The City of Dreams

Spike was still screaming as his body reformed in a swirling ball of green fire in Canterlot's Royal throne room. In fact, it wasn't until Luna nudged him with a cobalt blue hoof that he actually opened his eyes to see what the afterlife looked like. Oddly enough, it seemed like normal life, and Spike was a tad bit disappointed that nothing was on fire like what he imagined Tartarus to be like, and nether were they up in the clouds eating mounds of gems like what dragon heaven was said to be like.

Then it hit him; he wasn't alone. Looking up Spike saw that both of the Royal Princesses where staring down at him. Celestia was standing in a regal pose with her colourful ethereal mane flowing in a non-existent breeze. Luna had returned to her sister's side and tried to imitate her elder sister's stance, but couldn't quite manage the poker-faced smile her sister always seemed to wear. Spike had a hard time deciding whether or not to be surprised or glad to see them as he bowed on reflex.

"Young Spike the Dragon," Luna said from beside her sister, "you wish to know what hath transpired with your friend Twilight and her friends do you not?" She asked raising navy blue eyebrow.

"Um yes, your majesties, that was why I sent my note," Spike said feeling a bit overwhelmed by the sudden turn of events.

"Then you might want to ask 'Him' to give you the details," Princess Celestia said as she pointed a golden shod hoof to the ceiling. Spike followed her hoof up and saw something that boggled every law of gravity.

Discord was sitting in a green velvet high backed chair with walking legs, he sat there sipping a cup of tea, (the cup, not the tea), while holding a book reading another smaller book in his other free hand. Looking quite relaxed as his chair took him from one corner of the roof to the other. He seemed to have finally noticed the new arrival and snapped his lion's fingers, and with that he reappeared in front of a startled Spike.

"Hmmm, so you want to know what happened to your dear little Twiright Sprinkler, eh dragon boy," Discord said looking amused.

"...Y-yes, that's r-right," Spike trembled in front of the god, he still had memories of when they had first met and Discord had unleashed Chaos onto Ponyville; but Spike put up his bravest scaly face as he confronted Discord.

"Well kudos to you kid for making it this far, but to be perfectly honest, even I don't know where she and her missfit friends are," Discord said as he created another chair, this time it was made out of pink jelly, and he promptly reclined into the jiggling mass.

"But...but they said that you could tell me," Spike said pointing to the two Royal Sisters, "You must have a way that I can help them, please, tell me something, anything!" Spike pleaded to the god of chaos getting on his hands and knees.

"You earn points for showing dedication, but it's the truth, I know what happened to them, but not where they may be," Discord pulled out a pipe and began to smoke bubbles filled with fish.

"What do you mean?" Spike asked looking up, curiosity and concern lacing his words.

The Draconequus let out a heavy sigh and looked at both Luna and Celestia, there was something in his eyes, as if he was looking through time itself to the past; the emotion of nostalgia was mirrored in the two mares. "I am responsible for these current events, though not immediately or directly. There was a time long ago that I did everything I could to stop the Elements of Harmony. In my attempts to do so I created many schemes and elaborate traps in order to foil my adversaries. One such trap was a scroll hidden away in some long forgotten ruin."

Spike could figure out the rest, "So that scroll was a trap all along? Then that means that the ritual to make the Elements powerful was created by you?!" Spike started to fell a rage boiling up in him like never before, "Discord! What have you done?!" Everyone in the throne room was surprised at the diminutive lizard's outburst.

"I know exactly what happened to your friends, and you can rest assured, they haven't met their end. Celery and Lulu over there tell me that they can still sense their life force, which means that they are still alive. What the scroll did was send them to another Universe parallel to ours, nothing more, and nothing less. Well, that, and it slightly changed them to fit in a bit I suppose, but that's for the better apparently. It would be a problem if talking ponies started popping up here and there," Discord said nonchalantly as he started to eat his chair.

"So that means you know how to get them back don't you?" Hope was still there, and Spike just had to find the way to rescue his friends from this crazy god.

"Well, yes I know how to get them back; but before you ask; no I can't do it," Discord took a bite out of the head rest of his half eaten chair, "By the way, do you girls have any whip cream? This chair could really use some right about now."

"To put it simply Spike, even Discord doesn't have the power to transport that many ponies from one Universe to another. He had to borrow the help of the Elements of Harmony in order to seal their own doom. And the same can be said in order to get them back home safely I'm afraid. The problem here is that we don't have the Element's power for a rescue mission," Celestia explained.

"And the only 'pony' with the knowledge to make a safe return trip is standing right in front of us," Luna said as she stared daggers into him.

"And that's the story so far. I need to get over there pronto, and reverse this mess before anything bad happens," The last of the jelly devoured, Discord licked his chops with a satisfied look.

There was one thing Spike had to ask though, "And why are you of all people willing to save the ponies that could easily stop you?"

Discord's mood shifted dramatically and suddenly as the magical being locked eyes with the drake in a brutal stare, "Unlike what most of you seem to think, I've changed from my old self. And although, you may mistrust me for good reason, there is still one pony amongst them that I can call a friend. And if anything were to happen to her, I could never forgive myself until the end of time, that's why I'm doing this," Discord's words didn't falter, and Spike was surprised that he was being completely honest and sincere.

Celestia stepped in between them and addressed Spike, "Spike, Discord has volunteered to go on a rescue expedition. He has the power to enter that world, but I still don't trust him well enough to send him alone," Celestia turned her head to see that Discord had turned himself into wide eyed puppy trying to look as innocent as possible, "So that is where you come in Spike. I need you to watch over him and make sure that he is true to his word. Originally my sister and I had discussed whether to send one of us along, but we still have our duties to attend to here in this world, and you seemed fit and willing to help in any way you could," Celestia's horn glowed as she levitated Spike's note over to him.

Spike looked over to Discord before he answered, "But Princess, I'm not sure if I can handle it," he said and lowered his head in resignation. His chin was soon lifted up with a gold and white hoof as Celestia gave him a warm smile. "I believe you can; and your ability to send and receive messages apparently still works from where ever you may be, even if it's a universe apart."

Discord snorted, "Oh please, it's not all that far really, especially compared to the other universes that there are out there. Those one's make this look like it's just a trip next door to barrow a cup of hay."

Spike gave it a moment of thought, but he knew that it was his time to prove himself as a hero that he always dreamed to be. There could be no second guessing, and no turning back. And with that, he made up his mind, "I'll do it," a fierce determination embedded in his reptilian green eyes.

"Great! Now that that's out of the way, let's get this show on the road!" Discord said in a jovial tone, as if this was all just a large game to him.

"Not so fast Discord," Luna spoke from across the room. And before Discord could do anything, Luna charged up her magic and zapped him and Spike both with her midnight blue magic. There wasn't even time for a protest as the magic quickly wound around them and then seemed to vanish into their skins and scales. Both of the boys were a little shocked, but otherwise they didn't feel any different.

"Luna, what the heck was that for?" Discord said a little miffed that he was just shot with magic.

Luna chuckled, "Oh don't you worry about it, it's just an extra safety measure, for the time being you two are now literally connected. You two are now connected with a magical tether with a leniency of a hundred hoof lengths or so. Just in case you think of doing anything like running away; and to make it interesting, I added it so that you now share each other's physical pain as well. Just in case you get any ideas," Luna smiled at her little countermeasure; Discord on the other hoof wasn't smiling. And when he tried stomping off to the other side of the grand hall he only made it about halfway there before he was yanked back to where Spike stood and crashed into the floor, "Lovely," he snorted, as the other inhabitants of the throne room shared a giggle behind their hoofs and claws.

Will Yawned as he entered the dining room; the aroma of cheese and baked bread turning his hunger into overdrive. The girls had already taken a slice of the pizzas and seemed to be enjoying the meal. Pinkie waved and tried to say something that sounded like "Good morning" around a mouthful of pizza; though the sun had already set, it didn't really seem to matter too much to the hyper pink girl.

"Evening Ladies, mind if I take a slice?" Will said as he pried open a cardboard box. "Mild with Extra Cheese," was written in a speech bubble above a chef wearing a luchador mask.

"Sure, you must be famished after missing a few meals," Liza said with a sly grin. Will saw it, and although he did want to know why his sister was grinning like a fox, he knew from experience that it was sometimes better to never ask why and simply let things happen. And so with the table's residents eyeing him, Will picked up a slice from his share, and bit into it.

The first thing that happened was a burning inside Will's mouth that made his taste buds catch fire as the extra hot sauce washed over them. Will's eyes started to water, and his face flushed brighter than a tomato. The girls then exploded into laughter as a crying, red faced Will started running back out of the room and into the kitchen to douse the rigged pizza with the sink tap. It wasn't until a full five minutes later that Will retuned with a scowl on his face.

"Lary?" Will gingerly asked; his tongue still sore.

"Lary," Liza stated matter-of-factly, sipping on her can of beer, as if the answer was self explanatory.

"Well then, maybe it's time I do another fly by over his crusty old joint. I'm sure he'll just love it," Will began plotting his revenge for the sabotage of his food; it may as well have been a declaration of war! But Liza stopped his devious plans in their tracks as she offered the other half of her Vegetarian Hawaiian, as an offering of peace, and so Will decided to let it slide this day.

Moments later, the cheese feast was devoured completely; Rainbow Dash had tried a piece of the extra hot pizza and found that she actually liked the spice. Dash made it a point to rub it into Will's face that she had tamed the beast, while he had run away like a foal. Things escalated from there, and it turned quickly into a contest on who could chug the most Tabasco sauce; Rainbow ended up winning that duel too, up to the point where they had a race to the bathroom to evacuate their bowels. When they came back to the table though, the two were laughing like old friends over the little contest; apparently they bonded from the duel. The others had to admit that it was all pretty silly and joined into the merry laughter.

Things wound down eventually, and they all sat there listening to Will's album of Pink Floyd as the calm tunes of Time washed from several speakers. Twilight wondered to herself what could have made most of the sounds, half of them sounded like nothing she had heard before back in Equestira. The beginning had confused her with all the bells and chimes, but after a moment it started to level out and it played like any other song Twilight had heard; the man's voice was calm and melancholic as he sung his lines.

She looked around and saw that both the brother and sister had their eyes closed as they listened. Liza looked slightly sad and Will had an unreadable expression played across his features. Twilight had gotten the hang of reading a few Human expressions since most were similar to Pony expressions; like smiling and frowning, laughing and brooding, but there was only so much she could tell without the help of ears and the subtle body expressions that ponies had.

"So, there's something that I've wanted to ask; if this isn't what you normally look like, and you say that you're some kind of sentient magical pony like thing, then what do you normally look like?" Will asked curiously.

"I guess I could try and draw you a picture," Rarity said as she levitated a piece of paper and pen from across the room. The whole magic thing still surprised Will and Liza, but they were getting used to it. Rarity set to work sketching what their true forms looked like with her horn, and when she was done she showed it to the group. "While this may never be worthy of Canterlot's art gallery, it should give you an idea of what we look like." In reality Rarity was being highly modest as she had crafted a highly detailed sketch of what the girls had looked like in roughly ten seconds flat.

Liza and Will both studied the piece of paper, "Heh, they look like Saturday morning cartoons," Liza barely suppressed a giggle. "Well I guess they weren't lying about the whole pony thing. Hey look at this sis, you girls even had tattoos on your asses! What would your parents think of that?!" Will succumbed to his laughter and rolled on the ground in a riot of snorts and snickers; If Liza didn't know better she would have guessed that she was related to a hyena.

"They're call'd Cutie Marks sugarcube, they represent our ow'n special talent an' such," but the name "Cutie Marks" only helped increase the level of cackling from below the table.

"Ahem," Twilight coughed, slightly embarrassed that they were being mocked, "Each pony gets one when they find out their special talent; Pinkie Pie's is balloons since she loves to throw parties, Fluttershy's are butterflies because she loves animals, and Applejack's is apples," again it was like throwing oil in a fire as a new tide of giggles came from Will.

"She's called Applejack for a reason then! So what can you do? Summon the dark lord of Apples or something funky like that?!" Will mocked.

"Wha-? No, 'O course not! Mah family is a strong believer in Celetia an' the Elements of Harmony! We would nev'er do a thin' like dark ponycraft!" AJ said with conviction, but at the mention of "Dark Ponycraft" Will's merry mockery reached its peak and he started to cough.

"Stop it, please, you're killing me! This is just too rich! And what next, you're ruled by a princess in a magical pony kingdom, full of talking animals and dragons I bet! I think Disney might just sue you're florescent asses to the moon if they found out about this!" But Liza ignored her brother; she seemed interested in what the girls were saying.

"I noticed them earlier when we were taking a bath, but I just thought that it was something that you chose to have done. But it sounds really interesting actually; most Humans spend most of their lives trying to find out what makes them special. You're lucky that you can have something like that to help you know what makes you different, and unique. But tell me something; doesn't it hurt when you get them? And who dictates what they are?" Liza asked fascinated.

"Well um, no, they appear all of a sudden when you know what it is that you love to do, and it doesn't hurt in the least," Fluttershy reassured.

"Interesting...But there's something else here in the picture. Two of you have wings, two with horns, and the last two have nothing and appear to be the most normal, why is that?" Liza's eyes shined with curiosity, the inner scientist taking over.

Twilight decided that she should carry the conversation from there on, being the living library that she was. "Well, our traits seemed to have stuck with us when we traveled here and took on these new forms. Rarity and I can still use our magic, and I believe that Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy might still be able to fly with their wings, though it's hard to say unless they try," Dash and Fluttershy hadn't bothered trying to fly just yet since they were still getting used to the change, so they decided to wait a day or two before they stretched their wings and took to the sky.

"Yes, I can see that, but what about Applejack and Pinkie Pie?" Liza questioned, "Do they have something special about them, a certain power or trait perhaps?"

"Well, with Pinkie it's hard to tell; but Earth Ponies don't have any magic, and they can't fly ether. What makes them special is that they have more strength and durability, so they usually tend to do the hard working and labor orientated jobs. For example; Applejack helps run her family apple orchard, and is the strongest out of all of us," Twilight peered back at Liza and found that she was taking notes on a small thin slab much like the TV, though Twilight didn't mind, it meant that someone was also keen to learn like she was.

"Alright, I think I have only one more question for now, what I'd like to know is how did you even get here? And why?" Liza leaned forward as much as she could in her wheelchair, keen inquisitiveness shown on her face.

Twilight had to ponder this for a second; even the other girls had started to intently listen to what she had to say, "To be completely honest, I don't exactly know for sure, we never intended to come here. It was all just an accident, and it happened so quickly..." Twilight still felt that shame of dragging her friends into this mess, and even if they did forgive her, it was another thing to forgive oneself, "But what did lead up to us coming to your world was our efforts to enhance the Elements of Harmony in an Ancient Ritual, we followed everything to the letter, and yet here we are."

Liza put down her data pad, and massaged her forehead with her index finger and thumb. "So this means that if we don't get your fancy magical ornaments back, you can't get home. That correct?"

"Yes, if we don't have the Elements, then there is no way we can return. But don't worry, they can only work with us since we all have a deep connection to the element that we represent, to anypony else they might as well be an expensive paperweight."

"Well, that clears a few things up; but what has me wondering, is that mysterious scroll that you mentioned. You said that you followed everything to the letter, and that it was supposed to go all according to plan. Yet it didn't. Instead, you and your friends are cast away into another land," Will spoke up, apparently sobering up enough to keep a straight face.

"...what are you getting at Will?" Twilight had to ask since he seemed to be onto something.

"And you say that you were capable of doing this weird voodoo ritual...what I think, is that there was something wrong with the scroll to begin with, and that is the cause of all this," the words hung in the air as each contemplated the implications.

"But that can't be, I've studied that piece of parchment a hundred times, there's no way it would do this," Twilight defended, she was sure that everything had been analyzed and properly translated.

"Hey, this is just a shot in the dark. All it sounds like to me is that this scroll is the root of this clusterfuck. But I think this should be a bit of a warning still, if that scroll was the culprit, then how can you be so sure that repeating the same thing as before will be any better. Heck, it might even send you out into space for all we know," And although Twilight didn't like to admit that somepony, or something, with no real experience with magic could try and tell her what she should and shouldn't do with magic, she knew that he was right, and that they needed a solid plan before doing anything with the Elements.

"Alright, I'll think about what you said and try and find out the cause of the glitch in the spell was before we use them again," Twilight reassured.

"Sounds like a plan," Will then went back to sipping his nearly empty beer bottle.

Then a thought flashed into Twilight's head, and since the siblings had been asking them questions, she thought that it was only right to ask them some too. "Hey Will, don't you have anyone else living with you?" The house seemed a bit too big for just them, and when Twilight had walked along a hallway she had seen a few extra bedrooms than the two really needed.

Will took a sip from his beer and fixed Twilight with a soft smile, "No, not anymore. We used to live with our father when he moved us down stateside a few years back, but he isn't around anymore."

"Well, when is he going to be back? I think we should invite him back and have a super large party just for him!" Pinkie said with a cheery smile, she hadn't noticed the pained sadness in his words, but the others had.

"Um, I'm sorry if we made you feel uncomfortable. Pinkie didn't know..." Fluttershy spoke in an empathetic apology, tears brewing in the corners of her eyes.

"Know about what?" Pinkie asked innocently, still oblivious to what was happening.

"Oh don't worry too much about it; we've healed those wounds over the years. And besides, you just asked an innocent question, there's nothing to apologize for really," Liza said as she waved their concern away.

"Our dad passed away four years back in an accident. It's also why stumpy over there has that set of wheels," Will gestured to Liza, "it comes with being a pilot I guess. Every time you go up in the air there's always a possibility that something can go wrong," will said with another swig from his bottle.

"Wait, what do you mean 'every time you go UP in the Air'?" Dash asked raising an eyebrow, "You don't have any wings."

Will pointed a finger up to his father's collection of model aircraft hanging from the ceiling, "We go up in those."

RD laughed, "up in those?! I don't think you could fit in it Mr.I-can-fly!" she scoffed.

"Well obviously not those exact things, those are just models of the real deal. The originals are easily a hundred times larger. In fact, I think that tomorrow I'll even give you a little show to prove how awesome they really are!" Will declared; his beer now empty and cast with several others nearby.