"Nooooooo!!!!" Celestia screeched as the torrent of memories began to flood around her, consuming her within the pitch blackness of the room. She thrashed about wildly as every memory from Midnights past began to haunt her in ways that she never thought possible. So many memories of death, destruction, hatred, war, and even more that she, herself, had never experienced within her own lifetime, cascading around her like water on a rock, slowly eroding her hardened shell from eons of experiencing some of the same.

As the memories finally finished surrounding her, they began to dissipate, revealing some of the more pleasant memories. Happiness, love, fun times, family.... then death.... The death of his parents and the horror he experienced, during his time of suffering and loneliness. It was so much to take in, too much for just one pony, and where was her husband in all of this? She knew that he would never abandon her like this, normally....

But he was no longer the normal she knew, the normal that she had come to love and rely on. No, he now had his other half within him, making him capable of running... like a coward in the face of danger. Why would he do it though? Why would he run from these... mem....ories?

"By the maker...." Celestia cried out as a certain set of memories came forward. "Why.... Why did he...." She began, only to stop as the reasons behind his actions came forward, giving reason to why she would now consider him a monster among ponies. But could she? Could she really consider him a monster for doing what he did? He had reason to do so, but it still seemed so wrong to her. His life was in danger, yet he would not forfeit it to save this one being?

As she continued to watch though, his actions became more and more violent, taking countless lives in the process as he worked to stay alive. That was until the end of the memory. Tears began to stream down her eyes as she watched in horror as he did the one thing that she could never forget.

Light.....

The darkness began to recede, giving way to the light coming from the hallway as she was gently forced from the room, the door slowly closing and clicking shut behind her.

Sitting there on her haunches, she continued to weep softly for what seemed like hours. Never again would she be able to think the same way about her husband. He had seen so much more than she had ever thought possible. Even more than any of the ponies within her kingdom combined in all the time she had been on this planet. The horrors that he had experienced, the deaths and tragedy, nothing of it was anything like what they had seen or done.

"Midnight...." She spoke softly, hoping that he was near her. "Midnight..." She spoke out a little louder as she wept.

"MIIIIIDNIIIIIIIIIGHT!" She yelled out in the royal whee, causing the entire hall to groan out from the the echoing blast as it traveled down each end of the corridors.

Once the echoes had come to a stop, it was replaced by a soft groan. Not just any groan though, this was a dieing breath. One that chilled her to the very core as she turned, heading toward the sound as slowly as possible. She had heard this tone before from one of the memories she had just experienced. The end result, was something that would haunt her for the rest of her life.

"No....." Celestia spoke out in horror as she saw the lifeless body of her husband laying on the floor of the hallway just a few yards ahead. As quickly as she could, she galloped to his side, laying down in front of him and giving a gasp as she pulled his face to within her view. His eyes were glazed over and solid white, his nose and mouth were both bleeding badly, as if he had been beaten so badly that it had caused him to cough up blood. But there were no visible wounds...

She paused in shock, thinking to when he had ran when she had opened the door. He didn't make it in time to avoid the onslaught of memories, and in doing so, they assaulted him instead of invading him like they had done with her.

"Oh Gods, what have I done?" She wept as she released the spell, hoping that everything would have passed by in the real world as if nothing had happened.

Taking just a moment to gather her magic, the two of them left his mind in a flash of white. Blinking a couple of times, she paused, still clenching them shut as she felt a weight pressing against her forehead and horn before slipping past her, down her cheek and then a sharp pain in her left shoulder just before a thud sounded as the object hit the floor in front of her. Once her vision had returned, she pulled back, wincing in slight pain at the large scrape that had been dealt to her as Midnights horn had run straight down her shoulder and neck.

The dark Alicorn though was in far worse condition as he lay in a pool of blood that was slowly dripping from his mouth and nose on the floor. His mane and tail flickering wildly in different shades of color as it would come closer to his body and then erupt out without notice, before dieing down once again. His breaths were staggering, getting caught in his throat as he attempted to breathe through the bodily fluids that were leaking from him. The site was devastating, to say the least, and it was all because of her.

"No... this is all my fault... To think that this poor being has seen so much within his short life that it would shadow my own experiences... It is unimaginable... But... I now understand why he was so reluctant to show these memories to me." She whispered softly to herself as she levitated his lifeless frame into the air and quickly teleported to the infirmary, placing him on a bed and calling to the doctors.

As she continued to contemplate all of the memories that she had just taken in, she began to issue orders to help the king. Seemingly on auto-pilot and without hesitance what-so-ever. It didn't take long before the king had been stabilized and placed into an induced coma for the night. Everything seemed to happen so quickly though that the sun Goddess, hadn't realized that she was now walking quietly through the halls of the castle, all with the small blood covered scrape still along her neck and shoulder.

"TIA!" Luna shouted, finally breaking her sister from her revere. Celestia snapping her attention to her sister of the night as she was right in her face, shaking her hard enough to seem as if she was being awoken from a bad dream.

"I've been trying to get your attention for several moments dear sister, something must be troubling you badly if you were blocking me out for such a length of time. Please, tell me what is going on." Luna began to plead, pausing as she looked to the scrap and dried blood along her sisters neck and shoulder. "W-what happened?" She looked on in worry as Celestia sighed, looking away from her sister in shame.

"I..." She began, pausing to take in a deep breath before releasing it shakily. "I've done something... something horrible." She finally croaked out as she began to tell her sister about the events that had just transpired. It had only taken a few moments for Luna to get the jest of the situation just before her sister had come to a stop.

"Luna... I hate to ask this of you. But, would you mind..." She trailed off as her sister brought her into a hug.

"I'll go now and see what I can do for him dear sister." Luna smiled to her as she pulled away. "You should have that looked at as well, before the blood stains your coat." She nodded toward the small wound that Midnight had accidentally given her. However, as the two sat there for a moment, realization finally began to set in. The wound... the word kept resounding within their heads as horror began to take over.

"His spells that he cast on us... They're no longer active!" Celestia be gasped.

"But, I thought that the spells he cast were permanent until he had passed on..." That one phrase Luna had just spoken quickly began to make her realize something. Midnight had passed on, in so many words. When Flame had taken control of his body, and then the two had recombined into one being once more.

"This will not bode well for us Tia. Not with what has already occurred in the past. We need to remedy this as quietly as possible, lest we have another incident such as Sombras." Luna quickly stated as she turned, heading toward the infirmary.

"Luna... Don't do anything brash. I'm sure he would cast the spells again without any coercion. Just advise him that the spells have worn off somehow without any further details or why we would like them placed back upon our being." Celestia sighed, looking away as she knew the exact reason she want those spells on her, as well as every other pony.

"I will sister." Luna stated as he horn lit up, making her vanish in a small flash of light.

As Luna appeared within the infirmary, she quietly made her way through the halls. Stopping for a moment to ask where Midnight was being held, she slowly made her way to his room. Once she had come to his room, she slowly pushed the door open, only to pause at the sight before her.

"Discord?" She began, only to stop as she noticed that his eyes were closed as the Draconequess sat next to the dark Alicorn, with his left paw placed upon the stallions forehead just below his horn. "What is he doing?" She quietly asked herself as she went to the opposite side of the bed and took a seat, closing her eyes and letting her magic quickly take her into the realm of dreams.

In a flash of light, Luna appeared within a long hallway with doors lining either side. Each door a different color, with a cutiemark on each to represent the pony in which it belonged to. Many of the doors had a chain across the, showing that the pony wasn't dreaming, while the ones who were dreaming, gave off a soft glow, and lacked the chains to bind them.

After many years of dream jumping, Luna had come to learn where each door was and which pony it belonged to within this long hall. But, she had only jumped into Midnights dreams a hoof full of times. On more than one occasion, they were not a pleasant experience.

Now, however, was different. As this time would be to, not only find out why Midnight had taken such damage from the memories he had shared with Celestia. But to also find out what Discord was up to.

"Here we are." Luna smiled nervously as she came upon Midnight dream door, it giving off a soft glow to show that he was, indeed, dreaming.

As Luna took in a breath, she pressed the door open, gawking at the sight that lay before her. The dream space within Midnight mind was in, to say the least, utter chaos. The princess of the night couldn't believe what she was seeing, even if it was a dream, it was possibly even more chaotic than anything Discord could come up with.

"Discord..." The name fell from her lips softly at first, before she bellowed it out with such force that the dream itself shook, temporarily pausing everything that was going on within it as every being looked at her, then went back to what they were doing. As the dream paused though, Luna noticed that several beings disappeared quickly from sight, and every so often another would cease to exist as a blur quickly bolted past them, and then to in front of Luna, causing her to take a step back.

"Discord?! What is the meaning of this?!" Luna shouted just as she was swept up in his arms as he continued to bolt over to what seemed like random ponies, pick them up, then make them disappear into thin air.

"Luna dear, so good to see you! Although I wish it was under better circumstances." He chuckled before putting on a serious expression that she hadn't seen before.

"Discord? What are you doing to all of these dreamlings?" She asked as she continued watching him make each one of them disappear.

"Dreamlings?" Discord laughed. "These aren't dreamlings my dear, oh no. These are dream eaters that have been bred with soul eaters. I haven't quite figured out the perfect name for them yet, but I'm sure it'll come to me." He chuckled as he wiped a few more from the dream that Midnight was having.

"Wait.... what?! How did soul eater even... nevermind. What are they doing here, in this realm, without my consent?!" Luna snapped as she halted Discords advance in destroying one of them, and pulled it to her within her own magical field.

"Luna, I don't have time to babysit you here and take care of these things. If you aren't part of the solution then you're part of the problem. Just... stay out of my way." He grumbled as he vanished once again in a blaze of speed. Luna, on the other hand, turned slowly to the creature she held within her magic, giving it a glare as she spoke.

"What are you doing in this realm creature? This dreamscape is protected from the likes of your kind." She growled.

The creature squirmed as it began to cackle in a sickly manner before speaking.

"Keh-heh heh heh, do you know to who which you speak child?!" It croaked out in a broken tone. Its form now no longer looking like a pony, but a blackish mist mixed with an oily texture, two glowing orange eyes staring at her as they slanted with each cackle, presumably smiling at her as it spoke out.

"I do not, but I suggest you speak quickly before I remove you into a state of reality so that we can find out through other means, if necessary." She smirked for a moment as the creature seemed a little confused, cocking its head to the side for a moment before cackling loudly once again.

"Remove me from this dream? You would be mad to do so, should you feel the wrath of Idol. My father." It cackled even harder as Lunas face shone more shock than she had ever shone.

"Y-your father is Idol?! But.... how can this be?!" She squeaked for a moment, only to pause and bring the creature closer to her. "You lie! Idol has never bore any children of his own. How could he have had any child with the eater of souls?"

"Luna, Luna, Luna..." Discord trailed off as he grabbed he once more along with the creature and vanished from the dream, reappearing into reality with Luna waking up and the creature appearing within a bottle, corked tightly as it lay within his grasp.

"Luna, you will need to leave here immediately and head toward your room. Do not, under any circumstances, teleport into this bottle, or let this creature out. I've placed multiple spells on it to implode into a tiny blackhole for a very short time before vanishing. I know you have questions, and I'll answer them as soon as I'm done with Charlie boy here." He stated as he patted the dark alicorns nose.

"For now though, off to your room." He stated, waving a paw and making her, along with the bottled creature, vanish into thin air, then reappear in her room.

It took several moments, but Luna snapped back to reality from her lapse of reality. "Uh... what just happened? That was so quick that I cannot clearly comprehend what has just transpired."

"You and me both sister." The creature spoke out as it pecked on the glass, recoiling back as a small shock was sent through its appendage.

Snapping her attention to the small jar that held the creature within it, she snarled slightly as she began to speak. "Alright.... whatever you are, what were your kind doing within the dreams of my friend and on this plain no less. Your kind has been banned for eons from coming here due to an agreement that Idol and I had made some time ago. Our contract doesn't end unless one of us breaks it for some reason, and I have not broken it."

"Well, first of all, you didn't break the contract, and neither did Idol. We were summoned into this realm by some creature who had possession of a very powerful artifact. You may know it as the necronomicon." It grinned evilly as it watch Lunas horror spread across her face, her fur literally standing on end at the very mention of the book.

"We, had no choice in the matter. We were summoned as a fail safe guard against any attacker that would attack the possessor of the book. The being that you pulled me from was just such a creature that had hit our master. Sadly, we never finished eating away at him. We would have been out sooner, but the being had some spells and failsafes of its own on guard to prevent that from happening. Luckily for us though, your sister set us free."

"Set you free? But how?" She began, only to remember what her sister had told her what had happened earlier to Midnight.

"You were in his memories?" She squeaked upon seeing the creatures deepening smile.

"Well, a part of us were. The other, well, lets just say a deal was struck up and we found our other halves laying in wait within that room, combined into something much stronger, and now have a particular taste for dreams, and souls." It began to cackle, but paused as a small portal was opened and the jar placed inside before closing.

"I need to speak to Tia about this, and find out what she really saw in Midnights memories. This thing..... this monster, could not have possibly come here through that book alone." She stated softly as she rushed from the room to find her sister.