Journey to the Brother Side of Equestriaby Sky Blue CMCChaptersPrologue Part I: A Plight to RemeberPrologue Part II: The Great Flash ForwardChapter I: Lucid Is The Dreamer...Chapter II: Dolphin's DreamChapter III: Finding DolphinChapter IV: Pāradox LuminōPrologue Part III: Twice Bitten, Once SlyPrologue Part I: A Plight to RemeberLucid Arius looked down at his little sister and smiled at her growth in her magic skill. She went from levitation to teleportation in just six nights! he thought. Soon she'll be eligible for Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns, no doubt! Lucid had recently heard of Twilight Sparkle, a six-year-old filly who was chosen as Celestia's personal protégé at the school. Lumin might not be as magically gifted as Twilight, who hatched a baby dragon egg on her own, but she's only three. He watched her practice some more. She teleported right into midair, barely able to keep hovering above a pile of books. She'll improve by the time she turns six, I'm sure. "Don't fall on the books, Lumin!" Lucid exclaimed. "Magic books multiply five-fold when they fall to the ground!" He tried to levitate her away from them, but, since she had just recently teleported, he couldn't. Lumin Aria fell right onto the stack of six books, and they instantly multiplied into thirty. "What'd I say? Multiplied. Five. Fold." Lumin counted the books, did the math in her head, and confirmed what her brother said was true. Lucid helped her clean up the books, put them back on the shelf, and sent her to bed. "But I'm not even tired yet!" Lumin cried. "I want to practise more magic!" Lucid needed some time alone, and Lumin wanted to practise more magic. Lucid thought of a solution. "You don't have to sleep, Sis!" he told her. "You can practise your magic in bed if you want. Just don't cast any fire spells!" After sending his sister to bed, Lucid finally had a moment of free time to himself. He could hear grunting and groaning coming from his sister's room, probably because she was concentrationg on advanced spells such as duplication or incineration. He quickly galloped to her room, and she was trying to open a book with her hooves. Of all the stupid, foalish things a Unicorn could do... Lucid thought. "You know, Sis, you could just open the book with your magic!" he explained. "All it takes is a simple levitation spell, which you've clearly mastered if you can keep aerostasis for four whole seconds!" "Oh." Lumin "I've been trying for thirty whole seconds," Lumin replied, mocking her brother's exaggeration of time's meaning, "to open the book with my hooves, but you're right. Magic is a lot easier than that! It doesn't consume any of the energy that I'm not trying to save for actually casting the spells, Lucid!" "Sorry, Sis!" Lucid replied. "I forgot how little energy young fillies have at night." And that was true. He did forget. Lucid left his sister's room, returning to the house's main room. He began to read a book himself. It was a book of pony tales, entitled The Tales of Treponius Mane by Richpone Mare-ington. "There once was a pony who walked sun or rain, and he went by the name of Treponius Mane..." he began to read. "He went to a thousand lands both new and old, that included a land of just silver and gold." Suddenly, Lucid heard his sister cry for help. "HELP ME, BROTHER!!" She's probably still trying to open the book with her hooves. he thought. That'll consume a lot more energy than casting a simple levitation spell! Lucid went back to reading his book. "He always could count on his pals to all ends, for he knew that forever they'd always be friends. Treponius travelled the far and the wide, to find troubled ponies and help them with pride." Lucid read the rest of the book in his head, and he made a promise to himself to never forget the words of it, and to try to live like Treponius Mane did. Prologue Part II: The Great Flash ForwardLumin Aria brought in her saddlebag a single book, Poetic Prophecies, penned by her favourite wizard, Star Swirl the Bearded. She knew that not all the poems in it were written by him, and that the others were written by Flash Back the Fortuitous. Her favourite poems in the book were Lucid is the Dreamer, Darkened is the Seeker, and The End of Magic, the three which they had co-written. I can't believe it! Lumin thought to herself. I'm finally going into Princess Celestia's Magic Academy for Gifted Unicorns! Lumin could hardly contain her excitement. She let out a little squee of delight. Lumin cantered to the entrance of the school, where she saw many Unicorn ponies practising spells in teams. She only saw two Unicorns practising alone, one lavender with multishaded-purple-mane and a purple sextant star Cute Mark that had five asters circumventing it, and the other one green-teal with a blonde-and-pink mane and a scroll Cutie Mark. They were both standing in opposite corners of the courtyard, neither one of them noticing or caring about the other. Lumin decided that if she was going to make friends, she had to walk right up to those two of her fellow filly faithful students, starting with the elder, lavender one. "Hello, stranger!" she exclaimed. "What's your name?" she asked. "Sparkle." the lavender Unicorn answered. "Twilight Sparkle." "It's a pleasure to meet you, Twilight!" Lumin exclaimed. "My name's Lumin Aria!" Twilight didn't seem like she wanted to talk. She seemed more focused on her task at hoof: teleporting other objects. "While self-teleportation may seem easy once it's mastered, and very difficult beforehoof," Twilight explained. "teleportation of inanimate objects can be a bit difficult to muster even after its mastery. So I don't have time to talk, Lumin. I need to concentrate!" Having nothing to say to Twilight, except things that she wouldn't want to hear or already knew, Lumin trotted over to the other lone Unicorn. This one seems a bit more... lighthearted than the other one. Lumin thought to herself. Maybe she'll have time to talk to me! Before she could speak, Lumin was interrupted in thought by the green-teal Unicorn. "Hello, stranger!" she exclaimed "What's your name?" "That's just what I was gonna say!" Lumin replied. "Well, Gonnasay, it's nice to meet you!" the green-teal Unicorn replied jokingly, "My name's Aurora Flash!" "My name's not Gonnasay, it's ARIA!" Lumin exclaimed, not knowing that Aurora's ignorance was a joke. "Lumin Aria! And aren't you a little... short to be a student? You don't look six at all!" "That's right, Mario!" Aurora replied, still pretending not to know her new friend's name. "I'm five! I was recognised as an 'honours' Unicorn, so I was enrolled by my mother a year early!" "Your... mother?" Lumin asked, wondering two things: what kind of mother enrolls her daughter in a genius academy a year early, and what kind of friend calls her friend the wrong name after being corrected?! "Yes, Leonardo, my mother!" Aurora replied, this time sarcasticly calling her a genius rather than pretending to get her name wrong. "The one who gave birth to me, named me, cared for me, and taught me how to walk, talk, and use magic! Speaking of which, class starts in thirty! Don't wanna be late for our first day!" "Thirty what?" Lumin asked, unaware of the current time. "Minutes?" "Nope, seconds!" Aurora exclaimed. "Gotta run, Aria! Allons-y!" Great. Lumin thought to herself. First she gets my name wrong thrice in a row, then, when she finally gets it right, she starts spouting Fancy at me! She heeded Aurora's command to run, the part of the sentence that was in a language she could understand. After Lumin Aria and Aurora Flash arrived in the classroom, they saw the headmistress herself: Princess Celestia. They heard her speak in the new royal Canterlot voice, which wasn't as loud as the old one was. That must be so that she can actually appeal to her subjects, rather than strike fear in their hearts. Lumin was simply buzzing with excitement. Simply buzzing! A casual observer would have thought that she and the pony next to her had nothing in common, them looking so different and all. But, for the first time in the six years since she opened her newborn eyes and saw her brother, Lumin had finally made a friend. A friend who called her by her last name, but a friend nonetheless. "What do you like to do for fun, Aurora?" Lumin asked her new friend. "I like to hone my magic skills and sing songs." "Me too, Aria!" Aurora replied. "But my favouritest, funnest, amazingest thing to do is to write poetry! I use made-up words that other poets can only dream of! It's super-duper-fan-pony-tastic!" "I do that in my songs too, Aurora." Lumin replied. "I made up a word called 'Illucidity' for the title of a song I'm still writing. Do you want to hear it?" "Of course I wanna hear it, Aria! I love songs!" Aurora replied excitedly. "But they're pretty hard for me to write. I can't seem to make up any music!" "Okay, here goes nothing!" Lumin exclaimed, then she began to sing. Once there was a mare, Who dreamed so silently, She'd sleep without a care For Illucidity! She's travelled into lands Which no-one else can see, For no-one understands Her Illucidity! Lumin stopped singing, in fear of everypony laughing at her. "It was all I could come up with." she lied to Aurora. "Miss Aria." Princess Celestia said firmly. "Why are you singing to your friend in class..." she begun to ask. Then she spoke in a voice akin to that of an excited filly. "When you should be singing to all of us!? Take it from the top!" Lumin her first two verses again, then sung the rest. After the song was over, she told Aurora "I lied about my song, I did come up with more than two verses. It's still incomplete, though." Aurora, who wasn't really listening since the song was over, asked "What was your entrance exam? Was it music related? Mine was poetry related, so I could only assume it had something to do with your special talent, which Celestia should have sensed in you!" "That's right, Aurora." Lumin answered. "My exam was to lull an Ursa Minor to sleep with a musical spell. Celestia had to send somepony to bring one in all the way from the Everfree Forest, miles away from here!" "That sounds like it was funner than mine!" Aurora exclaimed. "All I did was recite a poem from Poetic Prophecies and say what it meant!" "You actually know what those poems mean?!" Lumin asked surprisedly. "I've been trying ever since I learned how to read to find out what The End of Magic meant, but to no avail! I'll flip to it, since I have the book in my saddlebag." "No need, Aria!" Aurora replied. "I've already memorised it!" She then began to read the poem to her friend from memory. Chapter I: Lucid Is The Dreamer...Chapter I: Lucid Is The Dreamer... Lucid is the dreamer who walks along the stream, Following the wanderer among the many worlds. Lucid is the dreamer who walks behind the seam, Searching for the keeper of the lost and broken souls. Lucid is the dreamer who walks where no stars gleam, Travelling to places he could not reach while awake. Lucid is the dreamer who walks within the dream, All until the moment he is bitten by the snake. Lumin Aria sighed as she read Star Swirl's poem. She remembered her elder brother, Lucid. She wondered what her friends, Dolphin Dream and Aurora Flash, would think about the poem, and if they would think it had a connection to her lost brother. DD would probably say that Lumin and her bro were in love, and Aurora would probably say that the poem meant something. Lumin closed the book and went into bed. But no matter how hard she tried, she could not get to sleep. Lucid is the dreamer... what does that even mean? Lumin thought to herself. I wish Aurora were here to tell me. It's probably symbolic about my lost brother. Wherever you are, Lucid, I swear on Star Swirl's beard that I WILL find you! After about sixty minutes of awkward silence, Lumin finally went to sleep. She had a strange dream, like every night for the past three years since she lost her brother. It was always the same one, too. Lumin was in a beautiful sunny land with lots of beautiful flowers. Her brother, Lucid was there, calling her name. "LUMIN!" He yelled. "I'm coming, Brother!" Lumin yelled back as she ran towards her brother. He was hanging over a cliff when he fell down. Fortunately, he was able to teleport in midair, but unfortunately, he accidentally forgot to set coordinates in his mind, making him teleport right into a portal, which lead to the other side of Equestria. Lumin woke up from her dream with a fright. She looked at her clock, which said that it was 3:42 AM, and thought to herself I really need to sleep, but I just can't with this poem stuck in my head. Maybe I should go to Aurora's house. It's right across the street, and if it's too dark, I could just cast a simple light spell. Then she thought But what if Aurora is asleep? I can't wake her, she'd challenge me to another sing-off, and that would just be a waste of time! Lumin tried to think about something other than the poem, so she thought about her favourite wizard, Star Swirl the Bearded. She thought about all the spells he invented, poems he wrote, stopped thinking about poetry, thought about how he transformed into Discord when he tried casting an incomplete spell. "From one to another, another to one. A mark of one's destiny singled out alone, fulfilled." And she thought about his wing in the Canterlot Archives. From whence she found this poetry book. She stopped thinking about Star Swirl the Bearded and started thinking about her friend Aurora, whose house she wanted to walk to. To her unsurprise, when Lumin went to Aurora's house, she was awake. She usually stayed up late pondering poetry, and probably read the same poem that Lumin did. "Hi, Aria!" Aurora exclaimed with joy. "So nice to see my best friend at a time like this!" "Thank you, and it's nice to see you too!" Lumin replied. Then she thought for a second before saying "Wait, a time like what? 3:45 AM, or did something happen?" "Well," said Aurora, who then held her breath, and then quickly said "I was trying a new spell called Dreamwalking for the past two hours and I couldn't get it right after 6,999 tries and then I thought maybe Aria could help me! and I was just about to go to your house and get you when you showed up about 45 seconds ago!" Then, in a more calm voice and pace, she asked "What did you need me for?" "I need you," Lumin replied, "to decipher a poem I read in Star Swirl's Poetic Prophecies. It's called 'Lucid is the Dreamer' or something like that." "Then I am just the pony for the job, Aria!" Aurora exclaimed with delight. "After all, poetry is my Special Talent, represented by a scroll on my flank!" "Yes, Aurora, I know what your Cutie Mark is!" Lumin replied "Stop 'breaking the fifth wall' or whatever you call it." "It's 'fourth wall', Aria!" Aurora exclaimed "And it's not something I or anypony else made up, it's real! There really are two-legged animals who call themselves humans and made up this universe and invented the fourth wall, which ponies rarely break, and they believe they're smarter than the ponies of their own universe and..." "I'm gonna stop you right there, Aurora." Lumin interrupted. "HUMANS AREN'T REAL!!! You're starting to sound like Lyra! And aren't you forgetting something? What's a Dreamwalking spell?" "Oh, right, the spell!" Aurora exclaimed. "It's a spell that allows Unicorns and Alicorns to enter a pony's mind while he or she is dreaming. If used properly, the caster can use the host's mind as a gateway to faraway places, like the human universe, the bounds of Equestria, The moon, wherever that pony is dreaming of." "So I could use it to find my lost brother!" Lumin exclaimed with elation. "This is just fan-pony-tastic!" "There's just one teensy weensy problem, Aria." Aurora replied in a surprisingly normal tone of voice, even though she could easily be the second bearer of the Element of Laughter. "Only an Alicorn or a high-level unicorn can cast this spell without drastic results! Are you sure you're a high enough level?" "Yes!" Lumin replied. "Let me see that book." Aurora handed Lumin the book written by none other than her favourite author, SS the B, and entitled Magical Marvelles. "Page 67!" Aurora exclaimed with glee. Lumin flipped to the page, and sure enough she found what she was looking for. Dreamwalking. She cast the spell, and immediately entered DD's dream. Chapter II: Dolphin's DreamLumin looked around and saw many things she expected to see in her sleeping friend's dream: flying dolphins, ponies with hearts over their heads, letters spelling "Amore" everywhere, and beautiful flowers. The one thing that stood out was that her brother was alive. Aurora was there too, and she said something that was a little too fuzzy to make out. That must be the dream Aurora, not the real one. Lumin thought to herself. Dear Star Swirl, this Dreamwalking stuff is confusing! I wish I was back home! Suddenly, a pink aura glowed from her horn, even though she wasn't trying to cast a spell. She looked down to her front right hoof, and a snake had bitten it. This must be how I return to the normal version of Equestria. Lumin thought. Just like the last line of the poem! "Did it work, Aria?!" Lumin didn't even need to open her eyes to know who asked that. Only Aurora had ever called her Aria. "All until the moment I was bitten by the snake." Lumin quoted the last line of Star Swirl's poem. "Just like in the poem!" "I was just reading that while you were Dreamwalking!" Aurora exclaimed "A line before it said that you could travel to places you could not reach while awake!" "That means I really can find my lost brother!" Lumin exclaimed excitedly. "What are we twiddling our hooves here for?! Go to sleep so I can enter your dream next!" "I don't think so, Aria!" Aurora exclaimed. "Number one: I'm not tired! Number two: You haven't fully explored Dolphin's dream yet! What if there's something you missed? Something that could lead you to your brother? You have to look again, Aria, you just have to!" Lumin rolled her eyes. Typical Aurora Lumin thought to herself. She cast the Dreamwalking spell again, this time with feeling. She reentered Dolphin's dream, and this time, she would avoid any snakes until she got some viable answers. Lumin looked around and saw the same things as before, but this time a bit less fuzzy. she thought to herself This time, as Star Swirl is my witness, I must do this right! And she would. She knew it. She just didn't know when. Or how. Or in whose dream. Lumin looked around again, and this time she saw something shocking. While earlier the ponies were frolicking in a flowery field playing games and saying lovey-dovey things, now they were wallowing in... whatever it is that ponies wallow in. What happened whilst I was gone? Lumin thought to herself. Something absolutely terrible I presume! Mysteries were everywhere in the realm of magic, Lumin thought to herself, and what happened here was sure as Tartarus one of them. And then she thought in silence for a while, then thought Doctor Obvious. Then to her uttermost surprise, she couldn't quite believe her pony eyes. Lumin saw an Ursa Magna, the third biggest of the Ursa Species. Why would DD dream about a constellation creature that had nothing to do with love? Constellation creatures are pretty rare. How did she even know what the Ursa Magna looked like? So many questions, so little time. A snake was bound to come sooner or later, and with one bite from that, Lumin would be awake again before she could say "Amniomorphic". Maybe it would help if I moved around. Lumin thought to herself. It is a Dreamwalking spell after all. "Wow, Aria!" a familiar, cheerful voice exclaimed with excitement. "You were standing there like a statue for the past twenty-two minutes, and now, poof! You're walking again!" "Twenty-two minutes?" Lumin asked. "I gotta know, when is the time now again?" "Time is 5... no, 4:30 PM!" Aurora answered with a smile. "Why?" She asked. Lumin couldn't break the fifth wall, so she had to lie. Good thing I'm not Applejack! she thought to herself before saying "I'm late for a date with Caramel! He said 'tomorrow at 4' yesterday!" Shortly after hearing the lie, a snake slithered up to Lumin and bit her on the flank. They must come when I lie, like the Serpentinae in Star Swirl's "Two-Headed Mythological Mysteries", one of my favourite books! She looked at the snakes and noticed that they had two heads. A single Serpentina was fairly easy to elude, but twelve? She could not give up! Lumin quickly used a teleportation spell, her brilliant pink magical aura flashing in her disappearance. But the Serpentinae slithered very quickly to where she was. She teleported to the Ponyville Hot Air Balloon, then took to the sky. Lumin Aria wondered why she didn't do this sooner. No snake, not even a Serpentina, could fly! And she had a bird's-eye-view of Ponyville from here! What could stop her now? Just then, Princess Dolphin Dream flew up and crashed into the ropes of the balloon, sending Lumin fleeting to her doom. Wait Princess Dolphin Dream? Lumin wondered. Then she remembered. Of course! This is her dream, she could do or be anything she wanted to! Too bad she decided to be an Alicorn Princess still learning to fly. As Lumin fell to her doom (not death, she was only twenty feet above the ground.) she said one final sentence. A five word sentence that even she couldn't hear herself say. And then a Serpentina bit her on the flank. "What about this time, Aria? What did you find this time?" Aurora asked, returning Lumin's train of thought to her. "Nothing interesting." Lumin lied. Chapter III: Finding Dolphin"So what do we do now, Aria?" Aurora asked worriedly. "What if we never find your lost brother?" "We will, Aurora!" Lumin replied. "We just need to find the real Dolphin Dream and ask her if she remembers what she dreamed about." "What good would that do?" Aurora asked. "We've already been up all night!" "I know, I know," Lumin replied "But if she remembers her dreams, maybe she'll understand that they weren't created by her subconscious alone! Maybe she'll know that I had something to do with it!" "You still haven't told me what happened in those dreams, Aria! I gotta know!" Aurora replied. "This doesn't make any sense!" "I didn't think I needed to, and you would probably just get scared anyway! All you need to know is that I got bitten by a snake in the end!" Lumin responded. "What kind of snake was it?" Aurora asked. "A Queen Cobra? Or a Black Python? Maybe a Rattlesnake? Please tell me!" Lumin thought about that for a while. I don't want to tell the truth, that I saw a Serpentina, the scariest type of snake in Equestria. "It was a, uh... Copperhead!" She lied. "Oh, Aria, you silly filly!" Aurora replied. "Copperheads aren't scary! If it was a Viper or a Python, or maybe even a two-headed mythologial Serpentina, then maybe I'd be scared, but if it was just a Cop-" Lumin cut her off "It was a Serpentina!" Then she added " Sorry I lied. I just didn't want you to be scared. Anyway, even though this idea is kinda on the wing, Dolphin might be our only chance at finding my brother." "Um, Aria?" Aurora asked. "Yes Aurora?" Lumin replied. "Do you remember what I said to you during the Meteor Shower?" Aurora asked. "No." Lumin answered. "What did you say?" "I said 'Once!' as a part of a sentence," Lumin replied "but before I could finish, I was interrupted by the shock and awe of the shooting stars flying through the galaxies!" "And how were you going to end that sentence?" Lumin asked. And then Aurora whispered into Lumin's ear, inaudibly to those around them. She whispered a sentence that would forever remain in Lumin's heart. A sentence that she would not could not ever forget, even in a thousand years. A sentence that not anypony, or anybody, in any universe, real or not, would ever say or hear again. "That was truly beautiful!" Lumin replied, crying. "Of all the things I've heard, that was the most moving. But enough about that, we need to find Dolphin now! We can have a teary moment later when we find my brother, and she might be the only one who can help us find him!" "Okie dokie lokie!" Aurora exclaimed, copying Pinkie Pie. "Whenever you're ready, shine your way!" Lumin rolled her eyes at the last sentence. Of course she would say that. Luminum means "Light" in Latin. She thought. And lights shine. Maybe she meant something more? She wondered. Nah. Nothing like that... But she did say that sentence to me... Forget it, brain! Ignore what the heart says! "Let's go now!" Lumin exclaimed, half with excitement, half with angst. "She'll probably want us to explain her latest dream anyway." Lumin and Aurora ran across Ponyville, as neither of them wanted to waste their magical energy on a teleportation spell. They didn't care that it was 5:00 AM, or that they've been up all night. They just wanted to find Dolphin Dream. When they got a steady pace going, Aurora asked Lumin "What was your dream really about, Aria? I know you lied when you said 'Nothing interesting' and I just wanted to know why you sounded all frantic! You were almost as frantic as I am when I speak without commas!" "Aurora," Lumin replied, "for the millionth time, there is no punctuation when ponies speak! Stop breaking the fifth wall!" "I just told you at 3:46 AM," Aurora replied "that it's called the fourth wall, Aria!" "It doesn't matter what it's called, Aurora!" Lumin exclaimed with anger. "What matters is that we get there quickly!" "There?" Aurora asked. "We're already here!" Lumin looked around and saw a familiar mare. A female Unicorn mare with a lilac coat, iris mane and tail with a light glaucous streak, raspberry rose eyes, and a cutie mark of two encircling dolphins; one light glaucous and one iris. I've done it! she thought to herself. I've finally found DD! Chapter IV: Pāradox Luminō"Hi, Lumin! Hi, Aurora!" Dolphin Dream said to the pair of mares. "What brings you here at a time like this? Are you betrothed? Am I the first pony you told? Will you invite me to the wedding?" Lumin picked up the nearest stone with her magic and threw it right at Dolphin's left eye. She quickly blinked, but the stone still left a visible mark. Though she suffered minimal to no brain damage, Dolphin was still confused. She had no idea why her best friend would hit her with a stone! "What did you do that for?!" Dolphin asked. "All I did was ask a question... or two... or three... or four... or five!" "It's not about the question, DD!" Lumin exclaimed. "It's because you need to listen up now! There's something strange going on in the Dream World, and I, er... we need to know what it's about!" "And you've come to me because my last name is Dream?" Dolphin asked. "Dolphin Dream's not even my real name! You know that my real name is Sea Swirl!" "It's not about your name, DD!" Lumin exclaimed She must hate me for calling her that! she thought. "It's about the dream you had! I was in it!" "How did you know who was in my dream?" Dolphin asked. "Are you a spy?" "Simmer down, Swirly!" Aurora exclaimed in the best Applejack impression she could muster. "She ain't no spah! But she sure knows what's goin' on. Don't you, Aria?" Lumin simply nodded her head. It could be worse. she thought. She could've done her impression of Twilight! "I am not a conspiracy nut!" my flank! "I entered your dream through a Dreamwalking spell," she explained, "which, as its name implies, is a spell that allows its caster to enter a sleeping pony's dreams. Very few ponies know how to do it, as it's not as simple as levitation or teleportation." "The way you're saying that kinda makes it sound like you're bragging!" Dolphin replied. "She's bragging with rights, Dreamy!" Aurora rebutted. "She practised with me seven thousand times before getting it right." she lied. After that, Lumin heard a strange double-slithery noise, like two snakes were doing a mating dance. But snakes don't do mating dances! She thought. It must be another Serpentina! I thought that they only came to ponies who lied in dreams, not in reality! The Serpentina started hissing, and it just happened to speak coherent Latin. "Septem Flammae Draconis." it said. Since the other two ponies didn't speak enough Latin, Lumin was the only one of the three who could understand it, and it meant "The Seven Flames of the Dragon." What this meant to Lumin was unknown and, at least as she thought, irrelevant to the dreams. "Did you hear that, Aurora?" Lumin whispered. "Hear what, Aria?" Aurora asked, also whispering. "Is it a secret? I love sharing secrets! Especially if it's with y..." Lumin covered Aurora's mouth with her hoof. "It was a snake speaking Latin." Lumin whispered. "Do you know what that means?" Aurora shook her head. "It means that the Serpentinae are real!" Lumin tried to keep whispering, but it was loud enough for Dolphin to hear. Oh, drat! Lumin thought. Now DD knows about them! She lies almost all the time! What are we gonna do? "Why does that matter?" Aurora asked. "They're just snakes!" "They're snakes," Lumin answered, "Who can sense, and will come to, a liar! And you just lied about me! You know what that means?" "No, what does it mean, Aria?" Aurora asked. "If you die in the dream, you wake up." Lumin quoted the Dream Lord from a story she read called Lucy's Choice, which she had read countless times before. "Ask me what happens if you die in reality!" "What happens?" Aurora asked. "You DIE stupid, that's why it's called reality!" Lumin answered rudely. "And I'm pretty sure that Serpentina bites kill you." "Oh." Aurora replied. "That doesn't answer what it means, though." "It means my brother's in a world of hurt right now!" Lumin exclaimed. Dolphin was utterly confused. She didn't hear any of the pair's conversation until this point, and she didn't know at all what they were talking about. "ENOUGH!" she yelled. "You were about to tell me about entering my dream," she said weakly, "and what it had to do with you two searching for me." "Oh, right, the dream!" Lumin exclaimed in a tone that suggested that she forgot what they came there for, which she did. "When you were a bucking Princess, I was being chased by these two-headed snakes called Serpentinae, Singular:Serpentina. They come to ponies who know about them when those ponies tell lies. The more truths you hide, the more snakes chase you. I told the dream version of Aurora that I was late for a date with Caramel, which was a lie. I was actually trying to find out the secret about those snakes. Twelve of them just appeared out of nowhere and I had to get on the hot air balloon!" "The hot air balloon part sounds familiar," Dolphin replied, "but I don't remember seeing any snakes, especially not with three heads or a time-head." "I never said anything about a time-head!" Lumin exclaimed. "That's not even a real thing! And I said the snakes had two heads, not three! There's a picture of one in Two-Headed Mythological Mysteries by Star Swirl the Bearded." Lumin looked through Dolphin's unsurprisingly small library and, to her unsurprise, it had only romance novels. Not a single informative book. She decided to do a quick teleportation spell to get to Golden Oaks. I could find any book ever written in there, as well as learn more about Star Swirl the Bearded from Twilight. Maybe I should go there more often! she thought. But for now I'm just asking her for one book and I'm out. When Lumin got to the outside of the library, her tree-branches' leaves fluttering in the breeze, she instantly saw Twilight and Spike trying to alphabetise the books by author instead of title. The "S" section was overflowing with Star Swirl books, so Twilight moved a few of them to the "B" section with her magic. Spike had to use his claws, as fire-breath is only good for sending scrolls to Twilight's contacts, mainly the other Princesses. "A little help here!" Spike hollered when he heard the hoofsteps, but didn't bother to turn around and see who it was. "Twilight and I are trying to sort the boo... woah!" He fell off the stack of ten books he had made, and then, as if by magic, the stack collapsed into a pile of fifty. "Spike!" Twilight exclaimed. "I can't sort these books and greet our guest at the same time! Just rebuild the tower of books and get back to sorting, STAT!" Then, in a more calm and collected tone, she said "Hello, Lumin! It's been a long time since you came over here for a book!" Lumin wanted to ask Twilight if she was psychic, but knew that she didn't have time for that. "I'm here for Two-Headed Mythological Mysteries by Star Swirl the Bearded." she requested. "I think it's in the pile of books that Spike failed to clean up." Twilight replied. "Spike! Lumin wants Two-Headed Mythological Mysteries! Can you find it?" "I'm alreday holding it!" Spike answered. "Wait, who's Lumin? I don't remember hearing that name." "That's because she usually only comes up to me after midnight, when you're in bed." Twilight replied. "She's the yellow Unicorn with the black-and-white mane and a Cutie Mark of four pairs of music notes and a red four-point star." Spike turned around and said "Never seen her bef..." Before he could finish his sentence, he saw Lumin Aria, in all her glory. "Amazing! She's almost as beautiful as Rarity!" Spike fainted onto the book-pile, still clutching that book so that it wouldn't fall. Lumin siezed the book with her magic and went on her way, this time walking instead of teleporting. When she got back to Dolphin's house, Aurora and Dolphin were waiting for her. "I found the book, DD!" she exclaimed, tired from walking that far. "I'll flip it to page 42, where the picture and description are." She flipped the page and then handed the book to Dolphin. Dolphin Dream read aloud these words: "Let's see... it says 'Serpentina. Scientific name: Sepentina dicapita. Place of origin: Draconia. Description: A two-headed snake which can sense when a being is lying and slithers towards that being. In the Dream World, it causes the victim, regardless of race, to cast an unwilling spell bringing them back to the normal world. In the normal world, the spell sends them to Draconia instead.' So it doesn't kill us?" "I guess not." Lumin replied, still pretty sure that it did and that Draconia was some kind of gate to Tartarus. "What are we waiting for? Draconia could be where my missing brother is! Everypony tell a lie, now!" "I'm not excited at all!" Aurora exclaimed with excitement. "I don't think that you two are in love!" Dolphin exclaimed. "I don't wanna go!" Lumin exclaimed. Prologue Part III: Twice Bitten, Once SlyLumin Aria was chasing her brother, Lucid Arius, in a little game of tag they were playing together. Lumin was in a beautiful sunny land with lots of beautiful flowers. They were a little bit close to Snakes' Hollow, but they knew to stay away from there. The Serpentinae, a two-headed species of snakes who lived only in Snakes' Hollow and outside Equestria, were not of Equestrian nature. They were sometimes called the Snakes of Truth, because they slithered towards anypony who told a lie and bit them on the flank. During their game, Lucid used a teleportation spell to escape Lumin's fast-galloping hooves. "Hey, that's not fair!" Lumin exclaimed. "You cheated!" "No I didn't!" Lucid replied tauntingly. "It's a legitimate strategy!" "Sure it is!" Lumin replied, rolling her eyes. She then heard hissing and slithering. Probably just a harmless Copperhead. She assumed. Lumin thought about it for a few more seconds. My brother did just lie, though. She thought. It could have been a Serpentina, but I don't think it is. Her brother, Lucid was there, calling her name. "LUMIN!" He yelled. "I'm coming, Brother!" Lumin yelled back as she ran towards her brother. He was hanging over a cliff when he fell down. Fortunately, he was able to teleport in midair, but unfortunately, he accidentally forgot to set coordinates in his mind, making him teleport right into a portal, which lead to the other side of Equestria. That must be the portal that the Serpentina use to come here! Lumin thought to herself. My brother's in serious danger! I need to rescue him! If only Aurora were here, she'd know what to do!
Prologue Part I: A Plight to RemeberLucid Arius looked down at his little sister and smiled at her growth in her magic skill. She went from levitation to teleportation in just six nights! he thought. Soon she'll be eligible for Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns, no doubt! Lucid had recently heard of Twilight Sparkle, a six-year-old filly who was chosen as Celestia's personal protégé at the school. Lumin might not be as magically gifted as Twilight, who hatched a baby dragon egg on her own, but she's only three. He watched her practice some more. She teleported right into midair, barely able to keep hovering above a pile of books. She'll improve by the time she turns six, I'm sure. "Don't fall on the books, Lumin!" Lucid exclaimed. "Magic books multiply five-fold when they fall to the ground!" He tried to levitate her away from them, but, since she had just recently teleported, he couldn't. Lumin Aria fell right onto the stack of six books, and they instantly multiplied into thirty. "What'd I say? Multiplied. Five. Fold." Lumin counted the books, did the math in her head, and confirmed what her brother said was true. Lucid helped her clean up the books, put them back on the shelf, and sent her to bed. "But I'm not even tired yet!" Lumin cried. "I want to practise more magic!" Lucid needed some time alone, and Lumin wanted to practise more magic. Lucid thought of a solution. "You don't have to sleep, Sis!" he told her. "You can practise your magic in bed if you want. Just don't cast any fire spells!" After sending his sister to bed, Lucid finally had a moment of free time to himself. He could hear grunting and groaning coming from his sister's room, probably because she was concentrationg on advanced spells such as duplication or incineration. He quickly galloped to her room, and she was trying to open a book with her hooves. Of all the stupid, foalish things a Unicorn could do... Lucid thought. "You know, Sis, you could just open the book with your magic!" he explained. "All it takes is a simple levitation spell, which you've clearly mastered if you can keep aerostasis for four whole seconds!" "Oh." Lumin "I've been trying for thirty whole seconds," Lumin replied, mocking her brother's exaggeration of time's meaning, "to open the book with my hooves, but you're right. Magic is a lot easier than that! It doesn't consume any of the energy that I'm not trying to save for actually casting the spells, Lucid!" "Sorry, Sis!" Lucid replied. "I forgot how little energy young fillies have at night." And that was true. He did forget. Lucid left his sister's room, returning to the house's main room. He began to read a book himself. It was a book of pony tales, entitled The Tales of Treponius Mane by Richpone Mare-ington. "There once was a pony who walked sun or rain, and he went by the name of Treponius Mane..." he began to read. "He went to a thousand lands both new and old, that included a land of just silver and gold." Suddenly, Lucid heard his sister cry for help. "HELP ME, BROTHER!!" She's probably still trying to open the book with her hooves. he thought. That'll consume a lot more energy than casting a simple levitation spell! Lucid went back to reading his book. "He always could count on his pals to all ends, for he knew that forever they'd always be friends. Treponius travelled the far and the wide, to find troubled ponies and help them with pride." Lucid read the rest of the book in his head, and he made a promise to himself to never forget the words of it, and to try to live like Treponius Mane did.
Prologue Part II: The Great Flash ForwardLumin Aria brought in her saddlebag a single book, Poetic Prophecies, penned by her favourite wizard, Star Swirl the Bearded. She knew that not all the poems in it were written by him, and that the others were written by Flash Back the Fortuitous. Her favourite poems in the book were Lucid is the Dreamer, Darkened is the Seeker, and The End of Magic, the three which they had co-written. I can't believe it! Lumin thought to herself. I'm finally going into Princess Celestia's Magic Academy for Gifted Unicorns! Lumin could hardly contain her excitement. She let out a little squee of delight. Lumin cantered to the entrance of the school, where she saw many Unicorn ponies practising spells in teams. She only saw two Unicorns practising alone, one lavender with multishaded-purple-mane and a purple sextant star Cute Mark that had five asters circumventing it, and the other one green-teal with a blonde-and-pink mane and a scroll Cutie Mark. They were both standing in opposite corners of the courtyard, neither one of them noticing or caring about the other. Lumin decided that if she was going to make friends, she had to walk right up to those two of her fellow filly faithful students, starting with the elder, lavender one. "Hello, stranger!" she exclaimed. "What's your name?" she asked. "Sparkle." the lavender Unicorn answered. "Twilight Sparkle." "It's a pleasure to meet you, Twilight!" Lumin exclaimed. "My name's Lumin Aria!" Twilight didn't seem like she wanted to talk. She seemed more focused on her task at hoof: teleporting other objects. "While self-teleportation may seem easy once it's mastered, and very difficult beforehoof," Twilight explained. "teleportation of inanimate objects can be a bit difficult to muster even after its mastery. So I don't have time to talk, Lumin. I need to concentrate!" Having nothing to say to Twilight, except things that she wouldn't want to hear or already knew, Lumin trotted over to the other lone Unicorn. This one seems a bit more... lighthearted than the other one. Lumin thought to herself. Maybe she'll have time to talk to me! Before she could speak, Lumin was interrupted in thought by the green-teal Unicorn. "Hello, stranger!" she exclaimed "What's your name?" "That's just what I was gonna say!" Lumin replied. "Well, Gonnasay, it's nice to meet you!" the green-teal Unicorn replied jokingly, "My name's Aurora Flash!" "My name's not Gonnasay, it's ARIA!" Lumin exclaimed, not knowing that Aurora's ignorance was a joke. "Lumin Aria! And aren't you a little... short to be a student? You don't look six at all!" "That's right, Mario!" Aurora replied, still pretending not to know her new friend's name. "I'm five! I was recognised as an 'honours' Unicorn, so I was enrolled by my mother a year early!" "Your... mother?" Lumin asked, wondering two things: what kind of mother enrolls her daughter in a genius academy a year early, and what kind of friend calls her friend the wrong name after being corrected?! "Yes, Leonardo, my mother!" Aurora replied, this time sarcasticly calling her a genius rather than pretending to get her name wrong. "The one who gave birth to me, named me, cared for me, and taught me how to walk, talk, and use magic! Speaking of which, class starts in thirty! Don't wanna be late for our first day!" "Thirty what?" Lumin asked, unaware of the current time. "Minutes?" "Nope, seconds!" Aurora exclaimed. "Gotta run, Aria! Allons-y!" Great. Lumin thought to herself. First she gets my name wrong thrice in a row, then, when she finally gets it right, she starts spouting Fancy at me! She heeded Aurora's command to run, the part of the sentence that was in a language she could understand. After Lumin Aria and Aurora Flash arrived in the classroom, they saw the headmistress herself: Princess Celestia. They heard her speak in the new royal Canterlot voice, which wasn't as loud as the old one was. That must be so that she can actually appeal to her subjects, rather than strike fear in their hearts. Lumin was simply buzzing with excitement. Simply buzzing! A casual observer would have thought that she and the pony next to her had nothing in common, them looking so different and all. But, for the first time in the six years since she opened her newborn eyes and saw her brother, Lumin had finally made a friend. A friend who called her by her last name, but a friend nonetheless. "What do you like to do for fun, Aurora?" Lumin asked her new friend. "I like to hone my magic skills and sing songs." "Me too, Aria!" Aurora replied. "But my favouritest, funnest, amazingest thing to do is to write poetry! I use made-up words that other poets can only dream of! It's super-duper-fan-pony-tastic!" "I do that in my songs too, Aurora." Lumin replied. "I made up a word called 'Illucidity' for the title of a song I'm still writing. Do you want to hear it?" "Of course I wanna hear it, Aria! I love songs!" Aurora replied excitedly. "But they're pretty hard for me to write. I can't seem to make up any music!" "Okay, here goes nothing!" Lumin exclaimed, then she began to sing. Once there was a mare, Who dreamed so silently, She'd sleep without a care For Illucidity! She's travelled into lands Which no-one else can see, For no-one understands Her Illucidity! Lumin stopped singing, in fear of everypony laughing at her. "It was all I could come up with." she lied to Aurora. "Miss Aria." Princess Celestia said firmly. "Why are you singing to your friend in class..." she begun to ask. Then she spoke in a voice akin to that of an excited filly. "When you should be singing to all of us!? Take it from the top!" Lumin her first two verses again, then sung the rest. After the song was over, she told Aurora "I lied about my song, I did come up with more than two verses. It's still incomplete, though." Aurora, who wasn't really listening since the song was over, asked "What was your entrance exam? Was it music related? Mine was poetry related, so I could only assume it had something to do with your special talent, which Celestia should have sensed in you!" "That's right, Aurora." Lumin answered. "My exam was to lull an Ursa Minor to sleep with a musical spell. Celestia had to send somepony to bring one in all the way from the Everfree Forest, miles away from here!" "That sounds like it was funner than mine!" Aurora exclaimed. "All I did was recite a poem from Poetic Prophecies and say what it meant!" "You actually know what those poems mean?!" Lumin asked surprisedly. "I've been trying ever since I learned how to read to find out what The End of Magic meant, but to no avail! I'll flip to it, since I have the book in my saddlebag." "No need, Aria!" Aurora replied. "I've already memorised it!" She then began to read the poem to her friend from memory.
Chapter I: Lucid Is The Dreamer...Chapter I: Lucid Is The Dreamer... Lucid is the dreamer who walks along the stream, Following the wanderer among the many worlds. Lucid is the dreamer who walks behind the seam, Searching for the keeper of the lost and broken souls. Lucid is the dreamer who walks where no stars gleam, Travelling to places he could not reach while awake. Lucid is the dreamer who walks within the dream, All until the moment he is bitten by the snake. Lumin Aria sighed as she read Star Swirl's poem. She remembered her elder brother, Lucid. She wondered what her friends, Dolphin Dream and Aurora Flash, would think about the poem, and if they would think it had a connection to her lost brother. DD would probably say that Lumin and her bro were in love, and Aurora would probably say that the poem meant something. Lumin closed the book and went into bed. But no matter how hard she tried, she could not get to sleep. Lucid is the dreamer... what does that even mean? Lumin thought to herself. I wish Aurora were here to tell me. It's probably symbolic about my lost brother. Wherever you are, Lucid, I swear on Star Swirl's beard that I WILL find you! After about sixty minutes of awkward silence, Lumin finally went to sleep. She had a strange dream, like every night for the past three years since she lost her brother. It was always the same one, too. Lumin was in a beautiful sunny land with lots of beautiful flowers. Her brother, Lucid was there, calling her name. "LUMIN!" He yelled. "I'm coming, Brother!" Lumin yelled back as she ran towards her brother. He was hanging over a cliff when he fell down. Fortunately, he was able to teleport in midair, but unfortunately, he accidentally forgot to set coordinates in his mind, making him teleport right into a portal, which lead to the other side of Equestria. Lumin woke up from her dream with a fright. She looked at her clock, which said that it was 3:42 AM, and thought to herself I really need to sleep, but I just can't with this poem stuck in my head. Maybe I should go to Aurora's house. It's right across the street, and if it's too dark, I could just cast a simple light spell. Then she thought But what if Aurora is asleep? I can't wake her, she'd challenge me to another sing-off, and that would just be a waste of time! Lumin tried to think about something other than the poem, so she thought about her favourite wizard, Star Swirl the Bearded. She thought about all the spells he invented, poems he wrote, stopped thinking about poetry, thought about how he transformed into Discord when he tried casting an incomplete spell. "From one to another, another to one. A mark of one's destiny singled out alone, fulfilled." And she thought about his wing in the Canterlot Archives. From whence she found this poetry book. She stopped thinking about Star Swirl the Bearded and started thinking about her friend Aurora, whose house she wanted to walk to. To her unsurprise, when Lumin went to Aurora's house, she was awake. She usually stayed up late pondering poetry, and probably read the same poem that Lumin did. "Hi, Aria!" Aurora exclaimed with joy. "So nice to see my best friend at a time like this!" "Thank you, and it's nice to see you too!" Lumin replied. Then she thought for a second before saying "Wait, a time like what? 3:45 AM, or did something happen?" "Well," said Aurora, who then held her breath, and then quickly said "I was trying a new spell called Dreamwalking for the past two hours and I couldn't get it right after 6,999 tries and then I thought maybe Aria could help me! and I was just about to go to your house and get you when you showed up about 45 seconds ago!" Then, in a more calm voice and pace, she asked "What did you need me for?" "I need you," Lumin replied, "to decipher a poem I read in Star Swirl's Poetic Prophecies. It's called 'Lucid is the Dreamer' or something like that." "Then I am just the pony for the job, Aria!" Aurora exclaimed with delight. "After all, poetry is my Special Talent, represented by a scroll on my flank!" "Yes, Aurora, I know what your Cutie Mark is!" Lumin replied "Stop 'breaking the fifth wall' or whatever you call it." "It's 'fourth wall', Aria!" Aurora exclaimed "And it's not something I or anypony else made up, it's real! There really are two-legged animals who call themselves humans and made up this universe and invented the fourth wall, which ponies rarely break, and they believe they're smarter than the ponies of their own universe and..." "I'm gonna stop you right there, Aurora." Lumin interrupted. "HUMANS AREN'T REAL!!! You're starting to sound like Lyra! And aren't you forgetting something? What's a Dreamwalking spell?" "Oh, right, the spell!" Aurora exclaimed. "It's a spell that allows Unicorns and Alicorns to enter a pony's mind while he or she is dreaming. If used properly, the caster can use the host's mind as a gateway to faraway places, like the human universe, the bounds of Equestria, The moon, wherever that pony is dreaming of." "So I could use it to find my lost brother!" Lumin exclaimed with elation. "This is just fan-pony-tastic!" "There's just one teensy weensy problem, Aria." Aurora replied in a surprisingly normal tone of voice, even though she could easily be the second bearer of the Element of Laughter. "Only an Alicorn or a high-level unicorn can cast this spell without drastic results! Are you sure you're a high enough level?" "Yes!" Lumin replied. "Let me see that book." Aurora handed Lumin the book written by none other than her favourite author, SS the B, and entitled Magical Marvelles. "Page 67!" Aurora exclaimed with glee. Lumin flipped to the page, and sure enough she found what she was looking for. Dreamwalking. She cast the spell, and immediately entered DD's dream.
Chapter II: Dolphin's DreamLumin looked around and saw many things she expected to see in her sleeping friend's dream: flying dolphins, ponies with hearts over their heads, letters spelling "Amore" everywhere, and beautiful flowers. The one thing that stood out was that her brother was alive. Aurora was there too, and she said something that was a little too fuzzy to make out. That must be the dream Aurora, not the real one. Lumin thought to herself. Dear Star Swirl, this Dreamwalking stuff is confusing! I wish I was back home! Suddenly, a pink aura glowed from her horn, even though she wasn't trying to cast a spell. She looked down to her front right hoof, and a snake had bitten it. This must be how I return to the normal version of Equestria. Lumin thought. Just like the last line of the poem! "Did it work, Aria?!" Lumin didn't even need to open her eyes to know who asked that. Only Aurora had ever called her Aria. "All until the moment I was bitten by the snake." Lumin quoted the last line of Star Swirl's poem. "Just like in the poem!" "I was just reading that while you were Dreamwalking!" Aurora exclaimed "A line before it said that you could travel to places you could not reach while awake!" "That means I really can find my lost brother!" Lumin exclaimed excitedly. "What are we twiddling our hooves here for?! Go to sleep so I can enter your dream next!" "I don't think so, Aria!" Aurora exclaimed. "Number one: I'm not tired! Number two: You haven't fully explored Dolphin's dream yet! What if there's something you missed? Something that could lead you to your brother? You have to look again, Aria, you just have to!" Lumin rolled her eyes. Typical Aurora Lumin thought to herself. She cast the Dreamwalking spell again, this time with feeling. She reentered Dolphin's dream, and this time, she would avoid any snakes until she got some viable answers. Lumin looked around and saw the same things as before, but this time a bit less fuzzy. she thought to herself This time, as Star Swirl is my witness, I must do this right! And she would. She knew it. She just didn't know when. Or how. Or in whose dream. Lumin looked around again, and this time she saw something shocking. While earlier the ponies were frolicking in a flowery field playing games and saying lovey-dovey things, now they were wallowing in... whatever it is that ponies wallow in. What happened whilst I was gone? Lumin thought to herself. Something absolutely terrible I presume! Mysteries were everywhere in the realm of magic, Lumin thought to herself, and what happened here was sure as Tartarus one of them. And then she thought in silence for a while, then thought Doctor Obvious. Then to her uttermost surprise, she couldn't quite believe her pony eyes. Lumin saw an Ursa Magna, the third biggest of the Ursa Species. Why would DD dream about a constellation creature that had nothing to do with love? Constellation creatures are pretty rare. How did she even know what the Ursa Magna looked like? So many questions, so little time. A snake was bound to come sooner or later, and with one bite from that, Lumin would be awake again before she could say "Amniomorphic". Maybe it would help if I moved around. Lumin thought to herself. It is a Dreamwalking spell after all. "Wow, Aria!" a familiar, cheerful voice exclaimed with excitement. "You were standing there like a statue for the past twenty-two minutes, and now, poof! You're walking again!" "Twenty-two minutes?" Lumin asked. "I gotta know, when is the time now again?" "Time is 5... no, 4:30 PM!" Aurora answered with a smile. "Why?" She asked. Lumin couldn't break the fifth wall, so she had to lie. Good thing I'm not Applejack! she thought to herself before saying "I'm late for a date with Caramel! He said 'tomorrow at 4' yesterday!" Shortly after hearing the lie, a snake slithered up to Lumin and bit her on the flank. They must come when I lie, like the Serpentinae in Star Swirl's "Two-Headed Mythological Mysteries", one of my favourite books! She looked at the snakes and noticed that they had two heads. A single Serpentina was fairly easy to elude, but twelve? She could not give up! Lumin quickly used a teleportation spell, her brilliant pink magical aura flashing in her disappearance. But the Serpentinae slithered very quickly to where she was. She teleported to the Ponyville Hot Air Balloon, then took to the sky. Lumin Aria wondered why she didn't do this sooner. No snake, not even a Serpentina, could fly! And she had a bird's-eye-view of Ponyville from here! What could stop her now? Just then, Princess Dolphin Dream flew up and crashed into the ropes of the balloon, sending Lumin fleeting to her doom. Wait Princess Dolphin Dream? Lumin wondered. Then she remembered. Of course! This is her dream, she could do or be anything she wanted to! Too bad she decided to be an Alicorn Princess still learning to fly. As Lumin fell to her doom (not death, she was only twenty feet above the ground.) she said one final sentence. A five word sentence that even she couldn't hear herself say. And then a Serpentina bit her on the flank. "What about this time, Aria? What did you find this time?" Aurora asked, returning Lumin's train of thought to her. "Nothing interesting." Lumin lied.
Chapter III: Finding Dolphin"So what do we do now, Aria?" Aurora asked worriedly. "What if we never find your lost brother?" "We will, Aurora!" Lumin replied. "We just need to find the real Dolphin Dream and ask her if she remembers what she dreamed about." "What good would that do?" Aurora asked. "We've already been up all night!" "I know, I know," Lumin replied "But if she remembers her dreams, maybe she'll understand that they weren't created by her subconscious alone! Maybe she'll know that I had something to do with it!" "You still haven't told me what happened in those dreams, Aria! I gotta know!" Aurora replied. "This doesn't make any sense!" "I didn't think I needed to, and you would probably just get scared anyway! All you need to know is that I got bitten by a snake in the end!" Lumin responded. "What kind of snake was it?" Aurora asked. "A Queen Cobra? Or a Black Python? Maybe a Rattlesnake? Please tell me!" Lumin thought about that for a while. I don't want to tell the truth, that I saw a Serpentina, the scariest type of snake in Equestria. "It was a, uh... Copperhead!" She lied. "Oh, Aria, you silly filly!" Aurora replied. "Copperheads aren't scary! If it was a Viper or a Python, or maybe even a two-headed mythologial Serpentina, then maybe I'd be scared, but if it was just a Cop-" Lumin cut her off "It was a Serpentina!" Then she added " Sorry I lied. I just didn't want you to be scared. Anyway, even though this idea is kinda on the wing, Dolphin might be our only chance at finding my brother." "Um, Aria?" Aurora asked. "Yes Aurora?" Lumin replied. "Do you remember what I said to you during the Meteor Shower?" Aurora asked. "No." Lumin answered. "What did you say?" "I said 'Once!' as a part of a sentence," Lumin replied "but before I could finish, I was interrupted by the shock and awe of the shooting stars flying through the galaxies!" "And how were you going to end that sentence?" Lumin asked. And then Aurora whispered into Lumin's ear, inaudibly to those around them. She whispered a sentence that would forever remain in Lumin's heart. A sentence that she would not could not ever forget, even in a thousand years. A sentence that not anypony, or anybody, in any universe, real or not, would ever say or hear again. "That was truly beautiful!" Lumin replied, crying. "Of all the things I've heard, that was the most moving. But enough about that, we need to find Dolphin now! We can have a teary moment later when we find my brother, and she might be the only one who can help us find him!" "Okie dokie lokie!" Aurora exclaimed, copying Pinkie Pie. "Whenever you're ready, shine your way!" Lumin rolled her eyes at the last sentence. Of course she would say that. Luminum means "Light" in Latin. She thought. And lights shine. Maybe she meant something more? She wondered. Nah. Nothing like that... But she did say that sentence to me... Forget it, brain! Ignore what the heart says! "Let's go now!" Lumin exclaimed, half with excitement, half with angst. "She'll probably want us to explain her latest dream anyway." Lumin and Aurora ran across Ponyville, as neither of them wanted to waste their magical energy on a teleportation spell. They didn't care that it was 5:00 AM, or that they've been up all night. They just wanted to find Dolphin Dream. When they got a steady pace going, Aurora asked Lumin "What was your dream really about, Aria? I know you lied when you said 'Nothing interesting' and I just wanted to know why you sounded all frantic! You were almost as frantic as I am when I speak without commas!" "Aurora," Lumin replied, "for the millionth time, there is no punctuation when ponies speak! Stop breaking the fifth wall!" "I just told you at 3:46 AM," Aurora replied "that it's called the fourth wall, Aria!" "It doesn't matter what it's called, Aurora!" Lumin exclaimed with anger. "What matters is that we get there quickly!" "There?" Aurora asked. "We're already here!" Lumin looked around and saw a familiar mare. A female Unicorn mare with a lilac coat, iris mane and tail with a light glaucous streak, raspberry rose eyes, and a cutie mark of two encircling dolphins; one light glaucous and one iris. I've done it! she thought to herself. I've finally found DD!
Chapter IV: Pāradox Luminō"Hi, Lumin! Hi, Aurora!" Dolphin Dream said to the pair of mares. "What brings you here at a time like this? Are you betrothed? Am I the first pony you told? Will you invite me to the wedding?" Lumin picked up the nearest stone with her magic and threw it right at Dolphin's left eye. She quickly blinked, but the stone still left a visible mark. Though she suffered minimal to no brain damage, Dolphin was still confused. She had no idea why her best friend would hit her with a stone! "What did you do that for?!" Dolphin asked. "All I did was ask a question... or two... or three... or four... or five!" "It's not about the question, DD!" Lumin exclaimed. "It's because you need to listen up now! There's something strange going on in the Dream World, and I, er... we need to know what it's about!" "And you've come to me because my last name is Dream?" Dolphin asked. "Dolphin Dream's not even my real name! You know that my real name is Sea Swirl!" "It's not about your name, DD!" Lumin exclaimed She must hate me for calling her that! she thought. "It's about the dream you had! I was in it!" "How did you know who was in my dream?" Dolphin asked. "Are you a spy?" "Simmer down, Swirly!" Aurora exclaimed in the best Applejack impression she could muster. "She ain't no spah! But she sure knows what's goin' on. Don't you, Aria?" Lumin simply nodded her head. It could be worse. she thought. She could've done her impression of Twilight! "I am not a conspiracy nut!" my flank! "I entered your dream through a Dreamwalking spell," she explained, "which, as its name implies, is a spell that allows its caster to enter a sleeping pony's dreams. Very few ponies know how to do it, as it's not as simple as levitation or teleportation." "The way you're saying that kinda makes it sound like you're bragging!" Dolphin replied. "She's bragging with rights, Dreamy!" Aurora rebutted. "She practised with me seven thousand times before getting it right." she lied. After that, Lumin heard a strange double-slithery noise, like two snakes were doing a mating dance. But snakes don't do mating dances! She thought. It must be another Serpentina! I thought that they only came to ponies who lied in dreams, not in reality! The Serpentina started hissing, and it just happened to speak coherent Latin. "Septem Flammae Draconis." it said. Since the other two ponies didn't speak enough Latin, Lumin was the only one of the three who could understand it, and it meant "The Seven Flames of the Dragon." What this meant to Lumin was unknown and, at least as she thought, irrelevant to the dreams. "Did you hear that, Aurora?" Lumin whispered. "Hear what, Aria?" Aurora asked, also whispering. "Is it a secret? I love sharing secrets! Especially if it's with y..." Lumin covered Aurora's mouth with her hoof. "It was a snake speaking Latin." Lumin whispered. "Do you know what that means?" Aurora shook her head. "It means that the Serpentinae are real!" Lumin tried to keep whispering, but it was loud enough for Dolphin to hear. Oh, drat! Lumin thought. Now DD knows about them! She lies almost all the time! What are we gonna do? "Why does that matter?" Aurora asked. "They're just snakes!" "They're snakes," Lumin answered, "Who can sense, and will come to, a liar! And you just lied about me! You know what that means?" "No, what does it mean, Aria?" Aurora asked. "If you die in the dream, you wake up." Lumin quoted the Dream Lord from a story she read called Lucy's Choice, which she had read countless times before. "Ask me what happens if you die in reality!" "What happens?" Aurora asked. "You DIE stupid, that's why it's called reality!" Lumin answered rudely. "And I'm pretty sure that Serpentina bites kill you." "Oh." Aurora replied. "That doesn't answer what it means, though." "It means my brother's in a world of hurt right now!" Lumin exclaimed. Dolphin was utterly confused. She didn't hear any of the pair's conversation until this point, and she didn't know at all what they were talking about. "ENOUGH!" she yelled. "You were about to tell me about entering my dream," she said weakly, "and what it had to do with you two searching for me." "Oh, right, the dream!" Lumin exclaimed in a tone that suggested that she forgot what they came there for, which she did. "When you were a bucking Princess, I was being chased by these two-headed snakes called Serpentinae, Singular:Serpentina. They come to ponies who know about them when those ponies tell lies. The more truths you hide, the more snakes chase you. I told the dream version of Aurora that I was late for a date with Caramel, which was a lie. I was actually trying to find out the secret about those snakes. Twelve of them just appeared out of nowhere and I had to get on the hot air balloon!" "The hot air balloon part sounds familiar," Dolphin replied, "but I don't remember seeing any snakes, especially not with three heads or a time-head." "I never said anything about a time-head!" Lumin exclaimed. "That's not even a real thing! And I said the snakes had two heads, not three! There's a picture of one in Two-Headed Mythological Mysteries by Star Swirl the Bearded." Lumin looked through Dolphin's unsurprisingly small library and, to her unsurprise, it had only romance novels. Not a single informative book. She decided to do a quick teleportation spell to get to Golden Oaks. I could find any book ever written in there, as well as learn more about Star Swirl the Bearded from Twilight. Maybe I should go there more often! she thought. But for now I'm just asking her for one book and I'm out. When Lumin got to the outside of the library, her tree-branches' leaves fluttering in the breeze, she instantly saw Twilight and Spike trying to alphabetise the books by author instead of title. The "S" section was overflowing with Star Swirl books, so Twilight moved a few of them to the "B" section with her magic. Spike had to use his claws, as fire-breath is only good for sending scrolls to Twilight's contacts, mainly the other Princesses. "A little help here!" Spike hollered when he heard the hoofsteps, but didn't bother to turn around and see who it was. "Twilight and I are trying to sort the boo... woah!" He fell off the stack of ten books he had made, and then, as if by magic, the stack collapsed into a pile of fifty. "Spike!" Twilight exclaimed. "I can't sort these books and greet our guest at the same time! Just rebuild the tower of books and get back to sorting, STAT!" Then, in a more calm and collected tone, she said "Hello, Lumin! It's been a long time since you came over here for a book!" Lumin wanted to ask Twilight if she was psychic, but knew that she didn't have time for that. "I'm here for Two-Headed Mythological Mysteries by Star Swirl the Bearded." she requested. "I think it's in the pile of books that Spike failed to clean up." Twilight replied. "Spike! Lumin wants Two-Headed Mythological Mysteries! Can you find it?" "I'm alreday holding it!" Spike answered. "Wait, who's Lumin? I don't remember hearing that name." "That's because she usually only comes up to me after midnight, when you're in bed." Twilight replied. "She's the yellow Unicorn with the black-and-white mane and a Cutie Mark of four pairs of music notes and a red four-point star." Spike turned around and said "Never seen her bef..." Before he could finish his sentence, he saw Lumin Aria, in all her glory. "Amazing! She's almost as beautiful as Rarity!" Spike fainted onto the book-pile, still clutching that book so that it wouldn't fall. Lumin siezed the book with her magic and went on her way, this time walking instead of teleporting. When she got back to Dolphin's house, Aurora and Dolphin were waiting for her. "I found the book, DD!" she exclaimed, tired from walking that far. "I'll flip it to page 42, where the picture and description are." She flipped the page and then handed the book to Dolphin. Dolphin Dream read aloud these words: "Let's see... it says 'Serpentina. Scientific name: Sepentina dicapita. Place of origin: Draconia. Description: A two-headed snake which can sense when a being is lying and slithers towards that being. In the Dream World, it causes the victim, regardless of race, to cast an unwilling spell bringing them back to the normal world. In the normal world, the spell sends them to Draconia instead.' So it doesn't kill us?" "I guess not." Lumin replied, still pretty sure that it did and that Draconia was some kind of gate to Tartarus. "What are we waiting for? Draconia could be where my missing brother is! Everypony tell a lie, now!" "I'm not excited at all!" Aurora exclaimed with excitement. "I don't think that you two are in love!" Dolphin exclaimed. "I don't wanna go!" Lumin exclaimed.
Prologue Part III: Twice Bitten, Once SlyLumin Aria was chasing her brother, Lucid Arius, in a little game of tag they were playing together. Lumin was in a beautiful sunny land with lots of beautiful flowers. They were a little bit close to Snakes' Hollow, but they knew to stay away from there. The Serpentinae, a two-headed species of snakes who lived only in Snakes' Hollow and outside Equestria, were not of Equestrian nature. They were sometimes called the Snakes of Truth, because they slithered towards anypony who told a lie and bit them on the flank. During their game, Lucid used a teleportation spell to escape Lumin's fast-galloping hooves. "Hey, that's not fair!" Lumin exclaimed. "You cheated!" "No I didn't!" Lucid replied tauntingly. "It's a legitimate strategy!" "Sure it is!" Lumin replied, rolling her eyes. She then heard hissing and slithering. Probably just a harmless Copperhead. She assumed. Lumin thought about it for a few more seconds. My brother did just lie, though. She thought. It could have been a Serpentina, but I don't think it is. Her brother, Lucid was there, calling her name. "LUMIN!" He yelled. "I'm coming, Brother!" Lumin yelled back as she ran towards her brother. He was hanging over a cliff when he fell down. Fortunately, he was able to teleport in midair, but unfortunately, he accidentally forgot to set coordinates in his mind, making him teleport right into a portal, which lead to the other side of Equestria. That must be the portal that the Serpentina use to come here! Lumin thought to herself. My brother's in serious danger! I need to rescue him! If only Aurora were here, she'd know what to do!
