It was around 9:00 pm, and six friends were gathered together in the Treehouse of Harmony. They all sat comfortably on cushions, having already eaten plenty of snacks and played a few games, and were now in the midst of one of the more creative and exciting parts of the average slumber party: telling scary stories.
The room was dark, and Gallus was holding a flashlight under his face, smiling wickedly as he concluded his tale.
"And when they finally pulled the griffon's body. . . out of the crumbled. . . burning. . .house. . ."
Gallus suddenly turned off the flashlight, plunging the room into complete darkness.
"He looked. . .like THIS!"
Gallus gave a piercing shriek as he turned the flashlight back on, revealing his face, now covered with white chalk dust and with his head feathers sticking out wildly.
Ocellus and Silverstream both let out a short cry of fear and immediately leaned close to each other. Yona, Sandbar, and Smolder; however, were completely unfazed.
Gallus looked at his friends, then frowned and said, "Well, 2 out of 5 isn't bad."
As Gallus wiped the while chalk dust off of his face and neatened up his feathers, Ocellus slid away from Silverstream and said, "Actually, 2 out 5 is an F."
Gallus was unconvinced and said, "You mean 'F' for how 'frightened' you and Silver were?"
Ocellus shrugged and said, "I wasn't really afraid of the story. I was just shocked by the end."
Silverstream nodded slowly and said, "Yeah, Ocellus is kinda right. . . Ooh! But the face you did at the end was scary!"
Smolder groaned and said, "This is so laaaaame! Does no one here know how to tell a scary story?"
Yona looked with a frown at Smolder and said, "Smolder not tell good scary story either."
"Ugh! Fine. So I'm better at sad, tragic stories with bad endings," Smolder remarked with irritation in her voice.
"How was mine not scary?" Sandbar remarked, "I mean, think of! A stain that never comes out. . ." Sandbar shuddered and said, "Ugh. . .I'd hate to have to face that. . ."
Gallus frowned bitterly and said, "Yeah, this was a total bust. We're not getting any really scary stories tonight."
There was a sudden flash of light in the midst of a group, and the sparkling, spectral form of Twilight Sparkle appeared.
"Perhaps I might be of some assistance," it said.
Silverstream sat up excitedly, her wings flapping energetically as she said with a smile, "It's the Spirit of the Tree of Harmony!"
Yona looked to the spirit in slight confusion and asked, "Did Tree want to come to slumber party?"
The spirit turned to the yak and said kindly, "Actually, I am always pleasant within this sanctuary." It then addressed the group at large and said, "Be that as it may, I sensed that you had a problem, and I wish to solve that problem."
"Um?" Gallus said, unsure of what the spirit was saying.
"Is this about us not being able to tell any scary stories?" Smolder asked while peering at the spirit oddly, "'Cause I'm not sure how a spirit of peace, love, and harmony could do anything about that?"
The spirit chuckled soundlessly at this, lifting a forehoof to her mouth as she did this. Then she said, "You are mistaken, Smolder. For you see, Harmony is actually a balance between light and dark, positives and negatives. Consider my attributes. To be Honest, one must tell hurtful truths. To be Kind, one must sometimes be firm with others. Laughter is often a defense mechanism meant to deal with misery. To be Generous, one must first accumulate wealth and possessions to distribute. When one is Loyal, they cannot be loyal to all. That is impossible. To be truly loyal to one's friends, one must be disloyal to others. And Magic is able to both create and destroy, to attack and to defend."
The spirit then bowed elegantly and said, "Therefore, I am more than capable of conjuring up tales they will suit your needs."
Ocellus stared at the spirit with wide eyes and said, "You're here to tell us scary stories?"
The spirit shifted her wings and said, "The stories I have planned for you are far more than simple scary stories." Her gaze hardened slightly as she looked upon the six youngsters. "They consist of light and of shadow, of fear and of knowledge," she continued, "They are stories of not only sight and sound, but of mind. They are wondrous stories of imagination, and I wish to share them with you all."
"Um. . ." Sandbar said nervously, but when Yona moved close to him and smiled warmly at him, his nerves faded, and he smiled and said, "Heh, sounds good to me."
Gallus smiled eagerly and rubbed his talons together, "Aw, yeah! Now this is what I'm talking about!"
Ocellus looked very much intrigued, "If they're something more than just scary stories, then I think we'll all enjoy them a great deal more! Maybe we'll learn something too."
Silverstream was bursting with excitement, and she was finding it hard to sit still, "Oh! My! Gosh! This sounds incredible! Thanks a ton Spirit of the Tree of Harmony! . . Um, that's kinda long. Is it okay if we just call you Harmony for short?"
The spirit nodded and said with a kind smile, "That would suit me just fine."
Smolder, having been left relatively unconvinced and unimpressed by Harmony's speech, sat up from where she had been reclining carelessly on the cushions, and said, "Alright then, Harmony! Time's a wasting and there's still some fun stuff we haven't done yet. I'm dying to have that pillow fight, so bring on the stories! We're all ready for it!"
The other five voiced their agreement, and Harmony simply smiled widely at all of them. She flapped her wings and held her head high as the tip of her horn began to glow.
"To adequate relate these tales to you, I must take you all to another dimension. . . A dimension beyond that which is known to mortal beings. . . It is a dimension as vast as space. . . and as timeless as infinity. . ."
As Harmony's horn glowed brighter, the six creatures suddenly noticed that a strange magical breeze was whirling around the room, and they could feel a strange force slowly making its way within their very beings.
"It is a dimension of imagination. . . It is realm of shadow and of substance. . . of things and ideas. . . of what-ifs and what-could-bes. . .It's only boundaries are that of imagination itself. . ."
Harmony began to float off of the floor, and the six youngsters also began to float as well. All of them, even Smolder, were now staring at Harmony in shock, and even slight fear.
Harmony then close her eyes and said, "Your next stop is. . ." She then opened them, revealing that they were glowing a blinding white, " . . .The Simulacrum Realm."
Then, the spirit, and the six creatures, vanished, leaving only a dark, empty room.
A griffon, a changeling, a hippogriff, a dragon, a yak, and a pony—a collection of possibilities. Six unlikely heroes, each set out into a journey into the unknown. Six tours, each one a cross between dreams and nightmares; in which justice, retribution, and the unexplainable walk hand in hand through the shadows. In a moment, we'll start collecting clues as to the whys, the whats, and the wheres. We will not interfere, we'll only explain —because this is the Simulacrum Realm.