ACT ONE
Twilight Sparkle and her entire groups of friends, including Starlight and Spike were summoned to Canterlot the next day, and asked to appear before Princess Celestia and Luna.
“What do you think they summoned us for?” wondered Starlight.
Spike held up the letter the princesses had sent, “There’s nothing written here.”
“Whatever it is, I’m sure it must be important.” said Twilight.
Rainbow looked hyped up, “I hope it’s some kind of evil. It’s been a while since we kicked some bad guy’s sorry end.”
The others were not as enthusiastic as she was. “Really, Rainbow Dash!” scolded Rarity “You would wish that Equestria be in danger for a chance at some action?”
Fluttershy felt a chill run down her back. “Just thinking of such things makes me shiver.”
“I don’t know, I sort of like the feeling.” said Pinkie, and that’s when her stomach growled, “Oops, guess I’m just hungry…” and she pulled a cupcake out of nowhere and chomped it down in one gulp. “Mmm… yummy…”
“Well, here we go.” said Applejack as the big doors to the throne room opened wide and the royal sisters were waiting for them all.
“Ah, so glad you’ve made it.” said Celestia.
Everyone bowed to her and to Princess Luna.
“Sorry to jump right to the topic, your majesties,” said Twilight. “What have you summoned us for, and why didn’t you mention anything in your letter?”
“We wished not to alarm you so suddenly,” answered Princess Luna “What we have to say of the utmost, and we feel it would be wiser to explain to you in person.”
Celestia agreed “Listen very carefully, all of you…
During the past few weeks there has been a most unusual outbreak of nightmares.”
Princess Luna clapped her hooves and the royal courier came in with a huge sack of letters that were all addressed to her, from concerned ponies begging her to try and sort the problem out.
“Wow! That’s all from the past few weeks?” asked Applejack.
“Wrong,” replied Luna “These are all from today.”
The gang all gasped.
“But wait…” said Starlight “I thought Princess Luna was able to visit ponies in their dreams and work hard to quell bad dreams.”
“That is exactly the problem.” said Celestia “Princess Luna has been trying effortlessly to confront these dreams every night, but they continue to occur, and some of these victims have had more than one nightmare in the past while.”
Twilight felt this to be most disturbing, “But ponies have had many nightmares before.” she was trying to make logical deductions, but Celestia saved her all the trouble, “Don’t push you, Twilight. It already boils down to one thing…”
“…You mean, you think someone is deliberately making these ponies dream this stuff?” asked Spike.
“For now, it is only an assumption.” said Luna “But it seems to be our best lead, for as you know, it is nearly impossible to experience the same type of dream a second time.”
“Oh, I don’t know,” said Pinkie “One time I dreamt of this ginoooooooooooormus cupcake, and it just got bigger and bigger… and then I had another dream about it, and another, and another and--” she stopped when everyone gave her a blank stare, telling her to take it easy. “Sorry.”
Applejack rolled her eyes and then asked the sisters, “Anyway, where do we come in all of this?”
Celestia eyed at all the friends, “If this is some sort of magical curse, we need to find out the source-- where it’s coming from, who is casting it, and why.
We want you all to help us with the investigation.”
Rainbow looked a little disappointed, “Yeah… I was sort of hoping for something a little more exciting. Besides, can’t Princess Luna just determine where the dream magic is coming from?”
The sisters both sighed, and Starlight corrected Rainbow, “If she could, she wouldn’t send for us to help.”
Rainbow sulked, feeling very silly.
“Oh, but… where do we even begin?” asked Fluttershy “Dreams are dreams, and they don’t just appear in the middle of the day or anything like that.”
“Fluttershy has a point.” said Rarity “We can’t just go out there and expect the reason to just appear before us.”
Just then the big doors then opened wide, and two sentries came in. “Begging your majesties’ pardon…” said one of them “Mr. Stone Heart has arrived, and we brought him to your majesties as ordered.”
The sisters gave the okay to show their guest in.
Rarity heart suddenly gave a leapt of joy, “Did you say “Stone Heart?”
Twilight and Starlight’s eyes lit up. “…THE Stone Heart?” cried Twilight.
“I can’t believe it…!” Starlight exclaimed softly.
The royal sisters then looked as if they were containing their own anxieties as well.
“Who’s Stone Heart?” asked Applejack.
Rarity let out a gasp and nearly fainted.
“He’s the new famous writer in Canterlot.” said Spike “He wrote this story called “The Strength of Friendship” I didn’t read it, but Twilight and starlight sure did, and, obviously did Rarity and the princesses.”
Twilight levitated up a copy of the book from her saddle bag. “Oh, this was such a wonderful story, I couldn’t put it down.”
She explained it was about a young pony that was very angry-- he had been dumped by his lady love for another stallion, he was treated badly where he worked, but he did have friends who stood by his side and helped him to recover and find his strength to carry on with his life, and in the end, everything seemed to work out as the pony grew less and less enraged.
Starlight sighed. “What a story. I read it twice.”
Rarity got up, in a dazed motion, “To meet the pony who wrote such a lovely story… it’s… it’s… unfathomable!”
The other friends felt the guy had to be famous to cause this much of a daze in their friends, and especially if he was summoned before the princesses.
“Mr. Stone Heart…” announced the guard and they let the stallion pass. He was a navy blue unicorn with a light brown mane and his cutiemark was that of a broken pencil and a book, but with the pages flying out of it… almost like it was a failed work.
He also didn’t look to be very happy either, but rather hardened features, which he was trying to supress when in the presence of royalty. He also had slight bags under his eyes, possibly from lack of proper sleep, and he even wore was appeared to be a green sanitation-worker’s outfit, which confused some of the others.
“That don’t look like any writer.” said Applejack.
“No, it doesn’t.” agreed Fluttershy.
Twilight could barely contain herself, and Rarity felt hearts swirling around her face and stars in her eyes, but as he passed by her, everyone could suddenly smell the faint yet distinctive smelly odor.
“Whoa!” groaned Rainbow, and she grumbled “Didn’t anyone teach that guy about soap and water?”
He heard her, and didn’t take kindly to it.
He approached the sisters first and bowed politely to them. “Your majesties… Forgive me of the odor, I was working and was not given time to cleanse. Your guards had insisted that I come immediately.”
Celestia cleared her throat and acted very professional, “Stone Heart, thank you for coming.
First of all, we would to offer our royal congratulations and appraisal for your outstanding novel, “The Strength of Friendship”
Stone looked almost disgusted at the very mention of the book, which did not go unnoticed by the others… especially Twilight and Starlight.
Celestia continued, “We have also brought you here out of great concern, for it seems that despite your novel’s growing success, your personal record indicates only a steady source of income, most likely from your…” he paused and cleared her throat “…Obvious job as a sanitation worker.”
Luna then stepped forth “It is our concern that you are not being well-compensated enough for such an achievement, and we have summoned you here to personally rectify the situation.”
She levitated a small check towards Stone. He looked down at it, and his eyes slightly widened.
The others couldn’t help but look over his shoulder.
“Whoa!” cried Rainbow as she gazed at the amount.
“That’s practically a fortune in gold bits!” exclaimed Rarity.
“Think of all the cupcakes you could buy with that.” added Pinkie.
Stone then went back to looking non-too thrilled, and he bowed to the sisters. “If that is all, I really should be getting back to work. The litter and garbage will not clean itself.”
He gave another bow and bluntly turned to leave.
“Just a moment, sir…” said Celestia.
Annoyed, but keeping his cool, Stone turned round, “Yes?”
The sisters then both looked a little awkward and nervous as they hesitated.
“Would it… be too much to ask for an autograph?” asked Celestia. She and Luna both held up their books with enthusiasm.
Stone was trembling softly, and even Fluttershy could tell something was bothering him, but Stone calmly answered, “I’m sorry, but I’m afraid that won’t be possible.”
As disappointed as the sisters would visibly be, they figured it was merely an act of professionalism, in which he couldn’t just hand out autographs like that.
“In that case, we shall politely wait for an autograph signing.” said Celestia “You may go.”
Stone bowed one last time and left, but it wasn’t until he was completely out of the throne room and past the guards did he look extremely angry, as if he wanted to pick a fight with someone.
Then he was gone leaving the friends all perplexed.
Spike then broke the silence, “Um… shouldn’t we all get to work?”
The ponies snapped back to reality. “Yes… we should.” agreed Twilight.
They all bid the sisters farewell, and left the throne room to begin their mission.
“Twilight…” called Celestia “Take this with you…” and she levitated over to her a list of many ponies that had suffered nightmares to interview if need be, complete with royal medals for each and every member of the group, which would show they were acting under orders and would have rights to talk to others.
As the group all left the palace and heading deep into the village, they all seemed more about how cold Stone Heart seemed to act.
“He certainly wasn’t what I expected him to be.” said Rarity “Why ever would a famous writer be taking up job picking up other ponies’ dirty trash?”
“Maybe it’s just a second job?” suggested Applejack “I mean, writing is fine, but it doesn’t always bring in all the pay; got to have a backup source.”
The others were barely convinced, especially Twilight.
“Maybe we should focus on our mission first.” suggested Starlight.
“I think Starlight is right.” agreed Fluttershy.
Pinkie nodded so vigorously, her head seemed to rattle like a cowbell.
Twilight did agreed, but as the group began to head into the village, they could see Stone up ahead with his big wagon full of garbage, which had mud thrown on it to quell the smell.
He seemed to be staring down furiously at the check from the sister, and then he threw it up into the air, and fired a soft burning beam from his horn, roasting the check into ash that dissolved in the air…
The friends all gasped in horror, while Stone simply huffed, “Good riddance!” and then went along his route with his wagon in tow.
“What just happened?” asked Pinkie.
“He just threw all that money away like it was… trash!” squeaked Rarity.
Twilight could hardly believe her eyes. Just be called before the royal sisters and be given their praise was already good as gold towards any-pony; many of which would consider the deepest of honors…
…But to receive and immense amount of payment with the appraisal, not many ponies ever received such generosity just like that.
This, and combined with his quiet, yet obvious profound cold and callous feelings he had shown during the meeting worried her.
“Twilight…?” said Starlight “I know how you feel, but we have a job to do.”
Twilight nodded and agreed to stay focussed “Let’s go. We’ve got lots of ponies to interview.”