Author's Note

This story takes place two months after "A Canterlot Wedding", and one year after "Friendship is Magic". Also, this is my first My Little Pony fiction. So... yeah.

Dreaming

Chapter 1 - Dreaming

The sky was colored a fiery red as a vast sunset cast shadows on tall, dark rectangular structures, shadowed by the sunset, and ringed with rows of small white lights. Around the structures is a thick, rusty-orange haze that blurred some of these lights. Twilight Sparkle found herself standing on the tallest of these structures, whose unnatural surface felt cold and hard on her hooves. The air was rather hot, and thick like a bog, causing her sweat to profusely.

She found herself face-to-face with a massive and oddly-shaped monster; its small but brightly glowing eyes stared at her, shining like a pair of flashlights. In spite of the glow, the monster itself, like the buildings, was also shadowed by the sunset. From what she could tell it had a bulky appearance with no distinct legs - they were more like blocks. And its two arms did'nt end in claws of any sort, but rather in long cylanders pointed forward at her.

She didn't even know what she was doing or why. She couldn't make out the scene around her clearly, as everything was so alien to her. But she felt as if she were defending her land from it after all it has done to it.

She looked side-to-side to see her friends, up on their hooves and poised to strike. Knowing this, she joined in with them, and then they made their move by floating up in a geometric formation. A great surge of power came through their bodies, one that felt very familiar like it was part of their very being. It grew stronger as they channeled it in their spirits and to each other! There was no telling what disastrous attack it would make, or if they would live or die, but it was anything to protect the world by defeating it!

Twilight opened her eyes to find herself on her side in bed, and her body feeling hot and sweaty. It was morning, and strong, warm sunlight shone through the window.

She looked to regain her sense of reality, because she was still shaken by the dream. It felt so intense, so alive, so peculiar that it would've been something else. But of course, dreams are dreams, and anything can happen in them, even if they don't make sense to common reality. Being a unicorn possessing the Element of Magic did have its strange set of quirks, but in that case, she would tell Princess Celestia about it. Perhaps she knows what to do about it.

With a yawn and a stretch, she got out of bed and looked over herself in the mirror. She felt a little upset to find her hair untidy from the tossing and turning, so she used her magic on her hairbrush to set it right.

As she set the brush down, Twilight headed downstairs.

Upon hearing her, Spike greeted from downstairs. "Hey, Twilight! Good to see ya!" He was busy dusting the shelves.

Twilight yawned and stretched as she said, "Good morning, Spike."

"You slept in a little, so I spent my time dusting for you."

"Oh, thanks Spike. I really appreciate it. Uhh…" She collected her thoughts about the dream. Is it worth telling Spike about it? What would he think about it? She needed to tell him something. She sighed and said, "I-I want to write something to Princess Celestia today."

"Huh?" Spike was a little surprised to hear that, for she usually does this each time she learns something important about friendship, at roughly once a week. But since the start of the season, things have gone along fine and, as a result, no friendship letter was written. To have her write one so early in the morning - a time she would not have learned anything at all yet - was news to him. "Why? Is there something important? You haven't learned anything, yet. Have you?"

"No," Twilight answered. "It's not a friendship letter. It's just something that… umm…" she wanted to write to Princess Celestia about the dream, but she wondered if it was really just some ordinary dream, or a vision, or anything like that. She didn't want to waste her time reporting about some natural occurrence, but having recalled how it felt, giant monsters and all. So Twilight decided that perhaps she should take her chances, just in case. Perhaps the Princess can tell her about its true nature. So she continued, "I had a crazy dream".

"A dream?" Spike was getting curious, "What's it about? Were you chased by zombie diamond dogs who tried to bite you as they spread the infection?!" Spike scared himself with the thought.

"No, Spike," Twilight answered with an agitated sigh, remembering how they've gone through this some time ago. "It's not like that! It's where…" she thought about trying to describe the dream to Spike, but she didn't feel she had the time, so she continued, "You know what? Why don't I tell you as I write the letter, okay Spike?"

"Okay," Spike exclaimed with an eager nod!

Twilight slipped out a sheet of parchment and readied her quill when she arrived at the table. She spoke aloud as she wrote the following:

Dear Princess Celestia,

This is not a friendship letter. But this morning, I had a dream that I thought you should know about. I was in this strange place where there were these huge, tall buildings that covered the entire landscape. There were no trees or mountains, just the shapes. In fact, I stood on the tallest of the buildings. I found myself with my friends confronting a huge monster that tried to kill us; I never saw anything like it before! It had a pair of eyes that glow, and strange arms with no apparent appendages! I felt that we had to defeat it before it does something horrible! So we used great powers to destroy it once and for all! And that was when I woke up.

I don't know if it's one of those dreams people have all the time, but I write this to you because it felt so odd, so deep that I wondered if it was something important. So I will let you be the judge and see if there is something special about it that we should be aware of.

Your Faithful Student,

Twilight Sparkle

After finishing the letter, Twilight rolled up the paper.

"After you, Spike," she said as she gave it to him.

"My pleasure!" Spike received it and held it at the tip of his claws. He took a breath, and then breathed green fire at it, burning it and sending it to the Princess. Not long after did he let out a sudden belch of the green flame, which quickly manifested into another roll of paper. It must be from the Princess! Twilight magically took the paper and unrolled it. She read aloud:

My Faithful Student,

The dream you told me about sounds very interesting! The surge of energy you described sounded a lot like when you were using the Elements of Harmony. I am confident you and your friends will handle off a monster like that, like you have with Discord, and I am confident you will do the same again. But maybe your mind was just figuring out all the events you've gone through; you've gotten into all sorts of scrapes! So please, try not to focus too much of your attention on it, it'll hurt your head! Why don't you keep it at the back of your mind as you continue on your studies? Who knows? It could happen!

Your Mentor,

Princess Celestia

"The Elements of Harmony?" Twilight lifted an eyebrow as she pondered the similarities between the events with Discord, and those of the dream. "Could it be that we're dealing with another threat at some point?"

"Maybe", Spike also pondered, "but I'm pretty sure that you can just beat'em up, just as always!" he emphasized it with a fist to his palm.

Aside from Discord, Twilight Sparkle recalled the earlier incident with Nightmare Moon, a corrupt version of Princess Luna who was banished to the moon by Celestia one thousand years ago. At both times, she and her friends used the Elements of Harmony against them to restore Equestria from their influence. But now with the dream in mind, she wondered if this were a third kind of threat where they would have to use them again. But still, dreams are dreams, and are therefore not always reliable.

Twilight chuckled again and said, "Well, Spike. I don't know if this were real or not, but it's like what the princess said, we should keep it at the back of our heads. We'll see what happens. In the meantime," Twilight turned around, "I'll be heading outside and go exploring a little. Maybe meet some of our friends."

"Sure thing, Twilight." But as Twilight went to pack her books, Spike realized something. "Oh! I-I didn't make your breakfast! What would you like? Omelets? Pancakes? Hash browns?"

"Spike, you don't have worry about that today. I'm not that hungry, really."

But then Twilight's stomach growled in hunger. Perhaps that's what she got for sleeping in.

Spike chuckled childishly, "Looks like your stomach doesn't agree with you!"

Twilight sighed again, but then again, she could use something delicious to eat.

"Alright, Spike," she considered the options in her head. She then answered, "Some pancakes will do, Spike. Blueberries."

"Sounds good!" Spike immediately rushed off to do cooking!

When she realized she needed something to wash it off (and to cool off in those hot summer days), Twilight added, "and some water, too!"

Once he was done, Twilight put away her sack, went to the table and ate her breakfast. The meal was not great, but it was good enough to be decent. After she was done eating, Spike took the dishes and cleaned them. Now, Twilight can do what she was going to do: head outside and find something to do.

But before she could open the door, she called as she turned, "Hey Spike, aren't you coming with?"

"What?" Spike turned around. "Oh, no thanks. I gotta take care of Peewee."

"Peep!"

A quiet, buzz-like fluttering could be heard as a burnished gold-feathered hatchling hummed its tiny wings to fly towards Twilight. As she watched it, she felt its weight press on her head. She felt its tiny, stubby talons grasp through her hair and on her scalp.

Twilight sighed again, knowing that she would have to go alone this time. Ever since Spike got that phoenix egg a while ago, Spike has been requesting to stay with the little hatchling very often. As a result, she found herself going about by herself at least half of the time.

"Well, alright," Twilight responded sullenly. "But be sure that it's on your side and not on my head."

"Alright," Spike popped out of the kitchen, and then beckoned out. "C'mon, Peewee," he curled his finger as he whistled, and Peewee fluttered its tiny wings towards the child dragon.

Concerned that the two would unwittingly make a mess in the library, Twilight prompted, "Well, make sure that you don't play too rough. Okay? The last thing I want is to have any mess or fire in the library. I'll be back in a few hours."

"Yes, ma'am!" Spike saluted.

"Okay," Twilight assured herself as she opened the door and walk out.