Descendants of Starswirl

That night as Twilight Sparkle slept, she found her dreams were not the peaceful clouds of knowledge and hills of books she normally visited -

instead, they felt unwelcoming, like a stormcloud on a summer's day.

The alicorn was standing on a hill, overlooking what looked like Ponyville, but there was something odd about it.

She could tell that something was wrong by the blueish hue washing over her ethereal environment like waves at the beach.

This was different. This was painful. This was a nightmare.

She tossed and turned in her large bed, her wings twitching as her muzzle contracted into sub-conscious a frown.

Twilight opened her mouth and asked aloud, "What in Equestria is going on here?"

The sound of her voice echoed only a short distance, which was surprising, considering the vast open field she was in.

"A very good question, Twilight Sparkle," said the familiar voice of Princess Luna, Mistress of the Night.

The blue-and-black Alicorn materialized next to Twilight in a flash of light.

"As thou can plainly see, your dreams are not what they should be," she said, casting a disdainful water-blue eye over the chaos around her.

"Worry not, thou art not alone,"

"What?" Twilight replied, aghast,"You mean other ponies are also having these nightmares?"

Luna's eyes narrowed, but she continued.

"Yes, Twilight Sparkle, It is as you say," Her horn lit up, the dim blue light barely puncturing the near-blackness around them,

"Recently, we have noticed that many of our subjects have succumbed to unrelenting nightmares,"

As Luna spoke, their surroundings exploded into glimpses of many different ponies, many unknown to Twilight, but all of them had one thing in common - They were all tossing and turning uneasily in their beds, some fillies were even crying.

"What's causing all this?"

Luna remained silent. "We don't know," she said after a while, "but we can do nothing to help alleviate our suffering subjects from their ailments without finding the source behind this..." the Princess of the Night glanced at the agonized faces, "...chaos,"

This sparked an idea in Twilight's mind. "Princess," she said slowly, looking up at Luna, "that's it!"

Luna merely raised a regal eyebrow.

"What if we ask Discord for help?"

Predictably, Princess Luna instantly recoiled at the idea in much the same way Rarity would whenever she witnessed something 'uncouth'.

"That monster?!" she bellowed in the Royal Canterlot Voice, echoing loudly over the ethereal grass,

"Thou canst be serious, Twilight Sparkle!"

"Why not?" Twilight asked defiantly, surprising both herself and Luna.

"Discord is evil! He is the spirit of chaos!"

"Exactly,"

Luna was uncharacteristically speechless, her face frozen halfway between a gasp and a frown, her mouth giving the occasional twitch.

Finally, her resolve was broken by Twilight's determined expression.

"Very well, Twilight Sparkle, We shall request the help of the draconicus, but we implore upon you; Are you sure about this?"

Twilight smirked. "Don't worry, Princess - Discord wouldn't dare do anything too chaotic. If he does, we'll just turn him to stone,"

Her face fell at the sight of Luna's frown.

Without another word, Luna closed her eyes and frowned in concentration.

Her horn lit up again and their environment returned itself to its chaotic ethereal state.

Curious, Twilight watched the Mistress of the Night's eyes dart back and forth under her regal eyelids.

"What are you doing, Princess?" she asked in alarm, as the cold grasslands around them sparked in and out of existence like lightning across the sky.

"Looking for Discord," Luna said simply.

Their surroundings zapped into a blur as she guided them through dream after dream; Twilight caught glimpses of sunsets, romantic picnics and daring adventures with involving fire-breathing dragons.

"We are getting close," said the Princess of the Night, and Twilight could see what she meant.

The deeper they traveled through the nexus of swirling dreams, the more chaotic they seemed to become:

The same strange blue hue ensnaring the sub-conscious dreamscapes of the mares and colts.

They were now practically swooping through the cake mix of entropy, the dreams whirling past in colorful blurs fast as the Wonderbolts.

Then Twilight saw something ahead of them just an instant before she heard Luna say, "There is something very chaotic nearby - Prepare thyself for a rough landing, Twilight Sparkle!"

Instinctively, Twilight looked around for something to hang on to, despite her knowing full well she was dreaming.

She wasn't fast enough to react anyway - the two of them hit the barrier of a particularly disorderly dream with such force that Twilight fell out of her bed.

Remarkably, or perhaps because her mind was ensnared by Luna's magic, she remained asleep.

Luna and Twilight found their hooves and got up rather shakily. Examining their surroundings after they managed to get their wits about them, they were met with an astonishing sight.

Hills covered in pink frosting, rivers of chocolate milk and clouds of cotton candy. Streamers fell from the pink sky like multicolor flakes of snow, and there were bite-sized holes in the ground all over the landscape, which upon closer inspection by Twilight, turned out to be cake.

"What happened to this place?" Twilight gasped in a mixture of awe and horror, staring at the insanity around her.

"Nothing," came Luna's surprised voice, "this is a dream that has not been affected,"

Twilight's eyes were as wide as the holes in the ravaged landscape.

"This is not a nightmare?" she asked incredulously as a gust of sweet-smelling wind carried a wisp of confetti overhead.

Luna shook her head, her blank expression reeking of curiosity.

Then the sound of party music hit their ears with such intensity, it could well have emanated from the air itself.

Further assaulting their ears were the sounds of thousands of hooves galloping on the soft cake surface, carrying with it an ever-noisy crowd of pink ponies, all of which were the same.

The thunderous roar of a thousand voices in unison made the previous noises seem quiet by comparison:

"COME ON, EVERYPONY! WHO'S READY TO PAAAAAAARTAAY!?"

Twilight's jaw dropped lower than Tirek's level of cruelty as she unwittingly blurted out, "Pinkie Pie?!"

In response, the vast sea of Pinkies all simultaneously snapped their heads to face her and blasted both princesses with a booming,

"TWILIGHT SPARKLE!"

Luna dug her hooves into the cake in a futile attempt to remain grounded, but she slid on the frosting as the force of the cheerful greeting blasted her backwards into a cotton candy cloud.

Twilight was a few feet behind her, shoulder-deep in a large piece of hill cake, a giant lollipop  growing out of the soft surface nearby.

Luna rolled her eyes in annoyance. Her horn lit up and seconds later, She and Twilight were standing in front of the Pink sea.

Twilight glanced at Luna, then at the Pinkie crowd with raised eyebrows, clearly confused. "What just happened?" she asked.

"You're dreaming, silly!" came the voice of one of the Pinkies, as her sea of clones parted down the middle to make way for her.

"How else can you explain being hit squarely in the chest by a sudden change of air pressure and not being hurt by it in any way?"

"I suppose that's true..." she contemplated, before her eyes narrowed as a thought struck her.

"Wait a second!" she squinted at the pink pony, "Pinkie, since when do you know anything about physics?"

"Are you kidding me?" Pinkie Pie smirked, "This is my dream you're in! Here I know everything!"

"Then why don't you ever apply that knowledge to the real world?"

"Aaaaah," she replied, producing a pair of plastic glasses with a white mustache chained to it from her hair and stuck it to her face,

"What is the difference between dreaming and reality?" she asked in a profoundly deep voice.

"Ahem!" came Princess Luna's impatient voice, "Hast thou forgotten why thou art here with us, Twilight Sparkle?"

"Oh, right," Twilight smirked awkwardly. Glancing at the bubblegum-maned mare, she asked, "So, how are your..um..dreams doing, Pinkie?"

Pinkie frowned at this. "Fine," she said, blinking. "Why do you ask?"

"Really?" Twilight glanced at the ocean of bouncing pink balls of energy behind Pinkie, "There hasn't been any...um..." she tapped her muzzle with a hoof, searching for the right word, "...chaotic blueish things happening here, have there?"

"Nope,"

Meanwhile, Luna's horn was a-glow, flickering pathetically as a few sparks escaped from it.

"We do not understand!" the Princess of the Night bellowed in frustration, "Our magic does not work here?! How can this be?"

"We need to find Discord's dream!" Twilight said in a panicked whisper, "Are you saying we can't get out of this dream, Princess?"

Despite her failed attempt, Luna immediately regained her regal composure. "it would seem so, Twilight Sparkle" she said in monotone.

"I can take you there, Twilight!" Pinkie beamed, drawing both Alicorns' eyes to her like magnets.

"You can?" they asked in unison.

"Yep! I do it all the time!" the pink pony giggled, holding a hoof out to thin air.

Where her hoof stopped, a zipper appeared with a poof.

Pulling it down, she undid the boundaries between her dream and the nexus of countless other dreams, much to the surprise of Princess Luna and Twilight herself.

"How hast thou done that, subject?" Luna asked, aghast.

"I dunno," Pinkie shrugged, "I just...did it, I guess..."

Twilight's curiousity got the better of her and she stuck her head out of the dream.

"Pinkie," She yelled above all the noise of the other ponies' subconscious, "I can't see anything in all this chaos!"

"It doesn't really matter!" Pinkie replied, "All you need to do is think where you want to be and then just," she hopped excitedly, "jump!"

Twilight peered hesitantly over the rim, "Just ... jump?"

"Yup!" She continued jumping on the spot, her mane swirling around her head, making her look like a pink cotton candy cone,

"Don't worry, it won't hurt you! This is a dream, after all!"

She paused, thinking. "Technically, it's a dream in a dream within another dream.."

She squinted at Twilight. "Dream-ception!" she whispered dramatically.

"Well, ok then..." Twilight said cautiously, and it sounded like she was trying to reassure herself.

"Here goes nothing, I suppose..."

What happened next occurred so fast that she could barely comprehend:

Just as she took a step over the threshold, Twilight felt the edges of her vision blur and her head grow heavy.

What she could see of Pinkie's dream was no longer cheerful and bright, but encased in a dark blue mist.

It was cold and dark, no longer the epitome of all things happy.

It felt wrong. Very wrong.

She heard the joy draining rapidly from Pinkie's tone and heard her terrified voice ask, "Where's that voice coming from?! I don't like what it's saying! Make it stop!"

Something shoved Twilight hard between her wings and she felt herself tip - very slowly - into the breach.

Twilight looked around just in time to lock eyes with a very distressed-looking Luna - her expression a mix of determination and panic.

"Thou must wake up now, Twilight Sparkle!" Her voice was the last thing Twilight heard before she was enveloped into the inky darkness,

"Thou must wake up!"