Note: Soooo... where did all of my reviews go? What, no one wanted that picture? I wanted that picture. Anyways, we are moving on now! Here is the latest chapter!

Dimension: My Little Pony

Planet: Equestria

Specific Location: The Frozen North, Stallion Empire

Time: Twenty-two years after the death of the Paradox

Lyric sighed as he shifted on the ground. He inadvertently scooted closer to Summer and breathed another sigh of contentment. He felt quite cozy. He felt so cozy, in fact that he wanted to never wake up. Unfortunately, that wish went unanswered, for a moment later, Summer began to whimper. Lyric mumbled something and tried to cover his ears, but Summer's whimpers grew in intensity. Finally Lyric could ignore it no longer.

"This happened last night too," he muttered to himself as he sat up slowly. Gently he began to rock Summer back and forth, quietly saying, "Summer. Hey, Summer. Wake up."

Wish a strangled gasp, Summer sat up. Rubbing her sightless eyes with her hooves, she mumbled, "I've been awake for hours! Where have you been?"

Lyric rolled his eyes. "Right. Of course. Tell me, why were you crying out like that?"

"Crying out? What are you talking about? I never do anything like that!" exclaimed Summer indignantly. However, it was all too obvious that she was lying.

Lyric was not deterred. "You were too. I heard you crying out in your sleep."

Summer blinked. She turned her face to look in the direction of his voice. "Was… was I really that loud?"

Generally Lyric would have complacently declared that he HAD been right, and that she truly had been crying out in her sleep, but one look at Summer's dejected face made him think otherwise. Instead, he said, "Hey, it's okay. Look, what did you dream about?"

It looked like Summer was about to tell him, but at the last moment she said, "It's not important."

Lyric was not taking "no" for an answer. Thus, he persisted. "Come on, you can tell me. Was it bad?"

Summer shook her head. "It was nothing like that. But I really don't want to talk about it."

"Come on. Please. For me."

"No."

"Pretty please?"

"No."

Lyric sighed. He gently reached up and brushed a strand of mane away from Summer's face. Gently, he said, "You can trust me. Go ahead."

Summer suddenly jerked away, crossed her front hooves, and scooted around on her rump to face the opposite direction to his voice. A moment later she said, "Just because we lay together to conserve body heat does not mean you need to go all creepy on me."

Lyric blanched. But then he got up, trotted in front of her, and sat down again. "I'm not being creepy," he insisted, "I am genuinely concerned for your wellbeing. Look, this night and last night you spent a good portion crying out. Neither of us will ever be able to get sleep if you don't get some closure on this. And what better pony to help you than me? After all, I am literally the only friend you have in the world."

Summer pulled a face. "If you put it that way… I… I guess. But you have to promise not to laugh."

Lyric solemnly placed a hoof over his chest where his heart was located. "I swear not to laugh or tell another soul. Good?"

Summer blushed. "Well… Every night I have these normal dreams… but that is not the bad part. As my average dream develops, I get recurring 'visions' of where I would find myself standing inside a terrifying room. The intervals between these flash visions become less and less until I find myself truly trapped inside of that room."

Lyric cocked his head to one side. Of all the dreams he ever remembered over the course of his entire life, he had never experienced something like that. "Okay. Unusual. What does the dream look like? Oh, I'm sorry, that was stupid. What did you sense the room to be like?"

Summer sighed. "Well, it may seem strange, but I could kinda 'feel' the room to the point where I could 'see' it. The room was large and empty and blank. I felt like I was in a box. A windowless, doorless, box. All surfaces were smooth and hard. As I was trapped inside this room, I would get more 'visions,' but this time they would be of me fighting creatures. Hideous, monstrous beings of pure evil. These new visions would then increase in intensity as well while I was trapped. It would get to the point where I feel like my head is going to explode."

Lyric cocked his head to one side. "That sounds horrible. Was there anything else?"

Summer nodded. "While I was trapped inside the room… I felt… I felt like somepony was watching me. I felt a pair of eyes always watching… always. As I struggled beneath those visions of violence, I could feel those eyes burning into me until I thought I was going to catch fire as well as spontaneously combust!"

At this point Summer inadvertently reached out her front hooves to be hugged. Lyric obliged. As he hugged her, he said, "That sounds absolutely terrible. Next time I wake up from your crying, I will immediately come for you and wake you up as well. No dream is going to terrorize you on my watch."

Summer sighed once more as she buried her muzzle into the side of his neck. As she did so, she breathed, "Thank you Lyric."

At that point, Lyric wanted more than anything to kiss her. Unfortunately for him, Summer immediately mumbled, "If you are thinking about kissing me… please don't."

Now blushing profusely, he let go of her and vehemently exclaimed, "What? Me? No. I would never dream of that! Who was thinking that? I sure wasn't. Ummmm… Who we talkin' about?"

Now recovered, Summer smiled coyly in the direction of Lyric's voice and said, "Of course. Come, I believe we should get up before Frozen Pond comes to wake us up himself."

The two got up and ensured that the spare furniture in the room that they were in were in good condition. With that, cold light began to stream through the frozen peaks of the west mountain range, and the new day began, dark and cold.

Summer groped with a hoof until she located the door knob to the door. She pulled it open, and almost ran into Frozen Pond, who was about to knock on the door himself.

Frozen Pond chuckled as he said, "Well, hello! Nice to see that you two are early-risers. The sun has yet to even fully show itself."

Summer smiled as she reached forward and located Frozen Pond in front of her. "Yes. I have something of an early alarm clock. I named it Lyric."

Lyric snorted. "Hilarious. Now, Frozen Pond, we really must be on our way. We appreciate your hospitality, though."

"You cannot leave yet!" exclaimed Frozen Pond, "Please, at least stay for breakfast."

"Oh, we couldn't impose..." said Lyric.

"But I insist!" interjected Frozen Pond.

Summer smiled at the genuine hope that radiated from Frozen Pond as he spoke and said, "We would love to stay for a bit longer. However, there must be something we can do. Please, anything."

Lyric's jaw dropped. He immediately tried to indignantly interrupt the two, but it was too late.

Frozen Pond smiled a large smile as he said, "My, I have never seen someone as young as you so eager to work! Very well, we need some firewood. However, Lyric can do that. You, Summer, can help Snowflake with a couple of house chores. You can work until we have breakfast, which is in an hour. Is that fine?"

Summer looked down at her hooves. "Well… I was hoping I could work with Lyric… if that is okay with you…"

This gave Lyric (who had originally been silently fuming over the fact that he had just been drafted into doing work for a stranger) pause. Lyric then cocked his head to one side. Summer still managed to confuse him. Why was it that she wanted to be close by him in person, but never too close in heart?

Frozen Pond gave Lyric a significant wink. "But of course. I will let you two gather firewood then, if it suits you."

Summer nodded her head gratefully, "That would suit me just fine. I appreciate you giving us this chance to work."

Frozen Pond left. Lyric whirled on Summer. "What was that all about? Did you just enlist us to do unnecessary work?"

Summer turned her blind eyes to face the source of Lyric's voice. "There is nothing wrong with that?"

Lyric rolled his eyes. "One of the laws of survival is that you don't do any unnecessary work. They were going to feed us whether we did work or not. We should have chosen the 'or not' part. But did you? You didn't!"

Summer snorted and lightly patted his cheek. "Stop being such a big baby. Come on, let's go get some firewood."

If Lyric's jaw could have dropped further, it would have. Instead he just shook his head disbelievingly. "Wha… Who… Huh… YOU'RE BLIND."

Usually Summer would have been deeply hurt by that comment, but all she did this time was smile complacently. "I know. But I still bet I can find more firewood than your lazy behind."

Lyric gasped. However, after a moment of holding his breath (and his face turning beet red with anger), he began to chuckle. That was all he could do in the situation anyway. "You, Summer, never cease to amaze and befuddle me. Lead on."

Summer blinked. "I'm blind. Please rethink your last statement."

Lyric blanched, but then immediately recovered and began to chuckle again. "Oh, that's right. Silly me. Follow me, young miss."

Summer could not help but to follow along. Batting her eyelashes, she held out a hoof. "Lead on."

Lyric took the proffered hoof and the two exited the small house. They trotted into the neighboring forest. For the next half hour, they scavenged for dry wood that was in good enough condition to be firewood. It was difficult work, but they were looking for the wood at the right time. There had been a snowfall during the night, so everything was covered with a fresh blanket of white, but the sun had yet to come out, so all the wood buried beneath that mantel of icy cotton had yet to be soaked by melting snow. Thus, though they had to dig around, most of the wood they found was still dry (if not frozen as well).

Lyric straightened up and rubbed the back of his neck. "I'm a musician, not a wood-scavenger," he grumbled, "Remind me why I'm doing this again?"

"Because it is the right thing to do," said Summer without looking up from feeling the base of an ice-cold pine tree.

Lyric snorted as he continued to work out the knots in his muscles with a hoof. "Wrong answer. Try again."

Summer looked up and batted her eyelashes again as she joked, "Because I will give you a kiss on the cheek if you do."

Lyric grinned. "Nope. Not on the cheek. It's going to be on the lips or nothin'."

Summer pulled a face. "Gross. I would rather kiss a wolf."

Lyric continued to grin without missing a beat. "Would you? I bet not. There is a particularly nasty strain of ice wolves here."

Summer continued to pull the face. "Aha. Try me."

The two would have continued the banter, but something stopped them. That something… was an explosion.

For Summer, the most sensitive of the two, it was absolutely terrifying. She pressed her ears flat against her skull as she whispered, "What was that?"

Lyric immediately went into combat-mode. He crouched down and protectively placed himself in front of Summer. "I don't know, but I saw no forms of highly combustible material within the limits of the town. Someone has brought explosives."

Lyric strained his eyes as he peered through the many tree trunks at the town in the distance. His heart skipped the beat as he saw smoke. But this was not chimney smoke. The smoke cloud he saw rising from the distance was colossal, thick, and pure black. It was from a fire consuming one, if not many, village houses. They town was under attack. Another explosion ripped through the early-morning air.

"The town is in trouble!" cried Summer, "We must go to help them!"

She tried to gallop forward, but Lyric stopped her. "We cannot just run out to help them. In fact, we should be running the other way!"

Summer turned her sightless eyes aside to look at him. They were full of fear. "We can't! We have to help them!"

Lyric bit his cold and stiff bottom lip until it bled. He had never been one for confrontations, and he generally avoided putting himself into life-endangering scenarios, even when sentient lives were at risk. However, Summer was willingly throwing herself into the fray to protect those who had been kind to her. Should he do the same?

Finally, Lyric sighed and shook his head. "No. We can't."

"What?!" exclaimed Summer, he ears pressing tightly against the sides of her skull, "We have to! It is the right thing to do!"

"No!" said Lyric harshly, roughly grabbing Summer's left shoulder, "Do you know what the definition of a hero is? It is someone who gets other people killed. Or, in this case, me, you, and anyone else you try to help."

Summer's sightless eyes continued to dart around in a frenzy as the intervals between explosions shortened. Finally she snapped, "Okay! Okay! We'll go!"

Lyric nodded decisively. "Good. Follow my voice." He let go of her shoulder and turned around. He began to gallop, but then stopped, deciding that it would be best to guide Summer by hoof. He turned around to ask her if he could take one of her hoofs when he realized she was gone. She had somehow run off in the direction of the town.

Initially Lyric considered flat-out leaving her behind. Her running into danger was technically suicide, and out of his jurisdiction. He was totally justified in letting her seal her own end… right? However, after a moment more consideration, he decided that he simply could not. Just as he had thought about it the night before, he know that he could not live without her. He needed her now, just as he needed food, water, and sleep.

Steeling himself, Lyric pushed past the treacherous part of his mind screaming for him to abandon her to her death and let him save himself and went into rescue-mode. Crouching low, he crept forward, his sharp eyesight raking his surroundings for hostiles.

Smoke now blocked out what little sunlight had been streaming through eastern mountain range of the early day and the skyline was blood red. Under the cover of the newly cast darkness, Lyric continued to work his way forward through the forest back to the little cottage that they had stayed in. As he continued to move forward, he caught a glimpse of Summer. She was simply standing at the fringe of the forest. She had stopped running.

Now knowing that she had not charged head-long into the town, Lyric let out a long sigh of relief and rushed forward. However, what he saw in front of her as he approached gave him pause: the little cottage that they had called home for a day was in flames, and the family that had taken them in was strewn out in front, gutted, maimed, and dismembered.

Lyric felt bile rising in his throat as he laid eyes on the gruesome sight, but he pushed it down. He picked up the pace once more and reached Summer's side in a heartbeat.

Her eyes were watering and her straggly mane was sweeping around her face in the icy wind. Long strands covered her face partially as she stood there… looking off into space.

Lyric looked at her in concern. She could not see the scene before her, but it seemed that she was able to sense that death had visited before her.

"They're gone," she whispered, more to herself than to Lyric, "They're gone, everypony is gone. The whole village…"

Lyric looked behind the cottage and saw the rest of the village. It too was in flames. Heavily armed ponies were running down the villagers, gutting them with machetes and obliterating them with machine guns and pistols. For a moment Lyric felt an uncontrollable rage towards the attacks as he recognized the terrorists. He knew of them. He knew of their atrocious acts. However, the anger was immediately quenched and replaced with fear as a single terrorist turned his head… and spotted him. Pointing a hoof, the enemy shouted something, and began to hobble towards him.

Throat catching in fear, Lyric stumbled backwards as he gasped, "Summer! We need to run!"

Summer was now in too much shock to protest. Her face still frozen in pure horror and fear, she meekly held out a hoof. Lyric seized it and began to tug her along. They vanished into the level-field pine forest in an instant. They were well into it when the terrorist group arrived at the fringes.

"I saw them," hissed one, "They disappeared into the forest. We should chase after them."

The one that looked to be the leader shook his head lazily as he drawled, "No need. Snow Dozer? Grab the Gatling gun. Remember how Crate Frost was complaining about all the extra ammo he was having to carry around for that weapon? It is time we used up the surplus in a creative way. This is a level-field forest. We simply sweep forty-five degrees in both directions twice, and those refugees will be as dead as doornails."

The terrorists began to set to work immediately. Summer and Lyric may have outrun them, but they could not outrun the high-caliber Gatling gun.

Back in the forest, both Lyric and Summer were hard pressed to keep from falling over in the deep snow that covered the ground. As they continued to run, Summer gasped out, "Lyric… who… were… they…?"

Lyric gasped for breath for a moment before answering. "They are called Trixie's Hoof. They are a high-tech terrorist group. They have it all, wealth, weapons, and supplies. They are highly-equipped and highly-dangerous."

"Trixie's… Hoof…?" said Summer between breaths, "If… they are so… wealthy… than why… are they doing this…?"

Lyric shook his head, and took another moment to gasp in a few more breaths before replying. "Because they can! Trixie and her gang of lunatics do it because it is fun. Even the Stallion Empire cannot stand up to them. I once heard that Trixie and one of her trusted friends managed to steal a jetfighter right out of a Stallion Empire army base some years ago! They are unstoppable, and they know it. So they kill 'cause it's fun."

Summer suddenly stiffened and stopped running. Lyric almost tripped as he came to a sudden stop as well. He turned to her with worry and panic radiating from his eyes. "What is it?"

Summer's eyes darted around, and her breathing became heavy. "I… I don't know. I hear a clicking. Now a rattling. Now it sounds like an engine is being gunned up… but it is kind of muffled. Now I hear something that sounds like a chain being rattled on the ground. Now I hear more clicking. Now I hear gruff voices. They are talking... Who is Miss Peashooter?"

Lyric's heart sank to the pits of his stomach. He had heard stories about Miss Peashooter. It was a long-range, high-caliber, vehicle-mounted Gatling gun that was capable of mowing down an entire forest. Now some cruel twist of fate had landed them on the receiving end of such a terrible weapon of destruction. Probably because someone in the Trixie's Hoof gang had been bored enough.

For a moment, Lyric simply stood there. That was all he could do. After all, they were technically walking dead ponies now. However, Summer's voice brought him jolting back into reality.

"Lyric?" she said meekly and softly, "What are we going to do?"

Lyric opened his mouth, and shouted the only thing he could think of: "Summer! Get down!"

He shoved her to the ground and leapt upon her, covering her with his form, hoping to protect her. Then Miss Peashooter activated.

A throbbing, rattling roar filled the sky and echoed for kilometers out as the Gatling gun began to fire. Massive steel spikes choked the air as the gun blasted away. Splinters, twigs, branches, and even trees exploded forth as the gun shattered the forest. Soon massive pines were listing at awkward angles and falling to the earth with crackling explosions as Miss Peashooter unleashed a relentless flow of death. Summer screamed at the top of her lungs as the cacophony grew to unbearable levers. Cracks, snaps, blasts, and explosions, accompanied by the endless rattle of the Gatling gun drowned out anything else.

Lyric could think of nothing else but to hug the screaming Summer tighter to his body, trying to not scream out in pain as well as the cacophony grew to beyond intense levels. Then… something very heavy smashed into the back of his skull and everything went black.

Note: As Austin pointed out in a review earlier, it had appeared that Summer and Lyric had little to do with my current story line. I must admit that I was a little unsure how I was going to connect the two in the first place, but now I am sure I have it all set out! Now give me reviews! Lots and lots of reviews! If you give me a review... Um... Huh... I think I've run out of things to trade. I guess I will have to look around for something...