Insomnia Advisory

by AizakkuHorooee

Act 2

In only just four hours, I am woken up, though not by sunlight. It’s still night out. I actually wake up to hoofsteps and wingbeats. Beside me is the fox pup that followed me from Sweet Feather Sanctuary, sleeping peacefully, but across Starlight’s old room…

“Cozy Glow? Chrysalis?” My two castlemates stop in front of me as I rub my eyes to see them better. “What’s going on?”

A worried Chrysalis lays in front of me on her stomach. “Aita… it’s about the other night… I don’t think it was the clouds that caused our insomnia.”

Okay, this is confusing. “What?”

“We dreamt a cockatrice was staring at us!” Cozy Glow urgently explained before pressing her cheeks. “It was so scary!”

“A cockatrice? I think I know what those are. Fluttershy scolded one nearly a decade ago in the Everfree Forest.”

As I ponder about the cockatrice Fluttershy faced, fur ticklingly shifts on my back and a soft whine comes from behind me, whose voice alone gives away the pup’s gender. Looks like the tod’s woken up too. He gets up and puts his paws on my side as I turn my head to him. He’s expectant of Cozy to do something; I just don’t know what. She lands on the ground with stiff wings, prompting the tod to climb over me, lay on his side again, and embrace Cozy in the foreleg.

“But if you’re having nightmares about being turned to stone, what’s causing them?”

“I don’t know, Aita,” answers Chrysalis. “But I do have an idea. We should talk to Twilight about it, and see if she knows.”

---

Hours later, with Chrysalis, Cozy Glow and the tod beside me, I teleport everyone to the Canterlot Castle throne room. In front of us is Princess Twilight.

“Twilight!” I exclaim, making Twilight giggle.

“It’s great to see you again, Aita. Tell me what’s happening.”

It takes some time to explain, but by the time I finish telling Twilight, we are nearing the Canterlot Archives.

“This is bad, Aita. It’s way beyond anything I’ve ever heard of. We’ll need Luna to help us figure it out.” Without missing a beat, the tod climbs up and rests his paw behind my horn, Twilight noticing as we enter. “Okay, little guy, what about Aita’s magic?”

The tod’s body language connects with Chrysalis as he returns to her and Cozy. “That’s right! Cozy and I, the other night, saw Aita studying Starlight Glimmer’s leftover spells from when she lived with you!”

I let out a nervous chuckle. “I didn’t have any time to clean up afterward, so he saw the scrolls too.”

“So what the fox is saying is… Aita should try to dream walk?” guesses Cozy, to which Twilight nods.

“My friends and I were once infected by the Tantabus years ago, so Luna went into our dreams to hunt it down. Cozy and Chrysalis might have something similar. Aita, if you could learn Luna’s spell, do you think you could help your friends the same way?” Twilight asks me, taking out one of the scrolls on the shelf directly across from the entrance.

I fly up face to face with her. “I’d do anything if it means they can sleep well again!”

The scroll starts floating to me, so I put my hooves in front of me to catch it as it lands. “That’s what I thought you’d say,” remarks Twilight. “I’ll get a room for you all.”

So, we depart from the Archives with the scroll in my hooves.

---

Twilight’s next destination for all four of us is the same suite Rarity stayed in for Twilight’s birthday eight and a half years ago. The two major changes to the room are the replacement of the typical queen bed with a shallow twin bed and two towel nests, and the addition of a litter box in the corner for the tod.

Once we enter, Chrysalis and Cozy are ready to fall asleep after spending breakfast and lunch waiting for our room to be ready, Chrysalis laying on one of the nests while Cozy takes the bed.

As I set down the scroll on the desk across from the litter box, and everyone else is ready, Twilight starts her way out. “Chrysalis, Cozy Glow, you two get some rest. Just let Aita take care of everything.”

The door closes behind Twilight, leaving me to wait to pick up on any snoring or purring. Once I do, I look to the tod, who approaches the remaining nest to take a nap himself. I guess I’m the only one in the room awake, but I have to be. I hover to see the spell and read it in my head. Once I have it down, I light up my horn and begin casting, closing my eyes in the process.

---

In my vision of the dream realm, I immediately notice two dreams that start out quite different, only having a school of some sort as a commonality initially. I enter one of them, most of it taking place somewhere in Ponyville. The other I’ll have to get back to later, since it almost exclusively takes place in the Everfree Forest.

Nearby I spot… “The CMC clubhouse? Whose dream is this? Did I get into the…”

My thoughts aloud are interrupted when my ears pick up sniffling in the background. Assurance I’m in one of the right dreams, I guess. I turn around and see Cozy Glow broken down in tears like when she explained her upbringing in Fillydelphia… except, it appears to be off, especially initially, though her elevating it made it progressively more convincing. Eh. I could buy it; Cozy managed to help me keep the scavenger hunt a secret because she was always a good liar when she needed to be. She even flawlessly blamed her insomnia on the bad weather yesterday.

I approach Cozy, only to see the CMC’s coming out to check on her.

I decide to let the dream continue, up until I find myself in some library, where the CMC are led by a young stallion. “COZY GLOW! I… I could’ve sworn I saw her come down this way when she left her office!”

Starlight told me about him once. Wasn’t his name Sandbar? Anyway, I follow the four of them down this tunnel below. The sight we see through one of the windows is a group of six artifacts acting as a mystical magnet with Starlight trapped in the magic orb above them.

Enjoying yourself in there, Starlight? I’m sorry I had to push you in, but what else could I do? You were going to ruin all. my. plans.

As Sandbar and the CMC gasp, I get thinking. This isn’t the Cozy I know. She would never push herself this far where I come from, let alone go full blown villain mode. I knew her future would’ve been dark without me and Chrysalis, but not this dark. Somehow I can still teleport to her area… actually, I know exactly why. This is a dream, so the magic drain here doesn’t affect me.

“Cozy! You can't do this!” I shout to her.

Cozy turns her head multiple times to the sound of my voice before spotting me. “An unreformed changeling?!? How did you know me?!?”

“It’s me! Aita! Don’t you remember?!?”

“I don’t know any changeling named Aita,” snarks Cozy.

Well, moment of truth. I take a deep breath. “Not for long…” I light my horn up and press it onto Cozy’s forehead. What results is a vision of the rest of the dream playing out like my intervention never happened, including finally meeting Chrysalis and Tirek through some goat, scaling a mountain for a bell, disturbing the last Summer Sun Celebration, and duking it out with Twilight and her friends in similar scenes to what I've witnessed first hoof. The last thing I see before letting go is Chrysalis, Tirek and Cozy being turned to stone at Discord’s request.

This last part of the dream breaks Cozy out of whatever timeline spell she was under and prompts her to shriek. “Aita? Where are we?” she asks me as she wonders around the room at a safe distance from the artifacts.

“Your dream. This whole thing would’ve happened if word didn’t get out to Fillydelphia about CHS Spitfire’s initial defeat.”

As I explain, Cozy becomes mortified at her alternate actions. “Oh golly! What would I’ve done?!?” She bear hugs me, sobbing genuine tears unlike what she did when I first entered her dream. “But… I don’t act like that now, do I?!?”

“Far from it, Cozy.” I light my horn and take us to the very space Luna used to occupy when she used this power. “There was a reason the tree of harmony sent me and Chrysalis to befriend you: to help you. And chances are… Chrysalis may be dreaming of something similar.”

Cozy and I come to one dream, one that takes place at the same school I witnessed in Cozy’s dream. A unicorn that looks quite a bit like Chrysalis takes photos of Twilight and her friends… and then Starlight when Pinkie reminds her.

Now I’ll get out of your manes. I know how busy you are.

As the mare leaves, Cozy and I look at each other. “Chrysalis?”

“Chrysalis,” she repeats after me before we run out of the headmare’s office.

We continue to gallop until we see the mare from earlier at the entrance of some forest a ways away. She sorts through all the crudely taken photos (minus Starlight’s).

Now I have everything I need.

“Chrysalis!” we call out, making the mare turn around and see us. And just like we knew, she turns into Chrysalis.

“A- a friendship school student? I don’t even recognize the uncorrupted changeling.”

“That would be Aita,” Cozy points out. “Don’t you remember?”

“Of course not! None of this even concerns you two anyway!”

I snicker at this Chrysalis’ sentiment. “Oh, let’s see about that…”

I light my horn again and flash through the rest of Chrysalis’ dream. It isn’t terribly long before I see the same thing basically. From meeting Cozy onward, the only differences I see are a proper first attempt at scaling Mt. Everhoof, and a battle with Starlight in the Frozen North and a truncated Canterlot Castle battle.

The next thing I know, Chrysalis is laying on the ground with a hoof atop her forehead where I put my horn. “Aita? Cozy?”

“Chrysalis!” Overjoyed, Cozy Glow and I jump in the air and hug Chrysalis, having witnessing the spell work a second time.

Chrysalis lets out a light chuckle and wraps her hoof around us. “It’s great to feel myself again… it was strange, though. When your spell put my dream on fast-forward, the entire sequence smelled… chaotic. Cozy, was it just a cockatrice the third time? I know I saw it.”

Cozy nods. “Yep, definitely a cockatrice.”

“I don’t think that was it, you two,” I correct as Cozy and I land back on the ground. “Using that link, I could’ve sworn Discord was at the end of those sequences.”

Chrysalis facehoofs. “Ugh, of course! Why didn’t we think of that before? The clouds, the nightmares…”

“What if Tirek had the same nightmare we did?” wonders Cozy. “He risked his life to help us and our friends defeat those baddies, and he used to be a major threat.”

“But he doesn’t live with us, Cozy,” Chrysalis counters. “Not even Aita had any nightmares.”

Well, only one way to find out. I light my horn, turning the whole scene white. Before I know it, the white fades into black and I’m near the ceiling of our room in Canterlot. Cozy and Chrysalis spring awake, not in fear or distress, but wonder. Seeing that is quite relieving.

“Good,” I sigh, landing back on the floor, greeted immediately by our new tod putting his paws on my shoulder. “You’re alright. Now, about Discord…”

Cozy and Chrysalis blink twice each, knowing exactly what’s going on now.