Quite a few years had passed after the older couple had found the purple unicorn in the park without incident, though they had no Earthly idea the events that they had unknowingly set into motion by having her brought across the border and into the US. Twilight was transferred to the custody of the United States Government, but that's as far as the little paper trail goes; knowledge that the US Government had a tiny purple unicorn was embargoed harder than Cuba and the US-operated numbers station combined. There wasn't even a need-to-know basis, unless you happened to be (un)lucky enough to actually be a part of the project to see what information could be gleamed from her.

Twilight floated in a tank, filled with some sort of amniotic fluid she didn't know the name of, in what seemed like a base of some sort, based on what she could scarcely recall when she had last been able to perceive the outside world... Properly, anyways. Shortly after she had arrived and been put into the tank, she had been purposefully kept under. She was constantly stuck in a dream, which inevitably enabled her to have on continuous lucid dream. Anything that she could imagine, happened; Twilight was totally in control of what she interacted with and perceived, a complete wonderland of endless entertainment - or so it seemed. Just weeks in, she grew bored of her environment; she needed to interact with someone, anyone, it didn't matter who!

As weird as it sounds, she longed for the rare days that she was woken up and brought in for questioning. The first time it had happened, she could already tell that they didn't have very good intentions for the information they demanded from her. Though she was still young, she already felt that she shouldn't give them any useful information. Things like names of ponies and places were changed. Twilight forded the minefield of whether to embellish or downplay magical capabilities of ponies, and went with downplaying it a little bit - she didn't feel the need to tell them that one of their own raised the sun while another raised the moon. The mentioning of weather manipulation by the Pegasi had turned out to be a surprise to them, which lead her to assume that they hadn't had to deal with needing to manage their weather. The next time she was brought out of the tank, Twilight downplayed the abilities of Pegasi; they could walk on clouds, and manage minor weather manipulation. They didn't get much else out of Twilight over the years, some small details here or there, though they were mostly mundane facts and such.

It was shortly after the most recent trip outside of the tank when Twilight witnessed something that both gave her hope of escape, and yet also terrified her to the bone... For in Twilight's mental bubble, sat a lone human. That fact alone wasn't what terrified her though, as she sometimes interacted with apparitions of those she talked, or was shouted at by, when she was thoroughly bored. No, what disturbed the purple unicorn, was that she could feel that this human was actually another person. What bugged her even more however, was the fact that this person seemed to be no older than thirteen years old.

She would've pondered more upon this, but Twilight's internal monologue and entire thinking process was interrupted, when she noticed a final, world-shattering fact: this person, whoever they were, could wield magic. This little nugget of information was dumped upon Twilight, due in part to the very nature of how the two were within her mind in the first place. Eventually, Twilight managed to open her mouth and ask a very pointed question.

"How? How are you here? The very fact that you're here should be viewed as an impossibility, but here you are..." Twilight couldn't help but circle around the person. They had stark white hair just past shoulder length, fiery red eyes burned with the flames of a thousand suns, and stood at a meager five-foot-two. It also appeared that the person was in fact female.

After a couple seconds, they spoke, "Ever since I was little, I've been able to do things.... Weird things... Things that defied any explanation or sometimes flat out broke the laws of physics at the very least. I found a way to turn myself invisible, store a near-infinite amount of items outside of reality, and just recently I've started accidentally opening doors to completely different areas than they should have lead to. The last thing I remember thinking about before I went to sleep just a bit ago, was wishing to be able to talk to someone who could help make sense of what I'm able to do. I know it's magic, it has to be, but I just can't reliably control it without help..."

Twilight seemed apprehensive at first, but eventually warmed up to the idea of teaching the young girl how to control and utilize her magic. 'I could teach her so many things, and with any luck, I'll be free of this place. Sure, it's comfortable..... when I'm in the tank, anyway... But they've been getting more and more aggressive in their search for usable information as of late, and more frequent.' The lavender unicorn gave the girl with a faint smile, "I would love to be able to pass on my teachings of magic and spellwork." She paused for a moment, "Unfortunately, most of them require a basic understanding of how magic itself functions... I can't exactly teach it, because it is something more 'felt' than 'taught'."

The girl brightened up at the prospect of having someone teach her to control her magic that seemed to do nothing but grow as she did. Her ensuing smile was so bright, that the area they were in seemed more vivid and bright within the dream. She grabbed one of Twilight's forelegs with both hands and gave it a hardy shake, smile still plastered upon her face. "Thank you, so much! You have no idea how much this means to me." Twilight's hoof was shortly thereafter released from the girl's tight grip as she continued, "The name's Alena Noel, by the way; what's yours?"

Twilight put down the hoof that was so energetically shaken with enthusiasm. "My name is Twilight Sparkle," she said, with a pleasant smile upon her face. That however, did not last long.

Alena could not help herself, and decided to have a little fun. "Twilight Storkle?" The name was posited with as much seriousness as a Monty Python movie.... Which, one would say, would be none at all. Twilight however, took exception to her name being mispronounced on purpose.

"No, it's Twilight Sparkle," the mare repeated, saying her name slightly slower and with more emphasis on 'Sparkle.'

Alena decided that once was definitely not enough. "Toilet Sparkle?"

The mare's eyes went wide, "*HAY NO!* That's a toilet cleaner from back home, and my mom bought that one every so often, simply because she liked to tease me sometimes." There was silence for but a second. And then, "It did not help at all that the bottle happened to be the very same shade of purple as my coat." Twilight punctuated her point with a pointedly disappointed pout.

After Twilight's indignant pouty face, Alena came to the decision that trolling Twilight would have to wait a little while. "Alright, relax, I was just messing with you; though I'll probably call you either 'Sparkles,' 'Sprinkles' or 'Twi' unless I happen to be serious about something." Twilight was about to open her mouth, but Alena cut her off, "Yes, I do this with most of my friends, this isn't anything new."

"Well, I guess I can't argue there." She was about to say more, but Alena started to fade out of the dreamspace they were in. "Wait, what time is it!?"

Alena looked around, seemingly at nothing and yet something. "Probably around 7am, if my fading out is any indicator; it's a school day, so I kind of have a need to get up and out of bed. We'll talk more later when I get home from school."

Twilight waved goodbye to Alena as she was almost gone. Before completely fading away, she regarded Twilight one last time, "Don't get too bored without me!"

With that final statement, Twilight was once again left to her own devices within her own bubble of dreamspace. It wasn't much, but it was hers... Though it seemed as if Alena's farewell comment fell on deaf ears, because as soon as she had left, Twilight was irrevocably boooooored.

Just as Alena was in the process of waking up, she could've sworn she heard Twilight let out an indignant "Well, fuck..."

Author's Note

I know this is a slightly shorter chapter than usual, but the root of that problem was that my laptop restarted before I could hit the save button and lost half of my work. Still, I think it turned out pretty okay nonetheless. Stay tuned, for I have a pretty neat interlude chapter, based upon one of Alena's comments about a magical mishap!