It was a couple days after the demise of the Storm King, and Twilight Sparkle had fallen ill with a rare type of fever it seemed only alicorns could get. Fluttershy got an easy remedy from Zecora, and Twilight fell into a deep sleep. Her friends stood over her and saw how peaceful she looked while she was dreaming. It looked like the antidote was working. Though at times she looked like she was having a nightmare.
The following morning, Twilight woke up. She looked around, and realized she was inside her castle. It came back to her. The battle with the Storm King had been a few days ago. Or however long she had been asleep for.
Spike walked in. "Good morning, Twilight."
"Uh... good morning, Spike." Twilight was thinking about her dream.
"How do you feel?"
That's right, last night she had some sort of alicorn fever. She took a moment to see how she felt. "I think the fever's gone."
"That's great. I'll go tell everyone."
A few minutes later, the Mane 6, Spike, Starlight Glimmer, and Tempest Shadow were all in the map room of Twilight's castle.
"I had a REALLY weird dream last night," said Twilight. "I don't know what kind of sleep that fever put me into but it was weird. And longer than I think I was asleep for. And vivid."
"Ooh, what was it about?" Pinkie asked.
"Well... We had just got back from Canterlot after the Storm King was destroyed." She pointed at Tempest. "You left to go spread word of his defeat."
"There really weren't many lands left standing that he had taken over," said Tempest. "He was pretty clear about that. He boasted about it every night. Seaquestria was one of the few, and Queen Novo had already found out."
"Sounds like an episode of a show where they couldn't get the actor to return," said Pinkie Pie.
"So, the Cutie Map expanded, and I decided to open a friendship school."
"Seriously?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"And for some reason it took several months to teach friendship. And I thrust the position of teachers on you, which, combined with your jobs, cut into the rest of our time, and when I was able to arrange one day we could spend quality time together, Queen Chrysalis created evil clones of us which ruined our whole day and made us think we were really stressed out because I planned it poorly."
"Chrysalis?" asked Spike. "Just before the incident of publishing the Friendship Journal, Thorax said he saw a big green mushroom cloud explosion in the distance, and then Chrysalis's horn and a fragment of her wing came flying from that blast into the changeling kingdom, smoldering hot."
"Smolder?" said Twilight.
"She must have blown herself up going mad obsessing over a revenge she was destined never to get on her own," said Starlight. "That's too bad. It would have done her good to reform like I did. I guess some creatures are too stubborn to change."
"So," continued Twilight "the top six students at the school were one of the nicest parts of the dream. A dragon named Smolder, a changeling named Ocellus, a pony named Sandbar, a griffon named Gallus, a yak named Yona, and a hippogriff named Silverstream. You'd have really liked her, Pinkie Pie. She was a lot like Princess Skystar, but instead of shells, she really loved stairs."
"Reminds me of King Sombra," said Spike. "But not as evil."
"Oh, and King Sombra was resurrected by Grogar from the old pony legend and destroyed the Tree of Harmony, but we destroyed him a second time."
"You dreamed about Grogar?" asked Rainbow Dash.
"Not exactly. Turns out he was Discord making a really bad move to try to improve my confidence. He united Chrysalis, Tirek, and an evil filly named Cozy Glow..."
"An evil filly?" Applejack asked. "Like, actually evil, not how Diamond Tiara used to be?"
"She was as diabolical as Chrysalis and Tirek, and so Celestia, Luna, and Discord turned all three of them to stone after a huge battle that reminds me of Power Ponies: Endgame."
"That sounds cool," said Spike.
"Let's see... so, another weird thing about the school is, the students were bored when the EEA, led by this racist unicorn, imposed a bunch of rules, but when I was able to set my own rules and let us all teach in our own way, the students found it fun. But eventually they started to find it boring. I should've known it was a dream then."
"That does sound pretty weird," said Starlight.
"Another thing that was weird, but in a fun way... don't tell Celestia I dreamed about this, but she was prancing when she got to participate in a play. Though she wasn't very good at it."
Pinkie Pie stifled giggles.
"That'd be somethin' to see," said Applejack.
"And Fluttershy put on three new personas trying to run Rarity's store. One was snobby, one was hipster, and one was Goth. But they all turned mean so Rarity fired them."
"Oh my," said Fluttershy. "That must have come from when I took Iron Will's assertiveness training."
"Spike underwent something called the Molt, which got really weird, until he got wings."
"Wings?" said Spike. "You think there's any chance I might really get them down the road?"
"Maybe," said Twilight. "I haven't seen a lot of wingless dragons. Fluttershy, you're not gonna like this next part. Discord regressed and set us on a wild goose chase so we'd leave him in charge of the school, and when I left Starlight in charge, Discord tried to ruin it for her. When he endangered students, she blasted him into the ether, but he came back as a ghost, until she realized he just felt left out so she revived him."
"I can revive ponies?" asked Starlight.
"I'm not even sure Discord can. Rainbow Dash, Applejack, you two regressed as well and got so competitive you almost killed Yona."
"Which one was Yona?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"The yak."
"That must've been a huge twist based on our Runnin' of the Leaves and Iron Pony Competition," said Applejack.
"I may not have been a good sport back then, but even then I'd never go THAT far," said Rainbow Dash.
"Flim and Flam went bad again and started another scam," said Twilight.
"That don't sound weird at all," said Applejack.
"Rainbow Dash, Rarity, you two began an actual friendship, because before you just had common friends in me, Fluttershy, and Applejack. It was kind of a rough road getting there, though."
Rainbow Dash and Rarity looked at each other. They hadn't realized they never really interacted as friends much.
"Well, Rainbow Dash did save me from falling to my doom back at Cloudsdale," said Rarity.
"And Rarity cleared my name when Wind Rider set me up," said Rainbow Dash.
"It was believable when you weren't able to find a lot of stuff you had in common, but I'm sure you could find something fun to do together."
Rainbow Dash blushed and looked at Rarity. She was sure she knew exactly something that might work. Though she'd make Rarity swear never to tell anypony else how much she loved the spa.
"This next one was one of the weirdest," said Twilight. "Pinkie Pie, you found this instrument that you really loved to play."
"That sounds like me," said Pinkie.
"Except you were really bad at it."
"That doesn't sound like me."
"Tell me about it. You can play ten instruments at once without a mouth. So you got really depressed and turned grayer than when Discord put you under his spell."
"More depressed than when I thought you were all avoiding me coz you didn't wanna go to my parties anymore, or when I thought Cheese Sandwich was gonna replace me as Ponyville's party pony, or when you tried to steal the pearl and..." Pinkie stopped, not wanting to remind Twilight of the incident, which had been extremely painful for both of them.
"Yes," said Twilight. "And in the end we decided to let you keep playing it even though it was causing troubles for everypony, rather than you either try to improve or you just play it where nopony can hear it."
"Alicorn fever dreams are officially weirder than the Storm King was," said Tempest.
"Then the Tree of Harmony trapped the students underground and threatened to kill them if they didn't pass her... its test."
"Oh my," said Fluttershy.
"Especially Gallus, who would have been crushed to death. Ocellus, who's a lot like you, Fluttershy, was turned into Chrysalis, but she was still Ocellus."
"That must have been something," said Rainbow Dash. "Chrysalis acting like Fluttershy."
"The next one was nicer, though. There were these creatures called Kirin. They're kinda pony-like, but a little hard to describe. The map sent Fluttershy and Applejack to solve their friendship problem, which involved them taking a vow of silence, and they worked together really great to solve it."
"I bet they look divine," said Rarity.
"Then, a dragon came pretending to be Spike's father, and he went through the same thing as on the Dragon Migration again."
"I'd like to know who my real dad is, but did I really forget that whole thing?" said Spike.
"It was only a dream. Then came Cozy Glow stealing all the magic of Equestria, locking us in Tartarus, our students defeated her, she got thrown in Tartarus, Grogar... I mean, Discord got them out, revived King Sombra, you know how that goes. Around that time, Celestia and Luna retired and said I was gonna rule Equestria in their place."
"You must've freaked out a lot," said Spike.
"You can say that again. Then the students revived the tree as a treehouse."
"The Tree of Harmony as a treehouse?" said Rarity. "I'd have loved to see that."
"Then Shining Armor had us attempt a heist of an old crown to test Canterlot's new security system installed because of King Sombra's return."
"Who won?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"Neither. Spike won."
"What do you expect from the one who defeated King Sombra?" said Spike.
"Oh, and remember Garble? Well, he turned out to be Smolder's brother, and more sensitive than he seems."
"Garble?" said Spike.
"I find that hard to imagine," said Rarity.
"Well, in the dream, he was only a bully to hide the fact that he was a poet. Which sounds weirder outside the dream. Anyway, there was some really strange thing with a mythological creature at Sweet Apple Acres during a time when the rest of us were working 24/7 at the school and literally had no time for ANYTHING else."
"Whoa," said Rainbow Dash.
"And a time when Fluttershy was unable to be anywhere besides the school and the sanctuary."
"Oh my," said Fluttershy, who was perfectly able to balance the sanctuary and quality time with her friends.
"And she switched bodies with Angel."
"I was a cuddly bunny rabbit?"
"What was Angel like as a pony?" Pinkie asked.
"Mean," said Twilight. "But he showed he did care about Fluttershy. Silverstream, the hippogriff student, tamed a cockatrice after another one turned Maud's boyfriend to stone."
"Maud had a boyfriend?" said Pinkie. "And I bet she liked him just as much as a statue."
"She did," said Twilight. "Celestia and Luna got in another fight while taking a vacation, Cheese Sandwich lost his laugh, I put Rainbow Dash in charge of cheerleading and she didn't give it a try for a while yet..."
"Cheerleading, seriously?" said Rainbow Dash.
"Well, once you tried it you were able to coach the cheerleaders pretty good. Then I got carried away with a trivia game... I'd really not care to go into details there." She blushed. "Rarity got jealous of Spike spending time with Gabby."
"She did?" said Spike, blushing affectionately.
"Fluttershy reformed Ahiozotl and Caballeron rather quickly. Ahuizotl had a noble cause all along."
"Really?" said Rainbow Dash. "He..."
"Tried to doom the valley to unrelenting heat, I know. So many parts of that dream didn't make any sense. Besides, we both know he fell to a death trap in a temple seeking an artifact before you met Quibble Pants."
"That was pretty awesome."
"And, after Chrysalis, Tirek, and Cozy Glow got turned to stone, I became ruler of Equestria. We still got together once a month and seemed fine with the arrangement, but I was the size of Celestia with a flowing mane and tail."
"You must have looked divine," said Rarity.
"What if that dream was a vision?"
"Are you freaking out again?" said Starlight.
"Oh, that's right, Pinkie named my freakouts 'Twilighting'," said Twilight.
"That fits," said Pinkie.
Twilight cast a summoning spell and called Discord over.
"What was so urgent you had to summon me right away?" Discord asked Twilight.
"Discord, I want you to promise me something."
"It depends on what it is."
"I want you to promise me you won't resurrect King Sombra and Chrysalis, or release Tirek from Tartarus."
"Why in Equestria would I do a thing like that? Sure, I might do the odd mischievous thing, but I'm way past pulling a stunt like that, ESPECIALLY with Tirek."
"I believe him," said Fluttershy.
"Me too," said Applejack.
"Sorry if I didn't trust you," said Twilight. "I just had a really vivid dream where, among other things, you disguised yourself as Grogar and resurrected Sombra and brought him, Chrysalis, Tirek, and another dangerous villain together and they almost took over Equestria."
"I admit, I might have done something like that before Tirek, but I certainly wouldn't now," Discord said as sincerely as when he had given Twilight Scorpan's medallion.
Twilight sighed in relief.
Author's Note
This is a sort of fix-it fanfic to Seasons 8 and 9 to anypony who disliked them. Plus, once MLP is inevitably purged from Netflix and all other sites, unless Shout Factory changes their minds about DVD release, Seasons 8 and 9 will be completely gone and pretty much never happened.
For the record, while I would question some parts, and definitely make fun of the seasons here, I could have gone with them (except Grannies Gone Wild, Non-Compete Clause, Yakity-Sax, Father Knows Beast, and Going to Seed), I really like the Young Six, especially Silverstream, and there were some really good Season 9 villain episodes, I liked Sombra's portrayal and death even better and Chrysalis finally got her final fate, but once those two seasons are completely unwatchable, none of that will matter. UNLESS they change their minds about DVD sales or Hasbro keeps them preserved for the fans somewhere. Even if it stays on an obscure site, the creators will it so they no longer exist and never happened, after the purge.
