The next few days passed without any sign of Nightmare. Even if it were to rear its ugly head, we would never even notice it. Luna could sense it if it was close, but even she couldn’t scan an entire planet. The review of my actions had been one of the most uncomfortable talks I’ve had in my entire life, only surpassed by my dad explaining to me the fine nuances of human reproduction. Among my brothers, I was probably the only one who had learned about the natural order of things in this rather awkward way. At least later in school I could name all parts of the human genitalia without getting red-faced or falling into a nervous giggling fit.

To summarize the entire thing in a few sentences: Shining Armor wanted to beat the horse apples out of me, at least considering his expressions. It was AJ, however, who did the actual part by confusing hugs with bone-crushing headlocks. She was probably unsure if she was to be happy or cause permanent damage for my return. Both Cadance and Fluttershy were kind enough to ask them to leave enough of me alive to be worth tending for, but enough to emphasize the foolishness of my solo action. Twilight and Rarity had given me one lecture after the other, and each time I tried to pull my head back so far that it would have given a tortoise a run for its money. It has to be mentioned that Rarity’s attitude was like that of a mother having found her kid with both hands deep in the cookie jar. Trixie, weirdly enough, never said a single word. In fact, she practiced the ‘cold shoulder’ punishment. Lucky for me, Hawk and Rainbow believed that fighting Nightmare was more interesting than giving me a hard time, and for a change, they had listened to my story more than attentively. These sessions were often accompanied by the Cutie Mark Crusaders sans Scootaloo, who preferred to stay in her room.

In the end, it was Luna’s judgment on what had to be done. With her presence here, the dimensional barrier was vulnerable, and should Earth fall, Equestria would be the next. The shades had been a danger before, but with a mind that was only out for destruction at the helm, they were more dangerous than ever before. It was all that more worrisome since we hadn’t seen a shade for the last three days. Something big was in the making, and all we could do was prepare. Every one of us now had the chance to get one of the diamonds, even the foals. We taught them how they were to be used, and I told the others how to rig the diamonds into flash bangs. If he hadn’t been so mad, I bet Shining Armor would have kissed me for this neat little trick. It was a way to disable any enemy for a short duration, and it would surely come in handy back in Equestria for the future. Against the beasts of the Everfree Forest, no matter the type, one throw and the danger would be gone.

Anyway, destroying Nightmare had become our top priority, and Luna had to get back to Equestria as soon as possible. Our window of opportunity, when both worlds in the interdimensional realm were the closest, was in about two weeks. Until then, we could only hope that our enemy wouldn’t find out that the barrier was the weakest then.

The last point on the board had been my brother, who was residing in the sickbay. He had slept through the last three days, probably sparing him another shock. Luna had simply used a spell to get over the problem of his size. However, the spell had to be renewed daily, and that was the hard part. Twilight, Trixie, and I were trying to master it, but except for our resident bookworm, we could barely get it right. Heck, Trixie was even more successful than I.

I was on my way back to the forest with Dawn, who had talked to Trent about every little thing. For some odd reason, the two of them had gotten very close, but Twilight refused to explain it to me, and I decided not to push the matter. He seemed to have succeeded at certain points since he had given me a spell scroll just a few seconds before.

“Thanks again for asking Trent, Dawn. Not speaking my native language was really getting annoying.” I had asked him to get a spell from the spirit of nature that would allow one to speak and understand every language. As expected, it was a similar sealed spell like Celestia’s and Luna’s ancient ones.

“No problem. He wasn’t keen on handing it out for nothing, but since I asked him, he made a good price. Sadly, he couldn’t really help with the other issues.” Like finding Nightmare or sending Luna home. “Even he can’t find things that don’t want to be found, and for Luna’s return, he wanted something that I just can’t give him.” The old spirit was neither evil nor good. He lived by the creed of giving and taking. Similar to Albia, he never intervened directly.

“What did he want for the spell?” Dawn said that it hadn’t been much, so I was sure to compensate him.

“One year.” I gave the little pegasus a quizzical look as we walked down the path to the Celestia. He didn’t elaborate though, so I stopped. “What?” he asked in response.

“What do you mean? One year?” He rolled his eyes and turned around to look me in the eyes.

“One year of my life. No big deal.” I could have sworn that there was an audible pop when my jaw detached itself. I only had recently learned the value of life, and he just gave away a year of his, just like that.

“Dawn, one year is a lot of time, and you don’t even know how old you will live to be.” I had no idea how to explain to the little one what this meant for him.

“Don’t worry about that. My body is made of magic. I will surely live for a few centuries, maybe even a thousand years. At least, that’s what I was told.” I remembered what Rarity had told me back in Manehatten. Rising Dawn was a product of Twilight’s magic.

“Alright then, but if there is anything I can do for you, don’t hesitate to ask, please.” He just nodded and continued our way back to the ship in silence. With a single stroke from his wings, Dawn flew up on deck while I took the ramp. By the time I arrived, he had disappeared below deck, probably to report back to the others. I turned my full attention to the parchment in my saddlebag. I took it out and laid it down before me, beginning to copy the circle and following the instructions of the runes. The circle began to orbit around me for a few seconds before shocking me for a moment, an indication that the spell was done. A test was in order.

“Parlez-vous français?” I couldn’t tell if my pronunciation was correct, but every bit of French was a little success. “Voulez-vous coucher avec moi?” Full success, considering my French classes were always F grade. “Me gustaría una cerveza.” Spanish, no problem. According to the description, which was more or less an Ikea manual, it was normal to be able to speak any foreign language as long as one concentrated on it. Other than that, the spell worked by analysing the user’s native language and allowed me to subconsciously speak in a different one. If people from different parts of the world were present, each one would hear their own language. Same for me.

“Can I see?” Twilight came up the stairs and set down beside me. I pushed the parchment over to her.

“I won’t need it anymore. It would be a good addition to your library.” This way, Dawn’s sacrifice wouldn’t just help me but other ponies as well.

“What did you bind the spell to?” was her question as she reached the lower parts of the document, easily recognized by her rapid eye movement. The spell had to be bound to something that was always in the bearer’s possession. It could be anything, from a pendant to the body’s own bones.

“My last rib.” I pointed at it with a hoof. “So you can only break the spell by splitting me from my body, again.” Or if someone used a counterspell, but in order to do so, one had to understand the main spell, which was impossible without the parchment. At least for now.

“Thanks, Light, this spell is going to be a great addition.” I waved her off.

“Like I said, Dawn is the one you should thank.” The familiar sound of a pegasus rushing in reached my ears, and Twilight’s as well. We looked up to see Hawk approaching at breakneck speed who landed a bit too hard beside us. Her legs buckled, but she kept a straight face.

“Humans! They are coming this way!” she called, clearly out of breath but loud enough to wake the entire ship. The door to the conference room burst open, Shooting Star, Shining Armor, and Trixie rushing out.

“How many?” he bellowed as a spear came flying out from the room and he prepared for combat. Rainbow Dash and Luna also appeared from below deck.

“Only three, but they are running straight to our position,” Shining’s look wandered from Hawk over to me.

“Did you tell anyone where we are?” I couldn't resent him for distrusting me.

“No, of course not.” There were only three people who knew where I had lived. One had been taken over by the Nightmare, the other one was sleeping in the sickbay, and after what Julian had allowed himself, I don't believed he would betray me again.

“We believe that we can take on three of them, but we will tell our daughter to get the foals out of sight.” She pushed past Pinkie Pie who had just hopped up from below and oddly enough carried a basket covered by a blanket in her mouth, causing some attention.

“Uh, Pinkie? What’s that picnic basket for?” Twilight asked.

“For our visitors of course, you silly filly.” I raised the blanket with a hoof. There were a dozen or so muffins hidden underneath. Rainbow and Twilight tried to dive bomb me, but it was already too late. The question had been asked.

“Where did you get those from?” came out faster from my mouth than I would have liked, and I realised that I had asked Pinkie Pie, of all the ponies, about the logical origin of something. Before she could even start her gibberish, I shoved a hoof up her mouth, fixating the baskets handle there as well. “Just forget I asked, Pinkie…”

“There they are!” Hawk hissed, hanging from a rope whilst balancing with her wings. We sprinted over to the bow of the ship and could make out three shapes coming around the corner, all hand raised. Sadly, my previous assumption about Julian turned out to be false, as I could clearly see his face among them. The other two I recognised as well. One was the doctor who had treated Dirk, but his name eluded me. The other one was the boy with the vest who had given me the diamond.

“What do you want?! Talk now!” Shining Armor held his weapon close to their heads, ready to strike at a moment’s notice.

“Hey, hey, keep calm! We are unarmed. Hands up, remember?” It hit me like a brick wall. Ponies did not know the meaning of raised hands, as the doctor tried to explain.

“They are coming in peace, Captain! Raised hands mean they surrender,” I explained quickly.

“So, you have no firearms on you?” All three shook their heads. In response, the spear went back to its wielder. “What do you want then?”

“We have come to talk,” Julian answered, his gaze turning to me.

After some back and forth, Shining Armor was willing to let the talk take place aboard the Celestia. The conference room was out of question, however, for it was way too small to access. Instead, we prepared a few blankets on deck to sit on, with Pinkie’s basket in the middle. The moment the cover had been lifted, the three of them couldn’t hold themselves any longer, and the muffins disappeared within minutes. It has to be noted that said muffins were barely two bites for a human, but in the end, we were showered with praises. Julian explained that it had been months the last time any of them had eaten baked goods.

“Well then, now that our guests have been sated, what do you want to talk with us about? I mean, last time when I tried to come forward, I got smacked in the head.” I glanced over to Julian, who seemed more than happy that I didn’t mention the thing at the hospital.

“Ah! Exactly. Well, my name is Doctor Henry Brown, British Royal Army, or what’s left of it. My companions are Julian,” he pointed at my friend, “and Mike.” He pointed at the boy with the vest. “We already had the pleasure.” I nodded in response.

“You are not the only familiar person to me, doctor.” We both looked over to Julian, who also nodded in agreement. “But now it’s my turn for introductions. My name is Blue Light, Royal Guard in service of the Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, Diarchs of the land of Equestria.” As I pointed over to Shining Armor, I was glad that the captain didn’t add to my statement. “This is Shining Armor, Captain of the Royal Guard and leader of our group.” He nodded to the group. “Beside him are other members of our group, Royal Guards Night Hawk and Shooting Star. That would be the military members on board.” Hawk gave a grin while her partner was stoic as usual. “To my left are Twilight Sparkle, protégé of Princess Celestia, and her friends Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash.”

“Fastest flyer of all of Equestria,” she added quickly.

“So, I saw you liked my muffins! Do you like parties? Stupid question – of course everyone loves parties! Do you have time for one? I just need to collect the material and load up my cannon…” Thankfully, Twilight disrupted the verbal assault by shutting Pinkie’s mouth with a zipper, literally.

“These are not all, but it should be enough for now,” I closed the introductions. “However, before we start the talks, I have one final question. How did you find us?” As I glanced over to Julian, he just shook his head and pointed over to his colleague.

“The blanket you took had been prepared with a transmitter.” He pulled out a small device from his pocket that began to beep rapidly at the push of a button. “The closer you get to the transmitter, the faster the beeps. An old method, but it’s the best we have. Other than that, the transmitter isn’t larger than a coin.” He reached into his pocket again and pulled out another device that seemed to resemble what he had just described. Cautiously, Twilight examined the device and even sniffed it. I had to recall that my own hearing and sense of smell had greatly improved compared to that of humans and that it was normal for ponies to examine things this way. “Once past Hausberge, Julian knew where he could find you and the transmitter did the rest,” Henry finished explaining. It was kind of a relief to know that they would have found me even without Julian.

“So, I would like to know the reason for your… visit.” Shining Armor signalled everyone while Twilight took the transmitter apart with her magic.

“Sure. I’m here as a temporary representative for our little group and well… as you might have noticed, there hasn’t been any sightings of the shades these past few days.” Neither of us said a word, except for Pinkie who was still struggling with the zipper. “We agree that something is brewing – we don’t believe that they would disappear just like that. That’s just one factor, however. There is the issue that we don’t have a safe place to stay and the need to secure a wider area. And then there is your….” He was making wilder gestures to underline his points.

“Magic,” Twilight added the missing word on which the man flicked his fingers and pointed at her.

“And wings.” Rainbow stroked her wings for emphasis.

“Exactly. We would like to ask shades for your help in finding a new place that could be secured against the shadows.” Twilight, Shining, and I exchanged a few glances. “We know from Blue Light that you are here to help us, which we are in dire need of.”

“We will quickly discuss that.” With that, Shining Armor stood up and indicated to me to follow him into the conference room. The door was barely closed when he began talking. “No!” That was bewildering. “I know you want to help, be we can’t start helping people with their little problems wherever we go. We just don’t have the time for that. The plan is to gather them and create the magic dome.”

“We can throw that one out of the window, alone because Nightmare is still out there.”

“And whose fault is that?” Ouch….

“Okay, I admit that, but we can’t let them suffer for it. Also, we are likely to get something in compensation, and we need those resources since we will have multiple bellies to fill in the coming weeks. And it’s not like we can get anywhere else before that.” Something about equivalent points in interdimensional space. I should really pay more attention to Twilight. Shining closed his eyes and let his head sink, deep in thought.

“Whatever,” he mumbled as my arguments began to sink in. With that, he opened the door, and we sat down back with the others again, who were deep in a conversation with Twilight.

“So Timo… erm, Blue Light is now living in a place called Ponyville?” Julian asked as we join the group again. Our guest had taken up a more comfortable cross-legged position, another indication for me how much had changed. I sat there, rear on the ground, forelegs stretched out. It was nothing special really, just the contrast made me think about it. “Speak of the devil…” Julian added as he realised I had heard his last sentence.

“We will resolve THAT later, okay?” That said, I turned away from him to my actual negotiating partner. “We have decided to provide aid. However, in light of recent events, we have a few conditions ourselves.” A hand gesture that asked me to continue. “We have a few stowaways on board and need food supplies. We don’t need a lot since we arrived with a relatively full stock.” Minus one glass of cherries. “Just enough to feed those extras. In this case, a few foals and one adult pony. Together, they eat about as much as two humans.” This time, it was Mike and Henry who turned away to hold council. I saw how the boy pulled out that book of his, and I came to the conclusion that it was a list of their entire inventory. In the end, they both nodded and turned to us.

“I’d say we have a deal. So, any idea on your part where we could stay? I assume this ship can fly and you must have come around a bit.” I gave it a thought and indeed, there was a good option.

“The clinic. The generator still works and should have one or two days’ worth of diesel. We never switched it off again.” It was probably dependent on how many devices were active. “At least long enough to secure the area against the shades.”

“Two problems. We have no way of saving water or getting it directly there.” They had used the thermal bath for that. He lowered his finger. “Secondly, it needs to be secured against both shades and other intruders as well.”

“The area around the clinic is a bog. If we can drill a well, that should solve the water problem,” I assured the doctor.

“That’s nice and all, but the ground is frozen solid and we lack the heavy machinery to drill a hole.” I tapped at my horn and the intent was received immediately.

“About security… Twilight, isn’t there a spell that signals trespassing ponies, or in this case, humans, should they approach a building?” She tapped on her chin a few times before she remembered one.

“We only need to enchant a few stones. Some will be used as borders while others would be carried by the humans themselves. Then, if someone without such a stone were to approach, they wouldn’t be able to enter. However, I’m not sure if that also works against shades.” She drifted off, but the issue had been resolved for me.

“That is acceptable. We only need a bunch of these stones, for us and the compound.” I glanced over to Shining Armor and then to Twilight, with Trixie, Rarity, and Cadance also being available to help.

“Sure, we should than...” I was about to suggest we head over to secure the clinic when I noticed Luna hurrying up from below deck.

“We have come to tell you that your brother is waking up.” She looked around but stayed at the stairs, waiting for me.

“How did you get Dirk down there?” Julian asked, puzzled look on his face.

“If thou wishest, we could show it to thee. Tis but a minor, harmless spell. It might hurt for a few moments though,” Luna answered, but her gleeful smirk told a different story.

~Tis be the human who had injured you, right?

I nodded to the telepathic question, and her smirk grew even wider. I couldn't remember when I had seen her this happy before. Julian, unaware of what was coming, just shrugged, stood up, and went over to Luna. “Sure, why not?”

Immediately, he lit up like a Christmas tree, and we could hear bones breaking, organs shifting, and saw fur growing where it shouldn’t. I would never ever get used to the morphing spell. Unlike transformations, it wouldn’t create a whole new body but instead worked with the available mass. However, I knew that it wasn’t as painful as Luna made it to be. She had Dirk stunned before performing the spell. Julian’s screams of agony were also a good indication. The other two had jumped up but could only watch. After a few seconds, the spell subsided. Where Julian stood once was a black-maned, grey-furred pegasus, breathing heavily and staring up into Luna’s diabolic grin.

Author's Notes:

JBL surprised me the other day with a thought through schedule for this "little" story of mine.
So chapters will come regularly with the last chapter coming on 30.12.2015.

Translated by LtCWest
Edited by JBL
Proofread by Dj7291993