The Mistress of Dreams

Outside of reality, there is an extra-dimensional realm that not even the most powerful of unicorns could detect with their magic.  The realm was isolated from the natural world, and was only inhabited by beings who referred to themselves as gods.  Since they were separated from the physical realm, they could do nothing but observe the daily lives of the mortals and their princesses they adore through a mirror.  They lived in an enormous castle, with great halls extending from every angle.  The castle itself had no exit point nor entry point - everything contained within the castle was itself part of virtual reality - a dream.

“Nothing has happened ever since the Captain of the Royal Guard and his wife defeated the Changeling Queen.  Things have been considerably boring again,” one the gods commented.  His brethren agreed with him.

“Honestly, you all treat this like some epic tale of good and evil.  These are ponies’ lives happening before our eyes,” a goddess called out.  The goddess never enjoyed watching the citizens of Equestria go about their lives, but there was nothing else to do.  Just then, another god - a tall figure, with dark hair - appeared before the inactive pantheon.

“Gods and Goddesses, I have an announcement to make!”  The other gods ceased looking at the mirror and turned to their brother.  “It seems as though the unicorn referred to as Twilight Sparkle, can travel across the dreamrealm of the ponies.  She is taking this really well I might add.  Oh, that Twilight... she never ceases to amaze me.”

The gods and goddesses didn’t seemed too surprised, but what caught them off guard was that their younger brother already knew about it.  Aurelia, the elder sky goddess, went up to her young sibling.

“How did you know about this?  The ponies never seem to do much of anything when they are sleeping, let alone sleepwalking on a few occasions.”

“Easy - I enchanted her.”  All the gods gave a long look at their brother.  Not once, since the two thousand years of their “boredom”, they have been able to do any activity outside of the castle.  Mercutio, the god in question, somehow found a way.

Constantine, an old fire god, walked up to his little brother and give him skeptical eyes.  Mercutio was has always been a trickster, but this was a serious matter.

“I’m confused - how were you able to... enchant the unicorn?”

“Well, while all of you were asleep, I was up all night trying to figure out a way how to make things here a little more fun.”  The other gods rolled their collective eyes at the statement.  “The library, which we sadly never go to anymore, have all sorts of spell books and were really quite interesting.”

“One thing you missed, Mercutio-” Galen, an agricultural god, added “ -not one of the spells in those books work anymore.”

“On the contrary, my dear brother - they work just fine.”

Eyes widened across the room.  Mercutio found a spell that actually worked?  Finally, have their youngest brother done something useful in his immortal life instead of playing tricks on innocent mortals?

“Yes, we are separated from the natural realm.  However, that does not mean we still can’t influence what goes on.  This spell, called Arguo Solvo, can let me become unbound by the supernatural presence that binds us here in this castle for a limited amount of time.  After that, I enchanted the unicorn named Twilight - and the rest soon followed.”

No words could describe what the gods in the room were feeling right now.  Their youngest sibling, a trickster god, somehow found a way to enter the physical realm, undetected by the magic of the unicorns, and do his trickster god shenanigans.  This was a truly magnificent development.

“Mercutio, this... this is astounding!  This is unbelievable!”  Leander, a warrior god, was not very close to his brother than the other gods, but this truly made him proud.  The warrior god gave his trickster brother a great hug.  When he let him go, Constantine gave him a handshake of approval.  His sister, Aurelia, gave a simple nod.  Galen was still skeptical of the whole ordeal.

“But the spell only unbounds us for a limited time.  We are still trapped here, either way.”

“That may be so.  But I bet I can corrupt the spell just a teeny-tiny bit so we can leave the castle for a longer time,” Mercutio answered to Galen.

“How long were you unbound for?” asked the agriculture god.

“I say about... ten to fifteen minutes at least.”

Fifteen minutes?  Outside of the castle?  If the odds favored them, they could finally be released from their imprisonment.

“Like I said, I will see if I can corrupt the spell just a little bit.  And to think you all said I will never contribute anything to the pantheon.”

He was right.  A trickster god was always a negative to any pantheon.  They could still remember the time Loki almost caused Ragnarok by initiating a fight between Thor and Beowulf - for his own amusement. Well, at least their trickster god only performed harmless pranks.  He would never go that far... or would he?

“So, Twilight Sparkle the Unicorn is a dream sailor?” asked Isis.  She was a moon goddess, who was often jealous of the love and affection her alicorn counterpart was receiving.

“Yes she is, but it is only temporary.  It is not known when this new power will disappear, so she better enjoy it while it lasts.”  Mercutio mentally pat himself on his back for his new discovery.  It would soon be very likely and a real possibility that the Forgotten Gods would once again return to earth.

***

“Come on - Spike should be here soon.  Where is he?”  Twilight Sparkle paced around the living room.  It has been a few hours since she sent her letter to Princess Celestia.  “I hope Ditzy didn’t mix up the mail like last time.”

The front door opened to reveal Spike.  He did not look happy at today’s unfortunate developments.

“Hey, Twilight,” Spike said somberly.

“Spike! Where were you?”

“Well, me and the Crusaders met up with Ditzy.  She gave me the letter you wanted to give to Celestia, and well... one thing led to another and she had a little accident.  With Scootaloo.”

“Oh dear.  What happened to them?”

Spike wanted to tell what happened, but he did not want to into detail.  He was about to recount the day’s events when he felt a rumble inside his stomach.  He knew what that meant.

“Uh, Twilight?  I think thi--”

He let out a belch of green fire, and a parchment letter appeared in thin air.  Twilight immediately grabbed the letter with her magic and began reading its contents.

“You must be really excited about that letter, huh?”

“Yes, Spike!  I was waiting for the Princess to send me a response all day!  I wonder what she said.”

***

Dear Twilight Sparkle,

I have received your letter from this morning.  I must agree that this is very strange.  I have never known anypony who can enter the subconscious of others.  Unfortunately, not much is known about this phenomenon - I have checked the library in the Starswirl the Bearded Wing, but I could not find anything on the matter.  However, I have found one book written by a pegasus who have claimed to experience this phenomenon herself.  It looks insightful and I hope this book will help you find the answers you need.  I wish you the best of luck.

Your mentor,

Princess Celestia

***

“A book?  What book?  I don’t see a book?  Spike, do you see a book?”

Spike raised his finger, but felt another rumble inside his stomach.  He released another belch a green fire, which revealed the book Princess Celestia was writing about.  Twilight levitated the book to get a closer look.

“Dream Crossroads: A Journey Inside the Mind and Conscious by Rain Dancer. I can’t believe this is the only book available.”

“What are you talking about, Twi?” Spiked asked, confusingly.  She wasn’t acting strange this morning, but she seem really jittery now.  What happened?

“Oh, nothing, Spike.  It’s just for my studies, that’s all.  I doing a report on... the wind cycle.”

“Really?” Spike asked sarcastically.

“Of course!  You know me - I love learning about new things - like wind cycles!”  She pulled her best I-really-hope-Spike-buys-this-stupid-lie smile she could.  Spike shrugged and went on to his business.

“You know, if you wanted to learn about the wind cycle, why didn’t you just ask Rainbow Dash?”

“Don’t be silly, Spike - Rainbow Dash is sleeping.”  Twilight ran upstairs to the bedroom, with her book engulfed with magic.  Spike... had other business to attend to.

***

Twilight lay the book on her desk.  She skimmed through the book - the author really put so much effort to it.

“Okay.  Let’s read this.”

The first words didn’t come out of her mouth when she looked at the clock behind her - it was one o’clock.

“Oh my gosh!  I promised Fluttershy I had tea with her.  I can’t upset her again.”  She walked out her door, then stopped herself upon realization.

“Wait - what do I mean ‘again’? Last time was just a dream.  I am so confused.”  She walked downstairs and to the front door.  She saw her assistant slouching on the couch in the living room.

“Spike, I’m going to Fluttershy’s to have tea.  You can come if you want.”

“No, thanks.  I’m trying to forget about what happened today.  Tell ‘Shy I said hi.”

Twilight smiled and walked out the door and onwards toward the home of the yellow pegasus.

***

“I’m so glad you could make it, Twilight.  I was beginning to think you weren’t going to come”, Fluttershy happily said.

“I wouldn’t miss it for the world, Fluttershy.”  The two sip their tea cups and continued to talk about the days events.  Fluttershy had tremendous success with the potato-carrot stew, the likes of which Angel Bunny enjoyed very much (though he wouldn’t admit it).

“So Fluttershy, you were going to tell me about the dream you had last night?”

“Oh yes!  It was wonderful!  You and me were just enjoying ourselves on my island paradise.  We were listening to the birds singing, looking at all the amazing animals.  It was actually a dream I had for a while now, but seeing you there made it more special.”

Twilight giggled at Fluttershy.  If only she knew that was actually her.

“I’m glad you had a great dream.  It’s so nice to see you smiling again.  Recently, you’ve be so... down.  Anything wrong?”

“Oh... I... I never been really been happy since the “New Fluttershy” thing.  I didn’t realized I’ve hurt so many ponies.  The mailpony, the tourist... Rarity and Pinkie...”

Fluttershy’s eyes started to become watery.  Those horrible memories came flooding back to her.  Iron Will was a terrible person for spreading such lies, but Fluttershy was even more terrible for believing them and taking those lies to heart.  At least that what she thinks.

“Don’t worry, Fluttershy.  I’m sure everypony forgot about that day.  There’s no need to feel terrible about yourself.  Besides, Rarity and Pinkie Pie know you didn’t mean what you said,” Twilight reassured her friend.  Fluttershy felt a little better.  Not a lot of ponies are as forgiving as the lavender unicorn.

“Thanks, Twilight.”

The two finished their tea and talked about their plans for tomorrow.  Hours past and Twilight said goodbye to the timid pegasus.  She walked down the road straight to the library.  While she walked, she took a glance at the market square, and saw her cowpony friend.

“Hey Applejack.  I didn’t know you were still here.”

“Howdy there, Twilight.  Yeah, just doin’ some late customer service and all.  Care for some apples?”

Twilight took out some bits and put five apples in her saddlebag.  She could never say no to Sweet Apple Acres brand apples.

“Thanks for the apples.  I have to get back to the library - how about we catch up tomorrow?”

“Sure thing, Twilight.  Oh - that reminds me - I had a dream about you last night!  I ain’t got time to tell ya the whole details, but I can say that you and me had quite an adventure!”

Twilight didn’t know what to say.  This was surely the greatest event in Equestrian history.  She said goodbye to Applejack and went to the library, when Spike began cooking dinner.

“Twilight, dinner will be ready in twenty minutes!”

“Thanks, Spike.  I’ll be in the bedroom catching up on some studying.”

Twilight traveled up the stairs and into the bedroom.  She walked up to her desk and saw the book was still at the first page.  She took a deep breath and took another look at the book.

“Alright, Twilight.  Start reading.”

She read the first words of Chapter One.

“Dreams are illustrations from the book your soul is writing about you...”

Author’s note: I know this chapter seems shorter for some reason.  I honestly have no idea where I’m going with this story.  Stay tuned for Chapter Six - it will be longer this time!