Livin' the Dream... Totally!
...but why would Luna need Twilight?
It was a bustling, warm and bright afternoon in Canterlot - rich (and kinda self-centered) mares and stallions trotted through the city. Because that's anypony who ever sets hoof in there. Businesses were bustling and chatter had mixed into indecipherable noises. Among the crowds of Equines was Twilight Sparkle - everypony knows her. Probably. She wasn't here any dumb old reason, no - she was sent by Princess Celestia after receiving a letter of what she deemed to be of "utmost importance". Of course, Twilight had rushed there as fast as she could.
Upon reaching Celestia in the royal castle, Twilight bowed in acknowledgement of the princess, who was delighted to see her faithful student always on time. Seriously, she hasn't seen Twilight be late ever since she became her protégé. It kind of scares her; but that's a story for another time.
"Hello, Twilight! Perfect timing," she began, the purple unicorn looking up at her mentor. "As you know, I've called you here to discuss a new task I would like to give to you." Twilight's eyes sparkled with curiosity.
Celestia's mane flowed through space, chilling in its constant wave-like movements; it really seemed impossible for anypony to come up with an explanation for its flowing.
Twilight walked towards Celestia a little. "Of course! I got here without any hesitation. What is it you would like to assign me, Princess?" A small smile stayed still across Tia's face, eyes looking at her.
"Well," - Celestia held the note for quite a bit - "Luna needs you in the dream realm tonight," Celestia's smile kept like stone, not moving at all. Her voice was candid. "I don't know why. She told me to tell you that."
Confusing silence, broken by Twilight happily accepting the job. "Oh, I'd love to," she exclaimed, "But... why would Luna need me? I can't even enter the dream realm." Celestia shrugged. However a horse can, anyway.
"Eh, ask her."
The silence grew louder.
The royal guards positioned near the throne were a tad bewildered. They had seen Celestia be strange before - she one time broke into the crystal tower just to eat a cake (illegally, by the way) - but this was just flat-out odd. Okay, that's probably weirder, but still, ever since that scandal the sisters have been... off. At times, their demeanor would dip into an unnatural territory.
"I don't see Luna in her throne, though... where could she b-" Celestia moved out her hoof to stop Twilight mid-sentence. She felt a sudden royal presence behind her, raising an eyebrow.
"Why, behind you!" She replied with a hint of joy.
Sure enough, when Twilight turned 180 degrees, Luna was standing there, looking down at her. She didn't recall any magical poof teleportation sounds or the clip-clop of walking beforehand. It appeared Luna had literally just started existing there with no reason as to how.
The silence had grown even louder, silencing the silence of the atoms in solid matter.
"Hello, Twilight," Luna began. "Looks like you have obtained my sister's message?" Twilight nodded, though she had growing doubts it was going to be a simple task. She briefly looked back at Celestia, who still had that smile frozen on her face.
"Yes, I did. But, what could be so important? I have no influence on your work at all; you are the only pony who is able to venture into such a dimension," Twilight paused for a second. "...At least, that I know of."
"Yeah." Luna balantly responded.
Twilight's eyes moved around, waiting for her to say something else. She didn't. One word and that was it, and a word that nopony never exactly heard her say. It was assumed to be too... casual for her. "Uhh... so-" This time, Luna had cut her off.
"Just come to me during the night. I'll tell you more there." Luna insisted.
Twilight blinked, completely unsure of what to say, do, or think. Not once had she witnessed the princesses acting so off kilter (ignoring the crystal empire cake scandal, nowadays called "Crystalgate"). She turned back to Celestia, who was using levitation to play with two guards like toy figurines, making them "fight" by tapping them together.
Eventually, she noticed Twilight. She didn't cease messing with the guards, however, and that damn smile was still there, now looking smug.
The silence was loud, oh so loud. It silenced the noise of the subatomic particles in the solid-est of matter.
"So, uh, Twilight, you now know what you must do. You can sleep in the guest room up in the towers tonight. And, uhh..." She leaned to the side, resting her head on her hoof. "...have fun!"
"I'll... I'll make sure of that, Celestia." Twilight exited the throne room, the guards at the doors focused on Celestia's action figure game instead of her.
Later on, the calming darkness of the night had revealed itself to the denizens of Equestria's capital. The town was quiet and restful, including the young unicorn mare at the top of the palace's tower. The moon's light reflected off of its exterior, and looked pretty nice, in all honesty.
Twilight had already gotten in bed at an early hour compared to her usual bedtimes, as to not be late to the strange request the royal sisters had given her earlier. She snoozed soundly, and REM sleep gradually kicked in. This time, as Twilight had expected before, she wasn't in any typical dream world. She was kindly entered into Luna's domain.
Around her, she could see twinkling star-like spheres of ponies' imaginations going wild. Some were pleasant dreams, some were nightmares. Others, the line was more... blurred. Hell, Twilight saw somepony thinking up a scenario where Ponyville covered the entirety of the kingdom. She merely observed them, a bit scared of what she could accidentally do if she happened to hop into one unexpectedly. What if she spawned a thousand cats into their world? Horrifying, indeed.
Soon, during Twilight's exploration of the dimension, she felt a royal presence behind her again. Now she could pick up the noises of walking from Luna. She turned to meet the princess... who spoke rather informally.
"Hey, Twilight. Yeah, uh, welcome to the dream realm and all," She nodded her head to the side. "There's coffee over on that table there." Sure enough, a floating table with mugs of Espresso coffee letting off steam stood there.
"Oh, thank you, Luna," Twilight decided to float one over and take a sip - slightly bitter tasting, but not too bad. She put it back on the table, not needing such a drink. "...so, is there a reason you brought me here?" she asked.
Luna suddenly sipped a comically large amount from the beverage. Twilight waited. After a bit, she lightly tapped her hoof on the dream-floor in a tinge of impatience.
Sluuuuurrrrrp. Luna's eyes looked up while she was drinking and she finished her cup. She threw it into the dream-floor, the mug phasing through into an unknown void. "Alright, alright. Look, Twi, I'm bored, and I want your help to make somepony's dream better." Twilight agreed, though now a bit skeptical if this was a joke or serious.
Luna brought over a pony's dream-sphere between them both, with Twilight looking respectfully. "We're working with this one? Seems like they're having a grand old time, uh..." she squinted. "...planting trees?"
Luna let out a cheerful mhm and moved her hand around the sphere as if it was a touchscreen, shifting the view; Twilight had never seen such a thing. Apparently, the sky was rainbow as well. What a strange, goofy little world. She tapped the sphere out of curiosity, and it rippled, resembling water. The dream briefly buffered, and Luna let out an annoyed grunt, waving Twi's hoof away.
"Yes, this looks good..." Luna mumbled to herself. She fixed the view to a certain grass field in the dream.
Soon, the two found themselves inside of it, as if they woke up in a completely new land; everything seemed real. Even the rainbow-colored sky. The air was comfortably warm, filled with the gentle sway of trees in the wind, and birds singing from an unknown location. Distant rumbling was heard as the dreamer pony planted trees that grew seemingly instantly. Twilight looked in awe, though for Luna this was just another Tuesday. In fact, it was a pretty damn boring one.
"Okay, so, we're gonna watch whatever this little pony is up to." Luna informed Twilight, not adding anything else.
"And...?"
Luna poofed in a piece of parchment, a quill, and an ink cup. She began to draw out her surroundings, though gradually. "That's it," She answered. "We won't be doing anything else. So... make yourself at home for like... I don't know, I don't keep time here."
Twilight scooted over to watch what the princess was doing, to which she didn't seem to mind.
"You're drawing the dream?" Luna nodded. "What's the purpose of-"
Luna slowly turned her head towards the unicorn, glaring at her with an intense stare; a death stare, even. The whole reality around her grew to complete pitch-blackness, with the sound of what was a roaring wind growing ever louder. Luna didn't do anything about the apparent harsh conditions they were met with out of nowhere. She backed up and was left speechless, deep in fear that she just angered the goddamn princess of the night.
"P-princess! I'm s-sorry, I didn't know- I- I really apologize-!"
Then, everything was back to normal. Nothing happened. Luna was happily humming to herself sketching out the dream. The pony in the distance didn't seem bothered either, going about her tree-planting.
Twilight was leaking from her brow, her mind silently moving at a million words a second. She slowly sat back up, hooves planted still on the grassy ground.
"W-what was... that?" She inquired through her breath, mostly speaking to herself.
"Nothing." Luna replied, not even looking at Twilight. She wasn't angry or upset... at least to Twilight. The sound of quill-against-parchment resonated in Twilight's ears. Like seriously, damn, that alicorn was being artsy.
Conveniently, because why not, the mug of espresso from earlier had quietly appeared next to Twilight. She decided to float it up and drink it more (despite it having gone cold), keeping her eyes on the dreaming pony. She didn't didn't even think of saying anything now.
Minutes passed. The rainbow sky had kept its gay colors, and it appeared the sister had finished her sketch. Twilight took a look: nearly perfect line art and details matching the landscape. She was quite impressed. Luna opened a portal, revealing for a quick moment a room full of numerous stacks of parchment, neatly placing her drawing in. She closed it without a word, then looked over at Sparkle.
"So... that's why you brought me with you?" Twilight asked. She had literally done nothing during this whole time. Quite helpful. "Just to show me your drawing skills?!"
"Yep."
"I don't... think we made that pony's dream better."
"Yeah. I lied," Luna spawned in a purse, putting the quill inside. "I just wanted to give you a heads up."
"On what?"
Luna's pupils shrunk, looking deep into Twilight's. "You're next." Her horn glowed a bright white as she spoke.
Seconds later, Twilight had awoken in her bed, jolting straight upwards. She looked around her room for a some moments, her breathing growing slower, eventually returning to normal speeds. Looks like the princess forced me awake... she thought, laying back down on her pillows. Indeed, she supposed she fulfilled whatever responsibilities she had. Not like she was ever able to deduce what she had to truly do, anyhow.
"That's it? That's all there is to it?" Twilight questioned to herself in the dark of night. "I just sat there and did nothing!" She pondered the meaning of everything that just happened - The princess' odd behavior, Luna drawing out a dream and storing it in another dimension. Her apparent "warning" to Twilight. Guess her dreams are to be drawn next, she assumed quietly. For... some odd reason.
She sighed and laid on her side, going back to sleep. Apparently, only about half of the night had passed during the whole thing.
"What a waste of my time."
