Dirk was alive, even if barely. Twilight, Trixie, and I fought for another three minutes to keep him alive until he could breathe by himself. By the time we had finished, AJ had woken up as well and threw her hooves around my neck, smacked me in the face, and hugged me again.

“Sugarcube, I thought we’d lost you!”

‘It wasn’t the first time,’ I thought as I returned the hug.

“You can’t get rid of me that easily. I’m like the roach that crawls to you every morning in the shower.” She let go and gave me a grumpy look.

“You really have a hoof for ruining beautiful moments, you know that?” I poked my tongue out before receiving a kiss from her.

“How’s your brother?” she asked as we parted and looked at the bed behind me. Trixie and Twilight looked over to us as well once they were sure they weren’t interrupting anything.

“I think the message arrived, but he will have to take care of the rest.” I saw from her puzzled expression that she didn’t understand. “I think it’s time to call everyone together. I have something to report and would like to know what happened myself.

No one had anything against my proposition and so we met, not twenty minutes later, in the common room of the Celestia. Due to a lack of space, the sofa had been moved over to the wall, and everyone was sitting in a circle on the floor. Cadance was visually exhausted, due to her having to perform the reanimation spell before Luna, one that she had to abort due to the circumstances. Luna was now the only one missing, now occupying the same bed I had been in the sickbay. Holly was sitting between Fluttershy's forelegs, the same with Rainbow and Scootaloo and Twilight with Dawn. Dawn was the only calm one; the others were still visibly shaken.

“So Light, who do we need to thank for your quick recovery?” Hawk began. “No offense, but we thought that Nightmare had finally gotten you.” AJ and everyone else gave her a dirty look. “Just saying.”

“It’s alright. I was sure I was done for myself. However, Nightmare couldn’t kill me, at least not directly. It just severed the connection between body, mind, and soul. None of the three can exist without the other, resulting in death.” I pointed at Twilight, who nodded with me.

“When I… created Dawn…” She looked down to her son and smiled. He returned it. “He was just a soul. Due to a teleportation incident in between worlds, I accidently pulled him with me. He could not exist without a body, however, so I created one with my magic. For that, I had to use the majority of my reserves. I will never be able to perform as much magic as before, but I got something in return that means much more to me.” They began snuggling each other, causing all of us in the room to smile, with Fluttershy and Holly repeating the act. Cadance darted a look to Shining Armor and rubbed her own stomach with a hoof.

“Anyway, I knew from Albia that this separation was nothing good, and my subconscious… or whatever it was that my body and soul did to bring it back to my mind. Trixie passed on the same information to my brother in a dream. I can only hope that his own mind leaps to the same conclusion, because a soul without memories is like… Pinkie… on twenty cups of coffee.”

“Oh oh oh! Do we have any?” Speaking of the devil. “Maybe with sugar or milk… Marshmallows! Definitely marshmallows! And even—” This time, it was Star who silenced the assassin of ears with a hoof while keeping a straight face. It did not prevent her from talking though, but the reduced volume was as pleasant as it could get.

“Can I explain what happened here now?” Shining Armor signalled to the others, and even Pinkie went silent. “You went head-first at Nightmare, something none of us resents you for. I would have lost it myself if something had happened to Cadance or Twilight. Anyway, Nightmare did not react for a few seconds, and some of our spells struck, but those did not seem to bother it at all. Only once Princess Luna launched something akin to raw magic did it seem to wake up from its trance, almost as if it was just as shocked from what it just did.” I digested the information and came to the same conclusion as Twilight.

“It never wanted to kill me/you!” we exclaimed together, before I continued. “At least not then. It wanted to see me suffer, right?” Other than that, it seemed to be unaware that the attack was not directly lethal. It hadn’t been after Luna. I believed that after living with that creature for a thousand years, her own subconscious would know how to help itself.

“This we can answer thee.” All heads turned to the door where the pony in question was leaning against the frame.

“Mother!” Cadance rushed over to her. “You should be resting! You used a lot of magic.” Luna shook her head and came over with Cadance to us where she sat down beside her daughter.

“So, Princess, why did that shade change its mind?” Julian asked. Those were his first words, except that brohoof before, that he had said after leaving the sickbay.

“Fear.” Everyone stared at her in bewilderment. “Nightmare fears death, and it saw it in your eyes.” So I did go berserk. “However, we believe that there was another factor as well, one that we cannot yet determine. When it grabbed thee…. thou sprouted both wings and horn for a mere moment.” Now all the gazes were on me, scanning my face and my sides, but there no wings of course. “As we said, we are not sure. Either your panic-induced transformation had been so rapid that it may have resembled it, or you really were an alicorn for a few seconds.” I had to swallow hard.

“Is that even possible? I know I inherited some things from Celestia, but I’m truthfully just a unicorn.” And I had no intentions of having that change, now that I had come to terms with myself.

“There was never a case like yours, which is why nothing is certain. However, we believe that Nightmare has realized that as well and decided to eliminate you before you became a problem,” Luna finished her theory.

“Are you absolutely sure about that, Princess? I mean, you were created by Albia as well, right?” Twilight asked curiously.

“We are sure, Twilight Sparkle. Light here managed to perform something only our daughter, our sister, and I are capable of: manipulating magic without the need for a spell. It’s the way we move the heavenly bodies and how Cadance amplifies the feeling of love, for there are no spells for these.” So raw magic was only something an alicorn could cast? I had only used Luna's spell and compressed magic to its form, right?

“Luna, I just mirrored your spell. You already used it once against Nightmare at the school.” She nodded.

“Even if it was just a copy, every alicorn can form a magic weapon of this kind. My sister’s is a great sword, and ours a pair of daggers,” she explained as said daggers formed above her head, but they disappeared within seconds. “However, it takes a lot of power and concentration to maintain, both of which we are lacking at the moment.”

“Mine is a halberd,” Cadance casted it above herself for emphasis. “However, I always try to abstain from using it. This magical weapon can cause wounds that cannot be healed with spells. The victim would die a slow and painful death. I would never dare to wish that upon my greatest enemies.” With that, the weapon dissolved into thin air, and both alicorns now shared a sad expression.

“I say we let go of this for now. After all, neither have I permanent wings attached nor have I grown a few centimetres.” I pointed out to the royals. “But we should have the element of surprise on our side since Nightmare thinks it had killed me.”

“I agree with Light. Even though we are not out of imminent danger, we could continue the search for his family without too much stress, now that Nightmare won’t seek them itself. Only your mother and your brother remain, right?” The captain asked, and I nodded. “We will reach Düsseldorf within the next hour. How can we find the exact location of the transmitter?”

“I asked one of the technicians… What's his name...? Marvin! Exactly, Marvin, to build a radio with a gage to measure the signal strength,” Twilight explained, and with a little pop, the device appeared in front of her, which Dawn pushed into the centre. She then pushed out her chest, filled with pride.

“Umm, you do realise that we don’t have any way to plug it in, right?” I asked her as I held the power cord with my magic, dangling its plug in front of her nose. She quickly realised I was right.

“Erm… no,” she admitted, beginning to blush.

“It’s alright, Twilight darling. We know you tried to help,” Rarity assured her.

“Exactly, everypony can forget something sometime,” Rainbow added.

“Like bringing back the basket once you brought the apples home?” AJ asked with a raised brow.

“Or like bringing back the last Daring Do books?” Twilight tuned in.

“Or do the promised flight lessons?” Scootaloo added, grinning widely.

“Hey! Aren’t you supposed to be on my side?” Rainbow said to the little orange pegasus between her forelegs and began to playfully knock on her head, causing her to giggle.

“What about the portal? Shouldn’t we send these three back to Equestria?” Luna, Trixie, and Twilight gave each other worried looks.

“We’ve tried to build up a connection but we are being blocked.” The mood slightly changed after her statement. “It’s as if Nightmare is using our own tactics against us. It keeps us here like hostages.”

“For which it needs to focus a hell of a lot of magical energy, just like with the elements. Is there a place on this planet that could act as a focus point?” I quickly thought about that. What was there that no human had ever discovered but was no problem for Nightmare, either by knowledge of the magic arts or a place?

“Maybe Atlantis. There is legend about a city built on an island that was more advanced than any other place in the world. However, it was supposed to have sunk to depths where no one can dive down to, at least not without magic. Then there are those Mayan Temples, the Nazca Lines, enormous pictures of animals carved into stone….” I tapped my chin with a hoof while pondering. “Then there’s Stonehenge, a burial site that puzzles people to this day, the pyramids of Egypt—” This time it was I who got a hoof in my mouth, for which I gave a AJ a startled look.

“Thanks, all of those places sound interesting, but we just don’t have the time to check every single one of them,” Twilight added. “But I would really like to…” Dawn poked one of her hooves. “Ahh… sorry. Sans any option, we have no other choice but to confront Nightmare directly.” Awkward silence followed.

“First thing first: we are going to look for survivors and seek out clues on the whereabouts of Light’s family. After that, we can look towards finding either Nightmare or the spell that keeps us here. Whatever may happen, we need to take on both.” Everyone agreed with Shining Armor. “So, how are we going to find any survivors here?”

“Well, it’s just a theory but wouldn’t they be using some kind of radio mast, like a satellite dish? We should look for something similar, or at least our scouts should.” I pointed over to Star and Hawk, followed by RD and Julian.

“But didn’t you say that every household had one of those?” Rainbow jumped in. “I mean, we can’t say which one it is, right?”

“The one from the clinic was many times larger than the normal ones. We’re actually looking for a proper communications tower. How do I describe it best…?” As I tried to come up with an explanation, someone beat me to it.

“You need to look for a large metal construction formed like a pyramid that also has some signal lights on them to warn low flying aircraft. Chances are those won’t be running, but if the survivors were smart enough, they might have rerouted power to them,” Julian added. I forgot that he had always been better with electronics than I was, since he was trained as an electrician.

“If your friend here knows what to look after, then it should be doable, right?” Rainbow asked, and the other pegasi agreed.

“Then I will make some lunch now.” Cadance rose up and left the room, followed by her husband. The remainder did the same, leaving the room one after the other, except Pinkie who preferred a jumping style. Kind of dangerous considering the low ceiling. In the end, only Luna and I remained, as AJ wanted to help in the kitchen as well.

“Light, take our advice: ensure that it never happens again. You have no idea what you are dealing with.” Her voice held a sympathetic undertone. She then rose as well but could only stand somewhat wobbly. “We mean you only well, as our sister counts on us to look out for you. We believe that you don’t know how much you mean to her.” I pondered on her words as she left the room. Being an alicorn was equally a blessing and a curse.

After an extensive lunch and a visit to the sickbay, Dawn and I were by ourselves on deck. When I said I wanted to practice some magic, the little one was hooked to watch me.

“So, what spell do you want to practice?” He had been jumping around me for a little while now and asked me all kinds of things about transformations. He was like Twilight, pocket edition.

“I want to find my weapon,” I said and tried to concentrate.

“Like the one from Cadance and Luna?” Giving him a nod while my eyes were closed, I ran through what had happened this morning. It was a harder task than I thought as everything had happened so fast, and one did not simply memorize everything while in blind rage. Still I had seen many times how Luna had conjured that weapon, same with Cadance. Both their horns were not glowing, meaning that magic was not the in the game, at least not their own.

“Dawn, what did Twilight tell you about magic per se?” Being a part of this seemed to be of his liking.

“There is magic everywhere. It flows through the world like water in a river. Unicorns can absorb this magic and then bend it to their will, usually with spells. Basics of Magic, page one, paragraphs one to three.” He grinned like a Cheshire cat.

“Umm… yeah, thanks.” He had confirmed my suspicion. Alicorns could directly affect that magic flow, as he had called it. I also realised how simple teleportation could work, like surfing. Change your body to energy and ride the waves. Keeping the energy together was more complicated, but it was probably doable with a shield.

“I thought mom taught you?” I sighed.

“A bit. Most of my info comes from reading or was taught by my mother.” More like implanted. “You don’t happen to know how to materialise stuff?” I opened my eyes and saw how Dawn was hastily scanning our surroundings.

“I’ll show you but only if you promise not to tell my mom.” He even checked the empty water barrels hanging from the railing.

“Sure.” I had no idea why he made such a big deal out of it. He came back to me, now sure that we were all by ourselves. He closed his eyes for a few seconds, and in the next moment, an apple appeared out of nowhere. It hovered there for a few seconds before falling to the ground and exploding into small bon bons.

“Darn it. I thought I had better control over it.” Still a bit perplexed, I look down upon the little pegasus in front of me, whose eyes had changed color from the original bright purple, same as his coat, to a light golden. It took me only microseconds to find the connection, for only one being had golden eyes and could make sweets appear out of nowhere.

“D-Discord?” I stuttered, gaining his attention.

“Huh? How come you know that old grump?” I blinked twice and pointed at his eyes.

“Oh right! Yeah… that’s chaos. They always appear like that when someone uses it. Please don’t tell mom! She doesn’t want me to train without oversight.” I had a totally different issue on my mind.

“How come you can do it?” He seemed to be happy that someone was interested.

“It has to do with my creation. How did Discord put it…? Something lives that shouldn’t. There is no bigger chaos.” He even darkened his face and lowered his voice to imitate said character. “That guy even had the nerve to ask me to work with him.”

“Whoa…” was the only thing I could bring myself say as I thought about the castle garden. There were many different statutes, but now that I thought about it, Discord’s one was missing. “Where is that bastard anyway?”

“Gone. I’m doing his job now.” I had no idea if I should take that for granted, but considering his prideful posture, it was serious business for him. “Well, I’ll do it, but in a thousand years maybe. I have a lot to learn.” The puzzle in my head was slowly taking shape as to why Dawn was going to become so old and how it had happened. Twilight had created Dawn in a teleport accident, a being that was oozing chaos. They somehow managed to defeat Discord again, but this time for good, and Dawn became the new spirit of chaos, even though he was younger and less experienced.

“Oh great! Bon bons!” With one gulp, all the sweets on the ground, wrapping included, disappeared down the maw of a sudden Pinkie Pie. As she finished the sweets, she grinned at us. “Can you make more, Dawny?”

“Ah! Pinkie! How long have you been standing here?!” he managed to stutter as he realised that he had been watched.

“I smelled candied apples and came here in an instant. At first I wanted to give the pony who had let it fall down a once over, but then I saw there were Bonbons and it was all forgotten. Nopony wastes sweets when I’m around. NOPONY!!!” We could only nod as Pinkie’s glare seemed to impale us. “By the way, land in sight,” she added and jumped back down below deck. Dawn and I shook her cameo off and stepped to the bow. Just like Pinkie had said, the Cologne Cathedral was visible in the distance. Düsseldorf had to be close.

Author's Notes:

Translated by LtcWest
Edited by JBL
Proofread by Dj7291993