A clamour was the first thing to slowly pull me out of the limbo that was a forced, dreamless sleep. The second one was the headache from the rifle that had struck my skull. My senses were slowly coming back to me, and I felt like I was lying on something soft. There was an audible thump that sounded like something sitting down on a piece of furniture. I slowly moved a hoof and noticed a blanket covering me, which helped to ease my tension a bit. If they were set on eating me, they wouldn’t have treated me like a guest.

It was pretty stupid of me to get near a fence that was obviously guarded with a light hung over my head. After the first shock and my jump into the bushes, I had totally forgotten to kill it. Seeing that I wasn’t in danger for now, I dared to open my eyes and scanned the ceiling. It wasn’t the perforated white I was used to from my school days, so I must have been in the cellar or in one of the nearby houses. Rather understandable – I mean, who would bring a stranger, or say an alien, into their headquarters? I turned my head to the left and saw that I was in a living room, which meant I was on a sofa. Beside me, there was a glass table and behind that was small cupboard with an old fashioned TV on top of it. The room was illuminated by the light that came through a window on the other wall, so it must have been day time.

“Finally awake, I see?” I froze. I knew that voice. It had been my companion ever since I was three. I checked the room again. The glass table, the cupboard, the TV, even the lamp at the wall and the one on the ceiling, all the way to the tiger-striped couch I was on. I recognised this place. Not my taste but that of my best friend’s girlfriend. I turned my head back and there he sat. One leg over the other in his black jeans – I didn’t know if he had any other – and an equally black T-shirt with a skull on it, his oval glasses and a brown buzz cut. The grin on his face couldn’t be broader as he stared into my shocked expression. Raising his right hand, he took a relished sip from his bottle of Veltins V Plus. He looked like he had never changed, except for the goatee.

“Robin?” Sitting in a fitting chair was my best friend, beer in one hand and looking at me. He was about as old as I was, almost. He always insisted on the two months that divided us. We had been neighbours for over fifteen years now, rarely more than one or two buildings apart. We had moved a lot, first from the house of my grandparents, who had sold it after the divorce had been only two blocks away, to a small flat one house further. Once my brother Nils was born, my parents bought some land that was right behind Robin’s home. Only once we bought our house, near which the Celestia was parked, had we been more than a minute apart. I had known him all my life and there was no story where he wasn’t involved. Even our parents knew about our friendship and we could visit each other as we pleased. I hadn’t even needed to ask, for the balcony door had always been open and knocking had become obsolete long ago. The same rules applied to him as well. We had eaten with each other’s families and were like brothers, literally. We could trust each other blindly and we complemented each other. I was always the mindful one, rethinking everything three times over, always questioning and playing it safe. Robin was the polar opposite, headstrong and always doing as he pleased without thinking about the consequences.

“So, the good sir is still alive.” His grin became wider as he took another sip. He noticed how I fixated on his bottle and pulled out a second one from behind his chair. With a single action, he pulled out his lighter and uncapped the bottle before putting it down for me on the glass table. “Now tell. What did I miss?”

I still couldn’t fully grasp it. He was sitting there as if barely a week had passed, wanting to know what all had transpired. I pulled myself upright, forelegs stretched so that the blanket came off. I had to make sure that I was still a pony, for his reaction was way too relaxed. “Well…. I’m blue.” He was unfazed. “And a pony.” Still no reaction. “A unicorn to be precise.”

“I know.” Robin was never the one to panic – that was my part – but this was just uncanny. The contrast to Julian's reaction was way too big. “Changer had told me a bit.” I was still trying to process the first bomb when he dropped the next. What was that supposed to mean? He had talked to him? After our swap? “But I must say I had expected you to be smaller and less….horny.” He was never really good with English, and he hadn’t improved. However, as a human, he was just as high as I was, so it was very well for him to talk.

“Well, this is not Changer’s body.” He took a sip from his beer and wagged a finger in front my face.

“You see,” was his response after gulping. “I told you I had missed out a lot.” Me too, it seemed.

“Would it be possible to clue me in on everything?” He put the empty bottle next to mine on the table before sitting down again.

“So, that must have happened last summer, almost a year ago.” Or about three months for me. “I don’t know exactly when you two traded places – I could never press him to tell me. Like so many things. Anyway, I was coming by to pick you up for a night at the pub, since no one had heard from you for about two weeks by then.” Once every month, we would meet up with some old friends at a pub behind the pharmacy. “You were behaving rather weirdly in my opinion, and I realised quickly that you had forgotten all our stories. You couldn’t even remember your name. Long story short, I was about to call an ambulance when Changer came out with the truth. That he was a pony whose soul was damned to die, and he didn’t want to leave his sister behind alone.” I knew about that part but interrupting him would have been rude. “So he picked up a counterpart from another world. Of course, he didn’t feel like killing someone, so he sought out a world that was doomed anyway. He told me about how he followed the Nightmares’ traces back to us.” So that was how he’d found the Earth. If he could trace them through the dimensions, then there must have been a way to find them while they were already here. “Honestly, it took me some time to digest that, but as soon as he lifted me up a meter into the air with his magic, I was sold.” He pulled out a silver box from his pocket, picked up a cigarette from it, and lit it with the built-in zippo. “At least he had proven that he wasn’t you.” I was still astonished by all this but the puff of smoke that hit my nose pulled me back into reality.

“That left you all cold?” I mean, I would have freaked out if my best friend had suddenly lifted me… “Hey!” Speaking of that, I found myself hovering above the sofa, encased in a red aura that originated from Robin’s hand. “Why?” He let go of me and pulled out a second cigarette.

“I tried to tell you years ago that I could do magic. You remember?” He actually did try. It was a summer about eight or nine years ago. I had gone over to him, and his first sentence had been about working on a new spell or something. I thought he had been trying to play a joke on me, as it hadn’t been so long after the second or third Harry Potter book had been released.

“I thought it was one of your jokes.” He held a hand over his chest, faking a heart attack.

“That hurts… But let’s get to the point. When Changer told me about the Nightmares, I panicked of course. After all, soul eaters would attack our world in the foreseeable future. He was sorry but couldn’t change that. So he told me that we could fight them off with the light of the sun or via magic. One of which I always had at hand, and so I prepared.” The ash of his smoke lazily glided over to the ashtray on the desk.

“Do you know the whereabouts of my family?” He reflected for a second.

“First, you tell me your part of the story.” I looked at him with impatience, but I nevertheless told him everything from my point of view. How I came to Equestria, the issue with the parasprites, living on the farm with AJ, and how I began to work as a teacher while the princesses looked for a way to send me home. I told him about my first encounter with the Nightmares and our mission to create a safe habitat for humanity.

“So, your plan is to gather humans at a place and surround that with a barrier created by these Elements that the Nightmares can’t penetrate?” I nodded as Robin began to understand the plan. During that, I looked around the room, trying to find the second person who lived here.

“Actually, where is Tanja?” Robin’s long-time girlfriend. They met each other on the Internet and, for me, were among the few couples who actually worked.

“Dead, a victim of the first days of chaos,” was his short answer, but he continued before I could express my sympathy. “Dirk is at the school. I don’t know about the rest of the gang. I’d talked to Dirk a few times and he said they were separated.”

“Thanks.” I jumped off the sofa and headed for the door, only find my tail being pulled back by Robin’s magic.

“Where do you think you’re going?” I was puzzled by the nature of the question.

“To Dirk?” I tried to free myself but it had no effect.

“I’m afraid I can’t let you go.” He was serious. “I first need to know where the other Elements are.”

“What? Why?” I managed to stutter, still held in place.

“I can’t let you destroy my lifework.” I looked at him aghast as he pulled out the necklace with the crystal, the one containing Nightmare, from his pocket. “So, where are the other five?” I couldn’t believe it. He actually thought that the pendant was one of the Elements.

“Listen, that is not one of them,” I answered truthfully. “It’s a dangerous magical artefact, and you should be careful. Give it back, please.” I extended a hoof, but he just looked down upon me with a wicked smile on his face.

“Sure… As if I would give YOU a potential weapon. You already made that mistake, haven’t you?” I cringed as I thought about the wound on my flank. “You know, Julian had told me that he had seen a talking horse who’d pretended to be you. So I ordered my men to get you alive should they see you.” His men? He was the leader of the survivors?

“Robin, this is not a game. We are here to help. I’m here to—” He pressed me down to the ground, my words getting stuck in my throat.

“Who says we need your help? We can manage ourselves. We have power and everyone is safe, thanks to me! You were enjoying your safety while others had to watch how the souls of their friends and families were sucked out right in front of their eyes! And suddenly there you are trying to tell us that there is a solution. You have no idea…” I went flying against the wall and one of the pictures fell down. “....What we had to endure. You can’t just fix that.” He let go of me and placed the pendant back in his pocket. “So, where is this ship?” I had wisely left out a few details from my story. How I got adopted, my marefriend, and things that seemed unimportant.

“As if I would tell you.” He tried to reach for me but this time I was prepared. His spell was deflected by my shield.

“I know that Changer’s talent was transformation magic, so I have enchanted every object in this room so that you can’t affect it with magic. Give up and tell me where the Elements are. I could use their power to destroy those monsters if they’d dare to come close.” He was totally oblivious. The Elements of Harmony were meant to preserve and protect. They wouldn’t outright harm even the darkest of monsters.

“I’m going now Robin. I’m sorry you think that way, but I can’t help you.” I turned around, still protected by my shield and put a hoof at the door. Big mistake. A seal on the door began to glow, and I was launched backwards, landing on the very chair Robin had been sitting on. Laws of physics applying, the chair and I crashed against the wall, the furniture cracking badly.

“Only I can get through the door, and even if you did, there are two guards on the other side.” I had a problem. I had made the same mistake twice now and trusted an old friend without knowing how I got there in the first place. Getting knocked out and waking up at my best friend’s house? Way too convenient. I should have seen that coming. Slowly, I got up on my hooves and saw my ‘friend’ looking tiredly at me. “Changer wasn’t powerful, but he had knowledge. That’s something you are missing. Better give up now.”

“One problem, Robin… Like I said, I’m not Changer!” I switched my horn for earth pony strength and rammed my head straight into his midsection. Surprised from this sudden attack, he fell to the ground and I jumped over him.

“Sir! Everything alright in there?” The guards were calling from the other side of the door. I used the confusion to throw the ash tray at the window. The heavy, hollowed-out rock sailed through the glass and down to the ground, which took a few seconds. I had forgotten that Robin’s apartment was on the building's third floor.

“Nice try…” Robin groaned as he recovered from the impact. “But it will only work once.” Back being a unicorn, I was preparing for his attack, but now it was him who decided to dash. Before I could react, he grabbed me at my neck and tossed me on my back like a sack of flour. Robin was definitely in a better shape than I. He had played on the trampoline as a child and later got into martial arts. He was no muscle man, but he had agility and knew how to move his body. I rolled to the side just in time to evade a kick and got right in front of the open window.

“You have always been the weaker one of us, Timo. Just give up and I promise to let you and your friends go once I have the Elements.” He was right. There was that one and only time we got into a fight, and I pulled the short straw. After that, we never spoke to each other for nearly half a year.

“I don’t want to hurt you, Robin. You are my friend.” I really hoped it wouldn’t come down to this. I needed a friend at my side, one whom I knew longer than a few months, who knew me.

“Friends... are worth nothing here.” His hand began to glow again, and a beam shot past my head, hitting the wall and leaving a scorch mark. “Now give up.” I had no choice. I couldn’t fight him. I took two steps back before turning as fast as possible and jumping out of the window. Cool morning air rushed past me as I desperately tried to switch forms. After multiple tries, I could finally extend my wings and managed to level my flight. I thought about the next steps but I couldn’t leave Nightmare with him. If it were to get free, it would be a catastrophe. I would have to tell the others what happened.

“Not so fast!” I looked back to the window. Robin was standing there, glowing arm stretched out. “Fulgoribus ac tonitruis obviam ibis!” A seal formed in the air in front of Robin’s hand, and something emerged the likes I had never seen before. It was like a snake made of pure energy, one that was heading straight for me. I tried to turn during my descent, but I didn’t know how and the spell hit me square. A pain I had never felt before went through my body, my wings turned stiff, and the next thing I felt was my body hitting the ground.

I couldn’t move anymore.

Author's Notes:

Well, this chapter was long overdue.

*Looking at the list of helper*

Where do they even come from? Well, at least the chapters should be clean from now on.
Thank you guys <3

Translated by LtCWest
Edited by JBL
Proofread by Dj7291993