Celestia found herself, once again, out in the gardens. She had a slightly suspicious look as the day seemed far better than yesterday. Upon arriving at the pond she knew her sister liked, she saw Luna staring out curiously over the water, the young princess looked almost as if she had never seen water before.

This time Celestia took a seat next to her sister and waited for Luna to start speaking, she was close enough to give her a hug of reassurance, but she stayed far enough away to let her sister have some space. After several long minutes of silence Luna finally spoke up.

"Tia... I had a new... well... I don't know whether to call it a dream or a nightmare..." She began in a wavering tone.

"Did this one upset you as well Luna?" Celestia asked with a curious tone.

"Strangely enough... no." Luna replied, looking confused at her own answer, "Today I woke up as if from a dream, but the place I had been was still a nightmare, this time I was looking through the eyes of a very conflicted person who had fought his way across the island to try and stop a loop in time." Celestia nodded slowly, letting her sister know she understood what Luna meant. "...His thoughts told me that he had died so many times, and had journeyed across the island more times than he could remember. I watched him enter a tower-like building that was half-destroyed and fight his way through countless monsters and even warriors of his own race, he killed each and every one without batting an eye, he was trained to kill. Some sort of device attached to his left arm..." Luna raised her left hoof for emphasis, "...Let him travel through time as though it were only an inconvenience."

Celestia was impressed at the thought of a device like that, when even her protoge was only able to go back in time for a few seconds, but her attention was quickly drawn back to her sister as the tale went on.

"He did what he did because he wanted to try and save the world, but no matter what he did, he always found himself on the island once again fighting the creatures that only consumed flesh. The thing that intrigued me was that no matter what he fought, none of the creatures could kill him the way that they had with other soldiers, it was as if he was some sort of super-soldier. He healed any wounds that he had sustained while fighting when there were none of the creatures around, and with only a few shots, he managed to take down more of the creatures than I thought could possibly fit on that island with far greater ease than the armored soldiers were able." Celestia reached out a wing to let her sister to let her know that she still had nothing to fear. Luna accepted the offer and leaned into the soft feathers of her sister's wing.

"I saw the whole thing through his eyes, and when it finally came for him to make the choice again, he killed two important members of his race without any hint of regret." Luna's body began to shake, but then she pressed herself deeper into her sister's wing, she stopped shaking shortly after and continued. "... The first of the two he killed was the tyrant who ruled the world. The other human, a scientist, was an innocent man trying to keep the entire world from becoming a nightmare." Luna held back a tear and took a deep breath before continuing, "...But the man who's eyes I was seeing out of... A soldier by the name Renko... He knew that following either person's plan would send him back through his journey once again, so he killed both of the men and left the island with only an apology to the innocent scientist." Celestia brought her sister close to her own body, she noticed that Luna was shaking again, she could sense how cold her sister was feeling when she described the nightmare.

"As Renko left... I saw him through the eyes of the scientist... He looked like a killer, but there was also something more... A pain, a sadness of losing oneself, a pain I felt when I was... N-Night-..." Luna buried her face in her sister's side as she struggled to even say the name of the monster that had plagued her for so many years, and Celestia understood her sister's pain.

"I understand, sweet sister, I have seen many visions of similar value from times before our rule... Before mother helped shape Equestria into what it is today. You have no need to fear such a terrible burden now that you are with me, the bonds of our family will keep us together through any sort of trouble, you have my word." Celestia whispered in her sister's ear, she raised her head and exhaled a breath that she hadn't even realized she had been holding, Celestia looked down at her sister with happiness as she noticed that Luna was beginning to drift off to sleep once again.

"I think that I can handle one more day on my own..." she thought with a small smile, "...Lulu needs to have a bit more rest and I believe she'll be back to herself in no time." Celestia's horn glowed a beautiful golden color before she and Luna were teleported into Luna's room. She used her magic to levitate her sister onto the bed, she walked silently over to where she had placed her sister, and gave her a gentle kiss on the cheek in the hopes that Luna would have a calmer slumber.

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Luna once again saw through the eyes of the man named Renko, the dream was far different this time, and Renko almost seemed... Happy. He was in the middle of a makeshift headquarters, one that Luna knew she had seen somewhere but couldn't quite put her hoof on, she could hear him giving orders to other soldiers dressed in what she guessed to be military uniforms. When he had finished talking to the group of soldiers he looked around at all the people in the room, many were operating devices that were consistent with radar and other such pre-detection means, he hid a sigh as he thought about how so few of them were truly familiar with fighting the way he was.

In the midst of his recollections another soldier came up to him, although he had what looked like a band on his upper-left arm, the band on his arm was white with a red plus-sign on it. Luna recognized it as a medical symbol since all the hospitals of Equestria had similar ones adorning them. The younger soldier gave Renko a salute before the older man addressed him.

"...At ease corporal... What's the damage...?" Luna heard the question and was no less confused how calm this man was in the face of danger.

"So far the eastern seaboard is facing an amount of Reverts that is making it hard for them to keep their numbers and morale up... Our southern borders aren't looking so good either. It seems that the device called the Singularity is only serving to increase the strength of the Reverts near the Island."

"So... Back to that old rock... Just great..." Renko replied with a sigh, and the medic looked at him in confusion.

"What do you mean sir?" he asked, confused as to how his leader was so familiar with the island.

"Katorga-12 is the island where this hell-hole started Corporal, and that's where the singularity is, so I need to go to the island and destroy it myself." With a meaningful pause he looked to one of the soldiers sitting at a radio-transmitter. "Get a Kasatka ready, I want it ready to fly by the time I get there and I want a full load of gear so I'm not stuck on the island without a radio."

He walked down the hall, contemplating exactly how he would try to destroy the singularity, his mind continued to drift to the different types of eperiments with E99 that his scientists were doing. All of the weapons were being implemented with the element so that they could kill Reverts faster, he had even taken the time to take apart and rebuild several of the weapons to the point where he understood the weapon far better than his soldiers. The thing that hung him up though, was how it had been more than a year since he had killed Demichev and Barisov, the scientist's face still haunted his sleep even though he had tried to bring himself to rationalize why he had simply made a grab for power.

"Maybe destroying the singularity in this time will help me make peace with Barisov as my men continue their defence against the monsters. Maybe I can finally rest without having to worry about more innocent people dying than the ones that already have." his mind drifted to a quote that he didn't know the origin of, "...don't weep for the dead, for they have found peace... Weep for the living, for they find pain." Renko almost couldn't believe how true that quote was. If Luna was able to control a physical body, her jaw would've dropped as she heard the thoughts coming from this man. She was amazed at how fear had been long since stripped from the man's mind, only pain served as the emotion that kept him going, Luna couldn't understand what sort of journey could possibly leave anyone standing... let alone commanding an entire nation without breaking down into madness.