Sleep was something I found surprisingly easy, considering that my fate was in the hands of two guys I had known only for a couple of hours. On the other hand, I had trusted Twilight as well when she had taken me along to Equestria, and in the end, it had turned out good for the most part. Well, except for the Nightmares.

“Goood morning, sunshine!” a voice called from above me, right before I received a very sudden, unsolicited, and very cold shower. With a loud bang, the bucket fell to the ground, and I sat upright in my bed, trying to fight my way out of a mild shock.

“Sorry, but,” I took a deep breath, “are you insane?”

“Yes… are you?” Toby stood, grinning, next to my bed and looked like he was seriously expecting an answer.

“How late is it?” I answered that question myself with a glance at my clock on the nightstand. “Seven o’clock? Seven…” I wanted to go on a rant here, but since AJ usually woke me at around six, it would be better if I kept quiet. I threw the blanket aside and rubbed the remaining sleep out of my eyes. “What happened with your face?” As my sight got clearer, I saw a big hoofprint across his face.

“Little Lulu woke me up…”

‘Lulu? Who was Lulu?’ I asked myself before it struck me like lightning, and I had to stop myself from laughing.

“So Luna slapped you to get you out of bed? Then should I be thankful for just the water or what?” Revenge tastes good, especially cold.

“...Her bed… and yes, you should be. I woke up Jonas once by throwing him out of a plane… It was the first of April.” After the first two words, I stopped listening.

“Sorry, but HER bed? How long have you two been here again?” And I thought AJ and I had moved quickly.

“Five days.” I never wanted to picture my aunt like that… Damn it, go away pictures! “But whatever,” he went on. “There is a reason why I woke you up.” Well, since I didn’t plan to stay in bed for three days, why not.

“Which would be?”

“Jonas has a little surprise in store for you in the court. Just come along.” I should curse my curiosity.

“Great,” I said as disinterestedly as possible. If one of those two had planned something… God help me.

“Come on already…” I didn’t know if it was telekinesis or something else, but something dragged me behind him out of the room and across the corridor. Unlike yesterday evening, the guards were at their posts again, and life generally seemed to have returned to normal at the castle. A few eyes followed us, especially since I left a water trail behind me. We came past the double door, which led to Celestia’s tower, and took a staircase down to the ground floor where I could see, through a window, some guards training in the castle garden. As we took the exit to the pavilion, I saw a curtain missing in the entrance area. The pavilion itself was still just a huge pile of rubble, but some parts seemed to be cleaned up already, and I saw craftsmen, which could be identified by their belts with tools around their bellies, peacefully eating their breakfast. Which reminded me that I didn’t have any yet, damn it. As we came closer to the labyrinth, I saw Jonas at the entrance as he swung a sword through the air. That thing was about twenty centimetres longer than himself. It surprised me that he didn’t ram it into the ground, judging from how he handled it.

“So… You’re going to have to fight at some point in the near future,” Toby started, “and since only idiots and fools–” he did know what he was talking about “–believe that they can get through something unharmed with only the help of their friends, it is time for you to practice,” he finished his short explanation.

“So why the oversized toothpick?” That thing shimmered uncomfortably above me like it was only waiting to give me a new haircut.

“Ah… my little friend here?” asked Jonas. “That’s going to make the entire thing a lot more interesting, since today we’re going to train your reflexes and concentration under stress a bit.” My stomach replied in loud protest.

“Yeah, no food for you ‘til you’ve succeeded… but first, the rules. You have to try to hit Jonas with anything as long as you hurt him, and in return, you try to not get hit. Simple, isn’t it?”

I eyed a small stone in my sight and fired it with a little telekinesis at Jonas, who I hit at the shin. “Hey!” he complained. “We haven’t started yet!”

“Ha! And now some breakfast…” I knew that I wasn’t the best fighter, but I had still given Blueblood’s guards quite a beating. And what was the weakness of any swordfighter? Distance.

“Okay… that was luck. Also, you just incapacitated the guards – you won’t be able to do that with a Nightmare. But now it’s really going to start. Are you ready, Blue?”

“As ready as I can be.” Well, according to the circumstances.

“And you, Jonas?” Toby stepped between us.

“Yes,” Jonas answered promptly.

“Okay then…” I considered my options. Distance was my best chance since I was faster than a human, and with telekinesis, I could keep up some pressure.

“Three.” Toby snapped his fingers, and a big green three burned in the air. I found a big piece of debris which looked well suited to end this quickly.

“Two.” He snapped again, and the three turned into a yellow two. I readied all of my runes for every kind of magic that could be useful.

“One.” The two turned into a red one, and my body started to tingle. I couldn’t be nervous now, not as long as the toothpick stayed on distance.

“GO!” I looked at the number, which was a mistake since something hit my chest so hard that I downright flew through the air and slammed against one of the statues in the garden. It shook quite dangerously but luckily didn’t fall down. To my misery, I knew that I had at least broken some ribs since I struggled to breath. There was a tingle again, and then I could breathe like normal again.

“What the?” I moaned as I stood back up. I looked over to Toby who still had his stupid grin on his face and pointed up with a finger. I followed his gesture and barely noticed the black dot flying fast towards me in time. I rolled away about a meter to my side, just in time as I was covered in rocks and dust from what used to be a statue. As the dust settled, I saw Jonas coming closer, the sword blade pointing backwards and with a big grin on his face.

“You didn’t think that I wouldn’t be a serious opponent, did you? In a real fight, you would have already been dead.” I had at least hoped for that, but with these guys, that was unlikely. I stood up again, raising a stone wall up from the ground as I did so. I had to win some time to think, and I had the advantage of being able to see him while he couldn’t. Suddenly, something poked me in the back of the head. “You know that Nightmares can go through walls?” Jonas stood behind me, and the next thing that happened was me flying through my own wall. The pain was intense but disappeared after a few seconds again, just like it did earlier in the fight. With a rather uncomfortable landing, I stood with my back to the labyrinth and tried to think of something, an idea, but my head was empty.

“Concentrate! Don’t lose your cool because of the enemy. Go into the offensive and dictate the fight!” Toby called over the field to me while Jonas slowly started to move towards me. At first I wanted to take the advice, but then I remembered something my grandfather had taught me. As much as I hated that old fart, one thing did stick in my head. Jonas started to build up speed and now came running towards me. He was stronger, faster, and more experienced than I was. That was for sure, but that was also his weakness. He would never expect that I could also do something. It was the mistake of those who thought they were better than everyone else. I let him come a little bit closer to me before I formed thick spikes from the ground around me and pointed them at him. To my surprise, he simply dodged them by stepping to his right without losing any of his momentum. I released the spikes from the ground and lifted some into the air and shot them at his back. With one turn and swing, he deflected them all, and I used the brief moment that he wasn’t facing my direction. I took some branches out of the wall of the labyrinth behind me and formed them into little spears before I fired them in Jonas’s direction. Again he avoided them skilfully and now stood directly before me and grinned.

“You gotta think of something better than that.” His grin was replaced by a puzzled face as a few drops of blood landed on my face. I still held one of the spears in my telekinesis which he fortunately seemed to have missed, so it now stuck in his shoulder.

“Uh, nice hit, but unfortunately you lost…” Toby looked a little disappointed and pointed towards my neck. I threw a quick glance down and saw that the blade was barely one or two centimetres away from me. “Since you didn’t kill him, he killed you.” Jonas removed the sword from my neck and stowed it away on his back. He stepped a few steps back, pulled a small box from his bag, and lit a cigarette.

“I thought this was training?!” I only had to hit him, and that was what I did.

“Yes it was, but you also should have hit him with all you’ve got… Neither of you were in any danger. Didn’t you notice how your ribs and your lungs regenerated themselves? You would have died from internal bleeding after the first strike.” As if I didn’t feel that myself.

“You know, I figured that out myself.” I was a little pissed.

“Then you shouldn’t have showed any mercy, but who cares. Toby!” Jonas turned towards Toby.

“Yes?” Toby asked, perking up.

“I have to say he did do well for someone who never really was in a fight. He earned a reward.” Breakfast and a shower, a real one.

“So I can go now, right?” The shower really was a good idea. Aside from the blood on my face, I was more brown with dirt than blue with bruises.

“Man, Jonas, really? You held yourself back; don’t force me to…” They were ignoring me, and I tried slowly to slink away.

“You promised me that when I tell you he deserved it, you would give it to him!” I now was far enough away that I could start sprinting now.

“Ah… okay man, don’t always rush like that… Blue Light!” Something stopped me in place and pulled me back again… damn it. “Here, take this.” Toby held his hand out and held a little black card in front of my nose.

“You get out of jail?” I read loudly.

“Oops… wrong one.” He took it back and gave me another one. “This is the right one.”

“You get a free wish,” was written on it in a writing which could have come from a three year old.

“Uhm… yeah, what?” I look in confusion at the card.

“Can’t you read? You get a free wish!” Jonas cited the card without even being able to see it.

“Yeah… Thanks?” I took the card and let it hover next to me. I should really get a saddlebag… “How about a saddlebag?”

“... Really? A saddlebag? Really? The card is serious business, you know? You can wish for anything... and I really mean anything. Well, I would suggest not doing a few things, but I can tell you when it’s needed. Anyway, you really don’t want a saddlebag when you could, like I know, have a ten kilometre diamond or super powers… I mean, you could really wish for eternal life…,” Toby said, insulted that I just wanted a bag.

“I think… that I have to think about it for a while.” What should I wish for myself? There were so many things, but I could think of one thing that I absolutely wanted more than anything. I didn’t know what kind of aftermath that it would have, however.

“The card is also very easy to carry around,” Toby mentioned as the card turned into black mist and disappeared. “Simply think of the card and it will appear again, and you can wish for something.” At least now I didn’t need the bag anymore.

“But one wish I still have, though I don’t need the card for it. BREAKFAST!” My stomach clenched as I said that.

“Yes yes, the training is finished; now we can go eat,” Jonas said.

The way to the dining hall went as calm as expected. Jonas talked a bit with Blue… I think I am going to call him that forever, just like the little dog… However, I was bored once again. I stopped shortly at a statue and wished Jerry a good morning. Blue gave me a confused look for a while because of that. The guards seemed to have calmed down from yesterday evening, or they just didn’t dare to give me a bad look. That was just fine with me. As we finally reached the dining hall after twenty unbelievably long minutes, six ponies were already there waiting for us, four of them were from Ponyville, one was Celestia, and a white unicorn I didn’t know. Judging by Jonas’ and Blue’s faces, I figured that we were dealing with a major asshole.

“Morning,” I said to everyone around. The ponies greeted back aside from Celestia, who was treating me now the same way I treated her, and the new face, who just looked at us unbelievingly.

“Aunt Celestia, what are these things doing here?” he asked in a disgusted tone and pointed at Jonas and me.

“They’re my guests,” Celestia replied briefly.

“I beg your pardon, but these… things are supposed to be our guests?” I began to imagine what I could do to him if he took this too far.

“Yes… and it looks like they’re going to eat with us.” I didn’t know which she liked less, talking to me or talking to him.

“This is an outrage! I accept having to dine with these scoundrels…” he pointed at the presented Elements, “but that is just a bad jok—”

“Shut it, Blueblood,” Blue interrupted him and in the next moment smacked a tile from the floor against his head, which then returned to its place. I had to pull myself together for a brief moment – may not be my style, but that was still funny.

“Well done… otherwise I would have taken care of it myself—” However, the idiot now dared to interrupt me.

“Ouch! Guards!!!” The guards gave each other a quick look and then one to me. My smile let a cold shiver run down their backs, so they remained silently in their place.

“Heh, thought so…” I whispered quietly before I sat down together with Jonas and Blue. “So how were your nights?” I asked the group.

“Good.” Celestia didn’t even look up from her cake.

“Enjoyable…” Twilight wanted to continue, but again the impudent unicorn interrupted her. This idiot didn’t seem to take the hint.

“Celestia, I DEMAND that you remove these three!” he demanded.

“And if you don’t start to keep your mouth shut, I will send you straight to Jupiter,” I said in a playful tone.

“You dirty creature, don’t you even dare to—!” He made the mistake of looking me in the eyes. What happened next was one of my most favourite activities: trapping ignorant people in illusions. His vacant facial expression made me happy. Blue waved his hoof in front of Blueblood’s face.

“What did you do to him? Not that it bothers me, but I would find it useful for my Blueblood at home,” an amused-looking Blue asked me.

“Just a simple illusion… He now thinks that I put him on Jupiter. Luckily, he is stupid and doesn’t know that there is no oxygen on Jupiter. Before he even notices that this is all a trick, we should be long finished here. If you want to know how it works… It’s really difficult to learn and we don’t have the time for that… but you could wish to know how to do it.” I grinned at him, but he just rolled his eyes.

But now it was time to tend to the food, so I took a small salad. Jonas followed my example; a good appetizer for the main course. I felt like barbecuing again today. Aside from the shock from a few ponies present that suddenly meat was on Jonas’ and my plate, nothing else happened.

“Did you hear something?” one guard asked another.

“No, why?” The unicorn gave his colleague a confused expression.

“I thought I heard something.” He pointed towards one of the suits of armour.

“I don’t hear anything…,” the unicorn said.

“I could have sworn…”A deep and loud growl came from the armour, and it began to move, clattering.

“Oh,” the unicorn answered while his ears fell flat.

“THE ARMOURS ARE ALIVE!!!” screamed the pegasus. “RUN!!!”

And so it happened that no more armour was placed in the fourth floor of the castle.

After the meal, a curious Twilight dragged Blue Light away as she left. The remaining Elements followed her. Sadly, Fluttershy departed as well, but it was all the same since I had time later in the week to spend some with her. Blueblood was still in his seat and fought with the non-existing environmental conditions of Jupiter.

“Now…” Celestia announced “... how is it looking, Toby? When can you send him back?”

Toby thought about it for a second, then wiped reality away with a hand and revealed a white, glowing pentagram that represented the spell. Hundreds of runes sprang from one point to another, changing their positions or were replaced by other runes. “Ah, looks like I’m going to get finished by tonight… Your counterpart did better work than expected.” She smiled smugly at him.

“This isn’t really about the spell, is it, Celestia?” I pressed on the subject. She nodded approvingly.

“It’s about Steve. Blue Light said that he met him, so why would he send him here?” She had a point there, and it was a logical train of thought if you didn’t know the both of them.

“To tell me that he is coming in two months,” Toby answered simply.

“But that can’t be everything. There must be another reason for this. After all, you said that he murdered thousands already. Why would he help one confused and lost?” Once again that sounded logical, but it wasn’t that simple with the two of them.

“I have killed thousands as well… Also, I already said that he isn’t really evil nor am I really good. Neither of us are playing marked cards. He saved the small guy because it was just convenient for him. Nothing more, no ulterior motives, just that simple.” Celestia didn’t seem convinced, but accepted the answer.

“And you? Why are you helping him? And don’t tell me you’re doing it out of the goodness of your heart.” She stared at him deeply, trying to find out if he was lying.

“Okay… there is something extra for him,” Toby confessed.

“And that would be?” Her tension could clearly be felt.

“That…” he shook his head “...that is something you don’t want to know.”

“It can’t be that bad,” she replied nervously.

“You have no idea how bad it can be…” Toby was looking straight into her eyes and in a tone, which I had only heard two times before until now, he said, “There are fates worse than death.” Toby stood up and gave me a look which told me to follow. When we left the room, I heard how Blueblood came back to himself.

“What the…”

As I followed him through the corridors of the castle, I kept asking myself what it could be. When you start to spend enough time with this boy, you learn to understand certain signs. But I couldn’t figure out anything concrete. What did I know about magic? Not much, in comparison to him at least… otherwise more than most. Magic was separated into two— No, three schools: the physical magic, which followed the laws of nature, the mental level, and the spiritual one… In our case, we were moving on the spiritual level, and from what I knew, the consequences there were the worst. But what was it? I couldn’t get around it – I had to ask him.

“Toby?” He turned around.

“What is it?” I didn’t want to beat around the bush.

“What are the consequences?” He lowered his head and sighed.

“I told you that you don’t want to know that…” He was sad.

“But I do.” He had to tell me. I wanted to know, and he knew that I wouldn’t let it go before he talked.

“Come on, please don’t force me.” It had been a while since I heard him sincerely begging.

“I am sorry. But tell me.” Toby fought with himself for a moment, his struggle obvious.

“Okay… it’s like this… You know that no soul leaves the nought the same way it entered… There are only a few beings which can be there in the first place… but if you enter it anyway without being one of those… something happens to you…” I will never forget those words, and I will never be able to look at Blue Light with the same eyes as before.

We stood motionless in the hallway for a few minutes, neither of us daring to break the silence. I tried to process what I had just heard. To understand the words and to appreciate the consequences. There really were fates worse than death. At some point, I became uneasy.

“I need a joint,” I said shortly.

“Here.” Toby offered me an already burning one. It was good weed, Red Havana I think. But that always had been hard to recognize. With luck, we were close to a balcony which we could lean on.

“Toby?” I said quietly.

“Mhh?”

“Is there a God?” I somehow needed twenty years to ask this question.

“What do you think?”

“I think there is one,” I said. I really did believe that.

“Then there will be one waiting on you… when the end nears.” I had to smile. It was his style, his way of existing. He would still be around for a long time after I die, and still I had a feeling that somewhere in hell he would be waiting for me.

While we busied ourselves in even more senseless topics, the sun was slowly setting in the horizon, and as the sun touched the horizon, Toby slowly got back up again from the balcony.

“I have to go wake up Luna and sleep till morning.” I myself wasn’t tired at all, and I doubted that he was either.

“Well then, till tomorrow.” And with that, he disappeared. My thoughts about the subject earlier came back into my mind.

“Damn it, Toby, why do you always need to be correct on something like this. I shouldn’t have asked…” I threw the remains of the now fifth joint over the parapet and made my way towards the kitchen to get a little supper.

Twilight had been looking over at me over the course of the entire meal and seemed to have some questions on her mind, which is why I wasn’t surprised when she dragged me through the hall later on and we made ourselves comfortable on a sofa in a little chamber. Fluttershy, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash followed us, and four bewildered ponies were looking at me while one of them was preparing a notebook.

“So you’re from a parallel dimension to this one?” I nodded to Twilight’s question. “And you travelled from one dimension to another because?”

“Because the opportunity was offered to me, or rather the other you offered it to me.” She scribbled something into the notebook.

“So there is another version of me in your world?” she asked curiously.

“No, or at least none that I know of. You came from a different dimension into mine. It had to do with something about a failed transportation spell.” Or was it teleportation? I couldn’t remember anymore.

“For one of my students, you don’t pay a lot of attention. Come on, what was it?” I summed up the events of my appearing in the other world and explained to her why I was here now.

“So you weren’t always a pony?” Applejack asked. Rainbow flew out of the window a while ago, mentioning something about needing to practice. The only one who remained where they were and didn't make a sound was Fluttershy.

“No, I once was a being like Jonas, if he even is human. He is far stronger and faster than a human. Well, at least I looked similar to him.” I saw how they tried to portray me as a human. Twilight seemed to have given up after a few seconds, shook her head, and let her quill hover over to my hoof band.

“So may I ask you why you carry the royal seal?” I had completely dismissed that after it utterly failed at my arrival.

“Well I don’t really know why, but Celestia made me a part of her family. That was what she told me as to why I needed one.” I saw the shock in their faces.

“Then… then we’re related. I mean, my brother is married with one of your cousins, I mean Cadance, or isn’t he?” I just realised that myself a short while ago. I nodded, and Twilight scribbled some more into her notebook. I thought of my family, who were now in danger somewhere or dead or who knows what. Tomorrow, Toby was going to send me back, but until then I couldn’t do anything.

“Uhm… Blue Light, your Majesty… uhm… I would like to ask how your family is doing, if you won’t mind me asking.” This was the first time Fluttershy spoke.

“Light is enough, Fluttershy. In this world, I am not a prince, and in mine we’re friends. About my family, I don’t know how they are or if they are still alive. That’s why I need to get home as fast as possible. I will try to rally the Elements, that means you, and some others and rescue my world. I don’t know how, but I believe we will find a way.” Celestia’s words did me well and somehow, no matter which world, she still was there for me. Just like my real mother. I was a child of two worlds, and I would never be able decide, so was it wrong of me to think of her as my mother, especially after all she did for me? I owed her a lot.

“Oh my… I didn’t want to… I am so sorry.” Fluttershy lowered her head and buried herself in the sofa. Applejack put a hoof around her friend.

“Don’t worry, sugarcube. Light here meant that everything is gonna A-Okay.” Actually, I was scared. So many humans had died, and I didn’t have a slightest clue where I should start. I didn’t even know if there was a weapon against the nightmares or not, but that wasn’t their problem. Time passed as I discussed with Twilight theories about dimensions and travel between them, as well as the consequences in my case. Applejack and Fluttershy fell asleep at some point, and there was no trace of Rainbow Dash, so I could bet that she was doing the same as her friend on a cloud somewhere.

“So the problem is not the transportation of your body, but that of the soul and binding it to the new universe?” Twilight asked, who had already gotten a second notebook. Some things just never change.

“Or finding a certain world in the first place. If our assumptions are correct, then there is every possibility that there is a fitting world, but also somewhere there is Twilight the stallion, Twilight the musician. Celestia and Luna together needed a month to find me and that with a clue to follow. That Toby only needs three days… speaks volumes.” I knew from books what a magic could do, but to have an idea of scale of it was something entirely different.

“I think it has to do less with the finding. I mean, he did bring your body here as well. Maybe it has to do with another part about your soul?” Twilight corrected me, and she was right. I completely overlooked that until now. I had to yawn and looked outside. The sun was starting to set, which meant Twilight and I used most of the day to talk. She probably even thought that was actually a good thing, but I had no idea what else I should do here.

“I think I am going to get a snack. We’ll just let these two sleep.” Twilight nodded and we both went to the dining hall to get some food. Sadly, a full mouth didn’t stop her from asking more questions.

The next morning, I was able to start a bit more peacefully, since this time Toby didn’t throw me out of my bed, but one of the guards woke me. He informed me that Celestia wished for my presence in the entrance hall as soon as I was ready. I had completely forgotten to shower after yesterday’s events and found I needed it. I was surprised no one commented on it during dinner yesterday. After that, I felt like new and wondered what they wanted from me so early in the morning. My travel home wasn’t planned until tomorrow.

As I came from the corridor in the second floor into the hall, I saw Celestia, Toby, Jonas, and Twilight standing there, each having a serious expression on their faces.

“Good morning, Light,” Celestia greeted me and looked at me with a sad look.

“Well, we can start now, if you want?” Toby rubbed his hands.

“What can start now?” I was a little perplexed. Did I miss something?

“Uhm, you do want to go back home, do you? What else could be happening today?” he grinned.

“I don't want to complain, but haven't only two days passed so far? Didn't you say it would take three?” Actually, who cared – I was finally going home!

“Actually, I was finished yesterday evening, but I really wanted to go to sleep. So anyone wants to say their farewells or give him anything? Otherwise, let’s get it over with.” He looked alternately to Jonas, Celestia, and Twilight.

“I have something!” Twilight called and pulled out an envelope. “Could you give this to the other me? She would surely like to hear my theories about dimensions.” I took her envelope and held it in my mouth.

“I wish you all the best, Blue Light, and I hope that if we will see each other again, it is under more comfortable circumstances.” Celestia smiled seemed a little forced.

“Thanks,” I mumbled with the letter in my mouth.

“Well then, no need to worry about anything. It won’t hurt at all, and I doubt you’ll even notice it happening.” I prepared myself for everything and sat down on the ground.

Toby stood up straight, stretched briefly, and took me into focus. The mood in the room began to turn as his eyes started to glow. Small green lightning arcs formed on his body, the stone plates in the floor starting to crack.

And a similar oppressive feeling like from my first meeting with Celestia ran through me. But this time it was a lot stronger, as if gravity was pressing me in waves towards the ground. Everything around me blurred slowly. In the background, Twilight was pressed to the ground as well, which somehow calmed myself since I wasn’t the only one who was affected by it. The last thing I saw before the darkness closed around me was a glaring red light coming from Toby. And the last thing I heard was, “I am sorry.”

Author's Notes:

To quote JBL: "This chapter was a bitch to work with"
I have to agree. If I look at this and the last chapter now, I would never write like that again. It was something I wanted to try at the time and it failed a bit in my book. Next chapter everything will be back to normal finally.

Thanks to Gron for translating this chapter.
Special thanks to JBL for proofreading and editing.

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