“So, here’s the scoop. Cloudsdale has chosen our own highland reservoir as a source of the rainwater they need for all of Equestria. And you know what that means! It means it’s up to Ponyville’s pegasi to bring that water up to Cloudsdale!”

Vi, Twilight, and Fluttershy exchanged worried glances, but all of the pegasi who had gathered in the library seemed to be genuinely excited.

“Not only that, but Spitfire, captain of the Wonderbolts, will be here to oversee the water transfer and record our top tornado windspeed,” Rainbow Dash continued. “Now last year, Fillydelphia was supplying the water. And the year before that, it was Baltimare. And the year before that, Manehattan. Now! Can you see what all of those places have in common, that makes it a lot easier for them to do the job than it will be for us?”

“A lot more pegasi live there?” Vi whispered immediately, and Twilight nodded. There was some more chatter from the crowd, until eventually, a mare raised her hoof.

“Flitter!”

“Uhm... because those places have more pegasi than we do?”

“There are more pegasi living in Fillydelphia than in Ponyville!” Rainbow Dash echoed. “That’s right! And same in Baltimare and Manehattan! Now, I have heard that some ponies on the staff in Cloudsdale think we might not have enough pegasi to make it!” She made a pause, perhaps waiting for the crowd to express their anger at this suggestion. After a few seconds, a couple of rather timid ‘boo’s could be heard. “Fillydelphia only had eight point six wingpower per participant, and Manehattan only eight point two! Twilight! How many pegasi live in Ponyville?”

“Huh? Uh, eighty-three.”

“Eighty-three! Twilight got the official number from the mayor. Now, I’m not good at maths, but I’m pretty sure that eighty-three ponies with eight point two wingpower each won’t cut it! I hope I don’t have to explain to you what this means – it means that you all have to train to get your wingpower numbers up! And train hard! Twilight, how much wingpower does everypony need for us to get to eight hundred?”

“To eight hundred?” Twilight echoed. “With eighty-three ponies... hm... let me think...” The silence stretched on, so long that it became a bit awkward. “Nine point seven!” she eventually concluded.

“Nine point seven! But I say we make that ten! If everypony gets their wingpower up to at least ten, then we’ll show Cloudsdale that Ponyville can hold their own, even with less pegasi! Now, are you gon-”

“Objection!” Vi called loudly. This caused quite a bit of confusion, because she was too small to be seen from Rainbow Dash’s position. Only as some of the pegasi in front of the filly moved aside did she know who had interrupted.

“Err,” Rainbow made. “What is it?”

“You are committing the planning fallacy,” Vi declared, causing a series of surprised murmurs. “You are imagining everything going just as planned, but not how it realistically will. Your plan permits a margin of error of less than four percent. What if some ponies don’t get as much wingpower, or are sick on the day that you, uh, make the tornado, or what if some don’t want to join? Ten wingpower is not only not safe, it’s not even likely to be enough!”

This sparked both protests and a bit of surprise. “Who is she?” somepony asked, while another protested, “We can’t all get to eleven wingpower!”

“Hold it! Look! I know it’s a tall order. But do you want all of Equestria to think that Ponyville is the only place not up to the task?! Forget eleven! Get up to ten point five! Or if you can’t, then at least get up to ten! If all of you do that, then I promise you we’ll have enough! I know that some pegasi aren’t here right now, but I’ll personally make sure that they all show up when it counts! Did I make myself clear?”

This time, everypony stayed silent.

“So, are we gonna train hard?”

A few calls of agreement could be heard.

“Are we gonna be strong?”

“Yeah!”

This time, the crowd had been more enthusiastic.

“Are we gonna be fast?!?”

“Yeah!”

“Oh dear oh dear oh dear,” Fluttershy said in a whisper, clinging to Twilight.

“Record-smashing fast?”

“YEAH!”

“WHO’S WITH ME???”

“You don’t have to do anything,” Vi said to Fluttershy, sounding worried, while everypony around them was cheering. “Just don’t participate!”

“You heard Twilight! We’re only eighty-three ponies! Without me, they’re only eighty-two! If I don’t join, then-”

“Fluttershy-” Vi cut her off, but then she also cut herself off as the cheering subsided.

“Would you be fine with doing nothing if there were eighty-four pegasi?” She asked in a whisper, as Rainbow Dash continued her speech, now talking about training routine. “You wouldn’t, obviously, so it’s not about having one fewer pony! It’s because you feel pressured! But don’t give in and participate in a high stakes, high pressure flying event thing, if you don’t like high stakes and you don’t like pressure and you don’t like flying! That’s ridiculous!”

“Vi is right, Fluttershy,” Twilight came to her help. “Don’t do this if you don’t want to.”

“If it is really up to one pony, I’m sure we could get somepony from Cloudsdale to help,” Vi added.

“We already have a pony from Cloudsdale,” Twilight reminded her. “Spitfire will come to oversee the whole thing. I’m sure she’ll help out, too, if it comes down to it.”

“Rainbow Dash... I won’t help you with the tornado. I’m sorry.”

They had waited until all other pegasi had left, Twilight making sure that the pony in question wasn’t among them.

“What? But I need you, Fluttershy! You heard Twilight. And Vi. Even with your help, it’s already going to be difficult! Don’t make it even harder for us! And you already didn’t come to watch the dragon migration with us! You still owe me!”

Vi, who was standing next to the hapless pegasus, gave Rainbow a disapproving glance, but she was too focused on Fluttershy to notice.

“Rainbow, I... we both know I’m a weak flier. Vi’s right. If you can get to seven-hundred and ninety-eight without me, then you can also get to eight hundred without me. Please, Rainbow. I really, really don’t want to.”

“But you’re the one who said we won’t have enough, even with her!” Rainbow protested, now addressing the filly.

“I said that your plan should account for a reasonable amount of error if you want it to succeed. That doesn’t mean you should force ponies to do things they don’t want. Everypony else seems to be on board, so that’s fine, but pressuring Fluttershy into helping you is cruel.”

“What?” Rainbow asked, visibly taken aback. “Why?”

“You didn’t address this in your speech, but you have something to actually measure wingpower, don’t you?”

“Twilight said she’d have something.”

“Okay. That means Fluttershy is probably going to have the lowest wingpower out of everypony in Ponyville.”

“Not just the lowest,” Fluttershy added quietly. “I would be surprised if it was half as high as the next lowest.”

“How would you feel if you had to publicly demonstrate your skill in something that you don’t like doing and are much worse at than literally everypony else? That’s what you’re asking Fluttershy to do. That she competes in something she doesn’t like doing, with ponies who all love doing it. And that she trains hard – for this thing she doesn’t like – even though she really has her hooves full already.”

A pause. Neither of them said anything else, as they both waited for Rainbow Dash’s reaction.

What neither of them had probably expected was how much of an effect that had had on her.

“I’m so sorry,” she said at last, and though she wasn’t crying, it was clear that she was close. “Fluttershy, please forgive me.”

“... huh?” Fluttershy seemed totally taken off guard.

“Vi’s right. I never thought about what it would mean for you. You’re my oldest friend, and all I was thinking about... forget it.” She took a deep breath. “Maybe I’m not cut out to be a leader.”

“Don’t say that!” Fluttershy protested. “Nopony but you could energize all the other pegasi like this! And you’re the best flier we have! You will have enough wingpower for both of us!”

“Maybe,” Rainbow murmured. “But I’m clearly too... too... too whatever to tell other ponies what to do! You! Vi! You’ll tell me the truth. That’s your thing, isn’t it? Do you think I’m a good leader?”

Everyone, even Twilight and Spike, who stood on the other side of the room, deliberately absent from the conversation, now turned towards the filly.

“I’m not sure whether the whole thing is a good idea,” Vi said slowly. “It might have been smarter to just let another town take the job. But – yes. Minus some caveats, yes. I agree with Fluttershy in that I think we’d have worse chances with anypony else in charge, certainly with a randomly chosen one. You might lack some qualities of a good leader, but you’re certainly an effective one. I could never give a speech like that, and neither could Fluttershy or Twilight. Also, you didn’t actually make Fluttershy do anything, did you? So don’t-”

“No,” Rainbow interrupted her, “but only ‘cause of you.”

“Okay, so you were about to make a mistake. So what? Everypony – everyone – makes mistakes. Look. For better or worse, you already took the challenge. Now Ponyville needs to deliver. I never said you can’t do it. You’re still eighty-two. If eighty of them participate, you only need an average of ten wingpower. I don’t know how strong most pegasi are, but if ten is something that most of them can reach, then many will also have a bit more. It sounds doable.”

“Yeah. It is doable!” The situation still felt awkward, but Rainbow was clearly trying her best to sound normal again. “You’re right. We can still do this. But, jeez, Fluttershy. I’m really sorry. I won’t pressure you to join again, I promise!”

Fluttershy nodded, smiling. “Thanks, Rainbow.”

“Now. Any moment.”

Vi opened her eyes.

“See? Right on time!”

Spike, who had been talking, was standing next to her bed, along with Pinkie Pie.

“You really sleep during the day,” she now said. “I wasn’t sure I could believe Spike!”

Vi yawned. She let a few more seconds pass, then got out of bed in a swift motion, standing on the library floor with shaky hooves. She slowly looked at Pinkie, a small frown forming on her brow.

“... ...”

“Uhhh! Is this her being slow after standing up??”

“... yes,” Vi murmured. “Hello, Pinkie...” Another yawn. “... I need something to drink...” Groggily, she made for the staircase. Half a minute later, she returned with a glass of water.

“Sorry,” she said, “it’s really hard for me to communicate immediately after a nap. Why are you here?”

“I wanted to visit you, and I wanted to visit Spike, and so I did both! You really only sleep two hours a day?”

“Two hours and forty minutes,” Vi corrected.

“Oh? Spike said it was only two hours!”

“It’s twenty minutes,” Spike said, “eight times a day, so that’s... oh. Right. That’s two hours and forty minutes.” He shook his head. “Vi, can you bring me and Pinkie something to drink, too?”

“Mh,” Vi made. “What do you want?”

“Orange juice,” Spike decided after a bit of thought. “Pinkie?”

“Do you have chocolate milk?”

“No, but we have milk and cocoa and sugar, does that work?”

“Eh. Good enough.”

Vi nodded, making her way downstairs. A minute later, she re-appeared, carrying the requested drinks.

“Thanks,” Pinkie Pie said happily, taking the jar from the filly.

“You’re welcome,” Vi said, at the same time that Spike said, “No problem.”

A few seconds passed. Then, Pinkie Pie giggled.

“So, how you do it? Spike said it would take exactly twenty minutes to the second, and it did!”

“Spell. I cast it, and twenty minutes later, it makes a ringing sound. It’s so quiet that others don’t even hear it, but to me, it sounds loud enough, because it’s directly inside of my ears.”

“Ooh. That’s pretty cool! And how hard was it to learn to sleep like this? If it’s easy, I want to do it, too! I’d have at least five hours more, on every day!”

Spike made an odd sound, but the others ignored him.

“Extremely hard,” Vi said. “Ridiculously hard. The hardest thing I’ve ever done.”

“Hmm.” Pinkie sounded skeptical. ”You’re not just saying that, aaare you?”

Spike coughed. “Remember who you’re talking to. If you think Applejack doesn’t like lying, you haven’t lived with this pony yet.”

“Oh. Hehe. Right!”

“You need at least one month of time, during which you will feel like garbage, constantly sleep-deprived, and have to resist the urge to close your eyes and snooze off constantly. Unless you are really, really determined, don’t try. You’ll regret it.”

“Oki-doki-loki! You still dream?”

“Yes,” Vi said. “I even remember them most of the time.”

“Did you remember it this time?” Spike asked.

Vi shook her head. “Sorry.” She emptied her jar, walking over to where she had slept. “But,” she said as she produced a small booklet from beside her bed, “I have a dream diary. I can’t let you read it, because some parts are private, but I can read some of the others out loud, if you want.”

“Sure! Let’s hear it!”

“Yea?” Vi asked, also looking at Spike for confirmation, who gave a shrug.

“Alright. Let me see... I didn’t remember anything on the previous nap, either. But the one before... ah, yes. That one’s private, though. The one before... that works. Um. But this was a dark one. Do you still want to hear it?”

“I do,” Spike said, now sounding more interested than before. Pinkie Pie didn’t say anything, but she nodded.

“Okay. ... Twilight wanted me to research something. She sometimes does that, if it’s a specific date or figure or something that needs to be looked up. I offered to do that when she took me in. Um, I didn’t know what it was. I don’t mean I forgot, I mean I didn’t know what it was in the dream. But I still wanted to do it.” She wasn’t reading directly from the page, rather she was talking freely and only threw occasional looks at her transcript to remember. “So I walked down into the library to the history section, but it was full of ponies. I could barely get to the shelves. I knew they all didn’t like me because, um, because of how I shouted at you guys in Canterlot. When I finally got through to the shelf, it was empty. I knew I had to convince ponies to give it back first, but then you showed up, Spike, and you said you needed me to do research to figure out when you would start breathing fire. I said I can’t because Twilight already wants me to do something, and you said that I had to hurry because otherwise, you might burn down the library. I remember panicking and that everything got weird, but not much after that.”

“That was scary!” Pinkie Pie said. “Almost like a ghost story! Do another one!”

“Uh. Okay.” Vi turned a page. “... private,” she decided after a few seconds, then moved on to the next. “This one’s... um... this was just a nightmare. Super dark. You probably don’t-”

“Go on!” Spike also emptied his jar, putting it next to Vi’s, then climbed onto Twilight’s bed, sitting down. Pinkie Pie likewise showed no sign of protest.

“You were, um, all dead,” Vi began carefully, then she paused to see the other’s reaction. Neither of them said anything, so she continued. “All of Ponyville was destroyed, actually. It was only me left, and I knew there was some monster chasing me. I ran, but eventually it got me. That’s when I woke up. A few minutes before my alarm... which almost never happens.”

“That’s it?” Pinkie asked. “That’s a terrible story.”

Spike laughed nervously, but neither of the others joined in.

“When was this?” He then asked.

“Yesterday.”

“Oh.”

“They’re not all like this, are they?” Pinkie asked, sounding alarmed.

“No.” Vi looked back at her booklet. “The one before’s fine. I was celebrating my tenth birthday, and Fluttershy and Twilight were there. Fluttershy said she’d gotten much better at flying because of me, and as my birthday present, she would take me for a trip. We went outside, and she had much larger wings than she normally does. I climbed on her back, and we flew so high that we could see all of Equestria. Then Twilight was there, too, and I asked how she could fly, and she said she found a way to walk on air. And then you showed up, Pinkie, and I don’t remember what you said, but we all laughed. It was nice.”

“Oh, that’s sweet. You like Fluttershy, don’t you?”

Vi nodded. “Very much.”

“When is your birthday?” Spike asked.

“Fourth of February.”

“Ohh,” Pinkie made. “That’s only a week after mine! Mine’s January twenty-nine!”

“How old do you get?”

“Twenty!”

“Then you’re still over twice as old as I am,” Vi said after a moment of thought, smiling.

“Huh ... heheh. But I don’t feel like that at all! How are you gonna celebrate?”

“Um. I don’t know. Nothing big.”

“‘Nothing big?’ Mhhmmhh...”

“Don’t plan something without telling me,” the filly warned her. “I’ll think a bit more and tell you whether I want a party or not.”

“Oki-doki-loki!”

... “Vi,” Spike chimed in, “can you get us some snacks?”

Vi closed the booklet, floating it back at the spot right next to her bed.

“Sure,” she said, “but you have to swear not to look inside while I’m gone.”

“Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye!” Pinkie said cheerfully.

“Okay then. I can refill your drinks too, if you want.”

“Mh-mh.” Pinkie finished hers, then offered it to the unicorn. “A bit more sugar this time, please!”

Vi took all three jars, making for the kitchen once more. When she returned about ten minutes later, carrying a bowl with freshly made popcorn, Spike and Pinkie were happily wrapped up in a conversation which seemed to be about pranks. In this one, she didn’t partake, she only listened as they recapped what they’d pulled on Twilight, on Applejack, and what more they were planning together with Rainbow Dash going forward.

“Not your thing?” Pinkie Pie asked her eventually, at a point at which Spike seemed to have forgotten that she was even in the room.

“Nope.”

“Heheh... why not?”

“Uh... it’s all just to have fun, right?”

“Exactly! It’s all in good fun! That’s why number one rule of pranking is – Spike?”

“Never prank somepony who doesn’t appreciate it,” Spike recited dutifully. “It’s also the only rule,” he added, somewhat sarcastically.

“That’s because you don’t need any other rules! That would just make things less fun! And I want ponies to have fun! And Twilight told me that’s what you want, too, so what’s wrong with pranks, shouldn’t you like them, too?”

“I think what I said is that I want everypony to be happy,” Vi corrected.

“Aw, but I want that, too! Being happy is fun! I mean being fun is happy! I mean having fun is happy! ... no, I mean – yes. Having fun makes ponies happy! ... doesn’t it?”

Vi giggled. “Yes,” she said, “it does. I think we have a very similar goal, I just have a more long-term plan for achieving it.”

“A more long-term plan? Are you secretly working on a prank that’s so funny that it’ll make all of Ponyville-... ... that’s not what you’re doing, is it?”

“No, that’s not it. I think I want to keep it a secret. But it’ll be good for everypony. Um, very likely.”

“That’s the second secret you have from me,” Pinkie said, pouting.

“She told Twilight the first one!”

“Ohhh! Do you know, too??”

“... no.”

“Aww.”

“Anyway,” Vi said, bringing the conversation back onto solid ground, “there’s nothing wrong with pranks, not any more than with parties, or, uh, anything else you do. I think you’re a very healthy product of an idyllic society.”

“I hope so.” For the first time that evening, Pinkie Pie sounded serious. “Maybe there are more important things than pranks or parties... but... that’s not for ponies like me. That’s for ponies like you...”

Vi didn’t reply to that, but she made a gesture which could generously be interpreted as nodding.

“Spike,” Pinkie asked, “what do you want to do when you get older?”

“...”

“You won’t stay this size forever, you know?”

“I think he might, actually,” Vi said. “His latest growth spurt came when he was exercising greed. That doesn’t prove that he won’t grow normally, but it also doesn’t prove that he will. I think it’s plausible that dragons adapt to their surroundings, and that Spike will stay like this for as long as he lives – is living – with ponies. There don’t seem to be any records of that. Twilight and I checked.”

“Um, do we have to talk about this?” Spike asked hesitantly.

“Nah! We can also go to Rainbow Dash and see if she’s up to get to work on the color prank, or ohh we could go visit Rarity! I think she’s closing soon! Maybe Sweetie Belle is there, too? Or we could go-”

“Sounds good,” Spike interrupted her. He took the bowl of popcorn, emptied its remaining contents in an efficient manner, and then said something unintelligible which, in context, could be understood to mean ‘let’s go.’ Pinkie snickered, making for the stairway with a few bounces, closely followed by the other two.

“You’re coming, too?” Spike asked VI once he had successfully transferred the contents of his mouth into his stomach. Vi shook her head.

“I’ve been meaning to do some training with Twilight,” she said, nodding towards the pony in question, who was standing in front of a bookshelf, busy with what looked like a mixture between organizing and reading. Spike just shrugged.

“Me and Pinkie are going to visit... uh, somepony,” he said towards Twilight.

“Have fun,” Twilight said absently, not taking her eyes off her book.

Vi waited for both of them to leave, then waited a bit more for Twilight to finish whatever she was in the middle off.

Once she did, she closed the book with a demonstrable clap, and put it back onto its shelf.

“Alright! Shall we start?”

Vi nodded.

“Okay. Why don’t you go on ahead and go upstairs? I’ll be right there.” Vi nodded again, making for the staircase, but Twilight continued talking from her position, her voice increasing in volume as the filly walked away from her. “So – the first thing to understand about teleportation is that you are not pushing yourself, or diving, or anything like that, ever. When you teleport, like this-” There was a poof, and when Vi entered the upper room, Twilight was already waiting. “-then you are pulling yourself upwards. You always pull. Always always always. Got it?”

“Got it. But how do I pull myself? Wouldn’t I have to get there first?”

“Excellent question! Yes and no. You do have to get there, but not at the time of using the spell. You can get there earlier, and do what is called ‘setting up an anchor’. That’s the hardest part, but we won’t be doing that today. It’s silly if you can only teleport to the exact places you’ve been to before. It doesn’t allow you to do short range blinks, like this-” She disappeared and reappeared on the other side of the room. “-which are quite useful! And I didn’t have to set up an anchor at this exact spot beforehoof. It’s not good to have too many anchors out at once, actually. They don’t decay, but the more you have, the harder it is to focus on one. In general, you should remove most anchors immediately after you’ve used them, and only keep a few that you use regularly, or that are otherwise important. Having obsolete anchors far away can be a real problem. ... uhh... ...”

A frown crossed her face, for a moment having lost her train of thought.

“So how did you do it?” Vi asked, connecting back to the point at hoof.

“Right! How do you do short range teleportation without already having set up an anchor? That’s the question! Well, got an idea?”

“Let me think,” Vi said, doing just that for about twenty seconds. “... well, if you really can’t teleport through means other than pulling-”

“You can’t.”

“-then, logically, you must have set up the anchor right now, but without traveling physically.”

“Very good.”

“So you did it from there, just by traveling on the magical plane?”

“Yes! And that’s what we’re going to practice today. It won’t be easy, but it’s a useful skill to have, and you should learn it before I show you how to set up anchors.”

“You expected me to be better at this,” Vi said an hour later, “right?”

After a few seconds, Twilight nodded. “... of course you noticed. Yes, I did.”

“I told you before, I’m not good at magic.”

“Hm. You did say that, but to be honest... I thought you were probably being modest.”

“Modesty is just another form of dishonesty,” Vi murmured, heading back downstairs. Another poof, and an exhausted-looking Twilight re-appeared beside her as she reached the bottom. “But thanks for putting up with me. You think I can still learn this?”

“I’m sure you can,” Twilight said firmly. “Magic isn’t any different from anything else. Everypony can... well, every unicorn, can learn it. If you really try, and work hard, you’ll learn it. And I know you really tried, and I know...” She gave a dry chuckle. “... that you’ll work hard, so yes, I’d be shocked if you didn’t learn it. You will need some time, though.”

They had arrived in the kitchen. Without even really looking, Twilight was summoning various items out of their shelves.

“How much time do you think I’ll need to learn things related to magic in general, compared to you?”

“Hm... if I teach you... and you continue working as hard as you did right now... about twice as long. Probably a bit longer.” She looked as if she wanted to say something else, but then didn’t.

“And how long did you need to learn teleportation?”

“Uhm... two months? Teleportation is tough,” she added, sounding apologetic. “Most unicorns can’t do it.”

“Four months is long, but still a small price considering the skill. If you’re okay with doing this. Or can I also practice alone?”

“Don’t try,” Twilight warned her. “Later, you can do a lot by yourself, but not at the beginning. This period is really important. I... don’t know how you learned your stinky spell, but you clearly didn’t do it right. I must say, I’m impressed that you managed to get it to work at all. Sandwich?”

“Thanks.” She tried taking it out of Twilight’s telekinesis, but instead it fell down, and was caught inches above the ground in another purple cloud.

“That happens,” Twilight said, lifting it back up. “When you try really hard to press forward on the magical plane, your senses feel all wrong afterwards. You’ll get used to it. Try again.”

Vi nodded. She re-lit her horn, more careful this time, successfully picking up the item in her magic.

She took a bite. “Should we do another session?” she asked after swallowing.

“I’d understand if you don’t want to, but it would be good. It’s good to push yourself, especially at the beginning.”

Vi nodded. “Then we’ll do it.”

“Of course we will.” Twilight smiled.

For a while, both of them ate in silence, until Vi spoke up again.

“You were about to say something else, earlier.”

“No chance with this pony,” Twilight remarked. “Yes, I... I wondered whether there could be things I could teach you that are... more fundamental.”

“In what way?”

“Well... perhaps things that would... that you could learn to get better at learning. Meta-skills, as you call them.”

“By giving me a better understanding of magic on a deep level?”

“Pretty much.”

“You know what’s an important property of meta-skills?”

“Do tell?”

“You should always train them first, if possible, because they’ll affect everything you do later.”

Twilight bit off half of her remaining sandwich. After she had finished chewing, instead of answering, she bought herself more time by finishing it off completely.

“Let’s do this first. These are thoughts I’ve had for a while, and they might be useful, but I really have to think about them more, and plus, it’s probably easier if you can already do some things, even if you don’t understand them perfectly.”

“If you really think that,” Vi said, carefully but firmly, “and don’t just say this because you don’t want to take the risk... then no problem. I can’t judge it myself, obviously.”

That made Twilight think for almost a minute.

“I do think so,” she said at last. “I know why you’re asking, I think. Sometimes, doing things correctly from the beginning can be easier than correcting them later. But I’m thinking about how it would be to teach you to dive through the magical plane correctly if you’ve never done it, and it really seems easier to just change your way of doing it after I’ve taught you the normal way. I agree that we shouldn’t work through too much, but let’s do teleportation. I’m... not sure, but I really do believe that it’s the better way.”

Vi nodded. “Alright. Let’s do the second half?”

“Yup.” Twilight tilted her head. “See you upstairs!”

Poof.

Author's Note

The girl had red hair; actual red, not the kind of bright orange color which people sometimes call red for no reason. She was small and thin, and her skin seemed almost unnaturally pale next to her hair, except below her eyes, where it was dark and gray. Everything about her looked weak and fragile, even unhealthy. She was my best friend. I loved her more than anyone or anything else in the world, certainly more than myself.

Constantly deprived of sleep, she would spend hours wandering around at night, in search for anything and nothing. But now, she was wide awake, and through her soft grasp I was pulled forward. I could have run faster, but I enjoyed her dragging me along far too much.

The castle we were in was too large, and too confusing for me to know where we were going. Down one hallway and then to the left, further ahead and then we heard steps from somewhere. Without hesitating, she opened a door to our immediate left, and we both slipped inside. I had enough time to see that it was a small chamber with nothing inside, then I closed the door behind us, and everything went dark.

I could hear nothing but her quick breathing, but there was a warmth as she hugged me, on my skin and in my heart alike. This, and nothing else, was why I loved my life, and never wanted it to stop or change.

The steps were now close enough to be audible even through the door... then they became more quiet again. When I could no longer hear them, I waited a few more seconds, then I gave her hand a slight squeeze with mine, our signal for going back out. She responded with a light squeeze of her own, our signal for ‘no’, so I waited. A few more seconds passed, then she was the one to squeeze first, and I responded by squeezing more firmly. Simultaneously, we both drew back from the embrace, but keeping our hands locked even as she was searching for the handle to pull the door back open.

A peek outside confirmed that whatever it had been was gone. I had to wait but a second, then she was back to dragging me with her, and soon we were running again. All the way to the end of the hallway, then to the right. Candles on symmetrically arranged sockets on both walls and the ceiling illuminated this narrow corridor, and the nature-themed art on the carpets below our feet, its green color scheme giving the place an uncanny feeling, as if part of the castle lead straight into another world.

She stopped abruptly, turning around to take my other hand in hers.

“It’s here,” she just said. We crossed fingers, and it was one of those moments where I felt so much love and sympathy for her that it overpowered my ability to speak, so I merely nodded and smiled. She smiled back, and I could feel her hands shaking a bit before she freed one of them to point at the stone door to our right. I nodded, then I pushed it open.

“It’s the outside,” I breathed, and now I was the one dragging her with me. Then the door fell shut behind us, drowning us in utter darkness once more. Her free hand found mine, and as it did, I could feel her skin growing warmer, hot even. Red lights emerged on the insides of her palms, and I let loose to allow her to bring them closer together, merging both lights into one.

Not unlike in the previous corridor, and now I understood why that had been, it was red light falling onto green, only here the fauna was real, trunks and leaves and branches and vines entwined around it all, and the air was warm and thick and a moisture seemed to hang around everything. Some of it was moving, I could see it clearly even in this dim light.

“We could just go,” I said, “and never come back. We could go right now. Leave this place.”

“Maybe.” She navigated the light in between us, then drew back so she could take my hands back into hers. “Or maybe it’s only an inner garden. But I wanted you to see it.”

I nodded, smiling. Here we stood, right outside, of or perhaps in the midst of the castle, but it felt so different that we might aswell be in another world already. And who knew... maybe we were.