Twilight’s face scrunched with concentration and strain as her horn lit up. Sparks flew from the tip, and a faint purple mist began to form in the bottom floor of the library. Spike watched nervously from the stairs nearby, tired, and filled with apprehension. The mist began to swirl and gather into the center of the room. Twilight let out a low groan as the spell entered into it’s final stages. the mist began to condense and thicken in the middle, starting to blossom out as it did.
But, much to Twilight’s displeasure and Spikes surprise, Twilight’s horn fizzled, and the spell faltered. “No, no, come on, come on!” Twilight cried, trying to regain control. It was too late. The mist dissipated, followed shortly by Twilight slumping to the floor, panting. “Test number thirty-four… ugh, unsuccessful…” She grumbled before picking herself back up.
“Twilight, you need to give it a rest. You’re gonna seriously strain yourself if you keep this up.” Spike said worriedly as he stepped down the stairs to help twilight back onto her hooves.
“No, no, no! I know I’m onto something, I just don’t know what I’m doing wrong.” Twilight said. Her legs trembled for a moment as she stood, but quickly regained her balance.
“It’s past midnight, Twilight. You’ve been at this for hours, and whenever you’ve tried it, the spell just fizzles out.” Spike reminded, making sure Twilight was well balanced before stepping backwards.
“I’m not giving up, and I am not going to bed until I figure this out!”Twilight replied, giving Spike an irritated look.
“I’m not saying give up, but just take a rest. You’re not exactly at your best right now. You haven’t slept since yesterday.” Spike said, crossing his arms.
Twilight rolled her eyes. “Last I checked, neither have you.”
“Yeah, because I don’t want you to end up hurting yourself, like you’ve been known to do on occasion whenever you do something like this.” Spike said, followed by a large yawn. “And trust me, it hasn’t been all that fun staying up so late.”
“Spike, I’m not asking you to watch over me. I’ll be fine. If you’re tired, go and get some sleep.” Twilight said more softly, trying to keep the strain out of her voice.
“I’ve heard that before, Twilight.” Spike said, with a disapproving tone. Twilight gave Spike a deadpan glare. Spike took the hint, and turned to head up the stairs. “Alright, alright, I’m going. Just don’t push yourself too hard.” He said, already sounding like he was falling asleep. Twilight watched as he ascended the stairs, then returned her gaze to the center of the room.
“Okay, test number thirty-five… her we go.” She paused, and thought for a second. “Is it thirty-five?” She asked herself, scratching the side of her head. She sighed, and lit her horn up, pulling over her notes from a side table. After glancing over them for a minute, she smacked her hoof into her forehead. “Ugh! I’ve gotten so involved that I haven’t been jotting down my progress…” After a few moments, she turned to look up the stairs. “Hey, Spike?” She called out.
“What?” Spike called back down, sounding annoyed that his rest was already being disrupted.
“What test was I on?” Twilight asked.
“I dunno. look at your notes.” Spike replied, coming to the edge of the canopy and looking down.
“I didn’t put anything down.” Twilight replied, sounding a little embarrassed. There were a few moments of silence.
“You didn’t?” Spike asked, surprise in his voice. “That’s a first.” Twilight’s ears drooped in response to that.
“Don’t rub it in…” Twilight grumbled.
Spike shrugged and returned to his bed, calling out, “Last I recalled, it was thirty four.”
Twilight nodded to herself. “Thanks!” She called up, earning an affirmative grunt from Spike. With the test number firmly secured in her mind, Twilight lit up her horn once more, and began to focus on her spell. The mist gathered around once again, and began to spread around from the middle of the room. Twilight knew that she made a mistake somewhere last time, and altered the flow of her magic only slightly.
Suddenly, as the mist began to thicken and blossom out again, there was a bright flash. And just as quickly as it appeared, it seemed to condense back into itself, and vanish. The mist was gone. Twilight, after a stunned moment of silence, quickly picked up her notes and started jotting down what she had just experienced. “Test number thirty-five. When the spell was cast, it acted as it did in the previous experiments in the beginning. Then, shortly after being cast, there was a flash of intense light which went away as quickly as it came. It then shrunk back down and dissipated shortly after. My predictions at this point, as with the previous experiments, is that the spell was still unsuccessful. I have no way of currently knowing as to whether the spell has failed or succeeded, seeing as this spell is relatively new. Until further testing, I will end with my previous prediction.”
Twilight let out a heaving sigh and set the notes back down on the table. Slouching slightly, she felt that her eyelids were getting heavy, and with a grunt of defeat, she slowly started up the stairs towards her bed for, what she decided, was some much needed rest.
<><><><><><><><><><>
For the first few moments of my memories, it was all… very jumbled. I saw several flashes of a deep lavender light, and a silhouette within it. There was a dragging sensation, as if I was being pulled into this light, like it was calling out to me and that I had a subconscious urge to obey. I heard voices, but they were far too distant to make out. One sounded feminine, and very, very familiar. The other sounded younger, and male, but not nearly as familiar. It was odd. I honestly had no idea what to make of it. Then, I felt a tingling sensation. A lot of it, as a matter of fact.
After that, the tingling slowly died down. I felt my body relaxing on a hard surface, wood, if I had to guess based on the feel of it. It was warm, either through sunlight or my own body-heat. I slowly opened my eyes, and rapidly shut them again. Note to self, sunlight directly to the eyes is painful. Rolling over, I tried again. I was in a well-furnished yet oddly shaped room. It kind of resembled what I imagined the inside of a hollowed out tree-trunk would look like. There were bookshelves along the walls, and a desk against one of the other walls.
Sunlight streamed in through the window which was resting behind me, and I couldn’t help but twitch my ears as I caught a sound. Snoring. That confirmed that somepony else was nearby. I slowly sat up, letting out a tired sigh. I must have had one heck of a long sleep to feel this stiff. I stopped as a thought occurred to me; Where was I? How did I get here? All of it looked familiar, yet I’d never seen any of it in my life. Well, whatever of my life I could remember. It was just those flashes and waking up here, so far.
I let out a long, tired yawn as I slowly started to climb out of my grogginess. Looking behind me, though careful not to look at the sun again, I saw that I was right next to a bed. Why is there a bed here? Better yet, if there is a bed here, why was I on the floor? That’s when I noticed the large bulge in the sheets, indicating somepony else was in it. Slowly standing up, I looked at said pony, trying to keep quiet. It was a lavender unicorn, with a deeper indigo and violet mane. She was sleeping with a content smile on her face. My mind was reeling from all of this. I tried to remember something, anything that could tell me where the hay I was. But, sadly, I drew nothing but blanks.
So, for a moment, I was pretty okay with this setup. Then I realized exactly what this setup was. I had no memories, I was in a strange room with a sleeping mare, I was really tired, and to say again, I had no memories. I started to panic a little. A quiet exhale rapidly turned into a loud scream as I walked backwards at a high speed and tumbled over an unseen ledge. Up above, after my head stopped spinning, I heard who I assumed was the lavender mare rushing to the edge I had just fallen over. I rolled over slowly, and looked back up. The mare was looking at me with a startled expression. No, startled was the wrong word. She was shocked beyond belief. “Wha-, who the hay are you?!” Her eyes narrowed towards me as she asked the question.
“I don’t know, you tell me!” I replied, looking up at her and trying to compose myself. Apparently she didn’t know I was here until just now. So, either last night was really interesting, or this was some crazy practical joke. Doesn’t help that I can’t remember last night. Or any night, for that matter.
The lavender unicorn looked at me with a curious expression, an eyebrow raised. “Wait, what? How do you not know who you are?” She asked, still sounding pretty surprised.
“I just woke up here, not knowing who I am, where I am, or how I got here. By the way, could you tell me where I am and how I got here?” I asked, slowly getting back onto my hooves. The mare shrugged.
“Beats me on how you got here, but you're in the Golden Oaks library. It doubles as my... house...” She said, trailing off. Her eyes suddenly widened. she slowly started trotting down the steps towards me. “Hold on, you… You look familiar…” She examined me closely, trotting in circles around me. Finally, she stood directly in front of me and looked straight into my eyes. Her eyes looked like they were processing information so fast, I could swear they were calculators.
Suddenly, she smiled at me, which made me take a step or two back. “It worked.” She said quietly.
“Um, come again? What worked?” I asked, looking over myself now. Had she done something to me? Wait. No, she didn’t have a clue who I was, if her prior statement was anything, but now she seemed to know me. Yeah, it’s official, I’m really confused.
“Oh, nothing. Just thinking out loud. Do you have a name?” She asked, sitting down and seeming much more friendly now. Her shift in demeanor didn’t add up to me. Something told me I was missing something. Although, given how much I remembered, that was pretty obvious.
“If I do, I don’t remember it.” I mumbled, looking down.
“That’s a shame. Well, until you remember, how about we give you a nickname?” She asked pleasantly.
“Uh, sure, why not?” I said, deciding that her abrupt shift in behavior made her, at least until I knew more, somewhat untrustworthy.
“Let’s see here…” She muttered and I could tell she was starting to think. For a moment, she just sat there. Then she beamed up at me. “What about Daydream?” She asked.
“Why that?” I asked, not sure what that was supposed to mean.
“A few reasons. The big one is… well…” The mare trailed off, and shook her head. “It’s not important, actually. Let’s just say it fits.”
“Well, sure, but why does it fit?” I inquired, figuring that I needed more than that.
“Well, you were asleep last thing you remember, right?” She asked, tilting her head slightly.
“Yeah, I guess. Some flashing lights, but I don’t know what to make of that.” I said, shrugging absently.
“Well, maybe those flashes were a part of a dream you were having. I mean, it just makes sense, doesn’t it? It does make sense, right?” She asked, suddenly speaking a little rapidly.
“Well, yeah, I guess it does make sense.” I said, a thought coming to mind. She visibly relaxed, then turned around to head back up the stairs. “But how do you explain how I got here?” She froze.
“Um...” She said, droning out for several seconds. She gave me a grin, that I could obviously tell was fake. “I don’t know?”
“I don’t know?” I said, narrowing my eyes. “I don’t buy that.”
“Well, uh…” She started and I could see sweat forming on her brow. she was definitely hiding something.
“Look, can you just spill it? I don’t remember anything, and unless I really don’t want to know how I got here - which is unlikely - I think it’s only fair that I know how I wound up in your library.” I said, pointing a hoof at her.
She let out a sigh and lowered her head in defeat. “Okay… I’ll tell you. But first off, let me introduce myself. I’m Twilight Sparkle.” She said, holding out a hoof towards me. I looked at it, then bumped my hoof against it.
She gave me a look of confusion, but shook her head, then kept talking. “Well, last night I was experimenting with some magic. Most notably, how to make my dreams more realistic. And so I could remember them, and act completely of my own will within them. At least, that was the intent of the spell I cast.” She went from defeated to giddy in about a half-second. “But I didn’t expect it to make my dream come to life! Oh, this is so much better!” Twilight stated with intense excitement. I backed up a few steps more as she started hopping around.
“Wait, wait. So you’re saying you dreamt me up into existence?” I asked, trying to get some more clarification on what was going on.
Twilight’s hopping came to a stop, and she nodded at me. “Pretty much.” She said, then started hopping again.
“So… what were you dreaming about?” I asked, and watched as she suddenly fell flat on her face. Wha…?
She stumbled back onto her hooves, face beet red. “Well. That is. Uh um. well, I… How are you?” Twilight said, obviously trying to avoid the question.
“Oh no, no no no no.” I said, smiling internally. “You dreamed me up, I think I oughta know exactly what kind of… ‘dreams’ you were having.” I said, deciding to have some fun.
“And just what do you mean by that?” Twilight asked, blushing even harder then before, assuming that was even possible.
“Well, I just mean if you decided to have a romp with somepony you don’t even know, and said somepony is me, I think I deserve to know that I had a dreamy one night stand.”
“uh…” Twilight's ears fell flat against her head. I’m sure if they had any more speed to them, they would have caved in her skull. “I- I didn’t-”
“Come on, then. Don’t be shy. You have some fantasies, don't you?” I interrupted her, trying so hard not to laugh my flank off. All the humor left my system as in the next second that went by, I was picked up and thrown down another flight of stairs by a strong purple light. When I finally got my breath back, I burst out laughing. I swear I heard Twilight groan, and another voice laughing with me.
<><><><><><><><><><>
Twilight turned an irritated glare on Spike, who was rolling on the floor laughing. “It’s not funny spike!” She said angrily. This only seemed to spur Spike on more with his laughing. Twilight covered her still red face with her hooves and groaned lightly.
“You- ha- dreamed up a smart aleck!” Spike said between chortles. Twilight groaned with irritation.
“Okay, so I did. Still, I didn’t think he’d tease me like that.” She mumbled, voice very low.
“You gotta admit, it was hilarious.” Spike said as he started to recover.
“And what if I started doing that to you? Like, say, what about the last time you were at Rarity’s overnight?” Twilight said, a smirk spreading on her face.
“Uh… Touche.” Spike muttered, scratching the back of his head nervously.
“Alright… What do we do now?” Twilight asked to nopony in particular.
“You could apologize for throwing your fantasy down a flight of stairs.” Spike said, amusement returning to his voice.
“Spike?”
“Yes?”
“Shut up.”
Spike chuckled again and scampered down the stairs and past Twilight. “Well, I’ll go make sure he didn’t break his neck down there.” he said as he exited the room.
“You do that.” Twilight grumbled, and went back up to her canopy. She glanced out the window to get an idea of the time. Ponies were out and about, but it was still early.
As Spike made his way downstairs, he could see that a still giggling Daydream was picking himself up off of the floor. His coat was a very similar shade of lavender to Twilight’s. His short, messy mane was a bright blue color with darker blue highlights. The horn coming out of his head identified him as a Unicorn. His eyes, oddly enough, were silver. “You alright?” Spike asked.
“Peachy, just got thrown down a flight of stairs. How about you?” Daydream asked as he glanced back up at Spike with a still amused grin.
“Doing good. My days already made, and it just started.” Spike replied, smiling at Daydream.
“That’s good to know.” Daydream glanced around at the main floor of the Library. “Lotta books, I’ll give her that.”
“It is a library.” Spike said, walking up to the now wandering Daydream.
“So, any idea why she decided the spell was gonna be a good idea?” Daydream asked curiously.
“I dunno,” Spike said, shrugging. “I never asked. Though think of it this way if she didn’t cast the spell, you wouldn’t be here.”
“I suppose that’s true. I’ll have to thank her later.” Daydream mused as he looked at some of the book titles, not paying attention to the sections. He suddenly stopped and slipped a book off of it’s shelf and looked at the title. “What’s this book about?” he asked.
“What is it?”
“It’s called fifty shades of hay.”
