Nightmare collected so much from the black energy that a black projectile appeared, larger than an average medicine ball, and held it in front of my brother’s face.

“Say farewell…”

Shocked, I saw Dirk looking desperately over at me with tears in his eyes.

A blue blur shot from the sky like a cannon and rammed the black entity, which was my former friend, in the side. It flew straight into a building and left a hole in what used to be a solid stone wall. In its place now stood Luna, obvious anger on her face as she looked towards me.

“Get out of here!” she yelled at me as two large, magical, blue blades appeared in front of her, and she took off after Nightmare through the hole with a flap of her wings.

She had barely flown away as the doors of the building were pushed open, hundreds of people running out of it with panicked shrieks. A few of them had weapons on them. Others held their kids and loved ones by the hand, whatever was left from their former property on their backs.

“Quick, to the hall!” one of the armed humans shouted, running in front of a bigger group. “We should be safe there!”

The humans did as they were told and went towards the direction he motioned. I rose and looked at my brother, who was lying on the ground, all four limbs stretched away from him. Hobbling slightly, I made my way over the grass to his position, and in the corner of my eye, I could see a weapon was directed at me. I ignored it and pushed my brother in the side with my head, because I needed all four legs to stand upright.

“Come on, Dirk. We’ve gotta get out of here.” He wasn’t reacting.

I didn’t know if it was from shock or unconscious, but his pupils were wide open, and he just looked into the emptiness of the cold day.

“Hey, what are you doing there?” The man with the ACR came to me and noticed Dirk’s state. “Was it that creature?” He motioned with a nod to the hole in the wall, and I just answered with a small nod of my head.

He started to bend down and grabbed my brother’s arm. Our gaze quickly met before he pulled him around his shoulder. “I’m bringing him to the hall a bit down the street.”

With that, he looked past me to see if any other refugees came out of the school, but that wasn’t the case, and he disappeared from the ground and followed the others. Now I stood here, looking at the spot where some blood was rubbed into the grass and where my brother had laid just a moment ago. Anger rose in me. Not only did Nightmare use my friend as a host, it had also attacked my brother.

Several circles formed as I prepared every attack spell I could find in my head. It hurt to use just one of them because I was at my limit, but I couldn’t care less. As if awaiting a signal, a window exploded in the third floor, followed by a piece of wall. First a black something flew outside, not seemingly by free will, followed by Luna. Luna swirled her blades through the air, still in flight, turning with them as they cut several times through the shape of Nightmare. Sadly, it caught itself in the air and fixed itself.

“I can see you haven’t lost any of what I showed you, Luna,” it said as it placed its head back on its shoulders. “But did you learn something new as well?” She didn’t answer. Instead, she cut with her blades once again through the black bulk.

“Luna, out of the way!” I screamed once the first spell was ready, and once again nine glowing arrows swished through the air and pierced through the two parts of Nightmare. The Princess of the Night backed away several steps with a roll and just looked at me as our enemy hung lifelessly in the air.

But slowly, a red something, maybe what was formerly the mouth, formed into a grin, and it slowly began to pull the arrows out of its bulk. It threw one after another into the air, where they disappeared.

“Not like that! Star tail!” Stars gave away some light even during the day. Maybe not that much, but I balanced it out with my bombardment of twenty to thirty shots very well.

One beam after another shot like lightning from the slightly clouded sky, and every one hit my target directly. The black bulk smoked from the energy that struck it, and with a jump, Luna was in front of it and worked with her blades once again until black drops slowly dripped to the ground, collecting in a puddle.

In the end, the last piece went down, and with a splash, it fell into the other pieces. Luna came down next to me, slightly out of breath, and shook her blades free of any remains. I, however, collapsed on my knees, feeling as exhausted as I would if I’d just run a marathon.

“Why is this unholy beast not in its exile?” Luna asked and looked down at me, eyebrow raised. That look apparently ran in the family.

“It freed itself. Somehow, it can manipulate its surroundings by will,” was the only explanation I had for the floating crystal.

What else could be there? Even Robin said that he could sense the power, which shouldn’t be possible. Even in Equestria, it could influence me in the form of nightmares. It wasn’t really captured all this time. It used us to get here, its target from the very beginning, and we played along nicely.

“It fooled us all.”

Our look went to the black remains, which had started to right themselves again.

“It is still day. We still have an advantage. We have to end this quickly,” Luna said, and I wanted nothing else but to agree with her, but that wasn’t doable anymore.

“I’m sorry Luna, but I’m wasted. I already had to fight my way out of the building,” I replied. She looked at me, disbelief in her eyes, but never letting the enemy out of sight.

“Use your potential. Your body was crafted by Albia, just like ours.” With that, she rushed forward as the bulk in front us started to move. This time, however, her blades crashed into a shield, and she was thrown back.

“I’m not making it that easy for you, Luna!” Nightmare said as its shape returned.

Where did its power come from? It could be hurt in Equestria and even suffer in a dying body. Why could it fix itself every time here? And what did Luna mean about my potential? Black projectiles flew at both of us. The princess easily deflected them with her blades, while I barely had enough time to roll over. It seemed to be aware of my condition, because the next thing it did was disappear from where it was and reappear directly in front of me.

With a murderous grin, it grabbed at my horn and pushed a burst of magic energy through my body. It was like getting shocked, only it didn’t affect my nerves. I screamed out in pain but wasn’t able to hear my own voice, and dropped helplessly onto the ground as it let me go. My view blurred, and it was like the whole world was spinning.

It went to Luna next, who still tried to protect herself, but just like me got surprised by the teleport. Nightmare grabbed at her as well, but not at her horn. Instead, it grabbed straight through her chest and into her. Luna’s gaze changed from the angry warrior to one of pure fear.

“You might be immortal, but the pain is very real for you.”

Luna gave a muffled scream and fell lifelessly to the ground. I could only guess what it had done, but I feared that it had attacked her soul itself. Nightmare turned in the air towards the building behind us and inspected it for several seconds, before a giant black circle formed above it. Magical lightning stones started flying in all directions, a cloud of dust passing us.

The most terrifying thing, however, were the bloody remains that flew against me. There were several from the immobilized guards left inside, who had been killed by the spell.

“Nightmare…” I called as the dust settled down slowly and the entity approached me, floating several feet over my head.

“Look who can still stand,” it said and extended an arm, pointing at me before a circle surrounded it, and a small beam shot at me.

I changed to my wings on instinct and used them to protect myself from the attack. A stinging pain came from my right wing as the attack hit it, and I saw that a hole had been burned into it.

“I’m not going to make it easy for you either,” I said and changed back to my horn, the pain immediately disappearing.

Sadly, I never got the chance for a single attack, because Nightmare fired multiple shots again. Once again, I used my wings to block them, and once again, there were holes burned into them. It hurt like crazy, but the first hole had disappeared. I quickly repeated it, and the other wounds had also disappeared.

“No… I won’t make it easy for you,” I said again and took off with force, preparing to crash into my enemy.

It seemed that it was also surprised by my ability to block its attacks, and as I made contact, I changed into an earth pony, pulling us both to the ground with all of the force I could muster. The improved durability was immediately noticeable because I felt much more rested in this form.

First Nightmare’s back came in contact with the ground, then my hooves pushed into him before I jumped off of him. I slid several meters back, but caught myself as I pushed against the force.

“So you can change your form. What a neat trick…” it said, and I looked at the non-moving black bulk before it disappeared with a small bang.

The voice wasn’t coming from in front of me, but from somewhere behind me instead. I searched for my enemy, astonished, but to no use.

“I’ve played enough for now. Let’s continue this tonight,” the voice said.

I waited for another attack, a beam that revealed Nightmare’s position to me, or something like that. But it seemed that it spoke the truth and had withdrawn. My ears were still perked up cautiously as I slowly went to Luna, who laid lifelessly in the grass. I gently nudged her once, and she gave a startled breath and jumped up.

“Where is that foul beast? How dare it attack our soul?” she shouted and looked around.

“It withdrew, Luna,” I replied.

There was a possibility that the sun took its tribute on it even before it had a body. Even as I took its power, the sun still took its effect on me a bit. It was its only weak spot. Luna landed next to me and inhaled deeply.

“We could have only weakened it in the end anyways. This creature is indeed a true nightmare. The last fight our sister and I had with it was only winnable due the fact that the Elements were bound to us, and then we let our guard down and…” There wasn’t any need to complete her sentence to explain what happened next, because that was known to all.

“What can we do now?” I had no clue. The whole situation was bad enough, and now the shades had a leader.

“We have to admit that the situation seems bleak. However, first we should go back to the Celestia. Everypony is worried about you,” Luna answered, and I could imagine that quite well.

“How did you find me anyways, Luna?” I asked, aware that I took caution to not leave any tracks behind. On the other hoof, I wasn’t a genius in stealth.

“We felt Nightmare’s presence. Since you had the pendant, you couldn’t be that far away.”

Again, the same thing that Robin said. Even he noticed the influence outside the crystal.

“I would like to get my brother first. He was taken with the other refugees to the hall back there,” I said, pointing down the road at the blue, flat roof of the campus hall.

Luna and I were both noticeably exhausted, so the short way down the road took us a while longer than the usual five minutes. The hall itself was a large two storey building with outer walls that were around ninety percent glass. Between the glass and the first inner wall, which was normal stone, you could walk around the building completely and reach the two stairways quite quickly to reach the upper area. I had never been to the cellar, as it wasn’t accessible to visitors. My last visit was over two years ago, as Otto Walked had done a show here. I was pretty sure that there wasn’t any broken glass or ruins in the way at that time. The school’s explosion affected some buildings around it, but due to the small size of the ruins, the damage wasn’t as bad as expected. Not that anypony still cared.

“Stop!” a voice shouted, and various guards appeared out of the bushes, directing their weapons at us. “What do you want?” the man asked, the one who took Dirk with him earlier.

“I want to see my brother,” I said, and he looked in disbelief at me. “The boy you took with you.”

The man couldn’t be much older than thirty, but he had dark hair that was thinning and was dressed in a mix of different military uniforms.

“We don’t give humans. Now get lost,” he replied, pointing with his weapon the way we came.

“Now listen up, you little ass clown.” I had no patience left for this. “I was locked in an empty room for half a day by a ‘friend’, then somepony knocked me out by hitting my head with something, and then I fell out of the third floor.” I approached him and stomped down with my hoof at every step. “When I wanted to fight for my freedom, you shot at me, and after that, I fought against a shade that could last in the sun for a while. All that to find my family, and now you want to stand in my way?” I pointed at Luna next. “Besides that, this being at my side is powerful enough to move the moon. Now bring me to my brother.”

The three men stared at their commander, who had nothing better to do than to stare at me. “Uhm, alright, but you’re coming with me alone,” he said.

I nodded and followed him as he started to walk through one of the broken glass walls into the building. Looking back, I saw that the other three still pointed their weapons at Luna. Should only one think about firing, she wouldn’t hesitate to defend herself. We approached the door leading to the hall, and he knocked two short times before opening it.

As I followed him, I noticed the reason for this action, because on every side behind the door, two armoured men stood and watched, so nopony would get the idea to just walk in. The hall was empty besides the grey, short carpet and a bunch of humans hanging in each other’s arms. Their gazes were pointed at me as I entered and was led to the middle of the room by my guide.

There were some provisional beds made out of old pieces of cloth and backpacks, and on them laid a few injured with some cuts and scratches, but nothing too serious. On one of the beds there was my brother, lifeless and only slightly breathing. The mumbling in the room became louder as I approached him and put an ear on his chest.

“He isn't hurt. He was in shock and I gave him some sedative,” one of the humans said as he stepped out of the crowd, going down on a knee towards me and looking to my brother. He had glasses and his brown hair was kept in a ponytail. The whole picture was completed by his three-day-old-beard. “I’m Doctor Brown, British Royal Army.” He extended his hand for a greeting that I returned.

“Blue Light, Royal Guards of Canterlot,” I replied.

He just nodded and looked back to my brother. I expected some reaction to the mention of Canterlot, but no such luck.

“May I ask what relation does… a pony have to a human?”

Before I could answer, a guard behind me spoke up. “He said that this is his brother.”

Again I was met by a suspicious gaze, this time from the doctor.

“Long story short, let’s just say that I wasn’t always like this,” I said and pointed towards my body.

“Well, if you think about it, we were attacked by creatures who nobody ever believed in. I shouldn’t say anything. At least we were witnesses of magic, thanks to our commander.”

I realized that the things that had happened hadn’t reached this place yet.

“About Robin… he was caught by the shade...” a voice said, and the doctor immediately looked to the guard behind me while I followed his gaze. Such a flexible neck was something helpful. The guard only shook his head now. “I’m gathering everyone and then we’ll discuss everything,” he said and left us alone with my brother.

“Is he stable enough for transport?” I asked, and Doctor Brown laid two fingers onto the arm of my brother, checking the pulse and nodding afterwards.

“As long he stays under observation I don’t see any problem with it. Why?” he asked.

I took him into my aura and made him levitate a few inches. “Because I will take him with me.”

Some surprised screams went through the room as they saw what was going on, but the doctor stayed calm. “May I ask why you are here?” he asked.

My brother slowly hovered to me, and I took one of the blankets to wrap him into it. It was cold outside, I knew that myself.

“We are ponies from Equestria, planet Albion, another world. I’m here to find my family and want to help you, every single human. Sadly, we’ve got a way bigger problem now.” With that, I left him and went to the exit under the gazes of many people while my brother hovered behind me.

The two guards opened the double door for me as I came closer and let me step outside. Luna was still standing there, and she was eying a weapon she obviously took from one of the guards. The others seemed unconcerned and, as I came closer, I knew why. They had removed the magazine before.

“I see you succeeded,” she said as I approached her, and she let the weapon float back into the hands of its owner. He put the magazine back in and loaded the weapon while Luna continued. “But we have one question. Where, pray tell, do you plan to take your brother?”

At her hint, I looked closely at my brother and realized that he wouldn’t really be able to walk over the lower deck, not to mention he wouldn’t fit into a bed, sized for a pony.

Author's Notes:

Translated by ScratchnTavi
Edited by JBL
Proofread by Dj7291993