Wind suddenly hit his face. Strong, cold wind, digging its bitter fingers into his skin and chilling him to the bone.

He couldn’t remember what had happened. He couldn’t remember where he was or why he was there. His mind was blank, hollow of all thoughts and dreams, and the biting cold burrowed itself into that void like a parasite

Standing on top of a tall ridge, he could see tall mountains in the distance, dark and grey, their snowy summits tearing through the blood read sky like a jagged blade. Clouds as black as the night itself travelled quickly across the seemingly unending sky, moving in the directions of the mountains.

Below the ridge he saw nothing but an endless sea of white, broken at times by other ridges and rocks, giving an almost realistic illusion of waves across the world below. Cold, stony waves that would shatter anything it touched.

Far away on the other side of the sea, and before the imposing mountains, stood a single solitary spire, reaching high into the sky. He couldn’t make out any sort of colour or details in the thin, tall structure, only the shadows of the clouds passing above it, and the dull red skies mirrored across the spire’s surface.

The more he looked at it, the more he felt himself drawn to it. The spire wanted to pull him in, and he felt a strong urge to oblige to its whish.

His legs moved on their own, slowly carrying him forwards, towards the spire.

Black feathers sailed through the air in front of his face, seemingly falling from the heavens above, dancing across the sky like leaves in the wind.

One of his feet met nothing but air, and the next moment he was falling. He closed his eyes again and waited for the final, sudden stop.

Visions appeared in the darkness covering his eyes. Distorted faces and symbols he couldn’t understand, and more feathers, black as night yet blazing bright like fire. Specks of snow joined them, and his limbs became cold as ice.

In the darkness he saw a man, dressed in black, sitting atop a throne of bones and dust, ashes and skulls. The man looked at him, his face hidden behind a hood. His throat was slit and blood poured down his neck, yet the man grinned widely at him.

He opened his eyes again, and found that he was no longer falling; he was now standing in a small clearing, where the ground was covered in nothing but a thin layer of snow, grass trying to break through the fine white powder. Trees stood aligned around him, forming a perfect circle at the borders of the meadow. They all burned, but gave off no heat.

It took him a moment to realize that he wasn’t alone anymore. Two other beings had joined him.

The first was a dark blue creature draped in a black cloak, its shimmering blue hair moving in a breeze he couldn’t feel, and tiny twinkles of light faded in and out across its unyielding hair.

The second was a tall man in black robe, his face concealed behind a hood. The same one that he’d just seen on the throne. Something hung in a string around his neck, giving off a faint light.

Not a slither of doubt existed in his mind as to who the man was.

Mattias.

Who the other one was, the pony, he had no idea, and it looked nothing like the ones he’d seen before. Taller, sleeker, and strangely enough, bearing both a horn and wings.

Behind them the line of burning trees broke, and through it he could see the distant silhouette of the black spire, foreboding and ominous, dark and harrowing, like a final judgment about to rain down upon him.

When his gaze returned to the couple in front of him, something had changed. They started to fade, shift colour. Mattias’ black robe was first, changing into a dull, filthy grey colour, starting down the hemline and moving up like clouds. Same happened to the pony next to him. Soon, both of them had become completely grey, and their facial features now nothing more than bumps in the dusty surface.

He tried to reach out to them, but found his arm not responding to him.

The burning trees suddenly went out, all at once as if a powerful gust of wind snuffed them out, but he felt nothing. The charred leaves pulled away from the trees and soared up, morphing and twisting into black feathers, much like the ones he’d seen when he fell.

He saw the tower in the distance suddenly gleam. A sharp line of light ran through it in an instant, like the swath of a blade tearing through smoke. He couldn’t do anything but watch as the tower slowly crumbled and fell under its own weight.

The air suddenly filled with objects as clear as the sun, bright shards of what looked to be crystal shooting through the air like speeding bullets. Bullets aimed straight for him.

No pain came to him when the sharp crystal pierced his skin, no blood leaked from his wounds. He looked down, and saw his own body being torn to shreds as more and more of the strange crystals cut through his chest and abdomen.

He looked back up, and saw the very same crystals hit his brother. One sailed through his chest like it was nothing, sending a plume of grey ashes flying into the air. Another hit his shoulder, with the same result. Soon, what once had been Mattias crumbled, falling into nothing but a pile of pure dust, same as the strange pony besides him.

He could hear the trees crack and bend around him.

Nothing remained but the feathers and crystals as Anton felt something sharp tear through his skull, and the world blackened.

Anton awoke from his dreams with a sharp inhale that hurt his lungs. He started to cough, and instantly felt an aching pain in the side of his neck. Out of instinct his hand shot up to touch it, but he quickly realized that he was too weak to reach. With a groan he let his arm fall back.

Blinking slowly to rid his eyes of the drowsy haze, he found himself staring at a high ceiling, white and surprisingly clean, considering the things he’d seen so far and the state that this world apparently was in. it was almost spotless, like someone had just recently polished it.

“Ash? Can you hear me?”

The voice came from somewhere to his right. After a few seconds of silence, Anton pushed himself enough to turn his head towards the voice. He gritted his teeth as the pain came back to him, feeling like thin, cold nails cutting into his skin.

A pony was sitting just next to him, its blue eyes observing him from behind a pair of glasses. It bore what looked like a tattered trench coat and held a cup of something steamy between its hooves.

“Ah, you’re awake. Good.” It said, the voice clearly that of a female, but its ragged clothing, coupled with her matching black fur and mane betrayed any sort of femininity. The only feminine thing about her was the scarf that hung around her neck, striped in pink and purple.

“Where-“ Anton tried to speak, but his throat was too dry and he started hacking and wheezing yet again. He felt a hoof tap him lightly on his arm as he did.

“Slow down there, Ash.” The black pony said. “You’re in no shape to talk, silly.”

Once he finally stopped coughing, Anton let his head fall back down on the pillow with a deep, heavy sigh. At that point, he became very aware of the rest of his body, how badly it ached.

“I-I’m not…”

“I’m sure you’re not, whatever it is you aren’t, but try not to talk, okay? You’re lucky to still be kicking, you know.”

Anton looked back at her momentarily. She had an almost goofy smile over her face, but a smile nonetheless, and her eyes seemed to almost practically beam. Somehow, seeing it made him feel just a little bit better and more at ease.

“… I don’t… understand.” Anton managed to push out. “Where am… I?”

“Oh, sorry! I forgot to tell you.” The pony said. “You’re in a hospital. Not just any hospital either, but From Dust Memorial Hospital! An old king built it many years ago, and it’s not actually still in business of course, but there’s a few of us here like me and Topaz who’s kind of mayor, if you can be mayor of a hospital, and we try to keep it up and running as best as we can and apparently you look almost exactly like that old king, and-!”

She shut her mouth in an instant. “Sorry, I got a bit too quick there, didn’t I?”

Anton raised his eyebrows and shrugged slightly.

“I tend to ramble a lot.” The pony said. “But yes, you’re in a hospital and have been here for a few days, we’ve been treating your wound there.” She pointed a hoof towards his neck. “It was pretty disgusting, really. Not just regular-disgusting, but closer to blegh-disgusting, and that’s really bad, with puss and blood and all that. So yeah, blegh.”

“… How did I… get here?” Anton said slowly, stifling another coughing fit.

“Somepony brought you in, of course! How else do you get a passed out pony into a hospital, they’re not gonna walk themselves there, right? Or passed out person in your case, I guess. If you walked in here in the state you where in, you would’ve looked like a zombie or something! And the others would probably have killed you instantly. But that’s okay, because they didn’t!”

Once she was done, Anton couldn’t help but stare right at her with wide eyes. She still had that goofy smile, and she looked almost like she was about to jump him and hug him any second. He started to wonder if she was actually telling the truth, or if she was a bit crazy. Probably both.

“… My name’s not Ash.” He managed to say after a little while. “It’s Anton.”

“Really? That’s odd, the filly who brought you in said your name was Ash! Why would she say that? Still, I like Ash, it suits you! An-ton? Anton? That’s a weird name, I can’t pronounce it properly, so Ash it is! Oh right, this is where I tell you my name, huh?”

Anton just stared at her, still confused and dazed. Now more so than before, he thought.

“The others just call me Coal, and sometimes Miss Coal.” The pony said. “They think it’s hilarious, but I don’t, I think it’s mean and rude. It’s not my fault that both my parents happened to have black in their colours! Mom had black mane and dad had black fur, and I just happened to inherent that blackness from both of them, I can’t help it! But, yeah, my real name’s Holly. Actually, my full name is Jolly Holly, but I think you can see why I prefer to be called just Holly. So call me Holly, okay?”

“….Holly?” Anton whispered. “Does… coffee exist… here? If it does, I think… you should.... s-stop drinking it…”

“Huh? Why?” She asked, before taking a swig of the cup in her hooves. “I like coffee, coffee’s good!”

Anton shook his head slowly. “Never mind…” He turned his head away from her, looking back to the ceiling. He groaned again as the pain in his neck came back, and put his forearm over his eyes to shut out the light.

“I should probably be surprised… that you aren’t calling me murderer or y-yelling at me…” Anton began. “… But I’m really not… Wait, did you say a ‘filly’ brought me here?”

“Yeah, a Unicorn. Kinda pretty actually, despite the way she barged in and yelled at us. I think her name was Lilly or something like that? The others were afraid of you at first, didn’t even want to help you, and some of them still are which is why I’m here keeping an eye on you, none of the others wanted to be alone with you since they’ve never seen a human before! Not that I have either, seen a human that is, but I don’t think you’re dangerous in any way!”

“Why not?”

“You have a kind face.” Holly said, sounding surprisingly calm for once. “And I’m pretty sure that that Lilly-pony would kick your ass and mop the floor with you if you did anything to harm anypony. Is she always so angry?”

“I-I don’t know, I… barely know her.” Anton answered. “But I guess we’re even now…”

“Even? Does her shouting like a madpony make you even?”

Anton sighed. “No, I-I saved her life. She was attacked, and I got this wound in the process. I guess she’s saved my life now as well…”

“Oh… Yeah, that makes a lot more sense than her screaming. What happened to you, anyway? What bit you?”

Anton removed his arm from his eyes and gave her another long stare. “… You seem very calm about talking to a freaking human. Aren’t you wondering who I am or how I got here in the first place?

Holly scrunched her face for a moment before responding. “Nope, not really! You’re here now and alive, and that’s good enough for me!” She took a quick glance into the cup she held and frowned. “Aw, no more coffee.” Still frowning, Holly threw the cup over her shoulder, which then crashed into the wall behind her.

Anton blinked in bafflement. “… Has anyone ever told you that you’re-“

“Crazy?” Holly said, interrupting him. “Odd, strange, nuts, whacked, insane in the membrane? Oh yes, all the time! I don’t think I’m crazy, though. I just need more coffee!” She stood up from the chair next to the bed and turned towards the door on the opposite side of the room. “You want anything? A glass of water or something? Ice cream? Not that we have any, but if we did you- Oh, maybe a nice cup of coffee!”

“No, please, not coffee!” Anton exclaimed. “Anything but coffee. Water will be fine, thanks.”

“Suit yourself, you grouch! BRB!”

With that, she bolted out the door and disappeared. Anton couldn’t help but stare after her, confused beyond belief. Whoever this Holly was, he was now sure that she had more than just a screw loose inside her brain, but he still thought she was kind of sweet. Completely bat-shit insane, he told himself, but at least nice and polite.

A few minutes passed, and she didn’t come back. Nothing else happened, and Anton found himself gazing into the ceiling, but the longer he stayed still, the more he felt an annoying itch, the simple need to just stand up and do something instead of just lying there. Despite the pain in his neck, he started to feel like a useless sack of crap, and it drove him mad.

Groaning, he slowly propped himself up on his elbows. He took a peek around the room, and found that it looked pretty much like the hospitals he was used to, albeit a little more sparse in its furnishings.

Besides the bed he was on and the chair next to him, there was a small cabinet to the right, and a low table and a rickety chair to the left. The walls and floor where barren, no paintings or rugs or any other sorts of decoration anywhere.

As he managed to spin himself around, he started to wonder if it had all been a dream. Maybe things weren’t so bad on the outside if things seemed this normal here.

He shuddered as his bare feet touched upon the cold stone floor. At least he still wore his jeans, thankfully.

Maybe he was still dreaming. Maybe he was still in the alley behind that café, passed out next to the policeman. Or perhaps that was just a dream too, and he was in bed, sleeping. A part of him hoped that was the case.

His skin started to crawl from the cold, and at the apparent lack of any direct clothing, he opted to wrapping the covers of the bed around him like some make-shift robe. It gave him some warmth at least, and made him feel just a little less exposed.

Anton made his way across the room towards the small cabinet, tugging the blanket closer around his bare skin. Upon opening the first drawer, he found nothing, and shut it before moving to the second, which brought him more luck. Folded neatly inside it was the rest of his clothing. Anton pulled out the t-shirt and hoodie and got dressed quickly.

Once he was done he threw the blanket back on the bed, and then returned to the cabinet to check the other drawers as well. In the third, he found both his leather jacket and the cloak he’d gotten from that store earlier.

The jacket felt cold in his bare hands, but at least it had been cleaned of the excess ash and snow that it had gathered before, out in the streets. Anton brought the jacket to his face and took a deep breath, letting the soothing smell of leather fill his nose. And there was something else, the faint aroma that still lingered, just as it always had. The smell of his brother.

A few moments later he’d pulled on the old jacket and draped the cloak over his shoulders, and took care to not strain his neck too much and at the same time avoided disturbing the bandage wrapped around his throat.

He looked up, and spotted a window on the opposite side of the bed that he hadn’t noticed earlier. The blinds where closed shut. It took him a couple of seconds to walk across the room towards it, mainly because he still felt groggy and dizzy, and a headache had slowly begun to grow.

Still, he felt a burning desire to open the blinds. He wanted to see the outside just to make sure of what was actually there. When he reached the window, he forced himself to stand upright, propped a hand against the side of the wall to prevent himself from losing his balance.

After a few seconds of fruitless fumbling, he managed to grab the string at the side of the window, and pulled it downwards as much as he could. The blinds shot up, instantly letting in blinding rays of bright light that caused him to flinch and the string slipped out of from between his fingers.

The blinds slammed into the bottom of the windowsill with a loud bang that caused his ears to ring. Anton grabbed the string yet again and pulled it, but this time holding his other hand over his eyes to shut out the worst of the light.

He blinked a few times, squinted into the light. His eyes watered, as if he’d been in complete darkness for the longest time, but after a little while, he got used to the sun’s rays. Outside, he saw nothing but tall buildings and empty streets, covered in deep snow and frost. Icicles hung from various buildings, some of them looking to be several feet long and sharp as nails.

On the tallest building of them all stood the head of a pony, but much more horse-like in appearance. It looked to be made out of either bronze, or it was just that covered in rust. Down in the streets, close to the building with the head, he spotted what looked to be a large, forested area, dotted by tiny meadows and a big, frozen lake. To the right, the city ended abruptly into the ocean, and several massive bridges, most of them broken and rusted, connected it with the mainland.

It was like looking at a spitting image of Manhattan. A slightly altered Manhattan, especially in architecture, but very much alike it nonetheless. The more he looked at the empty and hollow city, the more he wondered just how anything could live out there. Or how Lilly managed to survive the night and drag his sorry ass here. Perhaps she was stronger than she looked. Or perhaps his sorry ass was just easy to drag.

When he let the blinds drop down again, though this time controlled and without the loud bang, he suddenly found himself wanting. A craving that started to take hold in his mind, like an itch he couldn’t scratch.

“… Fan, jag måste röka…” He whispered to himself before rubbing his eyes with his thumb and index finger.

Anton sat down on the bed again with a heavy sigh, and was just about to lie down to try and calm himself when a knock on the door reached his ears.

“Uh… come in?” He said, before raising his voice. “Yeah, come in!”

The door opened inwards slowly, and the first thing Anton saw was a mess of all the colours of the Rainbow, followed by a red face.

“Willow?” Anton said, standing up from the bed as the Pegasus greeted him with a genuine smile. “What are you doing here?”

“Looking out for you, of course.” Willow said as he trotted over to Anton. “I stumbled upon Lilly and you a couple of days ago after I…”

“After you what?” Anton asked.

Willow’s eyes looked away from him for just a second. “Nothing, it’s not important. Still, I helped Lilly carry you here, and I’ve been keeping close watch on you since.”

Anton sat down on the bed again. “Why? I haven’t done anything to deserve you’re help, I’m just… lost.”

“That’s what friends do, right? Look after each other.”

“… Yeah, I guess. Thanks.” Anton said after a few moments of silence. He’d been taken aback by Willow’s claim. Never did he think that someone who barely knew him would see him as a friend. And a pony that barely knew him, on top of that. Still, it was a comforting thought, having a friend in this strange, broken world.

“So…” Willow said. “What happened? You just disappeared on me and Crescent. Where did you go?”

“Long story.” Anton said before hopping further up the bed, swinging his legs up and resting his back against the wall. Once he’d settled, he told Willow everything that had happened, how he chased down a man who looked like his brother, the wings, the illusion and how he eventually ran into Lilly.

“You’re lucky.” Willow said when Anton finished his story. “You only met one of those bleak ponies…”

“I thought the one was bad enough.” Anton said before he pulled his shirt to the side and gave Willow a good look of the bite in his neck. “He was like a vicious animal.”

Willow nodded his head. “You saved Lilly’s life, though. I’m sure she’s thankful you did.”

“Holly told me otherwise. That Lilly was mad as all hell, screaming and shouting.”

“Holly’s nuts.” Willow said bluntly. “Lilly was screaming, yes, but only because they refused to take you in at first. She told me she never wants to see anyone else die ever again, and that she’d do anything to stop it if she could.”

“See anyone die again?” Anton asked. “Oh wait, I think… I remember her muttering about… someone? Kept saying she could save him?”

“She just recently lost someone very close to her. It was awful.” Willow said.

“You where there? What happened?”

Willow sighed and pursed his mouth. “… His name was Duskshine. I barely knew him, don’t know what kind of relationship he and Lilly had, but she cared deeply for him.” He gave Anton a solemn look. “Those psychopaths cut his throat. Right in front of Lilly.”

Anton had no idea what to say, and just stared at Willow, mouth slightly agape. “I… that’s…”

“Yeah…” Willow said.

“Is that… Is that why she’s so angry?” Anton asked cautiously.

“Maybe, I don’t know. Could just be her way of coping with her grief. Everypony has their way of doing it.”

“And what about you? You might not have known the guy, but still, it must’ve been terrible.”

“How I cope with it?” Willow asked. “I don’t. I just keep quiet, keep it inside.”

They both remained silent for a while, Anton deep in his thoughts. The idea of seeing someone die before him, especially in such a horrible way, made his blood freeze in their veins. It was no surprise that Lilly had acted the way she did, saying that she didn’t care, over and over. She really didn’t care about anything, but then he came along and spurred her on.

“Willow…” Anton said. “Do you… do you think I’m hindering her grief?”

“What do you mean?” Willow asked.

“I mean, what if me getting injured interrupted something? What if her choice to help me and possible save my life got I the way of her grieving?”

“… Maybe. But I’m sure she’ll be fine, eventually. She’s strong, that mare. I don’t think you have anything to worry about.”

“I hope you’re right. The last thing she needs is me screwing her over..”

Willow nodded before speaking again. “Anyway, it’s good to see you’re feeling better; for a while there, we were worried that you wouldn’t wake up.” He turned towards the door. “I’d better leave you alone now, give you some time to rest. I could send someone up to check on you later, if you want to.”

“Sure, thanks.” Anton said, followed by another nod from Willow before he trotted to the door. “Willow, wait! Do you think… you could try and get something for me?”

“Get what?” Willow asked.

“… Cigarettes? Or, you know, tobacco? I really, really need a smoke.”

Willow looked at him, frowning. “I… I have no idea what that is. Sigarets? Never heard of it.”

Anton sighed. ”You sure? Long, thin paper stick, filter on one end, you light the other end?”

“No, no idea what you’re talking about, sorry”

“Damn it.” Anton said. “Fine, whatever, forget it. I’ll manage without. I’ll try.”

“Right. I’ll send someone up in... an hour or two, maybe?” Willow asked.

“Actually-“ Anton said, and pushed himself out of bed. “I’ll go with you. I don’t want to sit here and be of no use, might as well take a look around.”

“I think it’s better if you rest…”

“Don’t worry, I’m fine, Willow!” Just as he said so, Anton felt his knee buckle and tripped to the side and hit his shoulder against the wall. “See?” He said with a smirk. “Perfectly fine.”

Willow rolled his eyes, but didn’t protest. A few seconds later, Anton followed him out of the room.

They emerged into a long, white hallway, and at first, Anton stood perplexed at what he saw. Ponies. Lots of them. Ponies trotting back and forth, other walking and talking in pairs, some even wearing white coats like the ones that doctors would wear.

“You look surprised.” Willow said with a smirk.

“…. I thought this whole town was abandoned.” Anton answered. “When Holly said ‘a few ponies’, I really thought no more than a handful, but this…”

Willow smiled up at Anton as they both walked down the hall. “Maybe things aren’t as bad as you thought. Hell, even I was surprised to see all of this at first. But at least we’re safe here. Protected. Come on, I think Lilly’s in the library.”

“They have a freaking library?!” A few ponies looked over at him to see who was shouting, but instantly turned to look the other way. “Still afraid of me, huh…” Anton whispered to himself.

“Yeah, they managed to save some books apparently. And they said that Stalkers sometimes bring more.”

“Huh.” Anton said. “I never thought Lilly was a book worm.” They rounded a corner and came into a larger hallway, its walls lined with sofas and tables in varying states of disarray.

“Ha, you and me both.” Willow said with a chuckle.

As they walked through the room, Anton suddenly spotted a familiar face. Holly was sitting in a sofa, two empty cups standing on the table next to her, and another one in her hooves. She caught sight of him and waved happily.

“Hey, Ash!” Anton smiled and waved his hand back at her. “You look so different with your clothes on!”

Willow tried to hold back a chuckle, but failed horribly.

“Oh, wait!” Holly said, sitting up straight in the sofa. “I forgot something! Oh right, I was supposed to give you a glass of water, like, ages ago!”

“Don’t worry, Holly, it’s fine-“ Anton tried, but Holly interrupted him mid-sentence.

“Do you want some now? Or maybe a cup of coffee?”

Anton shook his head. “No thanks, I just want to take a look around with Willow here.”

In the blink of an eye, Holly had left the sofa and stood next to them. “Can I come with you? Please, I’m so bored!”

“Sure, if you want to.” Anton said.

“We’re going to the library.” Willow filled in.

“Library? Blegh, I hate books, books are boring.” She turned around and looked back at the sofa she’d been sitting in. “Oh look, somepony forgot their coffee!” She darted back to her cups without another word.

“Mad as a cow, that one.” Willow said quietly.

“… Did you just call her a cow? That’s not very nice, you know.”

“But it’s the truth.”

They kept on down the hallways in silence, running into a few ponies on the way. Some of them greeted them as they passed, obviously nervous or the human, while others just passed them by without paying them any sort of attention.

After a few more minutes, the human and the pony walked into a massive room, bigger than anything Anton had seen so far. It was oval in shape, the ceiling reaching several stories high. Two spiral staircases led up to the floors above, and although they had probably once been shining bright, they were now covered in rust and looked like they’d been repaired numerous times.

The floor was even stranger, with shallow yet thick indentations running across it in a spiral pattern towards the middle. Ponies occupied what they could, some having claimed areas where they had beds or cots to sleep on, as well as other personal belongings and necessities. It made Anton think of a refugee camp.

“This is the lobby.” Willow said. “Shame we never got to see it in it’s prime. They told me that water used to run down the walls and into those spiral lines in the floor. And the library’s this way.”

“You seem pretty well at home here, Willow.” Anton said as they set on down another corridor.

“Well, why wouldn’t I?” Willow responded. “I like it here. We’re safe, there’s food, good company. In truth, I wouldn’t mind... staying here.”

Willow stopped just in front of a door, labelled “Library” with a small piece of tape.

“Yet at the same time…” Willow said in a low voice. “Something doesn’t feel quite… right.”

Anton looked down on him with wondering eyes. “Not right?”

“… Everytime I pass by a window and see the outside, I just… I get this urge to get out there, you know? Maybe it’s because of what Crescent said…”

“Maybe you’re just as crazy as Holly, huh? You must be if you want to get back out there.”

Willow didn’t respond, and instead just pushed the door open. He motioned Anton to enter, so he did, but the pony didn’t follow him. Anton looked back at him with raised eyebrows.

“Actually, I need to head down to the kitchens….” Willow said slowly. “I promised to be there in time.”

“You?” Anton said. “You cook?”

Willow shook his head. “No, I do the dishes. And they give me a an extra portion of food as payment. Anyway, gotta go, look after yourself, alright? Don’t do anything stupid, and don’t yell at Lilly just because she yells at you.”

“Dude, you sound like my mom.” Anton said with a chuckle. “Go, I’ll be fine.”

Willow scurried off and left Anton alone in the library. He took a look around the room, quite baffled at the amount of books they’d stored; shelves upon shelves lining not only the walls, but some standing in the room, creating isles and narrow hallways.

“Hello?” He called out. “Lilly? You there?”

No response came.

Anton sighed and took a few steps further into the library. He passed by row after row of books, but found no Lilly or any other ponies. It was as quiet as only a library could be, and his boots made hardly a sound against the carpeted floor.

He reached the far end of the room, where the shelves had been moved to give room for a table and some chairs. One shelf stood leaned against the wall, its many books scattered around on the floor underneath it. The table itself overflowed with books, some opened, others closed with various bookmarks made from paper.

Sitting on one of the chairs, asleep with her head resting on a particularly large book, was Lilly.

Anton couldn’t help but chuckle at her, the way she snored into the pages of the book. He made his way round the table, pulled out the chair on the other side, and sat down on it. He hopped himself a bit closer to the table, and took a peak across the many books, and upon closer inspection, found that they all seemed to share the common theme.

Titles like “Understanding the land of Nightmares”, “On Dreams”, “Dreams and what They Mean,” and “The Dreamstride” all lay strewn across the table, opened on specific marked pages or paragraphs. Other books bore names like “Crystals and Ice”, “A history of The Empire” and “Spires of the World”.

It all felt a little bit too familiar to Anton, and it instantly reminded him of his own dream.

“Huh?” One last, sharp snore rang out across the room. “Who-Willow, is that-?”

Lilly sat up, groggily, before wiping her eyes with a hoof. She blinked slowly until she could see clearly.

“Anton?” She said slowly, still a bit drowsy. “W-what are you doing here?”

“Willow said you were here, and I thought I might as well join you.”

“Oh…” She looked down at the book, noticing a small stain of what was most likely drool. “Oh, crap.” She tried to wipe it away with a hoof.

“So… Lilly?” Anton asked.

“Hm?”

Anton pointed to the books. “… This. Crystals, spires, dreams…” He looked back up at her. “… Did you see it too?”

“See what?” Lilly asked quickly.

“I saw it, in my dreams.” Anton said. “Red skies, black feathers, a burning forest… and a crystal spire in the distance.”

Lilly didn’t say anything.

“You had the same dream, didn’t you?” Anton asked. “Why else would you be reading all of this..?”

“… I saw him again.” Lilly said quietly. “He came back to my dreams. Duskshine.”

“Willow told me about… about what happened. I’m so sorry, Lilly.”

“He said I should’ve saved him.” Lilly continued. “And then there was someone else, someone I’ve… never seen before.”

“Was it a human in black?” Anton asked. “Lilly?” He looked her straight in the eyes. “Was it my brother?”

“N-no.” Lilly finally responded. “It was another pony, with horns and wings, like the old princesses, but… it wasn’t any of them. It was black and white.”

Anton thought for a while. “I saw my brother. I saw Dust, as you ponies call him. And next to him, same as you, a pony with wings and a horn, but it… it was blue, not black or white.”

“And then the black spire fell?” Lilly whispered. Anton nodded in response. “So we had pretty much the same dream, then.” Lilly concluded.

“Yeah, seems that way. But… It’s gotta mean something, right? I mean, we both shared almost exactly the same dream; do you think it was a coincidence?”

“I don’t know, so…” She motioned at the books, before reaching over and picking up a red book just a little bit off to her left. “So far, I’ve only found this.”

She opened the book to a page somewhere in the middle, and held it up for Anton to see.

“… The Crystal Empire.” He read out loud. “What’s that?”

“Here, look.” She turned a few pages, and stopped at a drawing that spanned both pages. “Look familiar?”

Anton instantly raised his eyebrows as he saw the image. “Yeah… that’s the spire from my dream.”

“And mine.” Lilly added. “And according to a map that’s… buried somewhere in all these books, the Crystal Empire is not far from here, in the mountains to the north-west. Just a few days away.”

“Are you saying we-?”

“Maybe. I don’t know, I…” She closed the red book and put it down. “I’m so confused. Duskshine would’ve known what to do…”

“Lilly?” Anton asked. “Are you alright?”

The pony nodded slowly.

“I’ve been here for days, ever since we came here, I…” Suddenly, without any sort of warning, Lilly slammed her forehead into the table.

Anton quickly got up and moved to her side of the table. He got down on his knees next to her, but didn’t know what else to do. He could now clearly see that she was crying, but he’d never been good at comforting others.

“Lilly… It wasn’t your fault.” He didn’t know what else to say.

She sat back up and looked at him, her cheeks wet with tears. “I could’ve… I should’ve saved him,I-“

“His death was not your fault, I’m sure of it.”

Lilly looked at him for a few seconds. Then her expression changed. “What do you know about that?! Nothing! You weren’t there, you didn’t see it, so just shut up-!”

She flew out of her chair, pushing Anton to the ground in the process. “You don’t know me, you don’t know anything! It is my fault that he’s dead!”

Still crying, she set off running through the library towards the exit.

“Lilly, wait! I’m sorry, I-!”

“No!” Lilly yelled. “You’re not him, and you’ll never be him!”

The door slammed shut, leaving the room in complete silence yet again, and Anton confused on the floor.