//------------------------------//
// Chapter Six — Dreamland 
// Story: Diamond of Desire 
// by GaryOak 
//------------------------------//


Chapter Six
Dreamland
===============

Twilight leaned forward and wrapped Applejack in a tight embrace. She felt her friend nuzzle her chest and silently sob into it. As much as it hurt to see her like this, Twilight was proud of Applejack. She alone had resisted Daybreak's temptation without help.
Twilight patted her friend on the back. In comforting Applejack she too began to recover from her illusory ordeal. She already found herself pining for the fantasy library Daybreak had conjured for her, but it was just that—a fantasy.
After several long minutes with no sounds aside from the faint crackling of torches, Applejack's subdued weeping, and her own breathing filling the room, Twilight pulled back. “Listen, Applejack, I have to go now.”
“Go?”
“Yes.” Twilight looked to the four others behind her. “They're all trapped within Daybreak's illusion like we were. I need to save them.”
Applejack swallowed several times and wiped her eyes. “How do you mean? When I woke up, I shook 'em, includin' you, and nopony budged.”
“The only way out is to reject the temptation Daybreak created,” Twilight said. “Princess Luna showed me the world that Daybreak created there—and will create here—if I let myself do nothing but study. You were the only one who was wise enough to lose her illusion on her own.”
Applejack propped herself against the wall and stared at Twilight with trembling lips.
Twilight gave her the broadest smile she could manage. “You were incredible.”
“Thanks, Twi.” Applejack took a long, shuddering breath. “Do ya need my help? I can come with you... even if it means sayin' goodbye a third time...”
Twilight forced herself to stand and resist the urge to hug Applejack again. She had to be strong. “No. Even if I could bring you with me, I don't want you to have to go through that again. I'm only able to enter the illusion again because Princess Luna will mask what I'll be doing. More ponies in there who aren't under Daybreak's influence will only increase the risk of us getting caught, and if that happens...”
Applejack clutched her hat like a pillow. “I understand. I'll be waitin' for you.”
Magic thrummed in Twilight's horn. As she approached Pinkie Pie, she mentally ran through Luna's instructions: tap and listen. Nervousness slowed her progress, but she lowered her horn and brought it to Pinkie's temple. Immediately, a current of strange magic touched her mind. The suddenness of it made her gasp, but she remained still.
Twilight took a deep breath and shut her eyes. She felt herself standing upon the bank of a river. Arcane magic flowed up and down through its bends. Without being able to see where it streamed to, she knew the lakes between it were consciousnesses—her friends. She dove in.
Her body, weightless as the air, rushed through the ethereal slipstream. Or, Twilight thought, I've left my body behind. It felt like being caught in a wind tunnel or a rush of cool water, but she did not feel her hair being blown about, nor did she feel wet. The sensation stopped without warning. Her hooves touched cobblestone, and she opened her eyes.
Twilight stood outside a two-story house whose architecture resembled Ponyville’s, though a quick glance around told her she was in a town she had never seen before. Coloured light pulsed from the windows, each flash moving down the spectrum in a gradient.
Her body felt odd, like it was not all there. She looked at herself, and she appeared normal, but she felt lighter. Curious, she bent her legs and jumped, only going a couple of feet into the air before gravity took over. With weightlessness no longer a possibility, she continued to wonder what this odd feeling was.
Unfamiliar dexterity sparked in her mind, almost as if she had another limb she could control just like her legs and wings. Yet her body was as normal for her as it had ever been. Wait a second, she thought, I'm dreamwalking! When she thought of the way Luna had been able to disappear and reappear at will, she imagined herself at the approach to Canterlot.
In an instant, she stood beside the road. It was dusk, and the marching ponies had set up camp for the night. None seemed to notice her. She realized she was invisible to them, and would remain so until she decided to appear. Experimentally, she willed herself to float. Her form appeared high above the ponies, exactly where she imagined it. She felt gaseous as she drifted above them.
A thought tugged hard at her mind. If she wanted, she could teleport back to that library and read just one more book. A book or two couldn't hurt, could it? At the least, she could finish the book she had her snout buried in when Luna appeared to her. But one look at the setting sun reminded her of the monstrous Daybreak statues, their twin sneers taunting her.
With a flex of her new powers, she materialized in front of the building where she had first arrived. She tried to knock on the door, but her hoof phased through it. I'm incorporeal, she thought. This must be how Luna can move through ponies' dreams before she appears to them.
Twilight stepped through the door. She stood in the middle of a chaotic living room. The tables, chairs, and couches lay in a haphazard heap against the walls. The largest couch was propped upright on the stairs, forming a makeshift barricade. The doors leading to the kitchen had a gigantic padlock and chains fastened to the knobs. Strobe lights taped to the ceiling flashed the colours Twilight had seen through the windows.
In the centre of it all, Pinkie, who wore a jester's cap and clown nose, cartwheeled about, her movements fueled by manic energy. Fillies, colts, mares, and stallions of all descriptions lay scattered about the floor, some on discarded sofa cushions. Had their chests not been rising and falling with the slowness of sleep, the room would have looked like a twisted murder scene littered with streamers, balloons, and confetti.
Twilight willed herself to materialize. The semi-weightlessness vanished. Pinkie stopped mid-cartwheel, falling flat on her face.
She hopped up and laughed at herself. “Twilight? How'd you do that? Neat party trick!”
“Party? Pinkie, everypony's sleeping.”
Pinkie swiveled her head round the room. “Oh, I guess these wimpy ponies are overloaded already. Psssh, I've only been here for ten hours.”
Twilight gawped at her. The ponies around them looked exhausted enough to sleep for a week. “Ten hours? What in the hay is this? Where is this?”
“How do you not know where we are?” Pinkie covered her mouth with her hooves and snickered. “This is Hoofington, silly. I've been traveling around Equestria, throwing the greatest party ever! It's the greatest because it never ends.” She pointed to the wall behind Twilight. “I call it the Mandatory Fun party.”
Twilight's eyes followed Pinkie's forehoof. Next to the front door—padlocked similarly to the one opposite it—she saw two posters. One was a Wonderbolts poster that depicted Rainbow Dash performing a Sonic Rainboom, and the other was of a grim-looking Pinkie clad in her jester's cap. She stood superimposed over an army of marching ponies wearing party hats. The words “MANDATORY FUN” were emblazoned on the bottom.
Twilight clapped her forehead with a hoof. Did her library fantasy look this absurd to Luna? She heaved a deep breath and turned around. “Pinkie, there's something I have to tell you,” she said.
Pinkie bounced up and down, but remained in place. “Ooh, what is it. Twilight?”
“This isn't real. None of it is. You're trapped in an illusion created by Daybreak Aurora.”
Pinkie froze in place. Then she clutched her belly and fell on the floor, overcome with side-shattering laughter. “Wow! That's hilarious.”
“I'm serious.”
At this, Pinkie laughed even harder.
“Pinkie, please.” The hardness vanished from Twilight's voice. A low, earnest tone took its place. “You've got to listen to me. Look around you. These ponies are passed out. You've barred the doors, for pony's sake. Where are your friends? Where are our friends?”
Pinkie stood and leaned close to Twilight. A grim frown tugged at her features. “You're trying to poop my party. Nopony poops the Mandatory Fun party!” She grabbed Twilight's head and shoved it into the poster. In tiny print, the words “Absolutely NO pooping of parties!” were written in the bottom-left corner. “See?”
Twilight wriggled free of her friend's grasp and stood by the door. “Come on. You have to break free! Daybreak created the illusions based around each of our greatest desires. The only way out is to realize what's going on and reject them.”
“And what was yours? Some big, stuffy library all to yourself?” Pinkie sat and folded her forelegs. “I've decided you're too boring for this party. You've put everypony to sleep. Look! You should go somewhere just as boring as you are, like the Crystal Empire.”
“Why would I want to go north?”
“Who said anything about north?” Pinkie chuckled. “I'm talking about Ponyville!”
Twilight's mind reeled. “Ponyville?” She wondered what Pinkie meant. No matter how crazy what she said sounded, there was always an underlying truth to it, even if it was not readily apparent. “Pinkie, what do you mean?”
Pinkie reached into her cap and produced a large iron key. She inserted it into the padlock and turned. With a clunk, the lock released, and the chains clattered to the ground. “You'll see. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to move the party to the other side of Hoofington.”
Humming to herself, Pinkie bounced about the room and produced a massive trunk from behind one of the couches. She began packing her paraphernalia inside it at a frightening speed. Twilight debated doing what Luna had done for her and showing Pinkie the approach to Canterlot, but she realized it would do little good; in fact, it would likely encourage Pinkie to party even harder.
Panic set in. Pinkie seemed beyond convincing. Luna made it look so easy. Only now did Twilight fully appreciate how out of her element she was. There had to be a way—just had to. But she could not see it. She thought back to Pinkie's words. They made no sense, but then perhaps they did. Perhaps the solution to freeing Pinkie lay somewhere in Ponyville.
She had to try. With dreamwalking, she could move about this illusory Equestria at will. Twilight closed her eyes and imagined herself in the middle of Ponyville. The clattering of Pinkie bustling about faded. Silence met Twilight's ears. Worried she had miscalculated her target destination, she looked around.
For a moment, her heart stopped.
She stood in Ponyville, but not the Ponyville she remembered. All around her, structures sat encased in light-blue crystal. Only a few buildings remained intact. It took her a minute to figure out she was in the middle of Ponyville's high street, a place normally bustling with life; but now, thanks to the mysterious crystals, it had all the livelihood of a cemetery. It had become daytime during her seemingly instantaneous travel between Hoofington and here. She surmised the passage of time somehow bent upon her necessity.
As she observed her surroundings more closely, she grew more horrified. Crystal formations populated the streets. Within those formations, ponies stood frozen in various poses. A mother and filly were handing bits to a stallion selling saddlebags; several colts were in the middle of kicking a ball around; a mare held a flower sandwich to her muzzle, preparing to take a bite; and there were many more.
They all had one feature in common: expressions of pure, utter terror. Who could have done this? Twilight wondered. She flew above the buildings and searched for the pony responsible. Her first instinct was Daybreak, but Daybreak's magic crystals were yellow. It also made no sense for Daybreak to do this to Ponyville in an imaginary world constructed to trap Twilight and her friends.
Twilight could see only a few structures in the entire town that had not succumbed to the crystals. Her eyes scanned them. “No... it can't be,” she said.
The Carousel Boutique remained among the free buildings. Twilight headed toward it. Dozens of ponies were arranged on the lawn like a diorama of crystallized garden gnomes. The display sickened her. She had to remind herself over and over that none of this was real, and those were not real ponies suffering.
Her hooves touched down on the Boutique's doormat. Even the air around her felt still and dead. She did not want to believe it, but the ponies around her and the colour of the crystals—the same as Rarity's magic—led her to believe it could not be anypony else. Gulping, she opened the door and stepped inside.
Rarity, wearing a flowing, diamond-studded blue dress, sat in the middle of what was once her shop. The floor had been cleared completely, except for one crystal formation in the centre. Inside it, Sweetie Belle and Opalescence were caught in mid-run. Rarity stared admiringly at it like she would at a stallion in the centrefold of a Cosmarepolitan magazine.
Twilight approached until she stood next to her. She cleared her throat.
Rarity's head snapped up. “Twilight? What—?”
“What is the meaning of this, Rarity? Was this your doing?” More anger than Twilight wanted slipped into her voice. She silently berated herself as Rarity flinched. She needed to help Rarity save herself, not be terrified of her.
“Was what my doing?” Rarity said. “You mean this?” She gestured at her petrified sister and cat. “Oh, why, yes. This is the culmination of my life's work, darling. I have created true beauty!”
Twilight could not decide if this or Pinkie's Mandatory Fun party was weirder. “Explain.” The sickening display around her forced her to resort to simple, curt commands to keep her temper in check.
“Normally, I wouldn't reveal the secret of my genius to anypony, but since I haven't seen you in so long...” The eagerness permeating her body language made her look like she wanted to tell all of Equestria. “So, I was designing my dresses as usual, such as the piece I'm wearing, but I thought, 'How could I take it a step further?' I knew I could do better. And then it came to me one night in a dream.”
Rarity chuckled. “I know it sounds cliche, but it's the truth. My destiny, my true destiny, was to create true beauty. I knew what I had to do. I would seek ponies and buildings out and wait until they were at their most beautiful. You see, my dresses made others more beautiful, but if I used a crystallization spell on a pony when he or she was in his or her most beautiful moment, I could capture that beauty forever. Fashions change, dresses are damaged and need repair, and one must have an ensemble of clothes in order to maintain fabulosity. But this...”
Twilight had heard enough. She brought her hoof down. “This is cruel!”
Rarity's ears twitched. “Cruel? Come, dear, this is the greatest gift of all. Ponyville is now the most spectacular town in all of Equestria. These ponies are part of something positively gorgeous.”
“You froze Sweetie Belle. Your own sister.”
“What of it?” Rarity ran a forehoof along the crystal above Sweetie's head. “She was the first I performed the spell on. Of course, she didn't appreciate my vision at first, but one must start somewhere. I'm sure she'd understand now that my work is done.”
“You've frozen ponies in crystal. How is that beautiful?” Twilight's chest heaved. She flared her wings and pressed her ears against her head. “Don't you see it? It's all around you. You've put beauty above all else, even your own family. You're not the Element of Generosity anymore. You're doing evil’s work.”
Rarity sprang to her hooves and bared her teeth at Twilight. “Evil? How dare you! You come into my home, and you have the gall to insult my life's greatest work.”
“All this,” Twilight said, waving a hoof at Sweetie Belle and the door behind her, “is a trap constructed by Daybreak Aurora. She's turned your ambitions against you—warped them into... this. Is this what you really want?”
Rarity frowned. “Daybreak Aurora? Who might that be?”
“The tyrant who sits on Equestria's throne while you're imprisoned here,” Twilight said. “Give it up. Free your sister, and come with me. If these crystals are really a reflection of who you truly are and the extent of your ambitions... you are no better than she.”
“That's enough.” An unsettling calm filled Rarity's words. “There's only one way I'm getting through to you.” Her horn crackled, sparks shooting from its tip. “In your case, understanding of the perfection I have created will only come through... experiencing it!”
Before Twilight could react, Rarity fired a burst of magic. It struck Twilight square in the chest. Immediately, she felt a rigid sensation creeping through her body. She looked down. Solid blue crystal began to sprout from her chest and spread, rippling atop her coat in an invisible wave. Her eyes darted around the room, searching for something—anything—she could use to stop the spell.
She found nothing.
Twilight closed her eyes and did the only thing she could think of: reach out with her new-found dreamwalking magic. She—crystals still growing on her—and Rarity appeared in the Canterlot throne room. Daybreak lounged on the throne, while Celestia and Luna remained trapped in yellow crystal prisons.
Rarity looked at them, then at Twilight. “I don't understand. What is this?”
“Reality,” Twilight grunted. Feeling fled her limbs, and talking was difficult. She could not free herself with her magic or even her dreamwalking abilities. If she became completely frozen, what would happen? Would she remain trapped in this world forever?
“What do you mean?”
“Look at the Princesses,” Twilight said. The crystal began to creep up her neck. “Daybreak usurped the throne by doing this to them—what you're doing to me right now.”
Rarity paused. Her expression resembled that of somepony who had just heard a massive pane of glass shatter right beside her. “But it's different. What this... whatever it is... did to Princess Celestia and Princess Luna is monstrous. She trapped them in horrid yellow crystal for personal gain, whereas my cause is noble. I did it to preserve beauty!”
The encroaching crystal reached Twilight's jaw. “Is it so different?” She tried to say more, but the crystal sealed her muzzle shut. Her vision clouded over as she was almost completely sealed in Rarity's magic. The hazy vision of Daybreak's throne room gave way to the Carousel Boutique once more.
She vaguely saw Rarity, panic-stricken, pawing at her and shooting another beam of magic. If she said anything, Twilight could not hear it. A sharp crack split her eardrums. Another louder crack followed it, and Twilight found herself sprawled on the floor, surrounded by a million tiny crystalline splinters.
Rarity stood over her, a forehoof extended. “Twilight, are you all right?”
Coughing, Twilight accepted her friend's hoof and groggily stood back up. “I... I think so. Wait.” A smile blossomed across her muzzle. “You reversed the spell!”
“I had to.”
The crystal that had once encapsulated Twilight evaporated into a magical haze.
“I don't understand it. I was so absorbed in what I wanted, I couldn't see what I was really doing. It wasn't until I saw someone else doing it that I realized.”
Twilight hugged her. “I was trapped here, too, and so was Applejack. Pinkie, Rainbow, and Fluttershy are still here, somewhere.”
“Mmm... and where is here, exactly?”
Twilight stepped back and explained the dream-world. “... and so, the only way out is by letting go, giving up the temptation Daybreak gave you.”
“Oh, is that all?” Rarity said with a laugh. “Now that I'm not drunk from the poison she gave me, so to speak, that's easy. So you say that once I release Sweetie Belle, I'll leave this world?”
“I think so,” Twilight said.
Magic gleamed around Rarity's horn. “Before I leave, I think I can help you.” She launched her magic at the crystalized Sweetie Belle in a hair-thick cutting beam. It traced along the crystal with a surgeon's precision. “Fluttershy is in her cottage, I think. She's surrounded it with thick metal bars and won't allow anypony inside.” Sweetie's crystal prison issued a sharp crack.
“Thank you, Rarity.” Twilight watched with fascination as Rarity finished her spell. The crystal began to fracture. In a few seconds, it would shatter, just like her prison did. “I'll see you on the other side. I'll probably look a bit silly when you wake up, but don't worry. Just... please, try to comfort Applejack. She needs a friend right now.”
Confusion crossed Rarity's face. “All right. I'll keep that in mind.”
The crystal shattered, and Sweetie and Opal tumbled free. Rarity scooped up their prone forms. Immediately, they blurred like pencil sketches swiped by an eraser. “Oh, and the centre of town will—”
Rarity, Sweetie Belle, and Opalescence winked out of existence, leaving Twilight alone in the Boutique. Wondering what Rarity was trying to say, Twilight instantaneously traversed the length of Ponyville and appeared at the front door of Fluttershy's cottage.
Thick steel bars surrounded it. They were too close together to stick a hoof between. A pony-sized door on the path to the cottage served as the only exit, and it had not one, but three keyholes.
Twilight tentatively raised a forehoof and rapped on the door.
“Who's there?” Gone was the softness in Fluttershy's voice. It sounded harsh, almost gravelly.
“It's me—Twilight.” The harshness of the challenge had left her rattled.
“Are you clean?” Her voice was louder than before. Twilight guessed Fluttershy stood next to the door. She had no idea why she was acting this way, or why she had surrounded her cottage with bars that looked like they could withstand an avalanche.
“Of course I am,” Twilight said with an eye roll. “What kind of question is that?”
“How can I be sure?”
“Fluttershy, just let me in.”
“I can't put the animals in danger,” Fluttershy grunted with the ferocity of a mother bear. “You won't lay a hoof on them, understand?”
“Okay, okay!”
The door creaked open, and Twilight could not have prepared herself for what it revealed.