outruncone8116 (Ch99) - Lol either that, or Twi got broked for a minute XD

DragonLovingBrony - Something like that. Hopefully that'll be wearing off soonish.

Guest - I'd never do that, but if something did happen and I couldn't continue, you guys would know straight up what was happening. Even if I literally died somehow, I have arrangements for you to be told about it.

shadows being - What happened, indeed...

PBJFanFiction - Nice. What're you doing here in the states?

- Well sir, here is your next installment. :D

PyraohXBlaze - Gotta say; I'm glad to be back. I honestly missed writing this story. Lol it's always the little things, isn't it?

centaurus2 - Lol right? I'm doing better, thanks for asking.

guest - I suppose you'll just have to read on and see ;)

Mikalzilla - He's only human, and humans are... what's that word again?

reallyfreakingnerdy (Ch08) - Well, if my fans are anything to go by, the both of your wishes will be granted in future chapters. I've thought about going back and revising those earlier chapters, but then, I'd be changing my very origins as a writer... those first chapters are where it all started for me.

SquirtlePWN - Sorry it's been longer than two weeks, things are still settling down around here. Here's a chapter for you anyway though. =owo=

TurnupGrain43 - Thank you, I'm glad to be back. :D Heh heh... you'll just have to wait and see.

xel101 - Lol right? Poor guy's gonna run out of room for all those tallies at this rate. XD

Harmonia000 - I'm sorry to hear that... no one should have to go through something like that. I'm glad that you enjoy my humble little story so much though.

Ponified Bacon Boss - Who says it was something in the jar... And I know his name; this hospital is staffed by canon ponies, he just never said it where Celestia could hear it.

ShadowfireAngel - Yup, you don't want to screw with the little critters, they'll mess you up.

AntiVillian1 - I'm sorry that you feel that way; admittedly, this story has gottne a little darker and done so a little more frequently than I had planned for, but things will be brightening up, soon enough. Maybe even sooner than you think.

DragonLord RyuKizoku - Admittedly not what I had intended for the chapter, but I was still getting my mind right when I wrote it, so there's that.

coldshadow 92 - I am, and thank you. And here's a new chapter for you. :D

Kyguy - Bad stuff...

UnknownHero55 - Glad to be back... and thanks

A/N - Howdy everypony! Sorry this update took longer than promised; things have been hectic, both at work and home. But hopefully it's finally calmed down, now that I'm moved into the department I want to be in. Anywho, enough of my problems, let's get on with the story, shall we? As always, don't forget to follow/favorite, review, and most importantly; enjoy!

I once again found myself in the depths of darkness, floating in a seemingly endless void of nothing. The scene was growing familiar to me, but this one seemed… different somehow, more threatening. I looked around for any other signs of life, though I didn't expect anything friendly this time around.

As I peered through the void around me, small pinpricks of light began to appear, growing larger and larger as I watched them. It didn't take me long to figure out that this dreamscape was another sort of space-born environment, though I had no idea who to expect; I had seen this very environment a number of times already, once in what I had been told was essentially Limbo, and on a few occasions while speaking with the spectral Starswirl when he had visited me in my dreams.

I suddenly caught a glimpse of something materializing as I looked around, though I had been looking for so long that I had no idea what orientation I had started in anymore. I watched as it became clearer, and at first thought that it was Luna, but as things progressed, it became apparent that the colors were off; they were similar, but different, almost like those of… "Nightmare Moon…" I breathed quietly.

Luna's evil counterpart laughed as she fully materialized in front of me, a wicked grin on her face. "That's right, peon. I yet live, and thanks to the artifact, I have found a home within you, and there's nothing you can do to stop me this time! Hahahahaha!"

I tried to move forwards, towards the mare, but I was stopped by an intangible force, like my muscles themselves had decided to stop working, only I could still feel them straining. It was a strange sensation, being stopped by something you couldn't even physically feel. "Struggle all you want, worm! We're in the dream realm now, my domain! In this realm, there are none that can stop me!"

Something about her words made me pause, and think. "We're in the dream realm…" I whispered quietly.

"That's right, little worm. Specifically, this is your dream… I felt that breaking you here would be more appropriate."

I felt a small grin spread across my as she mentioned that this was my dream. "Is that so…" I whispered more loudly. "Well then, I think it's time for you to go." I took a step forward, the invisible restraints seeming to vanish as soon as I took the first step towards her.

The dark mare's eyes went wide with surprise. "What?! How did you do that?!" She yelped out and jumped back, creating a little distance between the two of us. "This realm is mine! There are none who can match my power here!"

I shook my head. "You don' get it, do you? This is my dream, which makes it my realm… You never have, and never will have any power in one of my dreams, because in here… I. Am. GOD!" The mare's eyes widened further as I punctuated my statement by wrapping a hand around her chest plate and lifting her bodily up in front of me, and then hurling her several meters away, a feat I never could have performed in the waking world. "Do you understand, Nightmare, or do you need to see the horror that I faced that gave me this kind of control?"

The mare scoffed at me as she rose to her hooves once more. "You know nothing of nightmares, you little foal! I will show you-" Nightmare Moon stopped dead in her tracks as I approached her, a look of uncertainty and fear crossing her features as she glimpsed the scowl on my face.

With a growl, I picked the mare up again, but this time I held her in place, keeping us at eye level. "You really want to see my horror that badly, do you?!" I placed my free hand against her dark-furred temple, and concentrated.

Since this was in fact my own dream, I had the level of control that I had hoped I would, and I began feeding my darkest memories into her mind, culminating with the rape and murder of my own sister, and the maelstrom of emotions that I felt when I was forced to witness it.

The mare screamed, and struggled to get away, but it was hopeless; in this realm, she was as helpless as a newborn foal against me. "N-no! Take it back! Please!"

I released the mare, and she collapsed to the floor, sobbing as the memories and raw emotions cascaded through her mind. "Do you understand now?" I asked as I knelt beside her prone form. "I had to learn to lucid dream, to control my sleeping mind, from a young age, or else I never would have slept at all. And that has given me a power in this realm that you will never be able to match."

The cowed mare looked up to me. "Please…" She practically begged, fear lacing her voice. "Take them back… I-it's too much."

I rested my hand on her head once more, and did as she asked, removing the memories from her mind. I had no idea how I was able to do all this when even Luna had difficulty with it, but I wasn't thinking about that at the time. "Now, tell me what you want here, Nightmare Moon." I ordered the defeated mare.

She gulped down a few lungfuls of air, and stood once more. "I… I want to live… just like any other being. Your blade cleaved my horn from my head, and killed my body, but thanks to the residual magic of the artifact, I was able to transfer my essence into you at the very instant you touched my severed horn, before I… passed on."

I quirked an eyebrow. "If that was the case, then why did you bring me here and attack me? Wouldn't my death kill you as well?"

She shook her head. "Your entering the dream realm as you did was not my doing. I don't know what's happening to your physical body, but it isn't something that I caused. And I attacked you here… because I thought you were vulnerable. I didn't want to kill you, I wanted to capture your mind, and control your body… to get myself to my followers, so that they could revive me once more. But you've proven time and again that you're far more powerful than I, and I cannot best you… so my fate is in your hooves."

It was strange, but even though I had no reason at all to believe her, and in fact had every reason to think she was lying, I could somehow tell that her words were true; The Mare in the Moon was humbling herself before me, placing her own life in my hands. I became subtly aware of a second consciousness within my own mind as the feeling left me, and I looked around, already recognizing the presence. "Bearer! What has happened to you? One moment you were well, and then I felt your mind slip into unconsciousness."

A smile came unbidden to my face as I heard the familiar voice in my head. Nightmare Moon, however, was not so keen to hear the voice of the blade that had killed her… twice. "Falathiel! I didn't think you'd be able to reach me in here… how did you get here?"

I watched as a third shape materialized quickly before me; a beautiful woman, slender with sharp features, and piercing green eyes. She was garbed in a pale blue, flowing dress that sparkled like silver. The avatar of my blade smiled warmly, and touched my cheek with a hand. "I am always with you, bearer; there is little in this world that can keep us apart, save for death itself." She turned to the cowed mare before us, who was looking at the Huntress with a glint of apprehension and fear. "As for this one though… I sense that she is telling the truth this time."

I followed her gaze towards Nightmare Moon as well. "Are you sure? She's made this ploy before, and believing her almost got me killed."

Falathiel nodded, not taking her gaze off of the hunched mare. "Yes, I think you can believe that her words are true this time. After all, she has no place to go if you force her essence from you; so if she were lying, that deception would gain her nothing, and could cost her everything."

The mare in question bowed her head. "That is correct." She paused briefly before speaking again. "If you were to expel me from you now, there would be only one other place for my soul to go… Tartarus."

I looked the defeated Alicorn over for some time before speaking. "After all you've done, that's better than you deserve, Nightmare Moon. But, I'm not fit to pass that kind of judgement on you, nor is anypony else." A glimmer of hope sparked in her cobalt eyes as I spoke. "However, that doesn't mean that you won't be punished for your crimes against ponykind."

Nightmare Moon gulped, and nodded. "I understand, human. I am not so foalish as to think that my actions will not have repercussions, and I am ready to accept them, if you are willing to help me now."

I let out a long sigh, and leaned down. "You know, if you had done this the first time I offered, you wouldn't even be in my mind right now, you'd still have a body." I extended a hand to her, offering to help her up.

The mare scowled slightly, and accepted my hoof. "Do not remind me of my mistakes; I remember my folly all too well." She stood, and looked me in the eye, her scowl fading slowly. "I wasn't lying before, human; you truly are better than I… and now that I have seen your pain, I understand why you didn't accept my offering of my own body to you…"

When she had attacked me before, I had felt my entire dreamscape shift, like my own mind stretching and contracting, but I felt no such distortions now, and guessed that she had no intentions to attack me again. "So, I think my first question is this; why should I believe anything you say after what you did to Twilight and I?"

I watched as the normally proud Nightmare Moon pinned her ears to her head, her helmet and armor having faded away after I had so soundly trounced her in my own mind. "I have no answer for you, hum- Sir Marshall. By rights, you have no reason to believe me, especially not after my previous betrayal… but I am asking, nay pleading for you to do exactly that."

I felt Falathiel's hand rest on my shoulder. "You need to put aside your hatred, Bearer; in this place, even she can feel the malice burning in your heart, and while it is entirely justified, it will only serve to cloud your judgement in your dealings with her."

The dark mare's eyes were on my blade's dream avatar as she spoke, and when she finished, Nightmare Moon bowed her head. "She is right, Sir Marshall; I can feel the rage in your heart, and I would not blame you if you struck me down, here and now… but I truly am willing to learn to be more than what I am now, if you are willing to show me how to do that." My eyes widened for a fraction of a second as the mare knelt before me, showing her submission with the uncharacteristic and wholly unexpected gesture. "Please… teach me of compassion and mercy… show me how to be a good pony."

Before I could reply, I felt the familiar tug of my mind awakening as the dreamscape around us began to fold in on itself, indicating that I was waking up. "I will, Nightmare Moon; we will speak again, the next time I sleep." I had no idea if she heard me or not, but it was all I could say before I slipped back into the waking world.

My real eyes opened slowly as the droning beep of a heart monitor made itself known to me. I could tell that the room was only dimly lit, but the light was still blinding to me, and I squinted as I tried to look around. The first thing I noticed was a small, purple and orange blob resting on my chest, and I smiled lightly as I stroked my daughter's back lightly.

I quickly noticed that everything appeared strange; even through my squinted eyes, everything around me seemed to have more detail, and it all appeared sharper, more clearly in focus than it should have.

My attention was drawn away from this curiosity by Scootaloo's small form stirring on my chest. "Mmnh… P-papa?" She asked sleepily as she looked up at me.

I gave the little filly a warm smile, and stroked her mane gently. "Heya kiddo. Sorry to worry you."

The little filly's eyes lit up, and she practically leapt up, wrapping her small legs around my neck in a warm hug. "Twilight said that weird artifact thing was doing some stuff to you, and it might not let you wake up for a few days."

I wrapped my arms around my daughter, and held her close to me. "Where is Twilight, Scoots? I need to know that that artifact did to me." I was worried that whatever it did, it would be bad, and if it was, I needed to know about it.

"That will come, in time." Celestia's warm voice radiated from near the doorway, and as I looked over, I saw that she was resting on a large pillow near the closed door. She stood from the pillow and walked over to me, nuzzling my neck tenderly. "The artifact has had no ill side-effects for you my dear, so for now, you should focus on resting; your other friends and loved ones will be arriving in a few, short hours to visit you, though they don't yet know that you're awake." Her words did wonders to reassure me, and I relaxed into the attention I was receiving.

After a moment, I sighed, and opened my eyes once more. "So, how long was I out for this time?" I asked, honestly growing tired of all the time I was spending unconscious and worrying everyone.

The Mare of the Sun kissed my cheek and pulled away, smiling gently. "Only about three days, my love; though we discovered early on that you were in no danger, so the others have gone about their lives, trying their best not to worry about you while they waited for you to awaken."

Scootaloo grinned up at me. "That's right, Papa! I've been going to school and everything, but the nurses and doctors here have been nice enough to let me sleep in your room at night; they said it would be good for you if you saw a loved one when you first woke up."

I felt Celestia nod against me as well. "That's right, though they made the stipulation that somepony be here to watch her in case something should happen. Tonight just happened to be the night that I volunteered to take time away from my bed in Canterlot to watch this wonderful little filly." She leaned over as she spoke those last words, and nuzzled my adopted daughter lovingly.

The sight warmed my heart, and I smiled at the pair. "I'm glad to see that you two are getting along so well; I know that Scoots likes your sister, but I wasn't sure how she'd feel about there being another new mom for her."

Scootaloo grinned brightly, and almost as hugely as something Pinkie Pie would pull off. "Are you kidding, Papa?! I went from having no family at all to having more family than I could have ever hoped for!" She snuggled into my chest, and sniffled quietly. "You really are the best thing that ever happened to me, Papa…"

I felt a tear come to my eye as love filled my heart for the little filly, and I held her close. I didn't say anything to her; there was nothing that needed to be said. I simply held my adorable daughter there, with Celestia watching us, a loving look on her own face as we all shared the moment together.

Eventually, the little orange filly released me from her embrace, and hopped off the bed. "I'm gonna go tell everypony you're awake! I bet Mitta will be sooo happy to hear that you're ok!"

By the time her words registered in my mind, my daughter had already taken off through the door and down the hall. "Does she mean…?" I asked Celestia after a moment.

Celestia nodded. "Yes, Miss Mitta is awake and doing just fine. She is having some trouble adapting to my sister, but after what she has been through, one can hardly blame her. Shimmer is also doing well, though aside from Mitta, I believe that she is the most worried about you. She still does the tasks you set for her with just much vigor and diligence as she would if you were there to watch over her yourself though."

I nodded as she spoke, relief washing through me that all was seemingly going well with everypony else. "What about Isabel?" I asked cautiously.

"She's just fine!" Quipped the very mare's voice from the doorway. I looked over and saw the gooey mare standing in the doorway, a huge grin on her gelatinous features and a white lab coat draped across her back. "After Twilight and I figured out what happened to you, I read all the books on medicine I could get ahold of, and we figured out how best to treat you. After that, they hired me on here; the doctors all said they'd never seen anypony absorb information like I did."

I looked the mare over, studying her for a long moment. "But… what about the rest of your kind? Don't they need our help?" The rest of her race, as I understood it, was in dire need of aid, and it seemed odd for her to be working as a doctor instead of helping them.

Isabel grinned, and shook her head. Though it was Celestia who answered my question. "My sister and I have already taken care of that, my dear; while you were unconscious, she led us to where they were staying, and we spoke with their leaders. Once the three of us had convinced them of their follies, it was relatively easy to lay out a plan to properly aid them in their plight. Regrowing their precious food supply will be of little difficulty with the plans for your 'aquaponics garden' that Twilight retrieved, and we have a solution for their reproduction issues as well."

The mention of a solution to their second problem got my attention, and I shifted in the bed, trying to get a better look at the two. "Oh? How do you plan to fix that? It doesn't seem very easy to me, at least not involving willing volunteers."

Celestia giggled. "Oh, that's where you're wrong; you see, most of both mine and Luna's guards are single stallions and mares… stallions and mares with needs that don't often get fulfilled due to their stations and the hours that they must maintain. Our idea, one that the others in Isabel's community wholeheartedly agreed with, was for a select number of their ranks to act as comfort ponies to our neglected guards."

I blinked several times at the thought, unable to process a response immediately. Isabel giggled at my dumbfounded expression, and trotted further into the room. "Well, considering how desperate we are to bolster our numbers once the food supply stabilizes, we were all too eager to accept a wonderful plan like that; after all, everygoo wins with an arrangement like what your Princesses have proposed." She trotted up to me, and leaned in close, her eyes going half-lidded as she approached me, close enough to whisper so that Scootaloo wouldn't have been able to hear if she had still been on my chest, let alone in the room. "In fact… I want you to be the one to give me a new gooling… if you're willing to share a night of pleasure with me."

I pulled back to the best of my ability, and looked her in the eye. Before I could give her a response though, Celestia placed a gentle hoof on my lips. "Don't fret, my love; we have all talked it over, and we are all perfectly alright with you spending a night with this mare. So whatever decision you make, know that you have our blessings to proceed."

I stayed silent for a long time, looking frequently between Isabel and Celestia, the latter of whom wore a warm smile to reassure me. I had nowhere near formulated a response for them when what should have been obvious in its inevitability happened; my stomach growled, rather loudly. Loudly enough, in fact, that I heard a giggle from outside of the door.

A moment later, the door opened wide, and a smiling purple filly darted into the room, making a beeline for my bed before leaping up onto my chest. "Daddy! You're awake!' The grinning Dinky exclaimed as she hugged me tight.

I grinned, and almost immediately forgot about my growling stomach. "That's right; I'm awake, and better than ever it seems." Celestia still hadn't told me what the artifact had done, but I could tell that it had only been good things. After all, I literally felt better than I ever had in my life. Dinky grinned, and looked back to the door, where Derpy was standing, smiling softly. "Don't be shy, love; come in and say hi." I said as I beckoned her into the room.

The walleyed mare smiled brighter, and complied, trotting in quickly and hopping up, wrapping her hooves around my neck. I was honestly impressed that she managed not to trip on anything on her journey over. "I missed you, Blake…" She whispered softly into my ear.

I hugged her tighter, and nuzzled her grey-furred neck lightly. "I'm sorry this happened… I really wish I didn't have to keep you all worried and waiting while I recover like this."

Derpy shook her head lightly. "It's ok… it's not your fault, it just happens this way sometimes." She hugged me tighter for a moment, and then released me, smiling as she looked me in the eye… and up at the ceiling. "We all love you, Blake, and that means we're going to stay with you, no matter what."

My stomach growled again, making its impatience with my continued lack of feeding it known to all in the room. Celestia giggled at the aural display, and stood up. "I think Blake's body is trying to tell us something. Come along everypony; let's go find him something tasty to eat."

Dinky grinned, and I felt love swell in my heart once more as I chuckled at the sight of her jumping off of my bed and up onto Celestia's back, hugging her as the others trotted out of the room ahead of her.

The alabaster mare looked back to me with a smile. "We'll be back shortly, love. Try to get some rest until we return, alright?" I nodded, and rested back on the bed, using the wired controller to raise myself into a sitting position while the others were away.

With the room all to myself, I sat in silence, contemplating everything that had happened in my time here. After what felt like hours of thinking about the past, my thoughts turned to the future, and I asked myself a single question; What comes next?