Twilight was dreaming.

She knew this because of the program which she undergone during the past months. Every morning, the first thing she would do was to write down everything she could remember from her dreams. Every night, within the time that it took for her to fall asleep, she would put herself into a certain emotional state, using techniques she had meticulously researched and tested, thus further aiding her mind not to forget. Finally, at the end of each month, she would meet up with princess Luna, and together they’d chase down every dream which she had forgotten about entirely. Every subsequent month, there’d be fewer of them left to remember.

It had been an exciting study, and it had been a rewarding study. With every dream she wrote down, every memory Luna helped her to recreate, and every time she achieved some level of lucidity in sleep, she would become increasingly familiar with the nature and the concept of dreaming, and as a direct result, she would remember more and more of her dreams every day. It was, in a way, the exploration of an entirely new world, a process which, at times, almost rivaled her discovery of friendship.

And it was because of this that she now knew something to be wrong. Lucidity was not a polar concept, the degree to which she was lucid in her dreams had been improving as gradually as her memory, and her current condition embodied one which she had never experienced before, and which was too much of a leap for her to believe in a natural progression. Furthermore, she found herself aware of her surroundings in a way that was all too new to her, to a point at which she was capable of making observations on how they were created by her subconsciousness.

She was standing in a library – her library – which by itself was not unusual, but as she pivoted around to examine the room in its entirety, she found that said room wasn’t yet fully there. Some spots were accurate depictions of the real place, some were inaccurate ones, but others were simply black dots which, upon staring at them for a while, would gradually be replaced by logical extensions from their immediate surroundings.

Twilight stepped forward, lighting her horn in the attempt to summon one of the books from its shelf. Although the stream of magic provided no feedback, the book came floating towards her immediately, but when she opened it, there was nothing there to be read.

All of this made sense given her current state, but none of it explained her state. It was as though she had been dropped into her own dream by accident, her presence purely one of an observer, a conscious entity in the landscape of her own unconscious creation, her mind capable of operating with its usual sharpness and speed.

And it was frightening her.

Twilight shivered, and it took her several moments to realize the unusualness of this fact, given that she was not occupying her real body. The unknown was frightening to her, the unexplored, the unpredictable. It was a fact that had so far not been a hindrance to her studies, one that might have even been the reason for her excitement and fascination with this topic, but one that now, as things had, for the first time, stopped behaving the way they should, came back to bite her.

She had to wake up.

Twilight closed her eyes, and she tried to pull her consciousness up, up up up, up... up...

She opened her eyes, and her gaze fell onto a shelf of books. She turned her head, and a few patches of nothingness that didn’t have the stamina to endure her staring vanished under her gaze.

It was then that her fear took on entirely new dimensions. What had previously only been the fear of the unexplained had now become a fear for her life; presumably unwarranted, almost certainly exaggerated, but not entirely unfounded. Waking herself up was something she had learned early into her studies, and if she was not able to do so now...

Fluttershy. She had to talk to Fluttershy. A numbness seemed to take hold of her mind, and she could almost feel her heart pumping, perhaps a reaction of her physical body, the only element of control she still had over it...

If Fluttershy wasn’t asleep, then there would be nothing she could do. Contrary to what most ponies thought, Fluttershy liked to stay up late from time to time, enjoying a nice, peaceful time in her cottage, with only her animals for company.

Twilight took a deep breath, then she called for her.

“Fluttershy?”

“Twilight?”

A yellow pegasus stood before her, casting a confused look at her surroundings, furling and unfurling her wings in unsteady, nervous motions. It was a habit which, for whatever reason, Fluttershy had adapted exclusively within dreams.

Twilight paused, hesitating. The mere sight before her was no proof that Fluttershy was in fact there. It was likely, but there was always a possibility that she was merely a projection of Twilight’s own subconsciousness. This was an annoyance which she had to deal with every time she invited the pegasus into her dreams, and for which there was no universal solution. Usually, they’d settle on dates before Twilight called her, but not so this time.

One possible approach to get clearance was to imagine something happening to the subject, such has her immediate disappearance, or her transformation into somepony else. The problem with this was that it only worked one way: a guest would not be affected, while a projection might be affected, or it might not be, depending on what her dream decided to do. Thus, if she imagined Fluttershy turning into Rainbow Dash and it happened, then she would know that the real Fluttershy was not here, and that her mind was merely playing tricks on her. However, if nothing happened, then her mind might still just be playing tricks on her.

At least, that’s how things were supposed to work, and how they had worked in the past. Now, Twilight did not even want to try. What if Fluttershy was real, she imagined something, and it really happened to her?

Instead, she chose another approach.

“Fluttershy? I’m sorry for calling you like this. I... need you to tell me something about you that I don’t know yet.”

Fluttershy took several seconds to answer, and Twilight knew that she was still processing the reality of the moment. Unlike Twilight, she had not undergone a half-year long study of dreams, and had not adapted to them in the same way. She had probably been dreaming without any amount of self-awareness, only to suddenly be ripped out of her own peace and into this place.

Furl. Unfurl.

“Uhm...” Fluttershy shook her head, blinking. “Uh... right. Uhm. My birthname was ‘Featherweight’.”

Twilight let out a breath of relief. Stepping forward, she gave her lover a gentle kiss on her cheek. She knew that Fluttershy wouldn’t be able to feel it inside of a dream, but the gesture was what counted.

“Thank you,” she whispered. Then, “Sorry for calling you. Something is wrong.”

To Twilight’s surprise, Fluttershy’s answer was a nod.

“I know.”

“How?”

Furl. “I... don’t know.” Unfurl. “Uhm.”

Fluttershy gave her a confused look, then she cast an equally confused look around the library.

“Something is wrong,” she said.

“I know.”

A pause. Fluttershy nervously furled in her wings.

The situation was strange, but not in a comical way. The feeling she had, and which Fluttershy seemed to share, was almost impossible to put into words. All she knew was that something was wrong, all too wrong.

“I feel different than normal.” Twilight turned her gaze to her friend, who had finally stopped furling her wings, now keeping them spread out, but they still seemed to be jittering, as if she was cold. “Usually, when you call me, things are more, uhm... more like a dream. This...”

“You can think too clearly?” Twilight suggested.

Fluttershy nodded.

“Me too.” Twilight took a step closer, allowing Fluttershy to take her under her wing, just as she always did in real life. “How were things before I pulled you here?”

“Normal, I think. I had dream where I was with Treehugger, and we visited an, uhm, circus. I don’t remember much about it. But I didn’t know I was dreaming.”

Twilight nodded.

“We should wake up.”

“I already tried.” Twilight cast a look at Fluttershy’s wing. It was a strange; the fact that she wasn’t actually able to feel any touches in her sleep didn’t usually bother her – she didn’t usually notice – but now that she was fully conscious, it was weird. She could see Fluttershy’s wing twitching around her back, but she couldn’t feel it.

“Uhm. Okay.” A pause. “How did you try?”

“I tried to move.”

“Oh. Uhm. What if we commit suicide? That should wake us, shouldn’t it?”

Twilight bit her lip, only to be disappointed at the absence pain.

“I’m... scared to do it. What if something happens to us?”

Fluttershy turned her head to look Twilight in the eyes. “But how could that happen? Aren’t dreams just our heads imagining things? How could something we imagine hurt us?”

“Shouldn’t I be the one saying this?” Twilight cast a nervous look at the shelf to her left. “This shelf has two rows too many,” she murmured. “Uhm.” She closed her eyes, trying to think... to think...

Why did closing her eyes even work? Why did her subconsciousness care whether or not she had her eyes closed? But it did work; her vision went black when she did it.

“Luna invented dreams in the first place,” Twilight murmured. “She would never risk anypony’s life.” She opened her eyes, and the library re-appeared before them. “Alright.”

Fluttershy nodded. “Well, I can’t change your dream.”

“Right.” Twilight added nothing, but the entrance wall of the library broke away to reveal the outlook from the top of a large castle in the middle of nowhere. Twilight offered Fluttershy a hoof, and together, they walked to the edge of wall. Between two battlements, there was just enough space for both of them to stand. Below, there was a ground of solid stone, but it lay far, far down.

She hesitated.

“I think only I should jump.”

“Why?”

“Well.” Twilight loosened her gaze from the ground, looking back at her lover. “The... worst thing that can happen is probably that we fall into a sort of coma if we die here. I don’t have any reason to think so, it’s just the worst case. But, coma or waking up, if my dream collapses, then you should wake. Wait a bit, and if I don’t come to the cottage, go to the library. If you can’t wake me up, get help.”

They looked into each other’s eyes, and Twilight wondered whether Fluttershy would protest. Maybe she saw it as Twilight leaving her.

But she nodded. “Okay.” She took a deep breath. “See you in a minute.”

“Yeah.” Twilight’s gaze hung at the pegasus’ face for a few more moments, then she turned around...

... and jumped. The ground came racing towards her, and then-

Twilight woke up. She wasn’t tired, and it was easy to get out of bed. She also felt nice, as if she had just accomplished something, but she wasn’t sure what it was.

Standing on the ground of her home, she gave a vague smile, turning towards the stairs. Torches hang on both sides of the railing, but Twilight ignored them. The winding staircase stretched onward for far longer than she had imagined, but eventually, a full minute into her descent, she arrived at the lower level.

There were a lot of books.

Twilight raised an eyebrow, for a moment lost at the sight of so many books. To her left was a room with shelves upon shelves, enough books to build a tower higher than the town hall, and to her right lay what had to be a kitchen, but it too was filled to the brim with books. They lay on the cupboard, on the floor, on more shelves, on the walls beside her, and they hung from the ceiling. When she turned around, the staircase had vanished, but that didn’t seem all too strange to her. She didn’t need it anymore, did she? And there hadn’t been any books on the stairs.

She should make tea, so the kitchen was the place to be. Twilight hummed to herself as she walked into the room, putting a bunch of books aside so that she was able to grasp her can, which was neatly decorated with the image of a book. Then, she stared at it. This wasn’t right, was it? This...

...

Twilight cast a look around. This wasn’t her kitchen. Her kitchen floor was not made of books. She was dreaming.

But then – what had happened? How did she get here?

The memory came back at once, and immediately, Twilight felt guilty. Without hesitating or doubting that she could do it, she changed her surroundings into a circular, empty room, then she called for her friend.

“Fluttershy?”

“Oh, Twilight. Thank Celestia.” Fluttershy came rushing towards her, taking her into a tight hug... which Twilight couldn’t feel. “Uhm.” Fluttershy let her go. “The dream didn’t collapse. I was worried.”

“I’m sorry. It didn’t work.” Twilight bowed her head. “I’m really sorry. How long did you wait?”

“Ten minutes, maybe.”

“Oh.” Twilight bit her lip again, only to be disappointed once more when she felt nothing. “I’m really sorry. I thought I had woken up, but I didn’t remember anything. Still, it didn’t take long, so I don’t know why it was so much longer for you. I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay. Don’t worry. I’m fine.” Fluttershy cast a look around. “What is this place? And, uhm, what do we do now?”

“That’s a good question. Uh...” Twilight shook her head. “Well, the room is something I came up with. I wanted a break from the library.”

“You can’t usually change things around like this, can you?”

“Sometimes. There is no consistency behind it. I just thought I could do it, and I could. The castle earlier was similar, only there I was a bit less confident.”

“I see.” Fluttershy shook her head. Then, she unfurled her wings. “Uhm. Something still feels wrong.” She furled her wings back in. “What do we do?”

“Why do you do that?” Twilight heard herself saying. “I always meant to ask.”

“This?” Fluttershy furled her wings back out. Twilight nodded.

“I like to make sure I can control them,” Fluttershy answered, furling her wings back in. “I don’t feel them the way I do in the real world, but they still behave the way they should. Whenever I do it and it works, I know that I can still control them. Does it bother you?”

Twilight shook her head “No, not at all. I think I have an idea.”

“Oh. What is it?”

“You... might not like it.” Twilight gave her marefriend a nervous glance. She knew that Fluttershy had come out of her shell a bit recently, and that it was a big deal to her, but there were still many characteristics about her that hadn’t changed, that wouldn’t change, and that had no reason to change. She was a gentle pony, and she was a kind pony, and her idea...

“If I don’t like it, I can still say no, right?”

“Er... yeah. Of course.” She shook her head. It was silly to be afraid of making a suggestion. “You could hit me,” she said. “Or, well, try to hurt me. Or yourself. We have to do something that’s supposed to cause a reaction which we won’t get here, and if the contradiction is drastic enough, that could break the dream. We could also take out a book and really try hard to read it when there’s nothing there, but I think that would be less effective. And...” Her voice trailed off, her mind trying to find the right way to put her remaining thoughts into words. “You know that feeling when, at the end of your dream, you really got it stuck in your head that you want to do a certain thing, but then you usually wake up before you can do it? We could connect that, too.”

“I don’t really understand.”

“I... me neither,” Twilight admitted, shaking her head. Her thoughts seemed to be unable to catch up with her words, and although she believed what she had said to make sense, she didn’t seem to be able to grasp the logic behind it. “Okay, look. I have intuition. I can’t fully explain why, but I think it might get us to wake up.”

Fluttershy nodded. “I understand that we’re supposed to feel pain, but we won’t, and that will cause us to wake?”

“That’s part of it.”

“I see. Uhm, sure. Should I start?”

“Really?”

“You mean if I’m really sure?”

“Yeah.”

“Sure.” Fluttershy gave a giggle. “If it hurts you, it means you woke up, right?”

“Right. Er... no. It can’t hurt me. What do you mean?”

“I mean, it won’t hurt you while you’re asleep.”

“Oh. Of course not.”

“Good. Uhm. I’m sorry.” Fluttershy furled out her wing, using it to swipe across Twilight’s face in a yellow blur. “Ohmygosh... uhm. I mean, are... uh. Uhm. Sorry. I mean, more?”

“Yeah.”

“Uhm... okay.” A raised hoof, another hit right against her muzzle. What happened then was strange: the strike seemed to have moved her face, but her vision didn’t shift. Only when she realized that it should have did it catch up, and suddenly, everything moved an inch to the right.

Then another strike came, and another one, and then Twilight could see Fluttershy flying a few feet into the air and sailing down at her with an outstretched front limb.

...

“Uhm. Are you okay?”

“Yeah.” It took a moment for Twilight to realize that the strike seemed to have knocked her onto the ground. She stood up.

“That was actually fun.” Fluttershy gave another giggle. “But you don’t look hurt at all.”

“I don’t? That’s bad.” Twilight lit her horn, summoning a mirror from nowhere. Only after looking at it and “confirming” Fluttershy’s claim did she realize that a supposed mirror had no reason to show her what was really there. The only reason why it even made sense to talk about the existence of something she couldn’t see was Luna’s synchronizing spell: it made sure that both of them were occupying the same world. Otherwise, her consciousness would have no reason to define a state of things outside her vision.

It suddenly occurred to her that every moment they spent together inside of her dream must in some way draw energy directly from Luna, although probably not much. She knew that sleep itself had once been a spell, a spell which had become a part of pony genetics over time, but the same was certainly not true for shared dreaming.

Was Luna able to sense it whenever they connected?

Dreaming was a strange thing.

“It won’t work if I don’t get injured,” Twilight said with a sigh. “I don’t know what else to do.”

“What if we look into a book?” Fluttershy suggested.

“Mh.” Twilight imagined a bookshelf coming into existence at the wall in front of them – for a moment she feared that it wouldn’t work this time, but it did. Summoning one at random, she levitated it close, opening it.

There was nothing written there. The pages had a uniform, dark gray color, almost as if they were not supposed to read them.

Fluttershy stepped beside her to take a peek.

“I’m scared.”

Twilight closed the book, dropping it. “I know. Me too.” She gave a sigh. “I don’t know what else we can do.”

Fluttershy furled out her wing, putting it around Twilight. It was a well-meant gesture, but the fact that Twilight could not feel it only added to her discomfort.

“Do you think something is, uhm, happening in real life? Something bad?”

Twilight shook her head. “No, no. No, I... I pulled you here, right? Without me, you’d still be in a normal dream. Whatever is happening, is seems to be related to me. I think Ponyville is fine.”

“Okay.”

A pause.

“Alright...” Twilight stood still, her gaze fixated on the ground. “I guess we could try to move again.”

“Move? You mean wake up?”

“Yeah. Sometimes, that’s all it takes. I already tried, of course, but what do we have to lose?”

Fluttershy nodded. “Okay.” She offered her left hoof, and Twilight took it.

“If it works, I’ll see you at the cottage,” Twilight said. Then she closed her eyes, and she tried to move far, far away...

Away not to another place, but to herself. She had to pull herself out of the swamp she was in, and all she had to do for it was to move a single limp.

Just move. Twilight knew that she was sleeping. She knew that she was lying in her bed, her body fully functional. All she had to do was to raise her arm... lift her head.

She would lift her head... now.

She opened her eyes. The circular room looked just like before. She blinked. Fluttershy did not seem to be there for a moment, but then she was, her wing still extended around Twilight’s body, and their front hooves still crossed.

“Dammit,” Twilight cursed under her breath, trying to not let the feelings of fear and anxiety take overhoof.

“I’m sorry about this,” she murmured, then she closed her eyes, letting a few moments pass.

But when she opened them, nothing had changed. This time, it had not worked.

“Looks like I can’t even change things anymore,” she said with a deflated sigh.

“What were you trying to do?”

“Laying fire.”

“Would that wake us?”

“Probably not.” Twilight closed her eyes again. “But maybe.”

She could see red dots through her closed eyelids, and when she opened them, the room was on fire. It came as a surprise; usually, when she failed to change something on the first try, it also wouldn’t work on a second try.

“And now?”

“Now we wait,” said Twilight. She threw a gaze at Fluttershy, but the pegasus looked neither scared nor hopeful. Together, they stood inside the room, while the fire ate at the walls around them, slowly closing the distance to the center. Twilight knew that real fire might cause the ceiling to crash down, that they might fall victim to the smoke before the flames even reached them, but it did not matter. The fire she had summoned did not have smoke, and when it closed in to them, she did not feel so much as an idea of warmth. Instead, the room around her dissolved, and so did the world, and reality, and everything...

For a few seconds, Twilight was completely blind. Then, she found herself standing atop a cliff overlooking a sea, at a place she had never been to before. There was no amnesia involved, no change of mind; she had simply been brought from one place to another.

And her companion was gone.

“Fluttershy?” Twilight called, expecting her to re-appear momentarily.

But nothing happened.

“Fluttershy?” she called again. “Fluttershy! Fluttershy!”

Nothing.

Twilight felt panic rising up inside her, a rush of adrenaline and desperation that caused her to run towards and over the cliff without a second thought.

But she did not fall. Instead, she found herself hovering in mid air, capable of changing her directions by sheer force of will. It was a sensation which she usually enjoyed greatly, and it was at a place which, were she to write down this dream under different circumstances, she might have spent an entire paragraph describing its beauty.

Right now, she could not care less. She had to wake up.

“Fluttershy!”

Twilight desperately turned around, hoping that maybe the reason she had not appeared earlier was that the fire had temporarily disrupted their connection, even though she knew how unlikely that was. But nothing.

She dove down, beside a waterfall towards the sea below, hoping that a crash into the rocky surface might somehow accomplish what strikes from her friend and a fire had not, but to no avail. Instead of hurting herself, she simply found herself standing inside the water after her crash, and when she tried to lift herself up again, she found that her abilities of flight had been lost, forcing her to walk ahead in the waist-high water.

Not that it mattered at all. What landscape she was in, what abilities she did or did not possess, it did not matter. She had to wake.

Now.

Now.

Twilight closed her eyes, and then, channeling more willpower into the attempt than earlier, perhaps more than she had ever brought forth in a dream, she raised her front hoof. And slowly, very slowly, she could feel her body reacting. She could feel the world dissolve, and then she blinked at the ceiling of her tree home. The blanket around her brought with it a numbing warmth, and the sleepiness made it hard to move a single muzzle.

But not hard enough. Without wasting a second, Twilight got out of bed, only to stand on her floor with shaky hooves, fighting down dizziness and somnolence.

Then, for a few moments, she questioned the reality of the situation. She had thought to be awake before, only to find herself fooled by yet another facet of her dream...

But this was different. The room around her was real, and as she lit her horn to scratch a point on her forehead, she could clearly sense the impact of the magic on her skin, not to mention the itching itself, and she felt warm and tired and she quickly knew, beyond any doubt, that she was truly awake.

Which meant that she had to see Fluttershy. Immediately.

Unbeknownst to most, teleportation was the art of pulling oneself from a certain location, not of actively seeking it out. As such, it was impossible to teleport over long distances without having set up an anchor at the destination first, an anchor which would last for a couple of days at best. Luckily for her, the cottage and the library were two of the few places at which she renewed anchors regularly.

Twilight tilted her horn, erupting a purple glow. The eerily familiar out-of-body experience lasted for the fraction of a second, and next she knew, she re-appeared in front of the cottage. Immediately, the cold hit her like a wave of ice, and it was too dark to see for more than a few yards. A night in the middle of November was hardly the right time to be outside naked, and she had always been sensitive to low temperatures. Not wasting a moment, she stepped forward and knocked onto the entrance. She got no response, but neither had she expected to. After all, Fluttershy was likely still asleep.

The cold and the severity of the situation made the next step an easy choice. Twilight reached out with her magic, unlocked the door from the inside, and stepped into the room.

It was dark: that had been expected. When she reached out for the light, Twilight realized just how excited she was to see Fluttershy again in real life. Maybe she had been even more worried than she had admitted to herself.

With a smile on her face, and ignoring the reproachful cheeping that came from the birdhouse, Twilight made for the stairs, but when she reached Fluttershy’s bedroom on the upper level, she realized that the pegasus wasn’t there. At once, all of her optimism dissolved, and instead she felt alone, afraid, and once more as though something was wrong. The sinister feeling which she had first felt during her sleep, that was so difficult to put into words, it was still there.

“Fluttershy?” she called. But there was no response. Fluttershy wasn’t home.

Thinking quickly, Twilight opened a closet to her left, pulling out a scarf that would hopefully make the cold a bit more bearable, then she lit her horn to once again pull herself in front of the cottage.

Maybe Fluttershy had awoken before her, and had already made her way toward the library. It did not seem likely, given that they had planned for her to stay at the cottage, but it was worth a try, and the only thing Twilight could think of. If it didn’t work, she would go back to the library and message the princess immediately.

Suppressing a shiver, Twilight cast a spell to illuminate her surroundings, just enough for her to make out the pathway stretching onward beside the the eastern orchard and towards Ponyville. As soon as she had the had the landscape memorized to a sufficient degree, she cut off the stream, reaching forward to explore the way with her mind rather than her eyes. After approximately fifty yards, she focused her magic on the spot, casting another anchor on the magical plane. Remaining there, she abandoned her physical position entirely, and made the anchor pull it close...

As soon as she re-materialized, she suspended the anchor, only to cast a new light in order to repeat the process. This was far from her favorite way to travel, but it was fast, and she was worried enough to value speed over comfort.

By the time she passed the cow barn, she felt her heart tightening more and more. What if Fluttershy had merely been outside to look for... one of her animals? It seemed vastly unlikely, but she wasn’t on this road, and she wasn’t at home... Twilight knew that it had been irresponsible to search for Fluttershy before messaging the princess, but she couldn’t have known that it would take so long...

And then, after one more reappearance, she saw her. A lone figure on the road, just disappearing out of sight. Instead of preparing another teleport, Twilight broke into a gallop, panting heavily as the effort of running added to her already present exhaustion.

“Fluttershy!” she called as she was close enough to be sure that it really was her. Fluttershy turned around, and Twilight could see her face lighting up.

When they met, Twilight took her marefriend into a much needed embrace, and they held each other for over a full minute, during which neither of them talked. The feeling of real touches was exhilarating, something which she had missed all too much during her dreams. Fluttershy put a wing around her back, and finally, it brought her real warmth. But the sinister feeling was still present, and Twilight was sure that waking had not solved the issue, whatever the issue might be.

“How are you so far already?” Twilight finally asked. “When did you even get out?”

“Uhm... when you said we should try again. I made it and woke up. I waited for a bit, and when you didn’t come, I thought you were still asleep and went to wake you.”

It took a few moments for Twilight to understand the implications of what this meant, but when she did, it hit her not unlike the cold had earlier. It shouldn’t be a big deal, but it was. Twilight hated the idea that she took a projection for her friend, even if it had only been for a short while.

“Tartarus.” She gave a sigh. “I thought you hadn’t made it. I had a projection of you take over after you left.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah.”

“So, how did you get out?”

“I cast a fire. After the scenery collapsed, I was put somewhere else, and I couldn’t summon you anymore, so I thought something was wrong. That made me try again, and that time I made it.”

Fluttershy nodded. “I see.” She hesitated. “Uhm.” She tightened her embrace as Twilight’s body was caught in a shiver. “You can still feel it, can’t you? Are you going to send a message to the princess?”

“I think so.”

“Do you think... do you think we can maybe check on one of the other girls first? I’d feel better knowing that they are fine, and... not so alone.”

“Mh.” Twilight had wanted to return to the library as fast as possible, but...

“Well, the boutique is really close. We can check on Rarity if you want. I just want to get back quickly.”

“That would be great.” Fluttershy smiled. “Thank you.”

“What do we do?”

“I think we have to break in.”

They had rung the doorbell about half a dozen times, and had waited over a minute for a response, but nothing. Twilight’s cold sent a shiver down her spine as she answered, or perhaps it was her worry. “I don’t think Rarity would appreciate it, usually, but what choice do we have?”

“Uhm.” Fluttershy’s wings twitched. “I could fly up and look through the window?” she suggested half-heartedly.

Twilight shook her head. “That would take too long. Plus, spying into her room is really as much of an invasion into her privacy as going through the front door.” Not wasting any more time, she repeated the spell she had used earlier to enter the cottage. “Plus, it’s probably too dark to see anything from the outside.” Throwing a look at her friend, who nodded, she gulped and went inside. The warmth that greeted her, which should have been an enormous relief, instead felt strangely distant and unreal.

Outside, the moon had given enough light to at least see where they were going, but here, it was hard to make out anything. Carefully, Twilight lit her horn in a faint light, just enough to make out the interior of the building around them. They exchanged another look, and Fluttershy gave another nod. Then, before Twilight could beat her to it, she made for the stairs. Twilight couldn’t help feeling a certain sense of pride as she followed her friend closely.

Having reached the door, Fluttershy paused to give it a firm knock.

“Rarity?”

Nothing. Fluttershy let a few seconds pass, then tried again. When there was no response, she carefully pushed the door open.

There Rarity lay, firmly asleep, her body curled up under her blanket, and her sleeping mask covering her eyes.

Twilight let out a breath she didn’t know she’d been holding.

“At least she’s not gone,” she said in a whisper. Then, remembering that being quiet ran contrary to their intention of waking the pony in front of them, she gave her a firm poke at her shoulder.

“Rarity?” she asked, in a voice loud enough that it should surely wake anypony under normal circumstances. Rarity gave no reaction. Twilight could think of two possible reasons – given the date and the absence of hints, only one of them seemed likely.

“What should we do?” Fluttershy asked. “Go fetch a bucket of water?”

“Mh.” Twilight thought for a few seconds, then she gave a nod. Realizing how dark it still was, she said, “yes,” only to correct herself momentarily. “No. I think it's the safest thing we can do, even if I don’t think it’ll work, but we won’t need water for it. I can make her feel really cold, which should do the same.”

Leaning down, Twilight squinted her eyes at a spot on Rarity’s neck, calling upon her magic to remove as much warmth out of the area as possible, a task made difficult by the fact that she was still upholding her lighting spell.

Rarity gasped, and in an instinct, raised her hoof up to the spot. The immediate success, running starkly contrast to her expectations, came as such a shock to Twilight that it took a few seconds for her to release her magic, and another few to realize that it had worked.

Confusedly, Rarity took a few more moments to touch the spot that must have gone from cold to warm in a matter of moments. Then, she removed her sleeping mask in a surge of telekinesis, only to blink at the sight before her.

“Fluttershy?” She murmured as Twilight had turned up the light enough for her to identify her visitors. “Twilight? What...?”

“We’re really sorry to wake you,” Fluttershy inappropriately began the conversation. “Are you alright?”

“I’m...” Rarity paused for a yawn, calling into memory just how drowsy Twilight had been after waking. “... not sure,” she finished her sentence, only to yawn a second time. “Something is wrong, I’m afraid, but I can’t seem to put my hoof on what it is. Is that why you two are here?”

“We wanted to see if you’re okay.” Fluttershy leaned down, clumsily giving the lying fashionista a hug. “I’m glad that you are. Uhm.” She drew back. “You are, aren’t you?”

“... quite.” Rarity made a brief attempt to get up, but conceded quickly, sinking back into her covers. “What is next?”

“We have to contact the princess,” Twilight answered. “Can you stand up?”

“Mhhhhmmmmhhhhhhhhhhh... mmmmmmhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...” Rarity gave her pillow a loving nuzzle. “How about you two make yourselves a nice, hot cup of tea downstairs, and I join you in a few minutes?”

...

“What?”

“Yeah... now,” Twilight clarified. “We need to contact the princess right now. I can teleport all of us to the library, and then we have to get Spike. Whatever the issue is, it might be urgent.”

“We don’t actually know what’s wrong, either,” Fluttershy explained with a smile.

“Yes. But if you'd rather stay in bed, I could also teleport just us two...”

“No, that’s quite alright. I’ll come with you.”

“Good.” Before Rarity had any time to protest, Twilight cast a web on the magical plane, tying them all together, so that-

“Ouffff.”

“Sorry.” Twilight gave a smile and a telekinetic backup to the unfortunate Rarity, while simultaneously searching for the light switch. “But we really can’t waste any time.” She turned on the light, and the library appeared around them. “Spike!” In an instant, she teleported herself inside of her sleeping room, leaving a confused pair of friends behind. The library, the most familiar place in the world, allowed her to set up anchors in the span of seconds. “Spike! Wake up, wake up, wake up! This is an emergency!”

“... ... ... ?”

“At least I think it is,” Twilight said, giving the little dragon an impatient magical tap. “Get up as fast as you can, please, and then meet us downstairs.”

“Us?” But Twilight didn’t answer, already teleporting back downstairs. Finally, she had the opportunity to take control of things again.

“Spike will be here in a moment and send our letter,” she said as soon as she appeared. “Uhm...” She sent her magic to various places on the level above her, finally summoning a quill and a piece of paper. “Rarity, you could help by telling me exactly what you remember from your dream.” She shook her head, and a few seconds later, a pot of ink followed. “Fluttershy, you could make us some tea.” Staring at the white space in front of her, she attempted to determine the fastest way to summarize the situation, only to conclude that the fastest way would be to not give it as much thought as usual. ‘Dear Princess Celestia, and Luna if you’re reading this,’ she began. “Rarity?”

“I... I must say that I had forgotten about my dream entirely until you asked me.”

‘I’m unsure of how to explain the current problem, and there might be a chance that I’m disturbing you for nothing,’ “Really?”

“Indeed, yes. Is our current problem related to our dreams?”

‘but it could also be of great importance, and reason demands that I message you just in case.’ “Yeah. But what do you remember now?”

“I... I was at home,” Rarity murmured. “And I... remember being uneasy, even though I couldn’t quite say why. It was as though I was trapped, even though I never tried to get out.”

‘Something seems to be wrong, and this is a feeling that my dear friends Fluttershy and Rarity both share with me.’ “Did you try to wake up?”

She could hear the clawsteps of a sleepy dragon walking downstairs, and the sound of heating water from the kitchen.

“No, I wasn’t aware that it was a dream.”

‘The feeling is unlike everything I’ve experienced before, and it fills me with great worry. Right beforehoof, Fluttershy and I shared a session of lucid dreaming,’ “I see. Just a moment,” she added towards Spike, before dunking her quill into the ink and finishing the letter. ‘and there too we experienced circumstances which we’ve never encountered before, and which were worrisome, but I will hold on the details for now.

I really hope you know what’s happening.

Twilight.’

“Here,” she said, giving the letter to her assistant. Only after he sent it did she relax, knowing that, for now, they had done all they could.

“Mmfff.” Twilight turned around, seeing Fluttershy coming from the kitchen, carrying a plate in her mouth. “Hi, Spike,” she said with a smile as Rarity took it into her telekinesis.

“Uh, hi.”

“Do you like tea with milk or sugar?” Rarity asked, floating the plate beside her.

“Milk.”

“Both, please.”

“Neither.”

“Oh, how could we have forgotten our favorite little dragon?” Rarity smiled, making Twilight wonder, not for the first time, what exactly was going on in her head in moments like these. “Here, you can have my cup, dear, and I’ll get a new one.”

“Thanks,” she murmured as she took the second cup from Rarity. Musingly, she let her eyes wander towards Spike, who didn’t even bother to ask what was going on anymore. She shook her head, dismissing the thought. She had more important things to worry about right now.

Dear Twilight,

Tia is asleep, and I dare not wake her.

I know what you are feeling, for I feel the same. I cannot fathom to imagine what my sister is going through, but whatever it is, it is bigger than all of us, and it is the cause of our worries. What we are feeling, it is because of her.

It is not in my power to interfere, and neither is it in yours. Whatever she is fighting, it is a fight which she has to win on her own. Regardless of this, I can, if you wish, send you a carriage to escort you to Canterlot right now, but know that all we will be able to do is observe.

I am afraid, Twilight, and I fear that whatever is taking place right now could have a grave impact on my life, on yours, and potentially on all of Equestria. If my sister fails to overcome whatever struggles she is facing, only she knows what will happen.

All I know is that we cannot wake her.

Luna

It had not been a hard choice for Twilight, and not more than fifteen minutes later, they were being escorted into the royal chambers of Canterlot. To Twilight, Luna’s answer had been a massive shock, the likes of which she had not experienced in years. She did not know what she had expected, but almost anything would have been better than an unknown threat that they were utterly powerless against, of unknown source, impact, and chance.

“Ah, Twilight.” Luna greeted her with a nod, and the two guards that had led them distanced themselves. “Fluttershy,” she continued. “Rarity. Come along.”

Maybe it was because of the time, or maybe because Twilight had only just gone through a strange and frightening dream, but she found herself barely noticing where they were going, barely paying attention to the corridors around them. Before long, they arrived at a door that very few ponies had ever laid eyes on, but which Twilight recognized as the royal sleeping chambers, the place wherein the prime ruler of Equestria lay to rest every night.

Upon entering, the first thing Twilight noticed was the enormous barrier in the middle of the room, which she knew to absorb noise. Glowing in a dark blue light, it divided both the room and the bed in two halves. If Luna herself had cast this, then not a single sound would reach the pony sleeping on the other side, not even if somepony on this side were to scream at the top of her lungs.

“I isolated the area,” Luna said, and Twilight just now realized that the barrier did in fact not just cut the room in half, but formed a full cuboid around the figure in its center. “We do not need to be quiet here.”

“Luna.” Twilight stared at the sight, her mind still racing. “What is happening?”

“Like I said in my letter...” Luna turned around to close the door behind them. “I do not know.”

“But do you have any ideas?” Twilight pressed on. “Anything? Did Celestia say something? Has something similar happened in the past?”

“Never,” Luna said firmly. Then, she made a break, slowly raising her head, as if she had to prepare herself for her answer, something which Twilight had seen neither her nor Celestia ever do before.

“I do have a theory,” she said, confirming Twilight’s suspicion. “I will share it with you, but you must promise me that nothing of what I tell you will leave this room – the exception being the remaining three elements. Do I have your word?”

Twilight nodded, and so did her two friends.

“Very well.” Luna walked across their side of the room, turning around at a position from which she was facing all three of them, then she began.

“Several millennia ago, when Equestria was already old, but looked so different that you would not recognize a single place, my sister told me that we would not rule this land forever. That, one day, she would perish. I asked her why, but she would not tell me. I asked her when, and she said that she didn’t know, but that it would be a long time in the future. By then, she said, I would have learned enough to rule the land on my own, to raise and lower the sun in addition to the moon, and I would be more powerful than she was at the time. As of this moment, all of those things have come true.”

Luna made a break, giving her three listeners a sad glance. When she continued, it was in a lower voice.

“I also asked her what would happen to me. If, one day, I too should perish. ‘No,’ she told me. ‘I will live long, longer than any creature that is crippled by aging can hope to, but not forever, and when I am gone, it will be you that has to rule for the rest of eternity. There exist things that might put an end to your life, but I do not see them coming, and by the time they catch up with you, you might well be strong enough to defeat each and every one of them.’ And that is all she would tell me.

“I do not think she saw coming what happened next. I once asked her if there would ever be another being with the gift of immortality, and she said no. Then, and in regards to our history, this was but a moment ago, we got six of them.” Her gaze wandered over Twilight, then Fluttershy, then Rarity, and for a brief moment, Twilight wondered if she was blaming them for what had happened, for what was happening now.

“Being alone is any immortal’s greatest fear, and every companion that will live through the millennia with you is more valuable than any of you can fathom. If this is the trade which my sister has made, then I know it to be a wise one, regardless of how I may feel about it.” Luna sighed, her gaze shifting towards her sleeping sister. “But I do not know if that is truly what she has done. I do not know if what happened to the elements and what is taking place right now is in any way connected; I don’t even know whether her life is at stake, or all of Equestria, or maybe nothing at all. But I know that you want to understand, Twilight, and all three of you have a right to know.” With a sad smile towards Fluttershy and Rarity, she made for the door. “Now you do. I told you everything that I suspect. The only thing I know is that we must not interfere.”

When she was gone, silence took her place. Twilight found herself staring at the ground, fear and unrest in her heart. Fluttershy stepped beside her, and instinctively, Twilight leaned her head against her marefriend’s shoulder.

Eventually, it was Rarity who broke the silence.

“Do you ever think about what happened to us?”

“Rarely,” Twilight answered truthfully, not raising her gaze from the floor. “It’s so overwhelming. But... I don’t feel driven anymore, the way I used to. I used to feel the constant pressure to learn as much as I could in my life, which is now gone. That’s why I’ve been doing this study, too. I thought I could afford to... make a break, do something completely different for a few months.”

“I... understand what you mean,” Rarity said, and Twilight hear from her voice how much she related to her answer. “I feel the same way. I used to think that I had to do as much as possible on every day, that I needed to be successful before it was too late. I needed to. I just... had to. But now, there is hardly the need for it anymore, is there? The dream of success was never one for the everyday, it was just...” Her voice trailed off. “Makes me wonder if it was ever important in the first place. Alas, most of the time...”

“... you try not to think about it,” Twilight said.

“You want to continue living your life,” Fluttershy concluded quietly, and Twilight realized that they had all been thinking the same thing.

“But is this really our fault?”

“No,” Rarity said firmly. “None of this is our fault. Even if we are the cause, nothing is our fault. We did nothing wrong.”

Twilight turned her head towards the pegasus, trying her best to manage a smile.

“Rarity’s right. We didn’t do anything.”

A gulp, and Fluttershy nodded. “No. Of course not.”

For a while, no-one said another word, until Rarity broke the silence once again.

“How do you think it affected our dreams?”

“Through the elements, somehow,” Twilight murmured. “Celestia is connected to Luna, and since...” She paused, gulping. “... both of them are connected to us. Given what’s happening to Celestia, I don’t think... anything that happened to us is surprising. Magic can work that way.”

“But...” Twilight could feel Fluttershy’s body tensing up beside her. “What is happening to her?”

At that, no-one had an answer.

Time passed, and after a while, Luna came back to stand silently beside them. All of them grew increasingly tired, and after a particularly big yawn from Fluttershy, the pegasus closed her eyes, leaning herself against Twilight.

“You may use this side of the bed if you want to,” Luna said as Fluttershy was searching for the most comfortable spot on Twilight’s body. “You need not worry about crossing the barrier, it will work as a wall if you touch it.”

Fluttershy’s cheeks turned pink. Murmuring an unintelligible answer, she took a step away from Twilight, only to then do exactly what Luna had suggested, and before long, Rarity joined her. Twilight knew that there was no point in staying at the palace for much longer, and a part of her even considered asking Luna for a carriage back home. Instead, she gave a quiet sigh and sat down next to Rarity.

“Will you raise the sun soon?” Twilight asked after what must have been half an hour. Fluttershy opened her eyes at the question, and Twilight briefly wondered if Luna had been watching over her in her sleep, preventing another incident like the one earlier that night.

Luna gave a nod. “If Tia does not wake, yes.”

“Will it be... difficult?”

“I would not say so, no. It will be exhausting, but not unpleasant.”

Twilight tiredly gazed at Luna, then at her mentor.

“Mh...”

“She might wake at any moment,” Luna reminded her, “and there might never have been any danger. I hope you will forgive me if I worried you all for nothing.”

“I don’t think it matters if she wakes,” came a murmur from Rarity. “As long... as long as everything turns out fine...”

More time passed, and at some point, Twilight’s mind suddenly snapped back to consciousness, and she realized that it was bright outside. Soon, she thought, it would be time to re-open the library for the next day, and that would be the signal for her to go back home. It could take days, or even weeks, for Celestia to wake, and even though Twilight had no idea how she would get anything done with the constant fear and worry hovering above her head, she knew that she'd have to try. She couldn't just stay here and refuse to do anything. She would have to move on.

But it did not come to that. A good half an hour later, Celestia woke up.

Author's Note