Oneiri

by Doctor Disco

Rating: everyone
Tags: Starlight Glimmer, Spike, Self Insert, Twilight Sparkle, Main 6, Drama, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Length: 1109

Once upon a time, I was a man dreaming I was a butterfly. Once upon a time, I was a butterfly, dreaming I was a man.

"Once upon a time, I dreamt I was a butterfly, fluttering hither and thither, to all intents and purposes a butterfly. I was conscious only of my happiness as a butterfly, unaware that I was just me. Soon I awaked, and there I was, veritably myself again. Now I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly, dreaming I am a man."

Inspired by the modified quote above from Zhangzi and the fic An Author's Life by Star Scraper

Published 2017-09-02 05:40:07 UTC
Last updated 2017-09-02 05:40:07 UTC

Aut re vera somnia?

“...Twilight...?”

A voice. I can hear someone trying to shake me from sleep. Can’t I just stay in bed? Rest from yesterday’s sports? Think up new stories? Oh man, the soreness in my arms and legs. Phew, it’s tough, I tell ya.

“...Twilight…!?”

And then I still have that idea I need to write down for my next story on Fimfiction. Something about dreams. Ugh… and that hit I took yesterday. My brain still hurts. I just hope I haven’t swiped away that tab with the wiki page on it…

“...D’ya think she’s okay after all that flashy magic knocked her out…?”

Why are there… surprisingly familiar voices around me?

“...She hasn’t moved an inch since then, and I fear…”

Is… is that…

Rarity?

“TWILIGHT!”

“Gyah!” I shout, my right ear now ringing and hurting. The pulsing in my brain intensifies and I wince, putting a hand up to it. Looks like my headache really isn’t mild.

“Mmmfgrh… what the…” I suddenly realise that I don’t even have my hand anymore. It’s just a purple hoof. A purple freaking hoof! And my ears are floppy! My right ear is still stinging, and I can see… I can see purple highlighted bangs fringing my vision…

“Y’all right there sugarcube?” an accented voice asks, and I turn my already pounding head to the centre of attention. A very real orange pony with green eyes and freckles wearing a stetson. It’s Applejack.

I wince as I remember the lunch we had yesterday and the words I was talking to her about an experiment I was going to conduct in front of her and the rest of my friends-

Wait.

“Applejack?” I squeak out, unbelieving.

“That was pretty awesome, I’ve gotta say, all that magic you were swirling around. You almost looked like you actually didn’t recognise us before you conked out in ten seconds flat!”

I reacquaint my focus towards the scratchy voice in the air and blink. “R-Rainbow?”

I then blink some more and see the rest of my friends standing around me, watching me worriedly. Of course they would. Why wouldn’t they? I was performing a potentially ruinous mental spell that would-

Why am I calling them my friends? I… I just woke up here…

“Wow, Twilight,” Pinkie Pie remarks, smiling innocently. “Looks like the spell worked after all!”

“W-what?” I say. “I just woke up here… I was… I’m supposed to be waking up in my bed at home… I’m not…”

But I am. I am very much Twilight Sparkle. How could I not be, when I know these girls as well as myself.

I see Spike frown worriedly at me. “Twilight?”

“That’s me!” I yelp, causing them to jump a little from surprise. I find myself getting up unsteadily on my hooves, which feel as natural as the day I was born yet as alien as if I just popped into existence. The name hits me close to home, my chest filling up with pride… but why does it feel surreal?

“But I’m… I’m also just a teenager! I can’t believe this is real. Is this real? This is almost exactly like the fic I was going to write about!”

“Twilight, you’re not making any sense.” Rarity puts a reassuring hoof on my shoulder, calming me from the sudden onset of hyperventilation I had started. “You said this might happen. That you would think you were somepony else.”

“It’s almost like we’re strangers now…” Fluttershy says, gazing sadly at me.

“But… I remember… I still remember!” I begin to say. The words begin to pour from my mouth before I can stop them.

“I remember you and me, Rarity, you and me going out for a spa treatment last week, and you saying how much you’ve noticed me growing and you and me, Pinkie, really more you than me baking some treats for Starlight’s first birthday here in Ponyville and me and Spike reorganising the library for the millionth time and-”

I sit on my rump and put my head in my hooves, on the verge of tears. “But I can remember listening to my favourite bands on my iPhone and writing fictions exactly like this and reading so many books and researching and wasting time watching stupid videos on my phone and playing piano and writing songs…”

“It’s almost like you don’t know which reality is the right one,” Starlight says, putting her own hoof on me in support. “And you told us to be here to reassure you that this… this, here and now is real.”

“But are you sure, Starlight?” I ask, looking up at her, and facing my friends. “What if this is fake, and my dreams are real? How do I distinguish which one is real? Who’s to say, when I go to sleep I’ll be back to playing music and wasting time and going to school, and- and- and-” At this point, I’ve closed my eyes and started to shake my head, clutching it tightly.

How am I supposed to know? It could just be a dream! I could really be just a teenage boy! But I’m also me, Twilight Sparkle, and nopony could tell me otherwise!

Why did I have to do a spell like this, why do I have to have a dream like this, why did I have to think of something like this, why couldn’t I have just-

“Twilight, look here.”

I feel the gentle embrace of my friends wrap around me, basking me in friendly and loving warmth. Warmth that makes me begin to cry. Really cry.

No. I- I can’t be crying. I… I need to to do it privately. Why just why just why-

I can only hug them back, and I fail to even follow the command of looking at whoever had said those words.

“Does this feel real? Right here, right now?”

I realise it’s Applejack. Of course. She’s always the most honest. There’s nothing she can’t say without being truthful.

“Y-yes! Of course! H-how could this not be r-real, right here and now?” I can only stammer, trying my best to hug all my best friends back.

“Then that’s all that matters, darling,” Rarity says. “You’re here, with us, very much as real as you.”

“And don’t forget there’s a cake waiting for a successful attempt at new magic!” Pinkie shouted, and everyone laughs, including me.

“Heehee…”

Maybe…

This is real.

But how could you ever know?

Author's Note

Is this the real life?

Or is this just fantasy?

Please leave a comment of what you thought of the story :twilightsmile:

Thank you for reading.