

She and Chrysalis followed the sound to find Cadance watching Bauer, now a grown man, and another human male working in the downstairs bathroom. The plaquered ceiling was gaping open, exposing the pipe system. A pipe of a larger diameter than the rest and red in color lay in pieces on the ground, the rest hanging from a hole up above. Bauer was under it, turning a wrench on a series made out of copper.

“So... this was his life before he joined the military,” Chrysalis mused.

“We all started small,” Cadance said, flapping a wing. She then looked at Luna. “Well… some, maybe, have their greatness thrust upon them.”

Luna didn’t say anything to that. Cadance was right. She and Celestia were born with the future burden of moving the Sun and the Moon over Equestria. No one had asked them what they wanted to become when they were little. But Sint Erklass’ tutelage had encouraged them to take up the mantle, of a duty the Scribe would have denied them since realizing they were born as two sisters, not one whole being as intended...

Her mind wandered to the day she betrayed Celestia. Maybe she had simply been jealous… but it was also a way for her to say she did not want to spend the rest of her life playing second fiddle. She wondered what would become of her and Celestia, now, with these humans coming in to make such sweeping changes.

A rumbling sound shook Luna out of her thoughts. And she saw horror on this Bauer’s face. He tried to jump out of the way, but was greeted with a shower from overhead, right out of the waste pipe. Cadance held a forehoof to her mouth, and not because of mirth. She looked sick. Chrysalis, however, was rolling on the floor with laughter.

“We should keep moving,” Luna told them.

“I’m waiting for a train,” recited the sea-green alicorn with the golden mane, steadying her nerves, “Knowing where I hope the train’ll take me, but I can’t be sure…” She paused. “Heh. Waiting for a train. Of course I am. A train of thought...”

She was standing on sand. On all sides, the desert stretched out into the distance, an endless expanse beneath a dull, sunless sky. All that broke this monotony was a far-off line, a trackline, which she could barely distinguish, just below the horizon.

No surprise that this was the landscape her mind had conjured as her path to join the others. She knew that, were this reality, with a beat of her powerful new wings, she could have crossed the distance in the time it took to write a letter.

Here, she would once more need to board a train. Even here, she was not almighty. There were rules to be kept.

“Wait, scratch that, hold up,” Luna said shortly, stopping everyone in their tracks.

Chrysalis was first to react. “Is there a problem? Or are we playing musical statues?”

“Be quiet, and listen,” Luna ordered.

All three of them did. But they heard nothing, except for the male noises of complaint from the room the mares had just vacated, in search of the next door.

Eventually, Cadance broke the relative silence. “What are we listening out for, Aunt Luna?”

Luna turned around. With her mouth a thin line, the expression on her face spoke of worry.

“Something, or someone, is following us.”

A sibilant voice cut in. “Friend, or foe?”

It was Chrysalis. And for once, she did not sound in the mood for jokes.

“I don’t know,” Luna admitted. “There’s always a possibility the hooded mare left behind a few traps or safeguards against us, in case we tried this. I doubt it, though. She’d be aware no Equestrian dream magic can withstand me forever, and she’d be giving away her magical ‘signature’ for me to trace.”

“Yeah…” Chrysalis said, looking around warily. “Remember that Trixie projection we came across at the funfair, the last time we delved in here? The one who turned out to be a manifestation of the Spy? I’d say that’s the threat we’ve gotta look out for. She won’t simply repel us, not on this round. She’ll be attacking our minds.”

“We’re still inside Bauer’s memories,” Cadance pointed out. “We should be safe for now.”

“Don’t be so sure,” Luna warned. “For the time our minds intersect, and my control isn’t as tight as I could wish, it’s uncertain what might leak from one into the other.”

Cadance swallowed. “That sounds bad.”

“But I don’t think this here’s the Spy. It feels…” Luna closed her eyes, blowing. “Inquisitive. Adventurous. The signal’s so faint, it’s hard for me to tell. So near, and yet so far… it’s like… hearing the ocean waves in a seashell, when really, it’s just the rush of your own blood...”

And then, she opened her eyes, frowning.

“... Dream within a dream? No, that can’t be right.”

“Pardon?” asked Cadance.

“There’s no such thing as dreams within dreams,” Luna answered, almost angrily. “Dreams do not come in layers, they are concentric. We’re not climbing a pyramid, we’re looking for the center of a spherical maze!”

“Goodness,” Chrysalis said, “what’s gotten into you?”

“Whoever this is,” Luna grunted, “they’re not coming from outside, like we are. Somehow, it’s as if they’re coming from… from deeper inside. We’re not being followed. We’re being waylaid. And we’re headed in their direction.”

Cadance and Chrysalis stared at each other, their feud momentarily forgotten.

“What’ll we do?” Cadance asked Luna quietly.

“Only thing we can do. We move on. We’ll discover what they want from us soon enough.”

Thus, move on they did, but the weight of Luna’s precaution hung in the air between them. They had anticipated the risks of coming on this journey, aware they couldn’t predict what exactly they might encounter. Yet the idea of a third party playing its hand, that, none of them had thought possible. And the ‘present-day’ Major Bauer was still missing from their group.

The house’s front door had no slot for a letterbox. This was how they knew it to be their door.

Stranger yet, this door opened out onto a grassy field. Several soldiers, clad in grey coats and covered in military insignias, stood at attention around a smaller group, holding a hand over the German flag. Bauer was one of the group, staring firmly at the flag. Luna couldn’t understand what they spoke, but from their bearing, it was some kind of oath.

Bauer wore no high-rank insignia on his uniform.

“This seems to be the day he entered the military,” Cadance remarked, trying to ease the tension that clung to them.

“Actually, it must be already three months later,” Luna observed. “Major Bauer once told me that basic training comes before they swear the Oath.”

“You seem to know a lot about it.”

“He and I often have discussions on how to proceed with the training with the troops, among many other things.”

“So~o, you two are pretty close, hmm?” Chrysalis nudged Luna in the side.

Luna gave her a look of annoyance. “No, we are not.”

“Didn’t Celestia say he took a ride on your back?” Cadance blurted aloud, but instantly regretted it as she realized whom she’d said that in front of.

“Oh, my!” Chrysalis exclaimed, a big fat grin on her face. “Yummy!”

“Not in that way!” Luna snarled, glaring at Chrysalis. Oh, how it took a lot of self-restraint not to plant a hoof up Chrysalis’ flank.

“Yes, yes, of course,” Chrysalis said. “And let’s ignore the fact he hasn’t given some pretty eyes to the Griffon Queen, and other girls too. I mean, did you see him when he noticed that female Mino-Tauren? How human-like, their tops... torsos are. I’m quite sure he was gazing at her voluminous bust.”

“At the rate we’re going,” Luna muttered, “I’ll be convinced there’s nothing to this guy’s mind but pervert’s fixations… and this is based on the reasonably mild content we’ve seen so far… Alright, where’s the next door?”

Chrysalis smiled victoriously, while Cadance looked uneasy.

“Luna and Stephan, sitting on a dream. K-i-s-s-” Chrysalis began, but was soon shushed.

Not by Luna, or even Cadance. The appearance of the new door on their path was sufficient to silence anyone.

Away from the soldiers, a towering, black monolith stood in the middle of the field, opaque as to allow no light to escape. No doorknob was to be seen; it was hard to even make out whether this door was a smooth surface, or an opening onto a pitch-black expanse thick enough to cut with a knife. The three royals held their breath as they ventured inside, one after the other, Luna taking the lead and Cadance bringing up the rear, not knowing what they might find inside.

“Here goes nothing,” said the traveller.

As she boarded her train, she remembered her last journey, so full of wonders and horrors.

… Hard to believe it had occurred mere weeks ago, whichever of these three worlds’ timestream you looked at it from.

“By ‘e Alicorn Faust,” Princess Cadance murmured, covering her snout, “‘at ‘appened ‘ere?”

They had arrived in the hallway of another school. But here, bullet holes, ashen traces of fire, puddles of blood covered almost everything.

“Clearly a battle, sweet princess...” Chrysalis said, unusually serious. “This must be one of the many fields on which our Major fought.”

Digesting the words of the insect-shaped mare she hated so, Cadance felt more than heard her aunt steady herself, as Luna regained her composure.

“We have to keep moving,” she said.

“Yes! Yes. It's just...” Cadance began, thinking about her next words. “It’s a lot to take in. I mean, I’ve spoken with the PHL, and I know the simulations Discord is preparing… or was, before that poison landed him in hospital. I could imagine what humans had to go through. But this is an actual memory, of someone who was there. I don’t know if I’m ready for this.”

She tensed a bit as she felt Luna’s wing on her back, caressing her soothingly. “Do not fret, Cadance. Remember that I am with you.”

Cadance looked up at her aunt, her ancestor, and nodded with bated breath.

“Such a shame,” they heard Chrysalis sigh. “So young...” Both glanced at what she meant and found her holding a ID card within her aura, studying the little piece of plastic. “This war really knows no bounds.”

Luna stepped forward. “We need to find Stephan. Come now, everyone.”

Every so often as they advanced through the hallway, they found other things which worried them deeply. Even Luna was looking more uneasy by the minute. Cadance ran over own words in her mind, of how this was a memory from someone for whom not all scars were visible on the outside.

As they advanced further, a leaden knell began to press down on them. The atmosphere of was making their heads heavy, their guts uneasy. No dead bodies, surprisingly, but all that blood had to have come from somewhere, and none of them cared to imagine what such a place might look like. A smell so strong, they could actually taste it on their tongues, was all the warning they needed.

“Ugh,” Chrysalis gagged. “It stinks in here.”

“Really?” Cadance sniffed, surprised, and apprehensive. “I don’t smell anything.”

Chrysalis snorted. “That’s because you haven’t smelled anything like that yet...”

Cadance was about to ask what she meant, but after a quick thought, decided against it. She knew both of them were much older than she, had seen far more conflict.

Then came the gunshots. And screams.

Cadance shuddered at the sound, but Luna and Chrysalis showed no palpable reaction.

“Guess we found him,” Chrysalis remarked in a neutral tone.

All three of them galloped towards the source of that awful noise, their hooves echoing from one end of the hallway to the other as they reached the room. The first thing they noticed was the smell. It was much, much stronger than before, the stench burning in Luna’s nose. Cadance jumped, screaming in horror. Even Chrysalis gasped in shock.

“I know this classroom,” Luna whispered.

Through her haze, Cadance saw her aunt looking at her.

Fresh corpses of colts and fillies lay scattered throughout the room, their bodies torn apart, Immediately, each could tell these were Newfoals. Their widened eyes projected neither pain nor shock, but a soulless, fearless drive to move relentlessly forward, gaping smiles plastered on their faces, despite their mutilated bodies and the dead all around.

The walls of the room were covered in bloodstains, some in the pattern of a human hand, some in the pattern of a hoof, and many more somewhere in-between...

Cadance’s gaze shifted towards to the teacher’s desk, noticing Bauer sitting there, legs close to his body and head between his knees. Behind him was a chalkboard with the word ‘MURDERER’ written in blood all over it.

Princess Luna heard a sob and thought it came from Cadance.

But it wasn’t her niece. It was Bauer. She didn’t think twice as she stepped towards him.

“I can’t take it anymore,” she heard him whisper.

That was the moment Luna noticed the pistol in his hand

She had to stop and think. This wasn’t her first time with someone who was suicidal, and after the war, it was most likely she would be needed more than ever. So, she approached him with catlike tread, keeping her head level to his.

“Major?”

But Bauer did not look up. He was mumbling non-stop, uttering nonsense words she couldn’t even hope to make sense of.

“Major Bauer. Please, come back to us.”

That was when he did look to her, yet his eyes widened in shock, and as he spotted her companions waiting behind her, he panicked.

“You will not make me one of them!”

A sharp, screeching noise rang in Luna’s ears, and she felt a wave of nausea as something warm and sticky splattered her snout.

Stephan was lying dead on the floor, still clutching his pistol in a vice-like grip, blood and brains sprayed all over the table, a caved-in hole in his head where his face should have been. Cadance screamed at the sight.

A long, heavy silence took hold.

“That...” Chrysalis said, breaking the silence, “... was unexpected.”

Cadance could barely choke out the words. “Wh-what happened j-just now?”

“It seems he couldn’t handle the guilt of killing those foals,” Luna stated matter-of-factly, erasing the blood from her face with a flick of the horn. Cadance and Chrysalis stared at her.

“He did that?” Cadance asked, not wanting to believe it.

Luna traced her forehoof in an arc over the dead ponies.

“Those foals died by human weapons,” she explained. “And this is a human school. I guess Stephan was once ordered to evacuate it, but the Tyrant’s forces got to the children first. And there wasn’t anything he could do, except this.”

Cadance wanted to say something, but she was at a loss of words. What could she say? She knew the Major for a while now. She thought of him as a reliable and steadfast leader. From her own experience, Stephan appeared a lot more composed than Marcus at times. But this was another side of him she had never known.

Was his calm exterior only another way of dealing with inner turmoil?

“And I’m sure this isn’t the real Stephan Bauer we are looking at,” Luna added quickly.

“How would you know?” Chrysalis asked, skeptically.

“Normally, when this happens in a dream,” Luna said, “the individual awakens, and as visitors to his mind, we would be pulled out of it. The fact we haven’t means this Stephan was just a projection of his desire to be freed of his guilt. A mental stage play, after a fashion. Besides, now I think about it, I don’t see either of the talismans.”

As Cadance let her head hang low, feeling woefully naive and unassuming, she wondered, how did Chrysalis feel about this? Was the Queen gauging her with silent contempt, reflecting upon how, to her, the death of a young Changeling was nothing new, simply the law of nature? She could not rid herself of this knot in her stomach. The abrupt brutality in which she’d just witnessed a living being take its own life led down a road she did not care to follow.

But this time, if Chrysalis had any thoughts, she kept them to herself.

“Let’s go,” Luna said quietly. “We still need to find the real Major.”

Turning her back on Bauer’s corpse, she trotted in the space between Chrysalis and Cadance, not looking at either of them. Nor did Cadance meet Chrysalis’ eyes on the way out, but Cadance noticed her pause to take one last glance at the room, before she followed, last in line to leave.

The walk through the school was no more comforting now Luna knew how alone they were.

Color on the walls was peeling off, the floor was a plaster-strewn field full of empty shell casings and dried blood, most lockers had been bashed open or lay flat on the ground, far too reminiscent of metal coffins in this morbid environment. Every now and then, their hooves would bump against one of the casings, the soft ‘clink’ reverberating throughout the empty, half-obscured corridor.

Luna wondered whether she should tell Cadance precisely where she had seen that classroom before. In the Crystal Kingdom, in Cadance’s own reconquered domain, which her niece had not been there to help reclaim from King Sombra, though it was her birthright. She knew how this weighed on her niece, for all that it wasn’t her fault the debilitation had struck her when it did. She herself still worried she hadn’t proven up to the task, letting Sombra’s crystal cage entrap her as it had, only to be saved by Major Bauer.

The same Bauer whom she’d just witnessed take his life out of despair, even if it wasn’t him. A man who’d suffered, not because of Sombra, or Discord, or Chrysalis, she who was now walking alongside her impassibly, but because of her sister. Because of Celestia. No, not Celestia. Luna banished the perfidious thought, her teeth clenched. Celestia was not to blame. Celestia was merely the face chosen by the real monster to spread suffering.

And then there was this mystery presence within the dreamscape...

“Do you think we should split up?” Chrysalis suggested. “Maybe we’d find him faster this way.”

Luna had to breath out before she could face Chrysalis.

“I wouldn’t advise it,” she said, looking around. “Besides, even if it could help us find him, how would we contact each other?”

“Oh, right,” Chrysalis said. “Sometimes these things slip my mind. You don’t share the same mental connection as we Changelings. Although... couldn’t you have, I don’t know, dreamt up one of those electronic communicators the humans use?”

“It doesn’t work that way,” Luna said regretfully. “Time and space are completely defined by the mind and its limits in the dreamscape. If I had the means available to construct a fully-realized, internally-consistent sphere for us, it’d be different. As it stands, think of us as… as wading through watery depths, with the barest equipment. And these are just the shallows.”

“That’s right,” hissed a new, faraway voice. “But even in the shallows, there are sharks…”

And then a sound pierced the unsettling quiet.

“What was that?”

Cadance’s head snapped to the side, eyes tingling as the sound of scraping reached her ears. Staring in the direction it came from, a gaping hallway leading away from the windows, and thus into dark abandonment, she saw the glint of sparks, advancing ever more towards the pallid grey light.

The figure of a mare appeared, baby-blue in coat with minty-blue mane. But not the mare they were hoping to find. This one wore a familiar domino mask on her face as she dragged her naked blade across the wall...

Luna was the first to move into a defensive stance, Chrysalis a close second.

“Cadance,” Luna whispered urgently. “Get behind me.”

Several more daggers appeared on both sides of the Blue Spy, spinning lazily in the air. Although she hated being seen to do it by Chrysalis, Cadance obeyed her aunt’s conjectures. This was beyond what her training, either with Luna or the humans, had readied her for.

Facing them from up the hallway, the Spy gave a casual flick of her two outmost daggers.

“Leave,” she said, in a casual, almost bored tone. “You’re not wanted here.”

Cadance noticed Luna wet her lips before she made her reply.

“We come in Harmony,” her aunt began. “Seeking to rescue Trixie Lulamoon from a curse placed upon her by an agent of the Solar Empire. You were deceived, Blue Spy. The Tyrant clouded your vision and made you murder an innocent. And Trixie has to bear that weight. But if we work together–”

“Then what?” said the Spy. “Bring Trixie back into the spotlight, will you? You’re just as much meddlers as the last bitch who came by. Trixie stays where she is. Consider it special treatment that, so far, I’ve only sought to scare you away.”

Something about her choice of words clicked for Cadance.

Apparently, Luna had got the same idea. “I’ve studied cases such as yours before,” she said. “When several personalities inhabit one body, they take turns sharing the light, as they call it. Splits exist to protect the original from problems they can’t deal with.”

“You’d think so,” the Spy said. She smiled, but there was nothing reassuring about her smile.

“But this is more than split personality,” Luna pressed on. “Thanks to having fed from the other Chrysalis’ royal jelly, Miss Lulamoon is like a Changeling Queen without a Hive. Yet even as her mind carves up to fill in the gaps, her powerful ego is what’s kept her the dominant personality all this time. She loves the spotlight. If your purpose is to protect her, to be her Hive, you need only shield her when called for, but the threat’s passed! Trixie can wake up!”

“Ah, but you see…” Again, the Spy smiled mirthlessly. “Trixie is not the soldier. I am. Trixie lets her guard down. She still thinks like a civilian. It’s her fault everything went wrong last time. Therefore this body is now under new management. Military management. For her own good.”

The Spy’s clipped manner of speech eerily reminded Cadance of another mare. Except, who?

Beside her, Chrysalis snorted with laughter.

“Oh, this is too good!” she heckled. “Definitely the product of Colonel Renee’s school of thought, and definitely Trixie at heart! Makes a show of being this big, streetwise expert, then promptly shoves the blame onto others, won’t take any resp–”

Chrysalis got interrupted as a single dagger struck out at her. She barely ducked out of its way, leaving it to embed itself into one of the lockers. And as she raised herself, Cadance read an unmistakable look of fury on her face.

“You dare attack me,” Chrysalis seethed.

The Spy only gave her a flat stare. “I have nothing to say to the fake.”

Chrysalis snarled at the dismissal, and charged forward, green fire dripping from her horn. Yet the Spy faced her down.

“Come, fake! Show me your strength!”

“Chrysalis, don’t!” Luna shouted. “She’s baiting you!”

But this was ignored as Chrysalis launched several balls of magic at the Spy.

“I am no fake! I am your Queen!” Chrysalis roared in frustration as the Spy drifted between the hostile spells, grinning as the tall Changeling rushed her. “You are no more than a memory! One with my people’s magic, given to it by a weakling!”

“Could a memory, a weakling, do this?”

The Spy’s form shifted and vanished from sight, just as Chrysalis was about to strike her.

“Another illusion,” she growled, wreaths of magical green flames sparking around her, forcing Cadance to shield herself from the heat.. “Using the same tricks as in the waking world! But the ‘real’ one can’t be far, and when I get her...”

Luna again tried to rein it in. “Chrysalis, stop! She’s going to use this to her advantage.”

“Shut up, Princess!” Chrysalis snapped, “You know nothing of my magic. This Changeling wannabe is just a memory, a bit of magic given life, she is below me. I am not a fake. I am–”

“Wide open.”

The Spy vaulted, down from a rectangular pendant light, to kick the back of her head. Even Cadance had to wince as Chrysalis was thrown out of her ring of green magical flames. Luna raced over to her, checking on Chrysalis as she groaned in pain.

Frozen in place, Cadance saw the Spy standing in the magic flame-ring, horn glowing, and wings spreading from her back.

“You are a fake,” the Spy proclaimed, her grin widening as she watched Chrysalis getting helped back to her hooves. “The real Chrysalis was a sister. She loved Trixie. Even dying, she taught us what it means to be a spy. What it means to survive in a world that hates us. You are a leech attempting to gain our love for her. A being of stupid plans and even dumber desires.”

“You dare–”

“I do!” the Spy interrupted, head held high while the usurped flames grew in size. “I figured out an ability even you have yet to grasp. Something our Chrysalis praised us for, while you can only lash out,” she mocked. “It angers you that a non-Changeling has pushed your own magic to a limit you never dreamt of. To hide in plain sight. To reveal yourself, and to be forgotten as soon as you change. You’ve seen it in action… and so has my Meister!”

“Bah!” Chrysalis spat. “Pineapple Cutter is better spy than you! At least she actually sneaks around without having to make a show about it!”

Cutter. That was who the Spy’s speaking had reminded Cadance of. She shuddered. But wait. How did Chrysalis know Cut–

“Chrysalis?” Luna asked. “What’s she talking about?”

“Bauer didn’t tell you?” Chrysalis hissed. “With effort, this mare can change forms and, just so long as she’s not in full view, she can somehow befuddle onlookers into momentarily forgetting that she was one person, and now she’s another. It’s a parlor trick, is what it is. Until now, the only use I hear she’d found for it is to stick knives into hapless mare’s wings.”

“What?!” Cadance yelled in shock.

“Ask Rainbow Dash,” Chrysalis said. “This… thing is a menace. Even I am not that sadistic.” She paused. “Well, perhaps in the bedroom, sometimes.”

Chrysalis’ feeble attempt at her usual humor which made Cadance’s skin crawl. As did the manic expression which consumed the Spy’s face, white teeth gleaming behind green flames.

“Seems like the fake is down for the count, Princess Luna,” she cackled. “What about you? You going to try blowing me away, like so many children’s nightmares? Can’t do it, can you? Only works on night-ghasts, not dreams come truuue…” The flames billowed again, and Luna was forced to step back. “I’m everything the Meister could have ever wished for!”

Those words grasped at Cadance’s heart, as she saw Stephan and Trixie in a new light...

“No, you’re not.” Luna gritted her teeth. “I know why we met you here, in this place,” she said, indicating the shattered, deserted school. “This is a place of trauma for Bauer… for Stephan. You were born from trauma, you feed into it. You’re broken, Spy. I can’t banish you, for you are part of Trixie, a waking part, but you are very much akin to a nightmare. For Trixie, and him.”

“Why, don’t you know, Princess,” the Spy laughed. “The broken are more evolved.”

Glowering, Chrysalis raised her gnarly, hole-ridden forehoof. “In which case, I daresay I’m close to the pinnacle of evolution.” Her horn shone anew, challenging the Spy’s own for brightness. “And it’s time I reclaimed my place. The ponies can’t touch you behind those flames, minx, yet I’m not as limi–”

This time, she saw it coming far ahead when the remaining daggers darted towards her. Summoning patches of shield or firing counter-beams in quick succession, Chrysalis managed to deflect all two, three, four daggers before they could even hit her. But the Spy appeared unconcerned by this, and well she might as the attack’s had taken the breath out of Chrysalis, who was simultaneously trying to focus her horn’s energy on dimming the ring of flames.

“Ooh, aren’t I wonderful!” Giggling, the Spy stood on her hindlegs, showily rubbing her face with one forehoof, while the other rubbed her flanks. “The perfect specimen of warrior. I shall figure out a way to breed for Meister!”

“Idiot,” Chrysalis snarled. “The transformation magic effects only your appearance, not your inner organs. I don’t know what sad, hopeless fantasy Miss Lulamoon and the Major have concocted together, but it’s not going to happen!”

“Are you done?” the upright Spy asked carelessly, forehooves on her hips. “My mind, my rules, Queenie. You don’t know all I learnt from my Chrysalis, the real one. She told how Luna and Celestia had her people exiled, how she meant to show Changelings have more than food on their minds, until desperation forced her hoof! You’ve done nothing to live up to her. I have. Face it! With me, you’ve bitten off more than you can chew.”

To everyone’s surprise,, the glow of Chrysalis’ horn died down. Chrysalis had paused, frowning, until one of her strange little smiles lit up her face.

“Well, now you mention it…”

Hissing, she bared her fangs, a trickle of drool dripping from the cavernous roof of her maw.

The Spy blinked at this response, and her face fell. “Oh, fu–”

That which occurred next went by so fast, Princess Cadance was never quite sure afterwards that she’d seen what she thought she saw. A dark, chitinous blur pounced from the spot the Changeling Queen had been standing just a second ago and, crossing straight through the ring of fire, fell upon their assailant like so much greased lightning.

Chomp!

… One moment, the Spy was there; the next, she was not. Neither were the green flames.

Cadance heard Luna’s indignant cry echo in her ears. “Chrysalis!”

Chrysalis glanced at them from over her shoulder, but made no reply, not that she could have, anyway, what with the bulge in her cheeks. There was still a large tuft of blue tail-hair hanging from the corner of her mouth. Smirking, eyes closed and one forehoof cocked, she nonchalantly threw her head back and sucked it down like a string of spaghetti, jaws closing on the last of the blue tuft as it vanished with a wet slurp.

Perhaps it was no coincidence that Cadance gulped at the same time as Chrysalis did.

While the bulge, with no sign of struggle, departed her cheeks to slowly slide down her throat, in the manner of a snake swallowing its prey whole, Chrysalis released a blissful sigh, punctuated by a burp.

“Urp!” she hiccoughed. “‘Scuse me. Just a mo’...”

Heaving, Chrysalis blew her cheeks, and circled around to spit out something black and shiny, which whizzed by the Princesses and flopped onto the tiles in a pile of slobber.

“Ptooi, bleugh,” Chrysalis gagged theatrically, before wiping her tongue as she advanced upon the pile. “Too leathery and tough, that part. All the rest, though…” She licked her lips. “Mmh... Dee~licious. And that’s what Queen Chrysalis does to all the naughty grubs,” she sneered, stomping the shiny black pile flat. “So, tell me, little pony. Who’s the poser now?”

Then, from her left, she spotted the glare Luna was giving her.

“What? Did the trick, didn’t it?” Chrysalis winked, tapping her forehoof to the ground. “Jog on, my dears, we’ve no time to waste. Let’s get going.”

Whereupon, true to her word, the Changeling Queen turned her gaze forward, trotting away, hips swaying, not looking back a second time. The Princesses, on the other hand, remained rooted to the spot. Cadance’s gaze beheld what Chrysalis had regurgitated.

The flattened, tattered remains of a domino mask, empty, drool-covered eyeholes staring up at them in mute accusation.

“Auntie,” Cadance whispered. “Did… did she just…”

Luna sighed, rubbing her forehead. “Yes, Cadance. I’m afraid she did.”

Cadance shuddered. “H-how does that even work? We’re in a dream!”

“Exactly. We are in a dream,” Luna said gloomily. “You forget she’s a Changeling. An emotion-eater. In this place, all around us is nought but the stuff thoughts and feelings are made of… though of course, the nutritious and, dare I say, tastiest parts are those shaped to look like living, breathing creatures.”

“Sweet, sweet Harmony…” Cadance murmured, casting a glance aside. “I really don’t know whether to feel glad she’s on our team, or not.”

“Well, we both know the answer to that,” Luna said. “She’s on no side but her own. It remains to be seen how we deal with it, when the time comes.”

“Hopefully she won’t already have something at the ready for us…”

“Oh, Chrysalis will,” Luna nodded. “She will. But she always makes one fatal mistake. Let us pray this is the factor we can depend upon.”

They walked at a brisk pace, hurrying to rejoin their shifty companion in the window hallway. As it turned out, much to their unspoken consternation, Chrysalis must have picked up one of their assailant’s discarded knives, for she was using it to pick her teeth.

“Why did you do that, Chrysalis?” Luna demanded. “We’re trying to save Miss Lulamoon, help reintegrate her fractured personalities, not add on another layer of trauma with that horrible memory you’ve no doubt given her!”

Shaking her head, Chrysalis let the knife drop with a clatter. “‘Miss Lulamoon’,” she repeated. “Exactly. Not the Blue Spy. Miss Lulamoon. As far as I’m concerned, anything else around here’s fair game. Don’t tell me I can’t grab a snack just because we’re inside a dream.”

Cadance scowled, trying not to stare at the Queen’s rounded belly. “It’ll be on your head if a whole chunk of Trixie’s mind stays lost after this.”

“My dearest Candy, now you’re feigning ignorance to spite me,” Chrysalis tutted. “You are a mage of the mind as well as the heart. This isn’t the first, or even the hundredth time, you’ve visited a dream. You know that, no matter what, we can only change something inside Trixie’s mind once we reach the ‘center’ of the maze. The Spy will respawn.” Her gut growled. “See? Already, I’m starting to feel peckish again.”

She gave a wistful sigh, smacking her lips absentmindedly.

“How much farther from Major Bauer, Aunt Luna?” Cadance asked anxiously. “This place is really getting to me.”

“He ought to not be far,” Luna said. “But Queen Chrysalis is right about one thing. We have only brought ourselves some time. We must press forth before the Spy regenerates.”

Chrysalis nodded. “Agreed,” she said. “Surprise was our ally this round, yet, I doubt she’ll fall for the same move twice.”

“Besides,” Cadance said, her voice suddenly sly, “you wouldn’t want something that’s been eaten once before. You’re not that kind of insect... are you?”

Ten seconds stretched by as Chrysalis worked out what she meant.

“Suppose I am, Your Highness,” Chrysalis said, turning away in affected disgust, “what does that make this precious Love you’re so full of, hm? You know, Luna,” she added, “if you’ve ever wondered how none could tell I’d replaced your niece, look no further. I blame hanging around Blueblood. Bad influence.”

As it happened, this was when their luck changed.

“I found him!”

Luna and Cadance saw that Chrysalis had stopped and was looking out of one of the hallway’s few eye-level windows. The outside world had barely appeared worth a second thought; from what little could be made out, the sky itself seemed on fire.

But as both Princesses rushed to the Queen’s side, they found that all was not as dead out there as they’d assumed.

Running across the playground, oblivious, by the looks of it, to the bombed-out grass field, broken contraptions and silently revolving, deserted merry-go-rounds, there was a young boy wearing grey wizard clothes, complete with tall, pointy hat.

Luna blinked at this, trying to focus on the boy. He looked oddly familiar.

Behind the boy, the silhouette of an older man was in pursuit. This mean wore heavy-plated, black striped armor like that of a Teutonic Knight. What he wore on his own head was a fearsome horned helmet. It reminded her a little of dragons and Changelings.

“Goodness, what a self-image,” Chrysalis commented. “That must be him, or another projection of him.”

“I don’t think it’s a projection,” Cadance said, pointing above the windowsill. “Look.”

They all peered closer. Resting upright against the pane, easy to mistake for some gaudy primary school decoration, was one of the talismans – the plastic flower.

“Going by the sign, that’s him, alright,” Chrysalis said grudgingly. “Good catch, Cadance. But why is he following that boy?”

“I don’t know,” Luna said. “Maybe we’ll find out when we go after them.”

Swiftly, Luna released a flash of magic from her horn, which smashed the window open. Spreading her wings, she jumped out past the broken glass, followed in kind by Cadance and Chrysalis, the latter of whom nicked herself, having forgotten she was no longer that thin.

They glided through the air for a time, going after Bauer and the boy, until both of these elusive humans disappeared under the cover of dense trees. Fortunately, they were going down a forest path.

“We have to land,” Luna said, making her descent.

Trees to the left and right reached the skies, and didn’t allow much sunshine to penetrate. However, at one point, a patch of sunlight caught another grisly find, dead ponies lying along the side of the path. It hurt Luna to the core, to see this and the sadness on her niece’s face, but they had no choice except to keep moving.

Not long past this encounter, they saw light up ahead, as if from a forest clearing. However, this new light blinded them the moment they stepped through, and when their eyes adjusted, they were met by a most curious sight.

A giant circus tent stood in the middle of the clearing, many-colored lamps blinking in synch with the music playing from mounted speakers.

Cadance sounded quite startled. “Why is that here?”

“Maybe another memory? Only one way to find out,” Luna said, essaying confidence.

“Oh, yes,” Chrysalis said sarcastically. “We walk into the circus tent in the middle of nowhere, inside the mind of a veteran soldier who has seen uncountable horrors, and this after we’ve had two close shaves already. What could possibly go wrong?”

“I’m not unfamiliar with night terrors, and do you have a better idea?”

Chrysalis gave Luna a death glare. “Alright, fine. Let’s go.”

Luna took the lead. The three walked towards the tent’s entrance, hearing the music grow louder in volume, but mixed in with it now was applause and laughter. Lifting the flap, she realized the the inside was filled with people, ponies and humans alike, of all ages. And on the center stage were humans performing various tricks.

Big as the crowd was, since Bauer was the only one wearing heavy battle armor, there might be hope of spotting him.

“I think we can split up here,” Luna told the other two. “We should be fine, so long as we stay within each other’s sights.”

“Famous last words,” Chrysalis muttered. “Alright. I’ll take the left side.”

She walked up the aisle between the left row of seats. Cadance didn’t say anything as she moved towards the right. Luna decided to walk along the edge of the stage, keeping an eye out for Bauer. Her attention turned to the onstage announcer, who was busy clamoring in a foreign language. She guessed that it had to be German. Such an odd language, too. Why did its speakers always sound so angry...

The announcer was finishing his speech. Removing his top hat, he grandly gestured to the theatre curtains behind him, which slowly opened to reveal the younger, chubbier Stephan, together with two other kids his age, a boy and a girl; all of them wore makeshift wizard outfits. They gave the audience a bow as their began their show.

Rooted to the spot, Luna watched with fascination. Never, in her life, would she have thought to see the Major do something like this, no matter what age. And Cadance was right. Like this, he was kind of cute as a kid.

“Luna! Chrysalis!”

Luna tore her gaze away and saw Cadance waving a hoof, somewhere further up amongst the audience, who were oblivious to her presence and had eyes only for the show. Nodding, Luna took flight to land at Cadance’s side, at about the same time as Chrysalis.

Princess Cadance then pointed out the man they had been searching for this whole time.

“Huh,” said the sea-green alicorn, relishing the feel of rushing wind in her golden mane as she leant out the compartment window. “A couple of hiccoughs aside, so far, this whole excursion has unfolded rather cozily manner, all things considered. Not that I’m complaining… it’s all been so hectic, such a confusion of truth and lies, lately, I welcome the break.”

She paused to let her own words sink in.

“Haven’t reached the end of the line, though. The Maker Above knows what might happen…”

Outside, the unearthly landscape sped past, a territory still waiting to be claimed and sown.

Major Stephan Bauer was seated alone at the back, his face framed in shadow. He was wearing his armor, but something about his demeanour, perhaps the way he sat bent forward, hands clasped together in his lap, made it so that, for the first time, they knew he looked as he often felt, a young man in a suit too big and heavy for him.

And thus he sat, too focused on the children at play to notice the Royals approaching him.

Princess Luna broke the silence between them. “Major?”

Stephan blinked a few times. Although he did not come out of the shadow, Luna, who was well-versed in the darkness, must have spotted the gleam of a tear in his eye. He blinked once more to push it back.

“I’d almost forgotten about this.”

Luna tilted her head. “What do you mean?” she said softly.

“This was me, back in primary school,” Stephan began to explain, pointing at his younger self. “This circus came to town, and asked us in school if we wanted to be part of the show. We even got to choose what we wanted to be.”

“And you decided to be a magician?”

He nodded. “Yes. I was always fascinated by magic back then. Had spent afternoons watching some famous magicians on television. So I wanted to try it out, see what it was like.” He took a deep breath before he continued. “There, I found out that magic wasn’t a real thing. Nothing but lights and cheap tricks. But all that was forgotten when I saw how happy I made the guests. The spotlights, the music and the applause. They all made me forget that there is more to it than showing people a lie. It helped them forget the hardships of life and made them believe there might be more to our world than we see.”

“That is why you admire Trixie, isn’t it?” Cadance asked kindly.

A honest and warm smile crossed Stephan’s face. “She reminded me of that feeling as she performed in one of the refugee camps. And then she told me to get up on the stage and perform with her. I felt like a kid again.”

The glow was contagious as it spread to Luna and Cadance, even Chrysalis. Luna felt an inkling of true pride in the mare she’d chosen as a Student.

“There it is,” Chrysalis said.

“What do you mean?”

“The reason you love her so much,” Chrysalis explained thoughtfully. “You just didn’t realize until now. Interesting.”

Bauer chuckled. “Maybe. My head was full of other stuff. Like... finding out what happened to my parents.” He pointed at two people on the far side, a man and a woman. “There they are. But I know, those aren’t my real parents… Just a memory.”

Luna placed a wing over Bauer’s shoulder. “I am sure you’ll find them, one way or another. Even if we need to help your every step.”

But even as she comforted him, she tried, futilely, not to think of her sister in the other world.

He nodded in approval. “Thank you. All of you.”

“I’m sorry to take you away, Major,” Luna said softly, pulling back her wing, “but we need you. Trixie needs you.”

He nodded and stood up, pressing his armor. “I understand, Majesty. Trixie needs all of us.”

“Got the talismans?”

“Right here,” Bauer said, patting his jacket pockets.

“Very well.” Luna’s horn started to shine. “I will now synch our minds with Trixie’s. I cannot say what might happen when we enter, so be prepared.”

“Wait!”

Luna halted her magic, staring at Cadance in surprise.

Cadance walked up to Bauer, and spoke with a heavy heart. “Back in the school, I saw... things… memories. Your memories. One of them was so terrible, I’m not going to forget it for a long time. I want to know, how do you cope with it?”

Bauer looked at her, remorsefully, but also feeling a relief on his chest. Still, Cadance stepped backwards as his eyes fixed on hers.

“It’s alright, Cadance,” he assured. “That’s the reaction I most often get when people find out about my past,” he explained, as he had many times before.

Luna then stepped to her niece’s side, giving Cadance the security she needed.

“I understand now,” Luna told him. “What you saw when you were trapped by Sombra’s enchanted door. Why you lashed out at my sister.”

He grimly nodded. “Yes. And, again, I am sorry. I didn’t mean to do that.”

Something grateful shone in Luna’s eye. She raised her wing in a gesture of respect. “Again, I forgive you,” she said. “What happened has happened.”

And Luna did forgive him. She only hoped that, one day, he’d understand her side of the story.

“Well… as for your question, Cadance,” the human began, speaking slowly and steadily, “I just live on. I can’t turn back time and undo all my mistakes. I try to learn from them, and the fact that I still have friends around me who help me through, gives me more than enough. Even when it becomes really, really difficult to stand up again just to fight another day.” He smiled at her reassuringly. “And as far as I know, you got a wonderful husband and sister-in-law. I think you’re covered.”

Cadance eyed him for a moment before she nodded in what they recognized as… understanding. Simple, unconditional understanding.

“You’re right,” she said. “Thank you for your honesty.”

“Anytime.” Bauer looked to Luna. “I think… I think we can go now.”

Of course, Stephan should have known Chrysalis wouldn’t leave with her piece unsaid.

“Ahh, such a happy scene,” Chrysalis cooed, taking a deep breath. “I can just taste the good vibes radiating off you three… no, really, I literally can. Hey, don’t worry about making me feel left out,” she said sincerely. “When I’m not disguising myself, this is how I like it. Let others do their thing, and I watch.

“Chrysalis,” Stephan said, lifting a finger, “love you and all, but remember, you will play nice. Else I might kick you off the balcony next time you try peeking in on me and Trixie.”

“Not my fault you’re such a shameless pair, the two of you,” Chrysalis grumbled. “Besides, a lady’s got to sate her appetites.”

That was when Stephan took notice of her stomach.

“Not to sound rude, Chrysalis,” he said, curiously. “But you are looking rather... healthy?”

Before Chrysalis could get a word in edgeways, Luna had stepped in between them.

“Which reminds me, Stephan,” Luna said hastily, nearly stumbling over how own words. “We must stick together from now on, as we’ll be leaving our realms completely behind to enter Trixie’s. And I should warn you. I believe we’re not quite alone. Someone else is interested in finding Trixie.”

Stephan’s heart skipped a beat. “Could it be the hooded mare?”

“Most unlikely,” Luna said. “Powerful as she is, she’d know better than try to face two Princesses of Equestria, one on her home turf.”

Cadance coughed. “Auntie, I hate to bring this up but, there is a more pressing danger.”

Luna closed her eyes, yet nodded. “Sadly, that’s true,” she said. “Major Bauer, my fears have been confirmed. We have reason to expect that, the closer we get to Trixie, the Blue Spy will try to ambush us.”

“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it,” Stephan said, rubbing his chin, hoping he did not look as anxious as he felt. “Let’s hope you’re right and that hooded mare’s core directive has indeed worn off, or she’ll be gunning for me just like any of you.”

“Heh, don’t you worry, Major,” Chrysalis giggled, ignoring Luna’s frantic glances. “If worst comes to the worst, I already took care of your girlfriend’s crazed dark side once.”

He felt his palms twitch in surprise. “You’re for real?”

“Oh, yes. Never fear, it was all… quite savory.”

Stephan blinked, processing her words. Then, to the utmost amazement of the mares, he buckled over with laughter.

He realized he must sound like a madman, but he couldn’t stop.

“You’re taking this well,” Cadance commented.

“Not at all,” Stephan managed out through gasping wheezes. “It’s… that’s just… it’s ghastly! Even Kraber wouldn’t think of a thing like that, I swear! And yet it’s too good. Looking back, I ought to have hung around with you more.”

“Oh, how do you mean?” Chrysalis asked, amused.

“Our Chrysalis was quite the troublemaker,” Stephan chuckled, calming down. “But she always meant well, even when the things she did skirted on the edge of good taste.”

“Well, if you can’t laugh, what can you do.”

But Chrysalis’ smile was quickly swiped off her face as, laughter over, he grabbed her horn.

“Seriously, though,” Stephan said in a low voice. “I’ve a good mind to make your head into a nice little paperweight, should you have messed with Trixie’s head, queen or not.”

The Changeling Queen stared him straight in the eyes, and she must have seen something in there which her trip through his memories hadn’t shown her. He was a man who had fought a clone of the Solar Tyrant and won. Sure, he’d had a little help from Luna and Discord, and it was ‘only’ a clone, but it was a feat he’d be forever renowned for, nevertheless.

“You have my word, Stephan Bauer,” Chrysalis said, her buggy eyes boring into his. “I will do nothing to damage your lover’s head. At least, no more than it already is.”

After a thought, Stephan decided he’d be satisfied by this. He released her horn.

“I’ll hold you to that,” he said. “That’s one thing accounted for. Luna, what about the... others?”

“Tough to say.” Luna contemplated the crowd around them, always oblivious to their presence. “Yet, while I can’t tell for sure, Major, whoever this is, it doesn’t feel like they mean us ill.”

“They better not,” Stephan said coolly. “Otherwise, even in a dream, they’ll regret it.”

“Major,” Cadance said gently. “Though we bring many of our own nightmares into this world, our dreams are where we make something… out of nothing. Where we find light in darkness, hope in despair, love in adversity. Shall we begin?”

Cadance’s horn sparked upon those words, covering the others in that now-familiar light, and with a flash the circus tent and its crowd had gone. They ended up in total darkness, only the magical light from the three mares’ horns illuminating this place. Chrysalis began to concentrate her magic on Luna, while Luna did the same for Chrysalis. Soon enough, the cross-streams of raw magical energy were touching and flowing into one another.

A door opened from nowhere, and all four of them got sucked in. Stephan closed his eyes.

While this window of opportunity was open, the golden-maned alicorn had only one shot.

“Deliver the message...” she repeated, focusing, her horn aglow. “Make them see…”

The stream of intent unravelled from her horn, and swept into the distance.

… Far, far ahead, there came a terrible great burst of light, which shook the earth.

Staring out from her compartment window, the alicorn, surprised, felt the first inklings of the shockwave pass through her mane, inches before the true blast was to arrive.

“Oh, no you don’t,” she barely had time to mutter. “This wasn’t part of the deal!”

Raising her wings, again summoning her newfound horn’s power, she pulled her head inside and raced out into the wagon’s hallway, focusing all her will to keep the shudders coursing through the walls and floor as nothing but that, shudders. If the train derailed, they’d have come so close, and yet so far.

“Ungh, could do with a little... help here...” the alicorn grunted, feeling the pressure mount around her as unconscious, blind forces, unleashed through no malice of her quarries, but capable of sending her flying the way she’d came, sought to demolish her means of transport. “You got my back, I have yours... c’mon, now, don’t let me down, Nepenthe!”

Author's Notes:

Hi everyone, Kizuna Tallis filling out for Red.

For this, we've got a Journey to the Center of the Mind, some more secret plots unraveling and an odd little character that you may recognize from a certain Side Story.

Ciao, till next time!