About a week after Twilight and Starlight mastered a spell to let me talk to one of my family members back in my old world once a week, I found myself in a terrifying situation. It's not the first time it happened to me since I got to Equestria, though. I wasn't even awake an hour here before a certain Alicorn put me in the first one by trying to stomp on and crush me, or I thought she was about to.
But this time it was different.
This terrifying situation was different, because it wasn't something that happened to me because of simple bad luck, or because I was in the wrong place at the wrong time, or because I charged into it. I was intentionally bought into it, and it wasn't my choice. Because of something I did three months before.
I was in a dark area and was only able to see about ten feet in front of me, because it was too dark for me to see any farther than that. I couldn't even tell if I was in a cave, building, forest, or somewhere else. I was tied to a wall by green magic so I couldn't move. The one that put me there...was Queen Chrysalis herself, who was in front of me, just inside the limit of my sight range. She also seemed to be fully recovered from any injuries from being blasted out of the cave wall by Twilight and Starlight three months ago.
I yelled out in anger, "What are you up to now, Queen Chrysalis?!"
Chrysalis chuckled, and responded, "What do you think? I'm getting my revenge on you, Eric Reed."
I calmed down a bit. A bit smugly, I threatened, "Are we really doing this again? Don't you remember what Twilight and Starlight did to you when you blasted me three months ago? They'll be all too happy to do it again!"
Chrysalis grinned evilly. "Aw, that's cute, you haven't noticed them yet."
"What do you mean by that?"
Chrysalis's horn glowed, to allow me to see more of wherever we're in, though I still couldn't tell where I was. When I looked to my left, my mouth dropped and my heart sank at what I saw.
Twilight Sparkle and Starlight Glimmer, my big sisters, were both lying on the ground on their stomachs, right beside each other, and not moving a single muscle. Their manes and tails were ragged, like if the two were shaken severely, and both had small and medium-sized cuts all over their body. My sisters' faces pointed near my direction, but not directly at me, but to where someone in front of me by three feet would be, and the ponies' eyes were closed.
"What...what did you do to them, Chrysalis?! They're not dead are they?! If they are, so help me...!!"
Laughing at my panic and anger, Chrysalis gloated, "No, don't worry, dear boy. They're just unconscious. They're still alive...for now."
I felt relieved for a moment, but it didn't last long. They still might have been alive, but they were still hurt and defenseless. I was stuck on a wall, so I couldn't do anything for them. I had no idea if help would come in time. Or if help would come at all.
"But since you're awake, dear boy, it's time to get to the...fun part of this."
I gulped, and asked, "What 'fun' do you mean?"
"I could've already killed these two pests, but I wanted you to see it. To teach you a lesson on what happens if you mess and make fun of me, Queen Chrysalis!"
At that point, what was left of my defiant stance vanished. I broke down in tears and cried, "No, no, please don't do it! I-I'll do whatever you say, Queen Chrysalis. Just don't kill them! They're my best friends! My sisters!"
But all that was music to Chrysalis's ears. She wanted me to suffer, so the more I begged, the more she enjoyed it, as she walked slowly to Twilight and Starlight, who were still out cold.
"Yesss! Keep crying, keep begging. Beg me to spare your 'sisters' lives!"
I was only making things worse by continuing to beg and cry. But I was too freaked out to even notice it, as I kept begging Chrysalis to spare them.
Standing right over them, Chrysalis leaned her head down, with her still-glowing horn pointed at Twilight and Starlight, and it glowed even brighter.
"Now, take a good look, Eric Reed, but don't worry too much. You are going to be joining these two sorry excuses for ponies in the other world soon, so you won't be grieving too long for them!"
After giving that evil laugh of hers louder than ever, Queen Chrysalis fired a huge green beam from her horn, the biggest one she's ever fired, and it was about to hit its two targets, I just couldn't believe it. I was about to lose Princess Twilight Sparkle and Starlight Glimmer, my best friends, my two Equestrian big sisters, and thoughts of how much they have helped me, and all they have done for me, flooded my head. And yet, I couldn't do a thing to save them. I thought that this was how Twilight felt when she thought I was about to die in front of her.
It felt even worse than I imagined it did for her.
Crying and yelling louder and harder than I'd ever done, I looked away.
I heard nothing, and the wall I was tied on seemed to just vanish from thin air, but I remained standing.
I opened my eyes, and I found myself in a completely different place. I was standing in some kind of a clear "bubble". I was floating in what looked like the late evening sky, but more impressive than anything I saw before in the night sky. It had a dark-blue background, and there were a bunch of little white, blue, orange, and red points in every direction, like stars in the sky.
A calming voice asked me, "It is a breathtaking sight, isn't it, Eric Reed?"
Still sniffing a bit, I turned behind me, where the voice came from, and Princess Luna was standing there, in the same "bubble" I was in, smiling.
A bit starstruck, I asked, "Wait...Princess Luna? Is that you?"
"Yes, it is, Eric Reed. And I am sure that you of all ponies, er, people, know where you are right now, and why I am here."
And Princess Luna was right, I did. I was in the dream world. What "happened" with Chrysalis just now was just a dream. Or a nightmare I should say.
Feeling so relieved, I gave a deep sigh. "Whew! That was just a dream. I really thought I lost Twilight and Starlight."
"It must be fate tonight as one of the nights you chose to fall asleep with that counterspell still active, or you would not be here right now."
I put a hand on my chin. "Yeah, I guess so, Princess Luna. I guess I was more worried about it than I thought."
The last three days, I was thinking, and worrying, about how Queen Chrysalis was still out there, and probably wanted to get revenge on not just Starlight, but on me now too. To be honest, I wasn't too scared for myself, but much more so for Twilight and Starlight. If Chrysalis would go after me, and later Twilight, to get revenge on Starlight, she might try a similar trick if she wanted to get revenge on me.
She knew how much I love those two ponies, so one of the best ways to hurt me, is to hurt them. I didn't even let myself think that Chrysalis might go after the others as well, or even someone who had nothing to do with us. It might have overwhelmed me if I did. Just worrying about possibly losing Twilight and Starlight felt bad enough.
I thought about going to Twilight and Starlight and talk to them about it, but I wasn't sure if even they could say anything to ease me. I thought Twilight would tell me to try not to worry about it, and usually, when she says it, it works, and it's not like she overuses it. But, that only works if I'm worried about myself. Since I wasn't this time, and it was about her, Twilight telling me not to worry wouldn't have been much help, if simply thinking about the power Twilight has with her magic had no effect.
Starlight herself struggles with this kind of worry, and I wasn't even sure if she'd know how to handle it. Let alone be able to teach or help me learn how to do it, like she did when I was struggling with guilt over lying the first three weeks I was in Equestria. I thought telling her all this would do nothing but make her become worried over me.
This was a rare time I fell asleep at night before I shrunk back to four inches, so I wasn't immune to nightmares. Thus I had my first nightmare in Equestria. Lucky for me, Equestria has Princess Luna around to help those suffering from nightmares, and it was my turn to get it.
"Even if you never go to sleep with the counterspell active again and never suffer another nightmare, it would not change any worries or issues that are on your mind, Eric Reed."
"Yes, I know, but what do I do? Hearing Twilight tell me not to worry won't help me this time. And I don't know if Starlight would know how to tell me how to handle this kind of worry. In fact, I'd probably just make her become worried about me without her needing to be."
"Well, for one thing, how do you know that all Princess Twilight would say is not to worry, or that Starlight Glimmer would not know how to help you?"
"Well, that's because they, well..."
That forced me to think hard about how Twilight or Starlight might react. Thinking this hard, I wondered if how I thought they might react was for sure how they'd react. I mean, I don't know everything about Twilight, and there's still a lot about Starlight's past that I still didn't know. I still didn't even know how Starlight got her Cutie Mark! Maybe I was overthinking it.
Luna saw me looking more and more unsure of myself, and told me, "You see? They might surprise you, Eric Reed. And you are like their little brother, so you know they will want you to go to them for help for anything, if you need them. Just trust your sisters."
"You're right, Princess Luna. By now, I should know to always have faith in them, and for that matter, all of my friends, including you. I guess I was just overthinking things."
"I would now feel too bad, Eric. Princess Twilight does that too, so 'tis only natural that you would have some of her bad habits. She is your big sister, after all." Luna gave me a wink.
I chuckled and admitted, "Yeah, maybe I've hung around her a bit too much."
"But you have some of her good habits too. Thinking about others is also something Twilight does, which you have done many times too. Not only that, Starlight may understand it better than you think too. I gave her this kind of advice too when she was still nervous about going back to her village's festival, remember?"
"Oh, yeah, I forgot about that. Okay, thank you, Princess Luna. When I wake up, the first thing I'll do is talk to Twilight and Starlight about how I was worried about what Chrysalis might try to do." I gave a bow.
Luna nodded and opened a portal, ready to leave my dream. "You would be surprised how much of those two I see in you right now, Eric Reed. It may be another reason why they have bonded so strongly with you, and as quickly as they did. However, try not to be too much like them. You need to be your own person. Plus, I would rather you not panic while with a third of Starlight's magic, and try to switch Princess Celestia's and my Cutie Marks like she once did!"
I laughed, and assured, "I'll try my best to do that, Princess Luna. But not the Cutie Mark part!"
After Luna chuckled, she went through the portal she opened.
The next thing I knew, I was in my normal-sized bed, but back to four inches tall. The counterspell must have worn off, right before I woke up. Because I might take naps during the day, I have both a tiny bed, and a normal-sized one in my room, so I can sleep no matter what size I was at during the time.
Like I told Luna I'd do, the first thing I planned to do was talk to Twilight and Starlight, and I waited for one or both of them to come into my room to cast the counterspell, to make me normal-sized again.
An hour later, and normal-sized, I told my big sisters about that nightmare I had, what I'd been thinking about the last three days, and what Luna told me.
Twilight smiled and, Instead of trying to tell me not to worry like I thought she might do, her horn glowed. A lot of sheets of paper rained down on us.
Looking at all the paper around us, I asked, "What's going on, Twi? What's with the 'papershower'?"
Twilight answered almost smugly, "Oh, these? These are just a few of the plans I've thought about to prevent what you've been worried about. I've been thinking about it too after since you and Starlight saved me from Chrysalis."
"A few plans, Twi? There's gotta be over a hundred sheets of paper here!"
"Well, for me"-- Twilight pointed her hoof at herself --"these are a few, when it comes to plans. I'm Twilight Sparkle, Buggie, remember?"
"Ha, point taken," I admitted and laughed. Twilight had me on that one.
Starlight cut and said, "Yeah, Buggie. After Twilight got captured by Chrysalis three times now, and almost lost you when you got captured, you really didn't think she would start coming up with plans to keep that from happening again?
"Guess I should've thought that you'll start making plans in case Chrysalis tries something again, Twi. Does Spike know about these plans too?"
"Yep, who do you think helped write these down? And I'm still not done making more, so Buggie, rest assured that I'm not going to let Chrysalis take me like that again, or anyone."
"And I won't either. I felt the same way as you, Buggie, so I helped Twilight with a few of those plans. And when I say a 'few', I mean what you or I might call 'a few'." Starlight gave me a wink.
"So just try to let your big sisters worry about Chrysalis, Buggie, and we'll make sure nothing like that happens to any of us again. That's why I didn't tell you about these plans: I didn't want you to think about the threat of Chrysalis returning. I'm sorry if it backfired."
After hearing that, I felt better, but also a bit guilty. I wanted to do something too to help.
"It's okay, Twilight, and thanks, guys. But I don't want to count on you two for everything, so can I at least help come up with a few plans too?"
Twilight came beside and wrapped a wing around me. "Sure you can, Buggie, if you want to. We're a team after all."
Seeing how Twilight had already made so many plans thought out to protect not just us, but others from Chrysalis, and with Starlight and now me helping come up with more, I felt much calmer again. I didn't think I'd need to worry about someone getting hurt because of Chrysalis's problem with me, because we're preparing on how to stop her, if we'd even need to. And like Starlight once told me: worrying or blaming myself over something, and not do anything about it, won't do me any good. I guess I just needed to relearn that lesson.
From how Twilight didn't tell me about those plans, I guess my sister sometimes tries to guess how I might react to things, just like I tried to do with her and Starlight. Because I have a few of Twilight's personality traits in me, it was probably why she didn't just say I had nothing to worry this time, but she said and showed it: she would've only calmed down that way too, if she were me. And like Princess Luna said, she's prone to overthinking things sometimes, like me, which was why Twi didn't tell me about the plans sooner: she thought it could make me feel worried if she talked about Chrysalis returning, and didn't want me to think or worry about it, instead of the other way around.
I guess I'll never know everything about her or my friends, or that they'll know everything about me. Heh, it's not a bad thing, though. It makes things even more fun.
But I did finally ask Starlight how she got her Cutie Mark. And it wasn't quite how I thought she might have gotten it.