"Should we round up the others?" Sky Blue asked her friend Sweetie Belle. "Or should we go without them?"
"As much as Scootaloo would love to fight ancient Tartaran beasts, she's joining this year's flying competition." Sweetie replied. "And Applebloom has to work with her family on the farm."
"I thought Scootaloo couldn't fly!" Sky responded.
"So did I, but apparently Peewee the Phoenix returned and gave her some magic feathers or something." Sweetie explained.
"Isn't Peewee only two years old, though?" Sky asked. "And don't phoenixes age slower than other creatures?"
"No, they just revitalise when they die." Sweetie replied. "They're not like alicorns. They're truly immortal, whereas alicorns live for hundreds of thousands if not millions of years."
"That's amazing!" Sky exclaimed in wonderment. "Phoenix Swift and Phoenix Blade were in the Junior Wonderbolts Derby, and they were tied for second place, below my coltfriend Flaming Thunder. They're the twin sons of Fiery Storm, the legendary Wonderbolt. They were named after the bird, of course."
"What does this have to do with Peewee?" Sweetie asked? "Other than the species, I mean."
"Nothing, really. I just thought I'd mention it." Sky replied casually.
"Are you out of your mind?" Sweetie asked. "Why are you wasting time? We only have two hours until the sun comes up! We can't let Twilight know we're using her Cutie Map to teleport to the Chaos Dimension!"
"Are you out of your mind? You stole my catchphrase!" Sky responded. "And why do we need to go to the Chaos Dimension? Aren't we supposed to go to Tartarus?"
"The quickest way to Tartarus is through the Chaos Dimension, so we need to take a quick not-so-detourish detour." Sweetie explained. "That way we can get there faster and seek out Discord's help."
"This is love, this is war, this is pure insanity!" Sky sang. "Dimentio, you're driving me crazy!"
"As much as I love music, we can wait for Discord to sing the song." Sweetie replied. She then began humming Discord's "Glass of Water" song to herself.
"Hypocrite" Sky whispered under her breath.
"I heard that." Sweetie replied. "My main talent may be helping others, but my secondary one is sonic resonance. I'm a singer, don'tcha know?"
"I know, Sweetie Belle." Sky answered. "I'm sorry. We need to focus on getting to Midnight's... I mean... Twilight's Castle of Friendship."
"Why do you keep calling Twilight by your sister's name, Sky?" Sweetie Belle asked. "You know they're not the same pony, don't you?"
"I know, I know." Sky answered. "It's just that... I miss her. And I see so much of her in Twilight. The comforting hugs, the glint in her eyes, and the concern for her friends. They have so much in common. Not just that their names are both times of night. I just wish you could've met her before she left."
"Isn't she in the Crystal Empire?" Sweetie asked. "Maybe we could go there after destroying the Nether Emerald. For now, we should focus on the task at hoof. We need to use the Cutie Map and stop the cataclysm! Onward, to the Castle of Friendship!"
"You seem to be forgetting that it's still not even four in the morning." Sky replied. "We need to not be seen or heard." Sky blinked. Before she could open her eyes, she and Sweetie teleported to the throne room of the Castle of Friendship. "I expected you to be able to teleport us, Sweetie Belle."
"That wasn't me." Sweetie replied. "Somepony else must have done it. Can't imagine who it would be, though."
"I heard you wanted to go to the Chaos Dimension." A familiar voice said. "Only a draconequus or similar immortal creature can take you there. But it'll cost you... You must express no emotion whilst there. The flying badgers would find it and feed off it the way that the Changelings do... or did, before they were reformed."
"Discord?" Sky and Sweetie asked at the same time, and he said his own name.
"Jinx!" Discord exclaimed. "Your silence will make it easier to avoid expression."
"Mph!" Sky tried to speak, but her lips stayed sealed. "Mph! Mmmm!"
"That's how a real jinx works, amateurs." Discord replied. "Now, just one more thing..." Discord snapped his claws, and instantly the two fillies each had a bubble around their heads. "There is oxygen in the Chaos Dimension, but it wanders all over the skies, so it'd be safer with those bubbles around your heads. Obviously I don't need one, since I'm the Lord of Chaos and don't need to breathe. Even a half second of asphyxiation could kill you two though, so teleporting to Tartarus would be dangerous without those bubbles."
Would it kill Discord to stop rubbing his ability to survive his own home in our faces? Sky thought. I wish I could give him a piece of my mind, because he's clearly out of his.
"As you may know, the Chaos Dimension was created by my late ancestors, who vanished shortly after its creation. As the last of my kind, it is my sworn duty to protect the chaos in the Chaos Dimension from being interfered with by the... ugh... normality of the quote-unquote 'real world' and its inhabitants. It is for that reason that the creatures attack any non-draconequus who isn't accompanied by me."
After another snap of Discord's claws, starless skies once again filled Sky's cone of vision. Only this time, there were supernatural creatures in said skies. Before Sky or Sweetie could identify them, Discord snapped his claws again and teleported the three of them to the gates of Tartarus. The bubbles had worn off, but the two CMC fillies were still jinxed. "Mph!"
"Sky Blue and Sweetie Belle." Discord stated. The jinx was then lifted. "Now I see there was no real point in jinxing you... other than the sheer fun of it." When the three of them actually got a good look of this place, they noticed that the three-headed guard dog, Cerberus, was nowhere to be seen. "That's odd..." Discord noted. "What ever happened to Tirek? Without Cerberus, he could escape from here again!"
"It's worse than that." Sweetie replied. "Without a guard, all of the evil beasts could escape. Tirek, Antasma, Queen Arachne, The Wither Storm, The Dark Star, The Paradox Myst, and the rest!"
"Aren't you forgetting one?" Sky asked. "Dimentio?"
"I said 'and the rest' didn't I?" Sweetie responded. "What matters is that they're all free, whether they're in here or not. We should start looking for that stone now... before any of them find out we're here."
"Um... Sweetie Belle?" Sky asked. "I think it's too late for that!" Sky pointed her hoof to the cloud of purple smoke hovering above them.
"ANTASMA!" Sweetie exclaimed. "Quick, Discord, make a magic pillow!"
"I already know what Antasma does, little one." Discord replied. "One giant magic pillow, coming right up!" And like that, with a snap of his claws, Discord created a relic of the Pi'illo civilisation: a dream portal pillow. "Quick, rest on it!"
"Are you out of your mind?" Sky asked. "How can we sleep at a time like this?"
"This pillow creates dream portals, Sky." Sweetie explained. "Sleeping on it will allow us to enter the dreams of everyone in the same Dreampoint. With this, we can show that nightmare king the true meaning of terror! Sleep on it right now!"
Sky laid her head to rest on the pillow, but it didn't do anything. "What gives?" She asked. "I don't feel any dream portal!"
"I forgot it only works if your brain wavelength is the same as that of the Pi'illo people." Sweetie mentioned. "Let me try." As soon as Sweetie rested her head on the pillow, a cloud of iridescent smoke appeared. Sky jumped in, while Discord just stood there and watched.
After Sky entered the portal, it closed up. Sky was in the dream world, and there was the dream world version of Sweetie Belle right beside her. "Hello?" Sky asked. "What should I do to find a way out? Can you help me, Sweetie Belle?"
"I am not Sweetie Belle." The dream world Sweetie Belle replied. "Or, at least, not as you know her. I am... Dreamy Sweetie! You must wake the real me up to make the portal open up again. Find something that gives my dream a great shock, and use it to wake up the real me. I suggest confronting the spirit of the Nether Emerald."
Sky, now knowing vaguely what to do, went towards a source of glowing green light. She had to follow it, find the gem spirit, and then do... something. That was all she needed to know for the time being. Until she woke up Sweetie Belle, Sky would be trapped in a nightmare.