Celestia had instructed me to keep this mission to Dismith relatively quiet and had recommended that I fly back to the small town personally to avoid any unnecessary attention.

"Yeah, sure thing Tia, whatever you say," I said to myself, smirking while I did. The air was relatively cool way up here in the sky, as we flew though the air in my personal carriage. The flight there last night had been stressful enough, but add having to keep someone on your back the whole way back and it became a little bit more than exhausting. By the time I had gotten back to the castle I was almost ready to pass out at the gates, so this time, I was taking it a little bit easier.

I really should get out more, it's no good for my image to spend all my days in the castle...

We touched down on the outskirts of Dismith at around three in the afternoon, and after instructing my guards to wait with the carriage, I made my way into the town.

Before I had left Canterlot, Celestia had done a little looking into the old Dismith public records, and identified these two boys as living at the Dismith orphanage. I had winced at this, but at the same time, as morbid as it was, it made our job a lot easier. Not to say I am glad they have no parents, but reality is reality, and it does make my job easier.

While a few heads did turn my way while I made my way to the orphanage, most ponies merely glanced at me, and bowed their heads as a sign of respect. Celestia made a lot more public outings than I did, but to Dismith? That was almost unheard of.

I had forgotten how small of a town Dismith was, as there were relatively few people outside today. It made me wonder where everyone else was, possibly inside? It was possible that a few people would be out of town today, but in such a remote part of Equestria, it was rather unlikely. But, I digress.

I arrived at the orphanage, and promptly entered. I was greeted with a modest sight, a living room on my right, past that a kitchen, on the left was...

"Um, can I help you your highness?" I heard a mare called out to me.

In front of me stood the orphanage's owner and caretaker, I assume.

"Yes, I am here to discuss with you the disappearance of two boys at this residence as of yesterday," I told her.

"Oh my goodness, do you know what happened to Daniel and Austin? There are a few ponies out in the forest looking for them, but-"

I held up a hoof to silence her.

"The disappearance of the two boys was no accident," I explained to her. "Yesterday evening, Daniel and Austin appeared to be exploring a cave, and as such, accidentally discovered the elements of harmony, are you familiar with them?" I asked her. She nodded, to my genuine surprise.

"Yes, now, while observing these elements, they somehow found a way to trigger them, in a most volatile way,"

"Are... are they... alive?" she asked me.

I gave a warm smile, "Yes, the two are alive, and are currently under our personal care in Canterlot castle,"

"When will they be returning?"

"That is what we are here to discuss, you see, the elements somehow appeared to transfer themselves to the boys, and they are now in a magically induced comatose state, to which we cannot predict the end of as of right now. So as for now, under the living circumstances, the boys will remain under our care in Canterlot, until we can determine what ails them,"

"Oh, alright then. Is there more to discuss?" she asked me.

"Yes, we have quite a bit to talk about,"

"Would you like some tea in that case,"

I gave her a warm smile, "Yes, please,"

Five hours later...

Luna and I stood over the older boy, Daniel, with Doctor Windy on the opposite side of the bed.

"I am getting no signs that anything you could do would negatively impact the boys immediate health, so you should be okay to try purging" Windy told me. "His mental signature is still way down, which is good in your case,"

"Aright doctor, if you say so," Luna said.

Purging was a method of dream walking that involved being a little more... aggressive. In normal dream walking sessions, my sister had the ability to enter someone's dream, and help them, more so than she could in the physical world. Purging, as she liked to call it, involved actually clearing out of someone's immediate thoughts, and erasing them. Luna had the ability to determine how long she wanted the spell to go back, and could theoretically erase all of an individuals memory starting from the minute they were born. This would allow... a new start, kind of. It would also leave the person a babbling, incoherent husk of what they used to be, with no cognitive mental function at all. It was rather scary, once you thought about it.

Luna was trying to go back to the very second that Daniel had entered a coma, trying to see what caused it, and eliminate it, if she could. Purging was a dangerous tactic, and my sister vary rarely had the opportunity to use it. But as an alicorn princess, and an adept dark magic user, I trusted her. If this was successful than we could do the same procedure on Austin, hopefully waking them up.

Luna, by this point, was far into Daniel's mind. Calling her back to the real world was now impossible, only she could come back to us. This, of course, was the dangerous part. If anything in the target's mind had nefarious intentions, they could potentially drag Luna down if she couldn't resist them. This of course, had never happened before, but there was a first time for everything, and we wanted to be cautious.

We waited...

Around ten minutes later, doctor Windy had to leave, but I remained with my sister.

And waited...

After around an hour, I noticed that Luna would twitch every minute or so. Physical signs of attack were rare, but not unheard of. I closely watched her to make sure nothing went wrong. Granted, there was not much I could do, but I was vigilante, nonetheless. Twenty more minutes passed, with no signs of the twitching stopping. I cast my magic, and called out to my sister, trying my hardest to bring her back, but I could feel nothing. Her and Daniel's minds were completely intertwined, there was no helping her. It was all up to her.

Ten more minutes passed, and I thought I could hear Luna mumbling something. I leaned in closer, trying to hear her.

"...no... no... please..."

"Luna? Luna?! Come back!" I yelled. This feeling of helplessness, it was overwhelming. My sister was hurting, and there was nothing I could do to help her. I sat back, and gritted my teeth in defeat. Finally accepting the loss, I fully sat back, and waited.

Luna let out a large gasp, and collapsed to the floor. I shot up, and went to her side.

"Luna! Luna! Talk to me, what happened! Are you okay?! Luna!" I yelled.

Luna looked... absolutely stunned. She sat on the floor, wide eyed and breathing heavy, trying to catch her breath.

"Luna, please, tell me if you are okay!?"

Luna slowly looked up to me with wide eyes.

"Tia... I saw... so many bad things. There was fire, so much fire. The ponies we loved... they were gone, all gone..." she sobbed into my mane.

"Are you okay?"

"Yes, I- I think I am" she said, wiping away her tears. She turned her gaze to Daniel.

"We can't... we can't let him stay here. He's a danger Tia... He'll destroy us. He'll destroy us all. All of us!" she yelled.

I flinched at her outburst.

"Luna, we don't know that. Premonitions have been wrong before, you know that," I told her.

She remained quiet, and turned to look at me.

"We shall see..."