Inside his prison of stone Inventor floated, his mind drifting while a dark voice near the back of his mind tried to grab his attention. With some degree of regret Inventor dove back into his mind, to the subconscious where he had banished the evil. “Ah, there you are. I knew you couldn’t stay away.” The being was represented by a swirling mass of darkness that seemed to move and remain still at the same time.

“Doesn’t take a genius to know that, Nightmare.” Inventor said, calm. His manifestation in the mindscape similar to himself.

“This prison will break eventually, then I’ll be able to take over your body and this world will be mine.” The dark embodiment began to tighten and coil, as if overflowing with excitement.

“Not hardly, I’m going to kill you without this prison shattering. I’m just waiting for the fail safe to activate.” Inventor’s tone was patient as he stood perfectly straight-backed with his hands clasped behind him.

“What are you talking about, nothing can break this stone and you can’t kill me while you’re trapped like this, even then, I can’t die.” The nightmare proceeded to laugh. “You truly are insane, you thought you could actually escape this?”

“You’ve no sense of finesse. I’m not going to break out. I’m going to- Oh, there it is now, can you hear the fail safe activating?”

“Wha-” The Nightmare’s laugh ended as a loud whirring noise began to build within the mindscape, clearly coming from one of the machines that Inventor kept in his bag. The darkness stopped its movements. “What are you doing!?”

With a small smile the embodiment of Inventor grasped his top hat and tilted it downward to hide his eyes. “Show time.” The mindscape faded and Inventor’s vision was filled with white light while a loud clockwork beat echoed through his hearing. The man stumbled for a minute from his sudden ability to move and quickly activated his prototype invisibility device that he had managed to put back together.

A jolt of electricity shot through Inventor’s body, causing him to go rigid for a moment. “That gives me half an hour to get to Luna’s room then, hopefully this goes off without a hitch.”

What did you do! You can’t possibly have broken your prison.

Inventor smiled to himself once again and turned around to view his stone prison, still intact, on the pedestal behind him. “So little artistry and imagination in that mind of yours Nightmare.”

It hardly matters, now I can take control of your body faster without the elements to slow me down for centuries.

“Two months yes? I have no worries, we won’t be here for long.” Inventor answered, tugging his outfit back into alignment before running into the labyrinth around them.

Canterlot, Ponyville, doesn’t matter where we are. I will own this body in little time.

“Again, so little artistry.” Inventor said, slowing his pace for a moment as he rounded a corner before returning to his full speed run. “Tell me, have you ever thought about dimensional travel?”

I’m aware that’s how you arrived here, why? The Nightmare was beginning to sound worried and rightfully so.

“You know that every being is unique in and of its own universe. Held together by that uniqueness. That’s why you can’t reproduce actual copies of things with magic, they are torn apart as soon as they are created. Only the original can exist.” The exit to the labyrinth was close now and Inventor crossed easily across the threshold and kept his pace towards the castle.

So what are you planning exactly?

“And short sighted, you’re that too.” Inventor’s words were soft as he maneuvered through the crowded hallways of the noon castle trying to avoid any attention a wayward noise might bring. “I’m going to jump dimensions again, this time to one where you already exist. This will shred you to pieces due to the magical duplicity and the universe’s need to prevent paradoxes.”

You’re lying, even if that is what happens you wouldn’t have the guts to do it.

Inventor made his way to the upper floors where the princesses rooms were located. “Under normal circumstances, you would be absolutely correct. If you had come for me first, or if you hadn’t come at all and I had stumbled across you myself, I wouldn’t be able to kill you in my right mind. But that isn’t the case, you tried to embed yourself in my son.” The man stopped at a crossroads of halls and looked around for a moment before continuing his walk. “And for that... you die.”

With his eyes set in a determined glare Inventor found the door he was looking for and knelt in front of it. The Nightmare had gone silent, leaving the man to focus as he pulled out a small, extendable rod from his bag. Placing the tip of the rod at the back of the hole in which was built for the princesses to insert their horns, Inventor retrieved a rectangular box and hooked it up to the rod, causing it to start emitting a soft blue glow.

Several minutes passed slowly before the door clicked slightly and opened a crack. Inventor reached into the crack with his mechanical arm and used what little traction there was to open the door the rest of the way. After retrieving both rod and box Inventor made his way into the room and closed the door behind him.

The inside of the room made it appear to be midnight, causing Inventor to pause for a moment before he realized that the reason for the extremely dark room was due to the lack of windows, or any other opening for that matter, to show the sun outside. The small balcony that had been so easily spotted from his arrival in the room those many months ago had been removed for some reason or another, taking the few windows that had been on the walls with it. Shaking off his tangent the man looked to the bed near the the center of the floor that had started to come into view as his eyes adjusted to the darkness.

Upon the bed was the lunar princess herself and Inventor couldn’t help but flinch over the spike of guilt that shot through his heart. So carefree, I always hated these sisters. That was the main reason that I targeted the youngest first, to cause the eldest hurt. The echoing voice of the nightmare spoke from its silence, the voice clear in the man’s head but silent outside it.

Without a word Inventor slowly began heading towards the edge of the room, the point from which he had first entered the world. Reaching out his hand for the position the man felt a tingling sensation shoot up his arm, causing the man to nod to himself. Mimicking his actions from earlier he set up the rod and box again and placed the system directly adjacent to the dimensional instability.

The man flicked a switch on the side of the box and stood to his full height as a soft blue glow began to fill the room. Just as a ripple had started to cross the open air a rustle from the bed caught his attention and Inventor turned to the position. The lunar princess slowly rose from the bed mumbling.

“I thought I got rid of that clock.” She said to herself, moving to go back to bed before her eyes caught the soft blue glow. “W-what?” She asked, slowly standing from her position. Another ripple crossed the air and a jolt of electricity ran through Inventor’s body once again, freezing him in place as his invisibility device faulted.

Luna’s eyes went wide when Inventor came in view and she immediately began to run toward him, not believing her eyes. The man tried to mouth his concern but the paralysis that ran through his body still hadn’t decayed and his vocal cords would not operate. As she swung her arms around the man electricity began shooting forth from the portal, realizing her mistake far too late the portal began to swirl, pulling both beings into the interior.

As they fell through the blue Inventor looked at Luna, who had fear shining in her eyes. And watched helplessly as her body began to disappear and fade away. He was too far away now and he could only watch as Luna witnessed herself being destroyed. Bah, you’re really something you know that? The Nightmare was once again talking, though this time it appeared that Luna could hear it as well. If she were to die right now you would probably kill yourself when you got to the other world. Which, to be frank, would be far too dark, even for me.

Inventor watched in awe as a spiraling black mist exited his finger, the mist itself slowly disappearing as well. You owe the me in this next world should you meet her, don’t forget. With that the darkness entered into Luna and her body began to warp into that of Nightmare Moon.

“Of course, she’s combining their magics.” Inventor said to himself, unable to resist analyzing the situation despite his surroundings. “But she’s leaving Luna’s magic as the primary, meaning that even if Nightmare Moon itself is still an entity in this next world it won’t have the same magical signature as Luna does right now.”

When the magic had completed the form of Nightmare Moon made itself known she immediately fell into an unconscious state from the energy required to completely change a magical signature. Inventor smiled to himself and tilted his hat towards the unconcious mare and laughed slightly. “I’ll remember Nightmare, you saved Luna. The least I can do is help you.”

Just as he finished the man saw the light rise up around his peripheral vision. “It seems this is where we get off.” The light covered Inventor’s sight and he fell helplessly through the air after exiting. Looking over his shoulder Inventor saw that they had emerged in mid air, high above Cloudsdale and set on a crash course with it.

Looking back up to Nightmare Luna Inventor quickly figured out that she would remain on Cloudsdale while he passed harmlessly through it. Panic began to rise in his mind at the thought of separating from Luna and his mind began to work frantically on a plan to change the events that were about to occur.

“Crap crap crap, there’s nothing for it. The only way I can hope that this works out in my favor is to get to Canterlot and hope to high heaven that they haven’t sent out a patrol for her yet.” With that resolved, Inventor flipped over in mid air, turning to face the ground, and made himself as aerodynamic as he could to reach the ground as quickly as possible.

A few pegasi witnessed the descending blur and moved away as he pierced through the cloud, leaving them to their own thoughts as he shot past the cloud level and got his bearings on where Canterlot was. With a flex of his muscles the wings snapped open on his sides and caught the air in a powerful jerk, choking Inventor for a minute, before leveling off and stablizing into a glide.

Redirecting himself in mid air Inventor began his glide toward the mountain city only a fair distance off, his speed still quite high. “I hate time trials.” Inventor said to himself, the adrenaline pumping through his veins as he did so. “But I can’t let this happen, I won’t allow Luna to be hurt on my account.”

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Steamlord had finished re-adjusting his mechanical arm, the cogs having slightly rusted after his latest invention. It needed a few tweaks. It was supposed to help the pegasi get water up to Cloudsdale. However, he didn’t exactly make it as perfect as he had hoped. The first test, as he witnessed, flooded the plains it was used in. A few nanobots sent by Security System was enough to remove the red rusting. The man tried to bend his arm and his fingers. Test successful. With this, he finally left his bedroom within his newly refurbished ship. It had only been a month since he was named Chief Engineer by Celestia, and he cherished this brand new title. In-fact, he was the first to receive it, and the first non-pony to receive a special title from the princess, let alone pony royalty.

“Crusader Knights, let’s go.” he said with a deep bellow.

It was a good thing he wore goggles, as his deep voice and clothing slightly shocked everypony who saw him, even if they knew him, let alone his silent, robotic bodyguards that followed him everywhere. Said bodyguards were shaped into three of the medieval ages’ crusader orders. This, followed by their strange agility, similar appearances, massive claymores, and imposing height, lowered them to a symbol of fear. Why? Not many ponies had seen sophisticated robots in Equestria, let alone gigantic, reconverted war machines that tore through the world. Every clanking noise made by both the bodyguards and Steamlord’s boots were met with fleeing servants and other task forces within the castle.

The final thing that made the bodyguards so creepy were their “eyes”. Although they are actually special cameras developed by Steamlord and built by the ship’s AI, Security System, they still looked like glowing eyes with the grayish helmet plates that served as their heads. Templar had red eyes, that burned through one’s soul with fury. Hospitaller had white, and these had a tendency to make everybody shrink when seeing “him”. The last, perhaps, was the most fearsome of them all. Teutonic. It always kept to itself, and was the man’s most trusted “friend”. Perhaps, because they went through quite alot together despite the other two being at the same location.

Despite this, Steamlord ruffled his brown coat and continued through the castle grounds, admiring the green grass that had been waiting ever-so patiently for the new sunlight. The bushes were trimmed into fine shapes, and the paths were all so clean, that you could eat on a pile of mud thrown down on that path, and still become healthier than ever.

Celestia had called for him to meet her in the throne room as soon as possible for some urgent matters. She needed him to start working on another possible invention after he finished the water expeller. Waiting in front of the sunny castle entrance was a single stallion who looked for “hoity”. This elderly gray pony wore a black tuxedo and had such good manners that even the beasts of Tartarus would learn to drink with a cup and eat with a fork while complementing each other.

“Sir Steamlord?” he asked in the calmest of manners.

“Yes. I’m here for Celestia’s summoning.” the man said with a mild smile.

The elderly stallion huffed, and gestured for the weird giant to follow him, along with his bodyguards.

“Sir, I should ask that you refer to her highness as ‘princess’. I don’t take lightly to formalities here.”

“I know, Jumcolt, but we know eachother quite a lot now. Plus, I don’t care about her title of royalty. You need respect to earn someone’s trust.” The colt tilted his head slightly towards Steamlord and gave a faint smile.

“Indeed. True titles are earned. They are not born with. However, I should still ask for some manners.” Jumcolt turned around and adjusted his bow-tie. “A true gentlecolt always acts his best in front of any crowd.”

Walking along the hallway revealed quite a few things to the attentive pony...and griffon...and whatever manner of creature passed through these corridors. The walls seemed to still be plastered with their lovely wallpaper of blue covered in yellow flowers, but it seemed to have some form of red lights here and there within the center of said flowers. To show his good will, and allow Security System some freedom, Steamlord installed new security measures within the castle. They weren’t complete, though. Sure, they covered the entrances and windows pretty well, but they didn’t go too deep with the castle itself. At best, the security reached a few feet away from said doors and windows.

“Tell me, Jumcolt.” Steamlord started, keeping his arms behind his back. “What else do you do,besides being the head butler of the castle?”

“Umm...not much, really. Like most servants, my family has catered to royalty’s every whim and desire. We are one of the few to have been serving them for...ohhh...well over twelve centuries.”

“Twelve?”

“Yes. There are others besides the princesses, you know.”

“True. True. Like the griffon king and all that.”

“Quite.”

“Indeed.”

“Indubitably.”

“Most indeededly.” Steamlord finished as he stroked his inexistent beard.

“Mhmmm. Well then. We are here. I would ask your...mechanical monstrosities to wait here.” The knights leaned closer to the pony, who did not flinch at their attempt to intimidate him. “But I do not think they will listen to me.”

“No. Heh. No they won’t.”

“Then, please. Enter the royal throne room.”

“Gotta push these huge doors first.”

Most indeededly. The doors to the throne room were quite immense. Like always, they were extremely tall, very thick, with the left side of the door wielding the symbol of Luna, while the right wielded that of Celestia. Now, for any non-unicorn ponies, it would certainly take ten individuals to open these doors, while it would probably take five minotaurs. Not for the upgraded bodyguards of Steamlord. Teutonic even showed how “worthless” they were by standing next to a door, and pushing it open with one arm. The “camereyes” of the Crusader Knights are capable of modifying their glow to show a limited amount of expressions, but Teutonic. He had no glow. It was a misconception during his creation. This didn’t bother its creator however, as the black pits that should be eyes were empty and increased his intimidating capabilities. The bot crossed its arms and turned towards Jumcolt’s position, imposing its superiority. The gentlecolt made no attention to the actions of the “ruffian” and simply left afterwards, but not before saying one last thing:

“I will be seeing you afterwards.”

“Yes. Yes. I’ll see you afterwards too. Now then. In we go.”

The human entered the gigantic chambers. Sure, the doors leading to the throne room were big, but these doors held nothing to the height and width of this nearly white room. Tapestries and such on the walls, decorative plants and marble statues lined along the walls and next to the throne, and stained glass above the throne and decorating the rest of the higher walls with the feats of past heroes of ponykind. The throne was met with a silky red carpet that stretched from the entrance to the said seat with a great shine. The throne itself looked like a cake. Several layers of circular steps, precisely ten, were needed to be climbed to reach the princess’ regal seat. I

Instead of just the typical giant golden throne with sun ornaments on them, there was now a brand new, silver colored throne with blue cloth instead of red, and with moon ornaments instead. Steamlord found this one to be prettier, but was still raveling in the brightness of Celestia.

“Steamlord.”

“Yeah?”

“Still so familiar i see? Anyways, I need you to create a new invention.”

“Yes. I still need to tweak out a few things with the aqua vacuum and a new contingency scanner.”

“I know what your aqua vacuum is for. It’s to lesson the work need by pegasi to get water to their cities, but what is this ‘contingency vacuum’?”

“You know how I got here from another dimension?”

“Yes.”

“Well, I’ve picked up quite a few quantum energy wavelengths here and there, and they have been popping up here and there. I suppose it’s because of my uncontrolled entry into your world."

“Oh my. Is it bad?”

“Not really. They’re really too small to let anything through, but there are certainly bigger ones that I can’t detect with my current equipment.. This contingency vacuum will reel in air particles from a large zone and analyze them in order to home in on their point of origin. I-”

“Steamlord. Respond. I have detected a tearing in the fabric of space. Attempting to locate.”

“Security System?”

“What is it?” Celestia seemed worried by this sudden, unexpected event.

“It seems that SS detected another tear, but above Canterlot.”

“Hmm. I’ll send my guards to scan the areas.”

“Bah. I’m sure its just a small hole that doesn’t have any impor-”

“Organic life-forms detected. Interference detected.”

“And that, dear Celestia, is why she is my best AI ever. This would be a good chance to go scout the area. I’ll go with my Crusader Knights to sweep every nook and cranny of the castle while your guards check Canterlot.”

“But what about-”

“Your invention? It can wait. This might be a very dangerous creature, so it would be wise to protect the present so your ‘needs’ can have a future.”

“You’re right. Let’s go. I’ll call for the guards while you sweep the area.”

“Send someone to me if they find anything.”

“Understood.”

Steamlord and his bodyguards left the interior of the castle while the creator’s ship had begun to ring a danger siren. Celestia, on her side, called for the captains and generals. This would either be a dangerous mission, or one that needlessly mobilized everypony.