Special Talents

by InkFathom

Rating: teen
Tags: Dark, Other, Original Character, Comedy, Adventure, Derpy Hooves, Pinkie Pie, Twilight Sparkle, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Length: 16179

Daydream and Flameheart struggle to uncover the mysteries behind their cutie marks.

Daydream is your average unicorn. She loves to read, is extremely shy, and has trust issues. Thing is, there's more to her than even she knows, and as she uncovers the truth behind dreams she can never remember and a cutie mark she can never forget, she discovers something about herself that she was better left in the dark about.

Flameheart is your average pegasus. She has a negative view on life, was verbally abused as a filly, and regrets everything about herself. However, when her life of pain, sorrow, and guilt is made a thousand times worse by an old enemy who wants to get even, she rediscovers her past sins in a way she never has before, and ends up unwittingly dragging another along for the ride.

Two ponies with dangerous pasts. Two secrets with devastating consequences. One pony who wants both of them dead. And throughout it all, they will learn the true meaning of special talents.

Published 2012-06-25 22:34:01 UTC
Last updated 2013-01-06 09:36:56 UTC

Lost Memories

"Ugh. Is it morning already?"

Blinking the sun out of her eyes, Daydream yawned and stretched, resenting the light of the sun invading her bedroom. Throwing off her covers, she crawled out of bed and looked across the room. The lilac unicorn stared at the sleepy pony in the mirror and sighed. She had dark circles around her bright turquoise eyes and her blue and violet mane was tangled and unruly.

Her horn glowed as she levitated a hair brush into position and combed her mane and tail. She felt a little more awake as she finished, and tried to think about what she'd dreamt about. She couldn’t remember.

Daydream groaned. She knew that she dreamt at night. She knew that she had the exact same reoccurring dream night after night for as long as she could remember. She just didn’t ever remember what her dreams were about. It annoyed her to no end.

The unicorn sighed. Every morning she woke up, every morning she groomed herself, and every morning she tried to remember what she dreamt about. After fifteen years of this tireless routine, she still hadn’t figured it out.

That in mind, she took a relaxing breath and smiled confidently at her reflection. “But I will find out," she muttered. "One of these days."

************

Daydream stepped outside and took in the friendly environment. The sky was filled with puffs of cotton clouds floating aimlessly in the sea of deep, bright, endless blue. Birds chirped and butterflies fluttered past, enjoying the nice weather as much as she was. She sighed contently as she crossed the street to the shopping center at the center of town, wondering why more ponies weren’t enjoying the sunshine.

As she watched a blue jay pecking at some dropped crumbs, she crashed into a pegasus she was walking towards unknowingly.

The grey mare with a messy gold mane whipped around, looking at the unicorn who was now sprawled on the ground. "Oh, sorry!"

Daydream stood, groaning with discomfort and vaguely wondering how the pegasus managed her balance. "No, it's my fault. I wasn't watching where I was going." She noticed their location in the street. "Why are you standing in the middle of the road anyway?"

The pegasus looked in the direction of the blue jay Daydream had been watching. "The bird took my muffin. I was watching him eat it." She looked back at the unicorn with her cross-eyed gaze. "It was good, too! I got it from that nice mare at Sugarcube Corner!"

Daydream looked down the street until her eyes caught the bakery. So it's open now, she thought. Maybe I'll pop in for a doughnut. She turned back to the pegasus. "Sorry about your muffin. I guess I'll see you later, uh..."

The pegasus stared blankly at her. There was a moment of silence, in which the blue jay flew away. "Okay then..." Daydream finally said. "Bye."

The pegasus smiled. "Bye," she replied, before she trotted away.

Daydream watched the strange pegasus for a little longer and continued on her way. She couldn't recall meeting her before. Then again, she didn't have the best memory. Daydream neared her destination and shook the thoughts away.

As she walked through the door of Sugarcube Corner, a friendly voice greeted her.

“Why, good morning, Daydream!” The sweet-as-sugar baker exclaimed in her usual perky demeanor. “What would you like today? Cupcake? Pie? Perhaps our new hot cross buns?”

Daydream chuckled. “Just a doughnut today, Mrs. Cake, thank you.” She smiled. Seeing the turquoise mare always brightened her spirits.

“You got it Dearie!” Mrs. Cake’s pink mane bounced as she turned to call her employee. “Pinkie Pie! Can you take care of Daydream for me? I need to make the cupcakes for a customer downtown.”

The bright pink earth pony with curly, deep pink hair bounced up to the register replying, “Okie dokie lokie! I’ll take care of it Mrs. Cake!” Pinkie Pie turned to Daydream, wearing her trademark smile. “What would you like?”

She repeated her order. “A daisy doughnut, please.”

“Coming right up,” she said enthusiastically, and trotted to the kitchen. A few minutes later, she returned with Daydream’s order. “We have a hot new batch of doughnuts. You get the first one of the day!”

Daydream realized for the first time that morning how early it was. She thought back to the few ponies she had seen outside and understood why most ponies were inside. Good. The earlier she was awake, the more time she got to discover her talent. “Thank you, Pinkie Pie. Have a nice day,” she said as she gathered her goods and happily trotted out of the sweet shop.

Her heart warmed by her encounter with the two cheerful and familiar ponies, Daydream began to search for something to do. She was nearing Carousel Boutique when she heard three young voices chatting away.

“That was so much fun! Can we do it again?”

“Are you kidding? That was a catastrophe! We didn’t even get our cutie marks!”

“At least now we know that our special talents don’t involve fly fishin’. We just need tah try somethin’ else.”

The Cutie Mark Crusaders trotted past, soaking wet, discussing the activity they had just attempted. They looked over at Daydream and the yellow filly with a large, pink bow brightened as an idea formulated in her head. “Hey!” She exclaimed to her two friends. “Let’s ask Daydream how she got her cutie mark!”

“Good idea, Applebloom!” said the orange pegasus riding a scooter.

The three fillies zoomed over to the lilac unicorn, curiosity sparkling in their eyes.

“Hey, Daydream,” asked Scootaloo. “How did you get your cutie mark?”

Daydream shuffled her hooves uncomfortably, searching for a suitable answer. “Well… ” She never liked to discuss the issue of her cutie mark, but if she knew these three fillies, they would bother her until they got a story. Meanwhile, said fillies were staring her down, eager for a response. "I... Uh... "

A white unicorn with a coiffed indigo mane noticed her hesitance from a few feet away and trotted over. "Come along now, girls. If she would prefer not to answer, she does not have to answer."

The Crusaders let out a disappointed, "Awww... " However, Applebloom soon perked up. "Hay, Scootaloo, ya think Zecora will have a story ‘bout her cutie mark?”

“Well, let’s go see!” Scootaloo began to zoom towards the looming forest at the edge of Ponyville.

“Hay, wait for us!” The other two fillies galloped after her.

Rarity smiled. "Well, they certainly are quite the enthusiastic bunch." She turned back to the lilac unicorn. "So, Daydream. It's been a while since we talked. Still reading Daring Do?" A humorous twinkle lit her eyes.

Daydream looked away. As good as the white unicorn's intentions were, she didn't like to talk to anypony. It only ever led to something bad. "Well, no... " she began cautiously. If she paced her words, she wouldn't say anything regretful. "I'm reading a new series...

Rarity cocked her head, sensing her discomfort. "...Well, then... Perhaps I will see you again soon..."

An awkward silence followed. "...Goodbye." Rarity trotted away.

"...Bye."

Daydream breathed a sigh of relief. However tense that was, she was still glad that Rarity had stepped in, sparing her the shame of relaying what little she knew about her cutie mark to the three curious Crusaders.

The lilac Unicorn ate her doughnut as she absent-mindedly trotted around Ponyville. The fact was, she didn't know anything about it. She didn't even remember how she got it. Any time she had a conversation that even remotely had to do with cutie marks or special talents brought up all sorts of bad memories for her. She couldn't help but think that, if she knew what her cutie mark represented, her life could be that much better. She just didn't know how.

Daydream suddenly found herself at home. While she’d been thinking, she must’ve wandered back to where she started. She went inside her cottage and saw a book on her writing table. She realized that the book belonged to the library and remembered that she was going to return it today.

Of course! Daydream could check out a book from the library about cutie marks. She levitated the book off of the table and got her saddle pack. This would make a perfect excuse to look for information. Twilight Sparkle could easily find all sorts of books on the subject for her. This could give her a clue about her special talent.

Beginning her journey to the library across town, Daydream wondered why she hadn't thought of it before.

************

Daydream stood in front of the enormous oak tree that contained the town’s library. The thick novel that weighed down her saddle pack had been checked out only a few days ago. Daydream loved to read, and over the years had gained a reading level that excelled over that of most ponies. She winced as she remembered the scorn from her youth that her love of the written word had encouraged. Banishing the memories to the recesses of her mind, she walked through the front door. “Good morning, Twilight!”

Twilight turned from the shelf she was examining to look at the visitor coming towards her. “Good morning, Daydream.” She glanced at the novel floating alongside the unicorn in front of her. “I see you brought back the book you borrowed the other day. Another quick read?”

Daydream chuckled. “You bet. I just couldn’t put it down!” She set the novel onto the pile of check-ins.

“So, do you want me to get the next book in the series?” Twilight trotted over to the correct shelf.

The novel in question hovered over to where Daydream could easily read the title. “Adventurers: Secrets of the Wild,” she murmured to nopony in particular. As much as the fresh read tempted her, she had a mission. “Sorry, but I can’t right now. I have to pick up another book.”

“Okay.” Twilight looked a little confused, but went over to put the novel back on its shelf. “So what book do you want to pick up?”

“The Guide to Cutie Marks: An Inside Look at the Special Talents of Ponies.”

“Sure thing.” She turned to the correct shelf. “So, why do you want to do research on cutie marks?” Twilight prompted.

Daydream’s smile slackened a little. She stumbled for an excuse. “Oh! Um, it's not for me. I’m getting it for a friend.”

Twilight turned her head and looked at Daydream suspiciously. “A friend,” she repeated.

The unicorn blushed. “Yeah,” she lied. “A friend.”

Twilight looked hard at Daydream. “Okay, then." She levitated the book out of its place. "Any particular reason that this friend wants to research cutie marks?"

"Well, she was curious because she has her cutie mark, but she doesn't remember how she got it, and she was hoping that this book would help her out, and, uh, she couldn't come get it herself because she was embarrassed about it and, um... " Daydream trailed off, biting her lip.

Looking into her eyes, Twilight asked, "Daydream, this friend... Could it be you?"

Lowering her eyes, she decided to explain her situation. "Yes. My memory isn't exactly... whole. I have no idea how I got my cutie mark, and so far nothing I've tried has been my 'special talent'. I was hoping that this book would help in that regard. But... " She sighed. "I can imagine that it's hard enough to not have your cutie mark yet, but it's just plain embarrassing when you have it and you still don't know what your Celestia-given gift is."

Twilight put her foreleg over Daydream's shoulder. "I understand. Come with me, I'll help you do any research you need to do."

The embarrassed unicorn's jaw dropped. "Really? You'd help me? Just like that?"

"Sure. I've got nothing else to do today and I've been bored out of my mind anyway," Twilight giggled, sitting down and setting the book in front of her.

Daydream smiled thankfully and joined her next to the tome.

The lavender unicorn flipped through the text, and read a page. “It says here that cutie marks almost always give a literal or metaphorical representation of the pony’s special talent.” She examined Daydream’s cutie mark: Two revolving comets surrounded by stars. “It has quite a few celestial bodies, perhaps your talent is astronomy.”

Twilight climbed the stairs up to her study, Daydream following closely behind. The lavender unicorn levitated a star map up to her. “Can you tell me which constellations are which?”

Daydream studied the map. It looked like a bunch of dots to her. “No idea,” Daydream announced after a few minutes.

Twilight put away the star map, not at all discouraged. “Well, maybe you’re better at naming celestial bodies,” she suggested. “What’s the difference between a nebula and a quasar?” she prompted.

Daydream looked bewildered. “A nebula and a what now?”

Twilight sighed. “Okay. How about a planum and a planitia?”

Daydream cocked her head in confusion.

Twilight tried again. “A meteor and a meteorite?”

Daydream shook her head.

Twilight thought for a moment. “Let’s try something a bit more abstract.” She stole a glance at her own cutie mark; a six pointed star surrounded by five smaller stars. “Perhaps your talent has to do with magic, like mine.” She took a spell book left on her reading desk and flipped through its pages. “Can you perform the ‘Come to Life’ spell?”

The lilac unicorn looked at the spell in question and shrugged. “I’ll try.”

She chose a broom lying across the room and cast the spell. The broom began to move and sweep the room on its own.

“Wonderful!” Twilight exclaimed. Daydream gushed with pride.

But the broom didn’t stop. It continued to sweep the room, sweeping up other items along with dust. It carried books and papers left on the floor; bumped knick knacks off shelves; it even started to knock over furniture.

“Daydream…” Twilight began, anxiety forming in her voice. “You can stop now…”

“I’m not doing it!” She strained against her own horn, which was increasing the Come to Life spell with every second. “I-I'm not controlling it!”

The rogue broom was becoming more violent, sweeping faster and faster. It climbed the stairs to Twilight’s bedroom, cleaning as it went.

Twilight gasped. “Spike! He’s taking a nap upstairs!”

From the bedroom a crash sounded.. There was a yawn, a distant “Wha-huh?”, and the sound of flame.

A small purple and green dragon came down the stairs, looking aggravated and holding a charred and obviously lifeless broomstick in his claws.

“Somepony lose something?” the dragon grumbled, tossing the recently burned piece of wood and straw by the lilac unicorn’s hooves.

“Heh heh,” Daydream giggled nervously. “Sorry.”

“Okay, let’s try something new.” Twilight went back to the book. “Well, it says here that a unicorn’s powers usually gave clues as to what their special talent is.” Twilight turned to Daydream. “Why don’t you try something?”

Daydream was a bit confused. “What do you want me to do?”

“Anything. A burst of power. Conjure something random. Just do something that could reveal your talent.” Twilight looked expectant.

“Okay…” Daydream wasn’t sure what to do, and she was a little anxious after the last “activity”. She closed her eyes, cleared her mind, and felt that familiar warm sensation in her horn that appeared whenever she performed magic.

The lilac unicorn began to rise above the floor. Her eyes opened, completely clouded over like an extreme daydream.

All of a sudden, Daydream’s mind exploded with memories. Sights, sounds, smells, tastes, ponies she knew, events that occurred, everything that she ever saw, heard, or read. Daydream recalled the memories she thought she had lost all those years ago. She remembered why she got her cutie mark. She remembered everything.

Then, as quickly as they had come, all of her memories were gone.

Daydream fell to the floor of the library. The books were askew, the papers and scrolls everywhere. The library was a complete mess. Spike, who had still been downstairs, had been flung to the top of a bookshelf where he promptly fell back into his interrupted nap. Twilight, however, was more concerned about the unicorn in a heap on the ground.

Twilight gasped. “Daydream! Are you okay?” She galloped over to the unicorn, looking to make sure she wasn't injured.

Daydream looked up, dazed, at the lavender unicorn standing above her.

“Who’s Daydream?”

Flameheart Prologue

Silence took hold as the last pony drifted off to sleep in the quiet town. The only sounds to be heard were the faint, steady breaths of the citizens as they slept.

Suddenly, one pony’s breathing became uneven. The shuffling of covers and hoof steps on a hardwood floor could be heard over the silence. The door to a cottage on the edge of the town opened and shut, the sound seeming as loud as a thunderclap.

An amber pegasus with a fiery orange and gold mane looked to her left and right with icy blue eyes before sighing. “Okay, Flameheart, the coast is clear,” she muttered to herself. She then took off into the darkness without a whisper.

Flameheart flapped her wings and hovered over the town, assessing her location with a birds-eye view. She hopped onto a nearby cloud and looked around. The town held a number of buildings, some for living and others for entertainment. But what she was looking for was the shopping center, which would lead her to an eerie forest on the outskirts of town.

Finally spotting it, Flameheart muttered under her breath, “Lived here for seven years and I still get lost.” Extending her wings, she launched herself off the cloud, effectively dissipating it, and headed towards the forest.

As she sped across the night sky, Flameheart’s mind began to wander. Why am I still doing this? What’s the point? I’ll only get caught and then where’ll I be? She landed in front of the forest. It was too dangerous to fly through at night. She always had to walk.

Within the forest, massive trees with gnarled limbs seemed to glare at her, watching her every move. Mysterious plants popped up here and there, innocent petals and leaves disguising their true identities as toxic poisons. The pegasus shuddered as she heard Timberwolves howling in the distance. She imagined horrible creatures of all shapes and sizes sizing her up for their meals, and the awful things that would happen if they were to attack.

Lost in her imagination, Flameheart tripped over a hidden root. She crashed noisily in the underbrush as she fell. Quickly regaining her balance, she looked around, paranoia seeping in as she searched the thick vines for signs of predators. Surely she had alerted them to her presence?

Her head snapped to her left. Was that a twig cracking she just heard? Or was it just her imagination? Preferring not to take any chances, Flameheart bolted. She panted, sweat pouring over her face. If there was a bloodthirsty beast trailing her, she had to outrun it. Otherwise, she knew, the consequences would be dire. She looked over her shoulder trying to find out if she was racing away from nothing.

She accidentally ran headfirst into a tree.

Shaking her head, she crawled behind the offending arbor. Her breath quickened. Was there an animal at all? She slowly peered out from behind the tree.

Nothing.

I have got to stop doing that! she thought. Angry with herself, Flameheart continued her voyage through the dark forest.

Soon, Flameheart came to a rest in her usual spot. She looked around, making sure that she hadn’t been followed, and began her nightly practice.

Maybe I’ll get it right this time, she thought.

Amnesia

“Who’s Daydream?”

Twilight stared down at the unicorn who, not an hour ago, had been spilling out her life story. “You! You’re Daydream!”

“Oh…?” Daydream said, not completely believing her. “And… who are you?”

Twilight began to speak quickly, trying to remind Daydream of who she was and why she was here. “I’m Twilight Sparkle. I live here in Ponyville, where you live. You are Daydream. You love to read. You don’t know what your cutie mark means. You came to me looking for a book on cutie marks. You wanted to find out what your special talent is. I tried to help you. I told you to try some magic. Does any of that ring a bell?"

Daydream scrunched up her face in concentration. "Hmm... Nope. But, ah," she added, "can you explain it again? Slower? I didn't really catch any of that."

Twilight grimaced, realizing that this pony wasn’t going to remember anything on her own. “Well…”

As the lavender unicorn was thinking of what to say, a cheerful, pink, earth pony burst through the door.

“Hey, Twilight! Whatcha do-” Pinkie looked at Twilight, who was sitting next to Daydream, who was still sprawled out on the floor. A look of downright confusion passed over Pinkie Pie’s face. “What just happened?”

Daydream looked over at the newcomer. “Twilight,” she asked, “Who’s she?”

The pink earth pony chuckled. “Oh, Daydream, you’re so funny! You got a daisy doughnut from me just this morning! Remember?”

“No, I don’t.”

The smile on Pinkie’s face disappeared as soon as she processed those words. She looked to her brainy friend. “Twilight, what’s going on?”

Twilight frowned. How can I explain what just happened? she wondered. I don’t even really know. "Uh…”

“Is this a prank?” Pinkie interrupted. “’Cause if it is, it’s a pretty good one! I mean Daydream pretending she doesn’t know me? Ha! I saw her this morning! I also saw her yesterday and the day before that! Ooh, ooh, ooh! And I threw her that un-be-lieve-able party for her birthday last year! And of course there was that time I saw her at the library, and Sweet Apple Acres, and Sugarcube Corner, and the Carousel Boutique, and in the Everfree forest, and…” She continued to ramble on about the reasons Daydream should remember her, trying to make sense of the situation.

When Pinkie ran out of breath, Twilight, who was patiently waiting for a pause, said “No, Pinkie. This is not a prank. Daydream lost her memory, and we need to find out how to get it back.”

Pinkie looked worriedly over at Daydream, just noticing the absolute confusion on her face. However, Pinkie then grinned. “Why don’t you look it up in one of your books?” She asked.

Daydream peered over at the lavender unicorn. "That sounds like a fun idea. You know any good ones?"

************

An hour later, Twilight, Pinkie, and Daydream had taken out and looked through every book they could find that had any remote reference to psychology, memories, or the mind with no luck.

“So, Twilight,” Daydream began, “What exactly happened this morning?” The ponies hadn’t spoken since they began their search.

“Well, you came in, brought back a book, and requested a book about cutie marks.” Twilight continued, speaking briskly, as she searched through a thick book labeled Mind Over Matter. “You told me why you needed to research cutie marks, and I decided to help you. We tried several things, including a few spells, and then I told you to try a burst of magic.” She trembled slightly at the memory. “I’m not quite sure what happened, but you lost your memory.”

Pinkie looked up in what seemed to be a moment of shining insight. “Wait a minute! I’ve got an idea!” She zoomed at a somewhat comical speed to Twilight’s study.

Twilight and Daydream looked after her, paralyzed with curiosity at whatever the pink earth pony was up to.

Pinkie, having found what she was looking for, bounced back into the room cluttered full of books and dropped The Guide to Cutie Marks: An Inside Look at the Special Talents of Ponies at the unicorns’ hooves.

“Of course! We were reading this book when you lost your memory!” Twilight exclaimed to Daydream. “It could have a clue about what happened to you and how to reverse it.” She turned to the earth pony beaming next to them. “Thank you, Pinkie!” She thought for a moment. “Hang on… how did you know which book it was?”

Pinkie giggled. “Silly! When you said you were researching cutie marks, I figured you would use the one book that was all about cutie marks!” She somehow popped up right between the two unicorns in front of the book. “I also figured that since you were studying them, it’d be in your study!”

“That actually... makes… sense,” Twilight ventured. She turned to the table of contents in the book. “Okay, let’s see… Introduction... What is a Cutie Mark?... Exceptions and Expectations… Famous Cutie Marks…”

Twilight read through the chapter titles until she came across one that appealed to her. “When Talents Go Wrong. Here we go!” She flipped to the correct page and read its contents aloud.

“Everypony knows that a cutie mark is the representation of a pony’s special talent. That special talent can create tension within said pony if it goes too long without being acted out. After a while, if a pony, especially a unicorn, performs that talent abruptly, the built up energy can create a devastating disaster. Furthermore, if a pony refuses to perform their talent, or is unable to, they will become disconnected from their sense of self. This can cause them to develop Special Talent/Personality Disorder, which can cause them to become obsessive, compulsive, depressed, paranoid, delusional, and can eventually lead to insanity or death.”

When Twilight finished reading, the occupants of the room were silent for a few seconds. Surprisingly, Daydream was the first to voice her opinion. “Well that explains a lot.”

Twilight stared at her. “What do you mean?”

Shifting her hooves uncomfortably, Daydream replied “Well… From what you told me, there was a ‘devastating disaster’ when I tried to use my talent after so long of not even knowing what it was.” She shrugged. “Makes sense to me.” Daydream smiled, then frowned. “But… After all this time… Why haven’t I gotten STPD?”

It was Twilight’s turn to speculate. “Well, from what you told me, you might have had it.” Facing the confounded expressions around her, she continued. “I felt that you were a bit paranoid of what other ponies would think about how you didn’t know what your cutie mark meant. You lied to me about researching special talents compulsively, even before you knew if I was suspicious or not.” She looked into Daydream’s eyes. “Since you weren’t depressed, delusional, insane, or dying, you must have had a minor case.”

“A-a minor case? But… If I hadn’t used my talent since I was small, how come it’s a minor case?”

Pinkie chose this time to speak up. “The way I see it, the only way you could have a minor case is if you were using your talent, and you just didn’t know it.” Pinkie grinned.

The unicorns’ eyes widened. “Is that possible?” Daydream asked Twilight.

Twilight narrowed her eyes, deep in thought. “Perhaps… but that still doesn’t explain the surge of power…”

“Maybe…” Pinkie ventured, “She was only partially using it…?"

Twilight spoke up after a few seconds of silence. “We can’t figure out anything with Daydream’s memory gone.”

Pinkie cocked her head in confusion. “You didn’t try that memory spell on her already?”

The lavender unicorn slapped her hoof across her forehead. “Of COURSE! I could use the same memory spell on her that I used on you and the others when Discord attacked!”

As Twilight pointed her horn at the lilac unicorn, Daydream sputtered, “Huh? Wait, w-what are you doing?"

She trailed off as Twilight’s spell took hold of her, making her glow from head to hoof. She gasped as the same extreme-daydream-cloud covered her eyes once more. Suddenly, the spell backfired, sending Twilight and Pinkie Pie crashing against the walls of the library.

Twilight slid down to the floor and wearily opened her eyes. She found her second wind and galloped over to Daydream, who was, for the second time that morning, sprawled out on the floor of the library. “Daydream!” She shouted. “Do you remember? Is your memory back?”

Daydream looked up and, for the second time that morning, asked “Who’s Daydream?”

Twilight groaned and collapsed. Not again, she thought. What the hay does it take to get back this pony’s memory?

Pinkie walked over to Daydream. “Oh, well,” she stated. “Back to the drawing board.”

Twilight stood up. “We need a professional to help us.” She started towards the door. “Come on. If we start now, we can reach Colgate's house before sundown.”

“Colgate?” Pinkie inquired. “How can she help us?”

Twilight turned and looked at Pinkie. “She's an old friend of mine. I happen to know that she knows a good bit about retrieving memories without the use of spells.” She turned back towards the door. “At the moment, she’s our only option.”

Pinkie and Daydream exchanged looks. Pinkie shrugged and followed Twilight out the door. Daydream got up, tried to remember what happened, gave up, and proceeded after them.

While outside, Daydream stopped. “Can somepony explain a few things?”

The other two ponies turned. “Like…” Twilight prompted.

“Like who I am, who you are, what we are doing, what just happened, and who the hay Colgate is?” Daydream looked frustrated that the other two ponies had not told her this already.

Twilight blinked. Ugh, can’t we wait until we get there? I’m getting tired of explaining things. “Look, you lost your memory again. I’ve already explained things to you, and I’m going to have to explain things again to Colgate. Can’t you wait?”

Daydream was about to argue, when a large shadow came over her. She looked up.

Crack! BOOM!

Smoldering on the ground, the lilac unicorn coughed, twitching involuntarily.

“Daydream!” Twilight looked up. A grey, blonde-maned pegasus was standing on top of a thunder cloud with a worried, cross-eyed expression. “DERPY!”

Derpy looked over the top of the cloud into the eyes of the charred unicorn. “Sorry, Daydream. Are you okay?”

Twilight interrupted, furious at the pegasus. “No, she’s not okay! YOU STRUCK HER WITH LIGHTNING!”

“I-I’m okay,” Daydream sputtered. “N-no hard feelings.”

“I just don’t know what went wrong!” Derpy flew awkwardly down to the other ponies. “I’m really sorry.” The pegasus looked morosely at Daydream, who was being helped up by Twilight and Pinkie.

“Seriously, it’s okay.” Daydream chuckled anemically. “I guess this makes up for bumping into you this morning.”

Twilight gaped at Daydream while Pinkie Pie looked at her as if she’d been wronged. “Hey! You remember bumping into Derpy, but you don’t remember my party?” Pinkie pouted.

“Pinkie!” Twilight chided. “Daydream remembers something! That’s a good thing!” She turned to the lilac unicorn. “What else do you remember?”

Daydream thought hard for a moment, then replied, “…Everything…”

Smiling with relief, Twilight prompted, “Do you remember why you got your cutie mark?”

“It-it’s cloudy. I… think… I…” She sighed. “No, not really.”

“That’s okay,” Twilight dismissed. “We can work on it. The point is, you got your memory back!”

“What do you think caused that…?” Pinkie wondered.

They all looked at Derpy, who was still sitting under her cloud. “I dunno…”

Igniting the Fire

Fifteen years earlier…

************

A cream colored mare with a light blue and pink mane and her amber filly with a fiery orange and yellow mane sat on a fluffy cloud in a large stadium as they watched a trio of pegasi dressed in blue and yellow suits and goggles zoom through an entrance far below.

“Introducing… THE WONDERBOLTS!” an announcer vigorously proclaimed.

The Wonderbolts twirled and zigzagged through the air, trailing thunderclouds and lightning behind them. They zoomed at breakneck speeds, spiraling, diving, and performing acrobatic stunts in unison. The audience oohed and ahhed with every feat.

One of the Wonderbolts raced past the filly’s seat. Her true blue eyes followed the pegasus with a look of strong admiration. “Mommy!” She shouted, trying to be heard above the roar of the crowd. “I want to be as fast as the Wonderbolts someday!”

The mother looked down at her filly. “You will be, sweetie. You’ll be the fastest of them all.” She smiled as her daughter’s tiny wings began to flutter. “But you have to practice. The Wonderbolts practice every week so that they can go so fast.”

“I’ll practice! I’ll practice every DAY!” Her wings buzzed and she lifted an inch off the cloud before falling back on her hooves.

The mother chuckled. “Careful, Flameheart. Watch the show.”

They both fell silent for the rest of the performance, aside from occasional shouts of amazement and awe.

************

After the show, Flameheart and her mother exited the stadium, meeting up with a lime green pegasus mare with a straight yellow mane and her moss colored filly with a dark green mane.

Flameheart’s mother started chatting with the mare. “Flameheart, Sprite and I are going to be here for a while,” she told her filly. “Why don’t you play with Emerald? She seems nice.”

Flameheart and Emerald exchanged glances and shrugged. Might as well, she thought.

“Weren’t the Wonderbolts amazing?” the green filly squealed. “I mean, they were flippin’ and flyin’ and divin’! And then there was that time when they went,” she motioned an action with her hoof. “WHOOSH!”

“Yeah!” Flameheart joined in her excitement. “I’m gonna be as fast as they are someday!” she boasted.

Emerald rolled her eyes. “Yeah, right. Nopony’s as fast as the Wonderbolts!”

Flameheart flapped her tiny wings, eager to prove the filly wrong. “Yes I am. Just watch me!” With that she trotted over to the edge of the cloud they were on.

“This I’ve got to see.” Emerald cantered over near her, the sparkle of excitement in her eyes.

Flameheart’s mother glanced casually over at her filly. Her eyes widened as she realized what her daughter was doing. She galloped over to where she left her. “No, Flameheart!” she shouted, panicking. “Don’t jump! You’re not old enough!”

Not listening to her mother’s warnings, Flameheart spread her tiny wings and leapt off the cloud, trying to fly.

As she fell, the amber pegasus realized that something was wrong. Her wings weren’t creating lift, and she wasn’t slowing down. She flipped over in midair and looked up at the cloud she had been on.

Over the rushing wind in her ears, Flameheart heard the faint screams of her mother.

The filly noticed that she was passing another layer of clouds. She fell through a small cloud on her way down. It dissipated, not being dense enough to carry her weight. After falling through several more clouds, she found that she was slowing down. They were acting as cushions for her body.

She looked at the ground and saw tall, barky things with green leaves protruding from the soil. These must be trees, she thought. She had never seen one in real life before, since she lived so high in the clouds, but she heard her mother talking about them every now and then.

Flameheart crashed through the branches of the tree. The branches scratched her as she fell and they bent under her weight. She finally dropped to the ground, covered in scratches, bruises, and leaves.

“Ugh…” Flameheart groaned. She hurt all over. Slowly standing up, the filly looked around. She had never seen the ground before, but she knew that she was even more lost hidden in a forest of trees. How could a search team find her in a forest? She had to call for help. “Mommy…” Her voice was scratchy. Clearing her throat, she shouted, “MOMMY!” Flameheart looked to the sky. Most of it was blocked by leaves and branches, but what little she could see was darkening into night. The sky was a blood-red color, bespeckled by stars that were just coming out.

The filly didn’t want to be lost in the dark. “MOMMY! MOMMY, CAN YOU HEAR ME? MOMMY!” She sat down and bowed her head. Tears began to flow down her face to the forest floor. “Mommy…”

She heard a twig snap behind her. Flameheart looked into the trees where the sound originated. “Mommy?” she called hopefully.

From behind the trees came three creatures made out of bark and branches in canine forms. They stalked in front of her and growled.

Flameheart’s eyes widened. Her breathing became ragged and she whispered, “You’re not my mommy…”

The wolf at the front howled. Flameheart turned and ran at top speed further into the forest. With the Timberwolves following close behind, the filly swerved between trees and leapt over stones and streams trying to lose the predators at her heels.

She crawled into a log after a while, catching her breath and hoping that the wolves would give up and go away. She curled up and waited for the sounds of growling to stop. There was a moment of silence. Had they given up? Slowly turning around, the pegasus looked out the other entrance to the log to see a single glowing eye. She screamed as a paw burst into the log, clawing at her and almost grabbing her leg. She sped out the other end, the wolves following her with renewed energy.

Her heart raced. Her lungs took in and expelled air faster than they ever had before. She pumped her tiny legs as fast as they could physically go. Adrenaline flowed through her blood as she galloped through the forest. She could hear the panting of the wolves grow fainter and fainter with every stride. She looked back at the wolves chasing her. I’m going to make it! she thought.

Suddenly, Flameheart tripped over a rock jutting from the ground. She spun head over hooves and crashed into the side of a cliff.

The amber pegasus quickly stood up, gasping as jarring pain shot up from her left front leg. When she tried to put pressure on it, she collapsed. Oh no! she thought. What do I do now?

After trying and failing to limp away several times, the pegasus looked up to see the wolves. Backing up best she could with her injury, she tried to find an escape route. There was a wolf in front of her, to her left, and to her right. She looked over her shoulder. Her heart sank as she saw the wall of the cliff blocking any other way to escape. She was trapped!

Horror crept over her features as she realized her hopeless situation. She crouched down, her hooves covering her head, as she awaited her demise. Flameheart regretted not listening to her mother, and was furious with herself for doing something so stupid.

Actually, when she thought about it, she was also angry at Emerald for coaxing her to be so bold. She was angry at the Wonderbolts for filling her mind with false pride. She was furious, she realized, at everything. At the rescue teams for not finding her earlier. At her mother for not watching her closely enough. At the wolves for hunting her. At the rock for tripping her. At the cliff for trapping her. Even at her predicament, as if it was something she could be angry at. No matter how idiotic, selfish, or unkind, she was angry. She didn’t know why she was so furious.

Nevertheless, this rage fueled her. A burning sensation filled her gut, moving through her blood and going straight to her brain. Unbeknownst to the pegasus, her eyes turned blood red. Her teeth sharpened, her flame like mane and tail ignited, flowing from hair to outright fire. Her legs elongated, and her wings expanded. She had changed from a defenseless foal to a dangerous mare in only seconds.

The wolves backed away, whimpering. This sudden change was unexpected and frightening.

With a scream of fury, Flameheart charged at the front wolf. She leaped onto the terrified creature and started to stomp on its back, creating splinters in the wooden pelt.

The flame that made up her mane and tail had found their way to the Timberwolf’s body. The wolf yelped and howled, the fire devouring its body. It writhed on the ground, whimpering and twitching, and soon lay still, charred and lifeless.

The other wolves stared at their dead companion and looked on with fear in their eyes at this monster before them. Flameheart roared at them, and they turned tail, fleeing into the forest.

The filly roared again, this time in victory, at the defeated predator before her. Calm washed over her at the fact the threat had gone, and the burning sensation that had caused this change began to cool. The fire of her mane and tail extinguished, leaving behind burnt hair, as her teeth dulled. Her legs shortened and her wings shrank back to normal size. She blinked, her eyes reverting back to blue.

She looked before her. Oh no… What have I done? She had killed a living creature. Granted, it was made of wood and tried to eat her, but living all the same!

Anguish and exhaustion overtook her body. She collapsed, not awake to see a group of rescue pegasi come down and return her to the clouds.

************

Flameheart awoke to the sound of rhythmic beeping. She blinked open her eyes and saw a mare looking down at her with worried eyes.

“Mommy…” the amber pegasus croaked. “Where am I?”

Flameheart’s mother began to tear up. “You’re in the hospital.”

A unicorn wearing a white coat explained further, speaking briskly. “The rescue team found you in the Everfree forest, unconscious and covered in scratches and burns. They reported that you were found near the body of a dead Timberwolf, which was also burned.” He picked up a clipboard and began magically scrawling something on a sheet of paper. “We suspect that you were being chased by the wolf when it was struck by a rogue lightning cloud.” He looked the filly in the eyes. “You are very lucky to be alive.”

Flameheart groaned. She was covered in bandages, and her left front hoof was in a cast. “W-wha…?” she stuttered, referring to the cast.

“Your leg was broken,” the doctor replied. “It will heal in a few weeks. Until then, you should stay off of it.”

“It’s a good thing that lightning cloud struck when it did,” Flameheart’s mother discerned. “That Timberwolf could’ve killed you!”

The amber filly took in these words. No, it couldn’t, she realized. Because I killed it.

Flameheart broke down and sobbed as the memories of that night’s events came back to her. She was falling. She was lost. She was running for her life. She was hiding. She was broken. She was angry. She was a monster…

The doctor and her mother took these tears as signs of fear and exhaustion. “Come,” the doctor directed the filly’s mother. “Let’s leave her to rest. She’s had a long night.”

They then exited the room, leaving the amber pegasus to her pain and guilt.

Lightning-Struck Dreams

Daydream, Pinkie, and Derpy were in the library, watching Twilight pace, ramble to herself, and occasionally flip through a book only to discard it on the floor.

“This isn’t right. This isn’t logical. It should’ve worked. Why didn’t it work? This doesn’t make sense.” The lavender unicorn had been doing this for about an hour, ever since she realized that Daydream remembered everything after Derpy had accidentally struck her with lightning.

Daydream, having had enough, decided to interrupt. “Why are you making such a big deal out of this?”

Twilight turned to her. “Because it IS a big deal! The memory retrieval spell is famous all over Equestria for being fail-proof. It always brings back memories, and if it can’t then nothing can. Something as simple as lightning shouldn’t have been able to restore your memory!”

“Why not? The natural voltage of the shock in the lightning contains more energy than the artificial voltage of the shock in the spell. Wouldn’t it work better?” Daydream inquired.

Twilight glared at her. “If that were the case, then ponies would get electrocuted more often than the spell would be performed.” She turned to another book. “And it still doesn’t explain why the lightning not only brought back your memory, but somehow supplied you with knowledge that you did not have when you first came in this morning.” Twilight shot a sideways glance towards the unicorn. “Unless you already knew about the difference in voltage between magic and lightning.”

Daydream was genuinely surprised. “Well… no. I don’t think so.”

“Well all right then.”

They all sat in silence for a few more minutes.

“So…” Pinkie asked tentatively, “what information did you get so far?”

Still flipping through a book, Twilight answered, “I found that, in rare cases where a unicorn does not want to remember something, they may cast a spell on their memory to prevent the memory retrieval spell from working.” She tossed the textbook aside and pulled another in front of her. “However, lightning still shouldn’t have broken through such a spell.”

“So, you’re going in circles with this research?” Daydream asked drily.

Twilight sighed. “Pretty much.”

“Well, let me know when you make a groundbreaking discovery.” The lilac unicorn stood up and stretched her legs. “I’m going home.” With that she walked out the door.

The sun was going down, turning the sky beautiful shades of scarlet, orange, and gold. One bright star shined in the sky, reminding Daydream of the one in the middle of her cutie mark. She started for her house across town. After everything that had happened that day, the lilac unicorn was exhausted.

She saw ponies she knew from merely passing them on the street. Ever since she was struck by lightning, she had discovered a memory that held on to every last detail of her life. She remembered what she ate for lunch on her first day of school, the time of day it was when she read the twentieth chapter of her eighth chapter book for the third time, even the number of tiles on the floor of the kitchen at Sugarcube Corner, in which she had been only once in her life.

She remembered everything.

Well, she thought, almost everything.

That familiar cloud of obscurity still covered the part of her mind that hid exactly how and why she got her cutie mark, along with everything before the fact.

Oh, well, she thought as she climbed into her bed. I’ll figure out how to remember it eventually. For now, I need some sleep…

************
Surround it by an impenetrable fortress of magic...

Absolute protection...

A memory safe for her to bring back...

Too easily harnessed...

Darkness...

Key element...

Something rare, yet more powerful than magic...

Lightning...

Conditions would be complicated...

Could be accomplished...

Simple as a dream...

************
Daydream woke up with a start. For years, she had had the exact same dream, night after night. Never ending, reoccurring, and obscure, the only thing she knew about them was that they were identical. It was almost soothing. She could depend on the repetitive drone of the same dream every night.

But she’d had a different dream that night.

************

The lilac unicorn raced through town. The fact that it was morning barely registered with her. Wind buffeted her mane. Tears streamed across her narrowed eyes. Her hooves pounded over the pebbled dirt road. Ponies launched themselves away from the lilac rocket, yelling at her to “Trot, don’t gallop!” She didn’t listen.

I have to get to Twilight! She thought. She’ll know why I had a different dream! Daydream didn’t remember what she dreamt, she only knew that it was a different dream than usual. It alarmed her out of her wits.

Daydream burst through the door to the library, her eyes wide. “TWILIGHT!”

She was met by a small, purple and green dragon carrying a tower of books. Upon her sudden arrival, Spike yelped, jumped a couple of feet in the air, and dropped his load of textbooks, disappearing in an avalanche of pages, ink, and hard, wooden covers.

“Ugh,” he groaned for what must have been the hundredth time “why does Twilight need so many books?”

Daydream paid almost no attention to this small disaster. She demanded, “Where’s Twilight Sparkle? I need to talk to her!”
“I’m fine, thanks for asking,” Spike grumbled sarcastically. “Twilight’s in her study.” As Daydream bounded up the stairs, he warned, “I wouldn’t disturb her, if I were you. She’s been obsessing about something since yesterday and she gets all cranky when she doesn’t get enough sleep.”

Paying no heed to Spike, the lilac unicorn burst into the study. “Twilight! I need your help!”

Papers, charts, and books were strewn across the room. Several quills were littered on the floor, having been used up. The floor was hidden by a layer of scrolls, which were crumpled and torn as if they had been stepped on over and over. A desk sat in a corner of the study. Twilight sat in a hard wooden chair at this desk, hunched over as if concentrating very, very hard.

The lavender unicorn whipped around to face the newcomer, exhaustion and annoyance covering her face in a scowl. “What do you want?” she snapped.

Daydream flinched. Hesitantly, she said, “Something really weird happened last night.”

Sighing, Twilight sat down on the floor, motioning for Daydream to do the same. She took a deep breath (and a sip of coffee) and calmly asked, “Okay, what happened?”

The lilac unicorn gasped in a long breath and began. “Ever since I can remember, I had the same dream every single night. I could never remember what I dreamt about whenever I woke up, and the only thing I ever knew was that I had the exact same dream. But last night,” she paused. “I had a different dream.”

Twilight stared at her. “That… that’s it? You had a different dream than usual? Do you remember what it was about?”

“No. But I know it was different.”

Twilight dropped her head and groaned. She stood up and turned back to her research. “Well, I’m sorry, but I’m far too busy to deal with something as irrelevant as an unusual dream that you can’t even remember. Come back later if you get more information.”

Daydream looked over the lavender unicorn’s shoulder. “What are you working on?”

Twilight rolled her eyes. “I’m still trying to figure out why lightning worked better than my memory retrieval spell to retrieve your memory.”

The word ‘lightning’ sparked something in the back of Daydream’s mind, but she shook it away.

“Well, maybe the fact that I had a different dream last night is somehow connected to that,” she tried.

“You think so?”

Daydream had absolutely no idea if her dream was somehow changed by the lightning strike, but it disturbed her far too much to let Twilight dismiss it so quickly. “Sure.”

Twilight abandoned her desk and proceeded down the stairs. “Then let’s get started.”

The lilac unicorn was surprised by this sudden change of mood, and Twilight was already pulling out books when she started after her.

“Now,” the lavender unicorn began, “we need to start by researching dreams. Specifically, how to recall them. After that, we can look into interpreting dreams, connections they have to memory, and the effect that personal experiences have on them.”

Twilight had been piling large textbooks onto Daydream’s back, and the somewhat overwhelmed unicorn collapsed under the weight of the large textbooks. “You do a lot of research, don’t you?” she puffed.

“Yes I do.” Twilight trotted down a flight of stairs to her basement, Daydream lugging her heavy cargo after her.

At the bottom of the stairs, the lilac unicorn dropped the books on the floor and looked around her. The basement was filled with varying gadgets, tubes, and vents. Roots from the large hollowed out tree that made up the library hung down from the ceiling and wrapped around some of the taller instruments. One machine was placed around the middle, and was topped by a cylinder that rhythmically moved a pen in jagged lines across paper that flowed from a slot into a box. Spiraling wires connected it to a wide helmet covered in all sorts of bulbs and a contraption with metal restraints attached to it.

“What’s that?” Daydream asked, referring to the machine.

“It’s a machine I can use to get scientific information on your bodily functions. In this case, your dreams.” Twilight started preparing it for use.

“WHAT?” Daydream slowly backed up the stairs. “Is this really necessary?”

Twilight scowled at her. “Yes, it’s necessary! We can’t figure out what your dreams have to do with the lightning strike until we figure out what your dreams are about. Now stop messing around so we can get started.”

“Can we do this in the morning? Like, when you’ve gotten more sleep?”

“Quit stalling!”

“Okay, okay.” Daydream hesitantly stepped towards the contraption. “So, what do I do?”

Twilight trotted over to where the helmet and restraints were. “First, you put your hooves on these,” she pointed to the restraints. “This will measure your heart rate and blood pressure. Then,” she continued, now referring to the helmet, “you’ll put this on. It will measure your brain activity, eye movements, and even give some idea as to what you’re thinking or dreaming about.” The lavender unicorn stepped next to the machine with the paper. “That information will be recorded in seismic readings on this scroll.”

Twilight turned back to Daydream and noticed that the lilac unicorn was taking shallow breaths. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” Daydream replied in a tiny voice.

“It’s okay to be nervous,” Twilight consoled. “This could probably be a bit stressful for some ponies. True, I haven’t really had this problem before,” she reflected, “but my only other test subject was Pinkie Pie and, well, she’s Pinkie.”

“So, you only tried this once before?”

“I guess.”

“I’m out of here.”

“Daydream!”

Daydream was pumping her legs, but she wasn’t going anywhere. Looking down, she discovered that she was hovering a foot off of the ground, her hooves not even touching any surface. She stopped trying to run and looked behind her. Twilight was using her magic to hold her in place, sporting a severely annoyed expression.

“Look, I’m tired. I just want to go to bed, but I can’t sleep until I figure this out. So will you cut it out and help me so we can GET THIS OVER WITH?”

Daydream’s jaw dropped. She had only spent any real time with Twilight when she was in the library reading a novel on one of the beanbag chairs the librarian kept around. But she had never seen her get this angry. “Okay,” she complied meekly.
Twilight smiled and let go of the levitation spell she had put on the lilac unicorn, effectively dropping her to the floor. “Good. Go put the helmet on.”

Daydream reluctantly went over to the machine, strapped on the metal helmet, and laid her hooves on the restraints. As the restraints snapped over her hooves, she looked to Twilight. “I won’t get electrocuted again, will I?”

The lavender unicorn chuckled softly. “Of course not. My machinery works by the energy of magic, not lightning.” She glanced at Daydream. “What would give you that idea?”

Furrowing her brow, Daydream replied, “I don’t know…”

“Hmm…” Twilight pondered over this as she turned on her machine.

The paper in the machine began to flow into the box, covered in fresh jagged lines from the readings. A pump on the side blew out steam every few seconds, staying in rhythm with the chugging of the gears. The helmet on the lilac unicorn’s head began to flash, the bulbs on top blinking with light.

Daydream was surprised. She was expecting something more sinister than the vibrations of the restraints, which gave her a pleasant ticklish feeling. The helmet gave a faint hum as it searched her brain waves for strange activity. Though she had woken up only a short while ago, she began to feel sleepy.

“Okay,” Twilight instructed. “Now I want you to go to sleep. We can only record your dream sequence when you go into REM.”

Daydream was about to ask what REM was, but the vibrations and humming she was experiencing was soothing her so much, she could only nod and drift off.

************

Protect what she knew...

Matter of survival...

It was perfect...

Generations of experience...

Cocoon of energy...

Reached her mind...

Spell was completed...

Last memory faded away...

************

Daydream gasped, sitting up abruptly. Even though she had no recollection of what she dreamt, she knew it was different dream, even than the one she had that very morning.

The lilac unicorn looked to Twilight, who was asleep by the machine. “Twilight!” she shouted.

The lavender unicorn snapped her eyes open and sat up, jolted to consciousness. “Wha-? What happened? Huh?” She looked around, reassuring herself of where she was. “Oh. You’re awake,” she said to Daydream. “Do you remember your dream?”

Shaking her head, she replied, “No. But it was definitely different than this morning.”

Twilight yawned. “Okay. Let’s see what the machine picked up on it.” She stood up, stretched, and started shifting through the paper.

“Why were you asleep?” Daydream asked. “You said you wouldn’t be able to sleep until you figured all this out.”

Twilight blushed. “Well, you were dreaming for so long. And I was pretty tired…”

The lilac unicorn shrugged. It didn’t matter.

Daydream found that she could easily slip her hooves out of the restraints, and began unstrapping the helmet on her head.

As she laid the helmet on the floor, Twilight called her.

“Daydream, you’re going to want to see this.”

Feeding the Flame

They were watching her.

Eyes, wide and narrowed alike, watched her every step as she walked along the cloud road. They followed her, glistening with curiosity and brimming with the thrill of mystery.

Below those eyes were the mouths of many pegasi. They were whispering, quiet enough to know that the conversation was meant to be private but loud enough so that she knew what they were about. Some were tittering with excitement while others mumbled with suspicion.

“Isn’t she that pony who was struck by lightning?”

“Yeah! Yeah! She has the same flame-mane and everything!”

“I can’t believe she survived that shock!”

“It should’ve killed her.”

“That Timberwolf should’ve killed her. Those things are insane!”

“Don’t you think it’s odd that she just happened to turn up next to a dead wolf?”

“I bet she killed it.”

“I’ll bet she was practicing neighcromancy.”

“Don’t you think it’s strange that she was found in the Everfree?”

“What was she doing in that forest?”

“I heard she jumped off a cloud just to show off.”

“What kind of filly would jump off a cloud before she learned to fly? She could’ve killed herself!”

“What a freak.”

Flameheart cringed as she heard the word that tainted her childhood. She was never known for her accomplishments, no matter how hard she tried. She was never ‘the fastest mare in her class’. Never the ‘pony with straight A’s’. Never the ‘youngest pegasus to try out for the Wonderbolts’.

Since the incident in the Everfree Forest some ten years before, she was only known as ‘freak’.

She halted suddenly and looked back at the gossiping pegasi behind her. They stopped dead cold in their chattering as they caught her eye, not brave enough to talk behind her back to her face.

Flameheart snorted and turned back to walking, hearing the conversations start up again as she turned away. It sickened her that they didn’t have the guts to gossip right in front of her.

What sickened her more is that some suspicions were true. She did kill that wolf. She did jump off the cloud. She could have killed herself. But nopony else knew what happened for sure, and even her own mother knew only half the story.

She pricked her ears. One of the many mentions of her name was growing louder.

“Flameheart! Hey, Flameheart!”

Flameheart turned and beamed as she saw a mossy mare with a dark green flowing mane. “Emerald! What’s up?” Seeing her oldest and best friend always brightened her mood.

“Not much. Just getting ready for school,” she replied nonchalantly. Then, excitedly, she gushed, “Can you believe it? Our first day of sky school! No more junior sky for us!” She giggled girlishly.

Flameheart rolled her eyes. “Come on, Emerald. It’s just sky school. How different can it be?” Her dismissive tone shrouded the nervousness she felt.

The mossy pegasus widened her eyes. “I heard that the teachers are a lot tougher. And…” She lowered her voice ominously for dramatic effect. “They give out more homework!”

Flameheart gasped, feigning shock, before both mares fell into a fit of laughter. Wiping tears from her eyes, Flameheart puffed, “But… Seriously though… It can’t be that bad.”

“Heh, heh. Yeah. I guess you’re right,” Emerald admitted. “But I’m still nervous.”

The amber pegasus shrugged. “I guess I am, too. But,” she added, her tone brightening, “at least we’ll be in it together.”

************

“Emerald: Class 101. Flameheart: Class 102.”

Flameheart’s heart and jaw dropped when she heard which classes she and her best friend were in. The beige mare at the pedestal in front of the entire Freshmare class of Cloudsdale Sky School was reading down a scroll stating the names of pegasi and the classes they were assigned to. The two classes, 101 and 102, split the number of pegasi down the middle, creating a more efficient student to teacher ratio.

However, for Flameheart it meant that she was now separated from her only friend.

“Emerald! What are we going to do?” The amber pegasus exclaimed when the ceremony was over. “I don’t want to go through sky school without my best friend!”

The green pegasus contorted her voice to be soothing, though her heart leapt into her throat. “Don’t worry, Flameheart. We can still eat lunch together. It’s not the end of the world.” She grinned. “Besides, we might even make some new friends.”

Flameheart sighed and imitated her friend’s own smile. “Yeah, okay. But you’ll still be my best friend.”

A shrill bell sounded, announcing that the students should be in class soon. Flameheart and Emerald shared a hug and went in the opposite directions to their classes.

Arriving at her first class, Flameheart looked around. She checked items off the imaginary list in her mind as to what she expected. Chairs: check. Desks: check. Blackboard: check. Other students: check. Teacher: check. Inspirational posters that tend to get annoying after awhile of staring at them in boredom: check. Everything seemed normal.

Well, almost everything.

“Good morning, students. I hope you’re excited for your first day of sky school,” chirped the teacher.

“Yes, Mrs. Goldbeak,” the class droned in response.

Flameheart was stunned. Her teacher was a griffon.

A student coming in behind her asked, “Why is our teacher a griffon?”

“How else is she supposed to teach us Griffish?” Another student nearby replied, scoffing as if it were obvious.

Flameheart decided to join the conversation. “What’s Griffish?”

Mrs. Goldbeak seemed to have been listening to the murmurs that circulated around the room. “Take your seats and I’ll answer all your questions.”

The young pegasi flew to desks around the room. Flameheart, not knowing any of them, decided to take a seat around the middle of the classroom. Not too near to the windows, where she would get distracted, or to the side, where she would have to crane her head to see. It wasn’t too far in the back, where it would be hard to hear the lesson, but not too close to the front, where she might be labeled ‘teacher’s pet’. It was the perfect spot.

She looked to the neighboring desks. To her left, a blonde, grey pegasus mare with a golden, cross-eyed expression. To her right, a silver mare with a jet black mane and neon green eyes. They seemed friendly enough.

Looking in front of her, she saw that her teacher had begun to speak.

“For many of you, this is your first year of sky school. In junior sky, you had the basic classes, such as Equish Literature, Mathematics, and Flight, so it may be new for you to have language classes.”

A turquoise mare in the back of the class raised her hoof.

“Yes, Miss Sherbert?”

“What languages will we be learning?” she asked, blowing a piece of bright orange mane out of her eyes.

“Good question! In later years, you will be learning all sorts of languages, but this year we will be focusing on Griffish, the language of the Griffons.”

The cross-eyed mare to Flameheart’s left raised her hoof.

“Yes, Miss Do?”

“I thought griffons spoke the same language we do,” she said, mildly confused, and many other students in the class nodded assent.

Mrs. Goldbeak shook her head. “Griffons learn Equish early on in life because of the common interactions between Griffons and Equines. But in their own culture they often speak their native language, which is why you all are learning how to speak it in the case that you may need to use such knowledge someday.”

The mare sitting to Flameheart’s right raised her hoof.

“Yes, Deinopis?”

“So why are you teaching us, instead of another pony?”

The rest of the class gasped. The words sounded as if they could offend the griffon. They looked anxiously to the teacher.

Mrs. Goldbeak, however, was not offended and in fact smiled mischievously at Deinopis. “Who better to teach Griffish than a griffon?” she asked rhetorically.

There were no more questions after that, so Mrs. Goldbeak began the lesson.

************

After Griffish class, in which they learned several vocabulary words in the language, the class trotted off to Flight class. Since the pegasi already learned how to fly early on in school, these classes were more about health and fitness. They were led by a well-muscled stallion pegasus.

“Okay, students,” he began in a gruff voice. “My name is Ship Shape. Mr. Shape to you. This year in Flight you will learn the appropriate heart rate for exercising, how to fly a mile in under ten minutes, how to maintain optimum care for your wing feathers, and how to play several air sports with good sportsmareship.” He emphasized the last two words to show that he was serious about playing by the rules.

“Today we will ease you into the program with a game you all should know.” He flew over to a nearby cloud and brought over two sacks of vests, red and blue, and two flags, a red one and a blue one. “Capture the Flag!”

Mr. Shape split the class into two teams of ten, putting the mares and the stallions on separate teams. “Later on in the year,” the teacher explained, “you will be sharing teams with the opposite gender. But, since it’s the first day of school, I’ve decided to put you into good old fashion ‘colts vs. fillies’ teams.”

He gave the mares red vests and a red flag and the stallions blue vests and a blue flag. “To brush up on the rules, both teams must attempt to capture the other team’s flag and guard their own. If you get tagged by the opposing team in their territory, you must go to the ‘jail’ on that team’s side. If another one of your teammates who have not been tagged tag you while in jail, everypony in the jail get released and cannot be tagged again until they cross back over the border. If you get tagged holding the flag, the flag is put back in place and you go to jail. A pony released from jail cannot capture the other team’s flag. No flying above the tops of the clouds. Any pony caught flying above the clouds will be disqualified. The game is won when the other team’s flag crosses the border onto your territory.” He clapped his hooves together. “Now that you’re caught up, let’s go down to the game area.”

The teacher flew off towards a mass of clouds a bit off and the class followed close behind.

Flameheart gasped as she saw the area. The cloud came together to form the shape of a large forest, complete with foliage, trees, and clearings. The amber pegasus shuddered as horrific memories arose but put on a brave face and entered the cloud forest with her teammates.

Mr. Shape drew a clear line across the middle of the forest, indicating the border between the two teams, and turned to his class. “All right. The game will start when I blow my whistle, so I’ll give you five minutes to hide your flags. GO!”

And with that both teams flew off into the forest, eager to begin the game.

The mares on the red team grouped together in the center of their territory. “Okay, girls!” A white pegasus with a bright blue mane ordered the team, naturally acting the leader. “Our flag is red. This gives us a disadvantage in camouflage because, while the stallions can pass theirs off as a piece of blue sky, ours will be as vibrant as a flare. Therefore, we need to defend it with a pegasus who can catch intruders the best. She turned to the grey mare who sat next to Flameheart in Griffish class. “Ditsy, you will defend the area with the flag.” Ditsy nodded and saluted the mare.

Deinopis looked puzzled. “Why her?”

“Because,” the blue mare explained, “She can see two places at once with her eyes and can see an enemy coming faster than any of us.”

“How do you know that?”

The blue mare grinned. “I’m a friend of her brother.” She turned to the turquoise mare with an orange mane. “Orange, you defend the jail.”

Orange Sherbert shrugged and replied, “Okay.”

The blue pegasus turned to the other team members. “Flameheart, Deinopis, Dusk, Starry, Sunny, and Sky. You will stay behind in the forest until needed.”

“What will you be doing, Colored Canvas?” Starry Night asked.

“Cloud Kicker and I will be the first ones to sneak into enemy territory. If we get captured, two of you will go next. For this to work, you will have to be in teams of two at varying areas in the forest.” She turned to Flameheart and Deinopis. “You two will defend the Eastern part of our territory.” She turned to Dusk and Starry. “You two will defend the Western part.” She turned to Sunny and Sky. “You guys will defend the North most part of our territory and alert the others if we are captured.” She turned to Ditsy. “Hide the flag in the Southwest corner of the forest.” She turned to Orange. “Defend the jail at the Southeast corner. We don’t want enemies knowing where exactly the flag is, if we can help it.” She turned to Cloud Kicker. Meet me at the border so that we’ll be ready when the whistle blows.”

She placed her hoof in the center of the group of mares. “Go team!” The others put theirs hooves in, and shouted together, “GO TEAM!”

The team members quickly ran off to their assigned spots.

Upon arriving in the Eastern part of their territory, Flameheart and Deinopis heard the whistle blow and knew that the game had begun.

Deinopis looked over at Flameheart. “So, you’re the mare who jumped off a cloud before she could fly, right?”

The amber pegasus flinched. Deinopis obviously was often unintentionally blunt. “I-I don’t think we’re supposed to talk while we guard the territory.”

“Nonsense!” cried Deinopis. “Nopony’s here! And if anypony comes we’ll catch them easy anyway. I mean, you’re the fastest mare in Cloudsdale.”

Flameheart blushed. “Well, not necessarily in all of Cloudsdale…”

The silver mare dismissed it. “Whatever. You’re really fast. And this,” she motioned to her cutie mark, which featured a large, metallic spider dangling from a strand of spider silk and holding net-like web between its front four legs. “Means that I’m really good at trapping things.”

Flameheart’s eyes widened with wonder. “Cool. How’d you get it?”

“My dad used to take me hunting when I was a filly. I was really good with nets and tranquilizer, and I loved inventing new traps.”

Flameheart was confused. “Hunting…?”

The silver mare shrugged. “How else are ponies supposed to keep wild animals at bay when they stray from the woods? But don’t worry,” she added, noting the amber mare’s expression, “We only catch and tranquilize animals and release them back in the forest.” She changed the topic. “Speaking of which, why were you in the Everfree forest? Were you practicing neighcromancy, like they say? Why did that Timberwolf die? Did you kill it? Did you burn it with dark magic? Did it go wrong? Is that why you got burned too?” Deinopis kept talking, not realizing how uncomfortable this was making the amber pegasus or the fact that her ears were laid back against her head.

“Please stop. None of the rumors are true. I don’t want to talk about it.” Flameheart’s voice shook. She was suddenly being confronted by all of the things that were said about her and the questions wouldn’t stop. She was scared and… angry.

“Oh, come on. Some of the rumors have to be true. I mean, it wouldn’t be said if it wasn’t true. Come on. You can tell me. I won’t tell anypony. Did you hunt it down? Did you want to practice non-unicorn magic on it? I only ever heard about non-unicorn magic! It’s supposed to be dangerous! You must be really brave! Why did you choose a fire spell? Is it because it matched your mane?” She seemed to know more about black magic than Flameheart did.

Flameheart started to back away. She didn’t want to talk about that night. While she didn’t use black magic, she did burn the wolf. She couldn’t truthfully deny that she didn’t. Deinopis would want to know how she burnt the wolf, and even she didn’t really know. She was getting angrier. Who was Deinopis to accuse her of such ridiculous claims? Who was she to continue on the subject when Flameheart had repeatedly asked her to stop? Who was anypony to give her suspicious glances and gossip behind her back?

Fury bubbled up in her gut, moving through her veins straight to her brain. She had felt this sensation before. She was worried for a moment, but the worry dissipated as rage clouded her thoughts.

“Uh, Flameheart, are you okay?” Deinopis began to worry. Flameheart was beginning to hyperventilate. The silver mare gasped as the pegasus in front of her opened her eyes and revealed them to be blood red.

The amber mare’s legs extended, her wings growing. Her teeth turned sharp as fangs right before Deinopis’ eyes. Flameheart’s mane and tail ignited, illuminating the area of clouds.

Deinopis’ eyes widened, their pupils shrinking to pinpricks. “M-magic…?” she murmured, her voice near silent with fright.

No longer was this her classmate and teammate. This was a monster. A fiery monster of unknown creation. The only explanation Deinopis could find was magic.

Flameheart roared at her. The roar was otherworldly, demonic. It played right down to her deepest instinctual fears. She had become the prey, and the predator was right in front of her. A streak of Deinopis’ mane and tail began to brighten. From jet black, to dark grey, to silver, to a lighter grey, to almost white.

She roared again and slammed into the silver mare. Deinopis tried to fend off this monster with her wings and hooves, but they were tiny compared to the strong, agile appendages Flameheart now had. She was kicked and buffeted by the wind created by the giant wings, and was laying bruised, bloody, and broken on the cloud forest’s floor.

Flameheart looked down at her peer, now moaning with pain, and suddenly she calmed down, shrinking and extinguishing as more and more of her mind came back from control of her rage. Guilt overtook her. Not again! She thought.

“Deinopis! Are you okay?” she asked.

The broken pegasus looked up into Flameheart’s worried eyes. “Get… AWAY… from me… you… FREAK!”

Flameheart backed away, shocked at her words. Suddenly she heard the shrill call of a whistle, and many hoofsteps coming nearer.

Mr. Shape galloped up and gaped at the scene in front of him, a look of shock passing over his face. A broken and bloody student lying nearby another burned student. “What happened?”

Doctor's Orders

“What? What is it?”

Daydream looked at Twilight from the other side of the machine. She looked expectantly to the paper that spilled into the box, then to Twilight, and back to the paper. “What does it say?” she asked.

The lavender unicorn pointed to the jagged line on the paper. “This line shows your heart rate.” She pointed to a series of number codes below the line. “These numbers show activity levels in the senses you use in your dream.” Finally, she pointed to several bar codes below the numbers. “When I use my magic to decipher these codes, they will tell us specific activities, emotions, and perceptions you had in your dream.” The unicorn pulled the paper out of the box until she reached the end of the flowing sheet. “We start here.”

Twilight squinted as she brought the paper up to her face. “Okay,” she began. “At the beginning of your dream, your heart rate spiked a bit, as if you were surprised… All of your senses are equally very active…” Her horn glowed purple as she decoded the barcode. She read what it said aloud. “Let’s see… Amazement, wonder, excitement, joy…”

“So I felt happy at the beginning of my dream?” Daydream interrupted.

“I suppose so.” Twilight looked to the next part of Daydream’s dream. “A few minutes into your dream, your heart rate calms a bit, your senses are dulled, and you were feeling… Worried, thoughtful, scared.” She turned to the next portion of information. “Your heart rate spikes again, your senses are still somewhat dull, and you have made a discovery, feel relieved, and are thoughtful.” Twilight furrowed her brow. “You’re still thinking? Huh…”

Daydream was perplexed. “How can I have so many different feelings while thinking?”

Twilight grinned mischievously. “Don’t underestimate the power of the thought process.”

Daydream’s eyes widened.

The lavender unicorn continued. “Your heart rate’s all over the place in your dream,” she commented. “It’s through the roof here, and your senses are wild, too! Specifically, sight, sound, and touch…” She paused as she read the decoded bar code. “You are expectant, excited, thrilled, joyous, anticipant...”

“What is this, a dictionary?” Daydream muttered. “Aside from the synonyms for happy,” she interrupted, “what else does it say?”

Twilight glared at her. “Could you be patient? You were the one who wanted to know what you dream about in the first place!” She took a deep breath and looked back at the code. “Casting a spell, lifting off the ground, falling back down, thought process interrupted, exhaustion…” She stared at the paper. “That’s it. That’s all there is.”

Taking a moment to let this sink in, Daydream finally said, “…So, I had a dream about the morning I lost my memory?”

Twilight shuffled through the information. “I-I don’t really know. I guess so… given the information…”

“But why would I have a dream about that?” Daydream thought for a moment. “I mean, it explains the change in my dreams after that day. But why did it change? And what did I dream about before?”

“This calls for more research!” Twilight put on a determined face and cantered over to the texts Daydream dropped earlier. She pawed through the books until she found a few about dream psychology. The unicorn plopped down and started reading, devouring one sentence of shared knowledge after another.

Daydream stayed by the machine. She was sick of doing so much research and felt that they had most likely reached a dead end. Lying down and resting her head on her crossed hooves, she reflected on the events that had occurred as of late. Perhaps doing so would make the situation clearer.

Funny how it all started on what seemed to be a normal day. Wake up, brush hair, try to remember her dream; it was so routine. She laughed inwardly, remembering how desperate she was to know about her dream, how frustrated she was that it never changed. And now I would kill for another average day.

She shook her head. It was simpler when she was just a forgetful, day-dreaming, confused pony. She had a clear goal. Something to stick to. Something that she would know when it was achieved. Now…

What goal did she have now? She found out what she dreamed, but she was left with more questions than answers. It was all a jumble in her head. She had memories she had forgotten, questions that were currently left unanswered, she even had information that kept popping up and no idea where it came from.

Thinking back, she remembered first bumping into Derpy. The mare seemed so clueless, so innocent. How could she possibly have known that the cross-eyed grey pegasus would have had such an impact on her life?

It was just an accident, the thundercloud and the lightning bolt. It could have happened to anypony just walking in the street. Hay, it could have simply hit the dirt road below. Derpy didn’t mean to cause all of this…

Yet, it did happen. The electric shock, the flow of memories, the changed dreams, all happened. And there was nothing she could do.

Would things have been different if she hadn’t bumped into Derpy? Would she have not gone into Sugarcube Corner? Would she have not gone home? Not seen the library book on the table? Not decided to go to the library? Would she have never explained her predicament to Twilight? Would she never have lost her memory for the second time in her life? Or the third? What if Twilight hadn’t suggested going to see Colgate? Would she even have been struck by lightning?

So many questions buzzed around in Daydream’s head. ‘What if’s crowded every corner of her mind, making her unable to think about anything else.

A headache began to form. Pounding blood pulsed through the veins in her skull, sending signals of pain to her brain. I should stop thinking about this, she warned herself. I’ll give myself a migraine at this rate. But the thoughts kept flowing. She tried to clear her mind, but the more thoughts she discarded, the more thoughts entered.

She closed her eyes. The blood pounding against her brain was becoming too much. Daydream curled into the fetal position, the only difference in style being her hooves pressed against her temples as if she were trying to squeeze the unrelenting wave of thoughts out of her head, as she began to hyperventilate.

Among her panic, she barely noticed a lavender unicorn prod her and attempt to calm her.

“Daydream! Daydream, are you okay?” Twilight tried desperately to get her attention. “Daydream, what’s wrong? Did something happen?” Her voice began to rise and became increasingly panicky. “Daydream! What happened? I need to know! Did something go wrong with the machine? Tell me! I can’t help you if you don’t tell me!”

Daydream couldn’t hear the unicorn over the pounding in her ears. The pain had increased tenfold and was still on the rise. Thoughts came and went, flickering past faster than rain. With everything going on, she couldn’t handle it.

Daydream vaguely noticed her own scream of pain before blacking out.

************

Oddly enough, the first thing to come into consciousness when Daydream awoke was her natural instincts.

I’m awake. I’m scared. Is there danger? Where are the enemies? Fight or flight? Is there an escape route? Buck first, think later.

When her other senses awoke, such as sense of sight, sense of hearing, sense of smell, and, of course, common sense, she found that she was in a small room with a few pieces of machinery, a stack of journals and quills, a lavender unicorn, and an unconscious blue mare at the foot of the bed she was on.

************

“Set her down gently. There we go.” A blue unicorn with an hourglass cutie mark instructed Twilight on where to put the mare she had previously held on her back onto the spare cot he had set up in his room. “Keep her head elevated. We don’t want too much blood flowing to her brain.”

Twilight moved a pillow into place below the lilac mare’s head. She turned to the mare instructing her. “Thank you, Colgate. I hope it wasn’t too much of an imposition for you to set up a cot for Daydream.”

“No problem at all. I always keep a spare bed around for troubled guests.” The way he said “troubled” inferred that there was more to tell, but he kept silent on the subject.

The lavender unicorn nodded. “So, what do you do with all of this?” she asked, referring to the machinery and journals cluttering the room.

“You would be amazed how many ponies come in with the strangest conditions, not to mention the worst of the amnesia cases. I keep this around for examining patients and I record a log of each one to use for future reference.” Under her breath, she added, “In a world of magic, odd things are bound to happen.”

Twilight smiled. Talking about other things helped her to calm down after what had just recently happened to Daydream. “So ponies often come here for medical evaluation?”

“Well, only the more severe cases, but to tell the truth I’m more of a scientific mind. I sometimes get invited to judge science fair competitions, but I'm really more interested in psychology."

Twilight glanced at the mare's cutie mark. "So, what does that have to do with an hourglass? If you don't mind my asking," she added hastily.

"Oh, I'm not really sure." Colgate looked at her own flank. "If anything, I thought it would be a pocket watch, since I was interested in hypnosis at the time I got it, so I don't have any idea as to why it's an hourglass." She smiled, recalling a past memory. "Sure surprised my parents. They thought I would go into the family business, dentistry. They even named me after their favorite toothpaste!"

"That sounds like quite the story."

"Yeah. You should've seen the Cutie Mark Crusaders when I told them my cutie mark chronicle. They were so confused." She smiled. "How did your story go over with them?"

Before Twilight could answer, shuffling from the bed alerted the two. Colgate cantered over to the edge of the cot. “Ah, she’s waking up,” she announced.

The mare bucked her in the side of the head, effectively knocking her out.

************

Daydream looked at the mare laying unconscious on the edge of the bed. Where the hay did she come from? She wondered. Looking up, she saw Twilight Sparkle staring at her, mouth agape.

“What did you… Why did you… What… Huh?” Twilight struggled to comprehend the situation and tried to form questions unsuccessfully in her shock.

Daydream cocked her head. Why was Twilight acting this way? She glanced at the knocked out unicorn in front of her. Her mouth fell open as she reached a conclusion.

“Did… I do that?” she asked, pointing at the cyan pony.

Twilight’s left eye twitched. “Yes! You did! Why?”

“Well, she’s unconscious on my bed and you were looking at me weird…”

“No! Not ‘why did you ask’! ‘Why’ did you kick her?”

“Oh… I don’t know.”

“DAYDREAM!”

The argument went on. Twilight kept wondering how Daydream didn’t know why she kicked the mare and Daydream was stating that she didn’t know that she kicked her in the first place.

Eventually, the yelling and fighting between the two mares was enough to wake the unconscious unicorn.

“What…” She trailed off, realizing that the two unicorns couldn’t hear her over their own shouts. “Hay!” She stepped in between the two and ceased their arguing. “What in the bloody pony hell are you shouting for?”

Twilight was the first to answer. “She kicked you! I was trying to find out why!”

The mare shook her head. “It was a natural reaction. She woke up in a strange environment without a clue as to what was going on, so she bucked the first thing to come near her.”

As the mare spoke, Daydream remembered her instinctual “buck first think later” response from when she first woke up and started to blush in embarrassment.

“But Colgate,” Twilight argued, “This doesn’t happen that often. Ponies wake up in strange places all the time! They don’t usually buck somepony when they wake up. I should know. My friend Rainbow Dash always does outrageous stunts…” She trailed off, realizing that the unicorn wasn’t listening anymore.

“I’m sure it could happen to the best of ponies.” Colgate dismissed. “Meanwhile, going unconscious is not something to be overlooked.” She cantered over to where Daydream was sitting. “Daydream, would you mind if I did some tests on you?”

Daydream’s eyes widened. Ever since she was shocked, the unicorn had this nagging, natural fear of tests being done on her. It was the reason she was so reluctant to have her dreams evaluated by Twilight earlier. She didn’t know exactly where this fear came from, but she knew that she didn’t want to risk it again, especially with a pony she barely knew. “I… I don’t really…” She trailed off, catching Twilight’s glare.

“Daydream, you need this. You passed out in my basement after curling up into the fetal position and screaming.” Twilight turned to the blue mare. “Daydream would love to let you do a few tests on her,” she responded in forced politeness.

Colgate, on the other hoof, was somewhat taken aback. “Well, I’d rather not do them without proper consent…” She looked at the unicorn in question.

Daydream took a deep breath. “It’s okay. You can do some tests on me,” she declared, ignoring the nagging doubt in the back of her mind.

The cyan unicorn shrugged. “Then let’s get started.”

Daydream followed as Colgate headed somewhere else in the house, briefly noting the mare’s odd accent. Was she from Canterlot? Or Trottingham? She was about to ask, then decided against it. It wasn’t any of her business, after all.

They arrived in a large room filled with machinery larger and more complex than that of the room she woke up in. Daydream marveled at all of the gadgets and gizmos that littered the floor, walls, and tables. She looked up to see Colgate switching on a piece of equipment.

It was roughly the design of the machine Twilight used to examine her brain, but it was three times as big and looked more... metallic. It was cylindrical in shape and what it lacked in wires it made up for in blinking buttons and levers. The blue mare flipped a few more switches and the machine began to hum ominously. "W-what is that?" Daydream stuttered.

"An MRI," the unicorn replied casually.

"What's an MRI?"

"It stands for Magical Resonance Imaging. It detects traces of magic in one's body that may be the cause of whatever ailment they have." Colgate slid out a cot from a compartment in the side and began to set it up.

"Is it safe?" Daydream asked.

"Of course it's safe!" Colgate exclaimed. "I've used it countless times before."

Daydream frowned, doubting those words as the mare took out a wicked-looking hypodermic needle. "What's that for?

"It's just liquid contrast. I'm going to have to inject it in your foreleg to view the images from the machine."

The lilac unicorn was feeling less and less brave about this. Her anxiety from before was returning. Taking another deep breath, she asked "So, what exactly is going to happen?"

The blue unicorn looked up, seeming to finally realize how uncomfortable her patient was. "Well, you're going to lie down on your back on this cot and enter the machine head first. The machine will essentially 'take pictures' of your brain, coloring in sections of predominant magical activity. This will take a few hours, so the best thing for you to do during this is take a nap. I'll wake you up when the procedure is over and we can take a look at the data." Colgate softened her features. "You'll be fine."

Daydream sighed. She was still nervous, but she wasn't going to let that get in her way. "Alright. How should I sit again?"

Colgate showed the lilac unicorn the proper way to lay down, with her back on the cot and her hooves folded over her chest. She inserted the needle, which was surprisingly painless compared to what Daydream had expected, into the inside of her arm. After the needle was removed and a bandage placed on the spot, the lilac unicorn was slid into the machine.

The machine's humming soon transformed into acoustic pulses that pounded against her eardrums. She started violently at the noise, but calmed herself down after hearing Colgate's shouts of "Don't worry! That's supposed to happen!" Daydream sighed and closed her eyes. Soon, the steady rhythm of the noise lulled her to sleep.

************

"Daydream!" The lilac unicorn awoke to the sound of her name being called. "Daydream, the test's over. You can sit up now."

Yawning, she noticed that she was no longer in the machine. As she got off of the cot, she tried, and failed, to remember the dream she just had. She trotted over to where Colgate now stood, next to the immense machine.

Colgate levitated a sheet of translucent paper in front of her, examining it intently, before setting it down on a nearby table. “Okay, Daydream,” she began. “It seems that you have some powerful magic protecting certain regions of your mind.” She turned her gaze directly into Daydream's eyes. “Tell me, have you had any odd dreams lately? Dreams you can’t remember in the morning?”

Daydream was torn between widening her eyes and rolling them (eventually deciding to do both, making an odd impression on the blue mare). It was common and repetitive news to her that her dreams were going crazy and that she could never remember them. “Yeah,” she replied, then, under her breath, muttered “tell me something I don’t know.”

“Well, it seems this magic is mainly controlled in these dreams, keeping the spell constant and at full power as long as you continue to sleep.”

Daydream blinked. “How did you figure that out?” she asked. “I mean, no offense or anything, but Twilight Sparkle couldn’t figure it out and she’s one of the most powerful and intelligent unicorns in Equestria.”

"Why? Did Twilight perform the same test with you?" she asked, genuinely curious.

"Well, no..."

"Then why would you not think that different methods would produce different results?"

"I don't know."

Colgate rolled her eyes. "Back to the topic at hoof, because of that magical barrier I can’t figure out anything more without many more tests.” She looked expectantly at the unicorn, as if she anticipated her response.

Daydream, who was fed up with so many tests, groaned, “No… thank you.”

Colgate nodded. “Then I suppose you should be going.”

“Wait! What about my migraine?”

“Ah, yes. The reason you came in the first place.” She shuffled around for a moment. “Here,” she directed, giving Daydream a bottle of pills. “Every time you begin to think for a while, take two painkillers with some water.”

“That…that’s it?” Daydream asked, bewildered.

“Of course.” What did you expect, a magic spell? From what your friend told me, that definitely does not work."

Daydream stared at her for a few seconds, then smiled politely and took the pill bottle. “Thank you.” She gave her farewells and left the room.

Twilight met her at the door. “So, what did she say?” she prompted eagerly.

The lilac unicorn went over the events that occurred. “Oh, you know,” she responded. “Just something about pills.”

Twilight, having noticed the bottle of pills she carried, nodded and asked no more questions. They trotted silently back towards the library. As they were all the way across town, it became dark when they neared the large oak tree.

As they walked in the door and turned on the light, they were greeted by a surprise.