It was twilight at Canterlot castle, and Princess Twilight Sparkle was as busy as usual. She was staying up late this particular night. After lowering the sun and raising the moon, she had stayed out on the castle balcony, encircling herself with a ring of books on various magical subjects. The princess busily flipped through the pages of multiple books at once with her magic, bookmarking and marking down pages with the information she desired.
Eventually Spike, Twilight’s ever-present help, fluttered up in the doorway to the balcony, wearing his little nightcap and holding a candle. He gave Twilight’s carefully arranged chaos a lookover. “Twilight, you raised the moon an hour ago,” Spike yawned, “It’s getting late and a princess like you needs her beauty sleep.”
“Wait a moment Spike,” Twilight said, holding up a hoof, “I’m trying out something tonight.”
He frowned, “And that is?”
Twilight paused her reading and stood up, turning around to face Spike, “Spike, do you remember when Rainbow contacted us with the mirror yesterday?”
“Yeah, that was kinda weird, with the floating mirror thing.”
“Well, that whole conversation made me realize I’ve been forgoing one of my core duties as the princess!”
Spike looked even more confused, “Core duty?”
“Rainbow’s whole issue she’s been having is that she’s been having nightmares, yes? And you know that Luna’s job was to travel into ponies’ dreams and stop the nightmares,” she paused, looking over to the dragon’s blank expression, “Don’t you see? The whole thing with Rainbow Dash is my fault. It’s no coincidence that it began right after my coronation, after Luna retired. With no alicorn going and stopping nightmares, the whole issue has gotten out of hand, especially with Rainbow Dash.”
“But isn’t dream traveling a spell only Luna can do?” Spike asked, “And didn’t Rainbow say her issue with the dreams is over?”
“For your first question I assumed the same as well,” Twilight began, “But I’ve been researching dream traveling spells, and its not only limited to Luna!” She magically lifted a book to show to Spike, showcasing a diagram of the moon and ponies, “Though the ability came naturally to Luna, I’ve found out that any other pony who magically interacts with the moon is also capable of doing it! And since I’m the one who raises the moon now, I think I might be able to dreamwalk!”
She paused to catch her breath, “And for your second question,” she looked a bit hesitant, “I suspect Rainbow may be underplaying her condition. I plan on checking up on her, if she’s fine, I won’t interfere any further.”
Spike rubbed his head, “That’s a lot of information to take in, but if you think this’ll help other ponies, I’m not going to stop you.”
Twilight smiled at him, “Thanks for the support, Spike, but I might want you to stop me. I’ve never done this before, so things may go a bit awry.”
Spike nodded his head, “Okay. Keep watch. I’ve done that plenty of times!”
Acknowledging him in return, Twilight cleared the area around her with her magic, sweeping the books aside in a circular motion. “Okay,“ Twilight said out loud to herself, “I can do this.” She breathed in, channeling her energy into her horn, which began to glow with a pink light.
Spike watched in amazement as wind began to blow around him and she began to float in the air. Twilight’s expression strained as she concentrated harder, spreading her wings as the magic pulsed from her horn.
Then, nothing.
Opening her eyes, Twilight found that she was nowhere, a void having encompassed everything around her. After a brief moment of confusion, she realized that it had worked, she had transported herself into the Equestrian dreamscape.
Looking around, Twilight observed an untold number of bright specks floating through the void. Upon closer inspection, she saw that these specks were miniature portals of a kind, a bubble-shaped looking glass into the dreams and minds of every sleeping pony in Equestria.
Twilight let out a single hushed statement of astonishment before calming herself. A younger Twilight Sparkle would have been as giddy as a filly having come here, but Twilight now had a goal, something more important than the thrill of this new experience.
Spreading her wings, Twilight began to walk, or fly, or maybe even float, whatever it was, through the mindscape. Even through quick glances at the dream bubbles, Twilight was relieved to see that most ponies were having good dreams, proof that she wasn’t negatively affecting too many ponies by neglecting the former princess Luna’s prior duty.
In fact, many of the dreams were oddly intriguing to the alicorn; some of them were truly bizarre, making Twilight stifle a giggle to herself. But this was short-lived. She shook her head, no, she had a main goal, Rainbow Dash.
Fortunately, finding the location of Rainbow’s dream wasn’t difficult, as it seemed to be almost dislocated from the rest, hovering along with the rest of her main friends in a spot of all their own. This, Twilight assumed, was due to their connections to and as the elements of harmony.
With a flap of her wings, Twilight floated in the middle of the cluster of dreams. Looking closely, she noted the dreams of her friends. Pinkie Pie was asleep, dreaming of some kind of high energy cooking show, Rarity was dreaming about fashion of course, particularly that of fashion styled after hippogriff seaware, all Twilight could tell of Fluttershy’s dream was that it involved Discord in some degree, and Applejack was absent, she must have still been awake. Last but not least was Twilight’s destination, Rainbow Dash’s dream. Oddly, she couldn’t make out anything, the dream seemed to be completely void of color, the bubble leading only into blackness.
Twilight didn’t exactly know how to enter the dream, so she just used her hooves to snatch the black bubble out of the air. The bubble seemed to react to Twilight’s touch and began to rapidly expand until the alicorn found herself inside the bubble.
Twilight flashed her horn one last time, preparing herself for whatever was inside, before jumping into the darkness.
Twilight Sparkle found herself on a flat expanse with nothing else except darkness. But Twilight could feel that she wasn’t alone.
A sound emanated out from in front of her. It sounded like a heartbeat of some kind, each thump resounding in her ears. Twilight flattened her ears trying to block out the noise and walked forward.
Twilight was confused, having seen nothing since she entered, but eventually she saw something. Out in the inky blackness, all alone, was Rainbow Dash. The familiar rainbow-maned sight of her friend filled Twilight with relief, but Rainbow didn’t seem to notice. She seemed to be curled up on the ground, ignoring anything and everything.
Twilight stepped a hoof forward, calling out to her friend, “Rainbow Dash?”
Rainbow reacted violently, swerving around to face the alicorn like she’d been attacked. “Twilight?” Rainbow asked, narrowing her eyes at the purple pony, “Is that you? Are you really you?”
“Yes, it’s me, I’m here to help. I used to spell so I could travel into your dream and help you.”
“I told you I was fine,” she retorted, feeling a mixture of frustration and relief, “Okay, I may have been lying a little back then, but it's nothing to worry about. In the real world I’m at Applejack’s right now, she’s looking over me. It’s all fine.”
“Applejack’s watching you? That’s good.” Twilight stopped to slowly look at the dream around her, “This dream is like how you described it,” she observed, “Though I don’t see any duplicates of me, if that’s how dreams work, I’m not entirely certain how dream traveling works yet.”
Rainbow blinked. Yes, that's what she had said to Twilight on her visit to Canterlot earlier, but none of her friends had actually shown up in a dream before. Not yet anyways.
The heartbeat had grown louder to Twilight, who had begun to feel the flutters of panic begin to settle in her stomach. Meanwhile, Rainbow felt entirely the opposite. Rather than tired and scared like in the other dreams, she felt like her energy had been completely restored, in spite of the ever-present ticking sound in her head.
“Still, you shouldn’t be here Twilight,” Rainbow asked, anticipating something to happen, “You should go before- things begin to happen.” She wasn’t sure what, maybe another memory, maybe the voice would come back, she wasn’t certain.
“Sorry Rainbow, but I’m here to help you. Let me just-” she paused, casting a luminosity spell with her horn. The horn lit up with its familiar pink light, brightening the void around the two ponies. The light revealed a dull gray floor. The floor rumbled, a grumbling sound that coincided with a white flicker that flashed across the sky.
“What are you doing?” Rainbow demanded, her tone of concern for her friend shifting to one of frustration, “You can’t just cast a spell like that!”
“Why?” Twilight shouted, her confusion bubbling out as a yell, “What is this, Rainbow? You can tell me. I- We can help you.”
“Liar.”
Twilight flattened her ears, looking around worriedly. “Who was that?”
Rainbow seemed less worried, instead glancing around warily, “Her. The voice. And I don’t think she likes you being here.”
“Voice? Who’s voice?”
“Mine’s.” The voice answered. It came out of the darkness, coming from everywhere and nowhere at once. It had a raspy sound to it, “But I don’t matter, I’m not real. Ask Rainbow, she can tell you that. But you, you are real, and you don’t belong here.”
The voice dripped with venom as it ended the phrase, pausing as the sky flickered again. “What? What are you talking about?” Twilight asked, her voice becoming shaky as the dream shifted around her. She lifted a hoof as the ground beneath her rippled, seeming to dissolve around her.
“This is Rainbow’s place. And being here is a right you don’t have. Not for liars like you.”
Twilight looked over to Rainbow, who seemed to also be confused. Rainbow furrowed her brow, stomping her hooves down, “Stop it! Leave Twilight alone!” Rainbow shouted up to the voice, “I thought you wanted me! Take me instead!”
“Not now,” the voice replied almost soothingly, “We will deal with that later. Now, ask Twilight about her lies. How she’s been lying to you.”
Rainbow looked at Twilight, who’s hooves had now sunk into the ground, “Twilight?” she asked, not knowing what to believe, “Have you been lying to me?”
“No!” Twilight stammered, trying to free her hooves from the quicksand-like ground, “Rainbow, I would never lie to you. Don’t listen to that voice, it's not real. I am.”
“LIAR!” snarled the voice, “You won’t admit it, but I know! Rainbow also knows, she knows that I’m right! You’ve been lying to her, you’ve all been lying to her for years!”
“Stop!” Rainbow sobbed, spreading her wings, “She’s not lying! Stop this!”
“Don’t worry, Rainbow,” the voice stated one last time, speaking over the struggling gasps of Twilight, “This isn’t real. It doesn’t matter. It’s just a dream. You know that right?”
The flickering of the sky became more erratic as the darkness around them lightened to a dark gray. Rainbow sniffed, “Yes.” She folded her wings, looking sadly at Twilight, her head being the only that remained.
Twilight couldn’t move. She had been completely unprepared for whatever this was. Now she was trapped. She could feel her energy draining.
“Rainbow knows I’m right, I’m always right,” the voice said to Twilight, seeming to lean in real close to the princess, “And you’re of no use to us any longer, so I will say this only once.”
Get out.
In an instant, the dream cracked apart, the magic from Twilight’s horn faded, and everything faded to white.
Rather than waking up with a start like with her other dreams, this time Rainbow Dash simply silently opened her eyes. Rolling over in the bed she had been sleeping in at Sweet Apple Acres, Rainbow sat up and wiped away the spittle that had gathered around her mouth. The events of the dream were unclear to her this time, the events all blurring together, but some things she could recall.
Twilight was there, maybe. But one thing Rainbow remembered was the queen’s accusation. Was Twilight lying to her? Were the rest of her friends lying to her?
Her ears twitched; she could hear hoofsteps in the hallway outside the guest room. The indistinct voices of Applejack and Apple Bloom talking about something. A mixed feeling of calm and dread caught up in Rainbow’s sore throat, what was happening?
Then the queen’s voice spoke up, “Now’s time for your choice Rainbow. They’ve been lying to you this entire time,” Rainbow actually doubted this was true, but she couldn’t help but feel an indistinct feeling of doubt to her friends in her gut. “But I haven’t lied,” the queen continued, “You know I’m right, that I can’t lie to you. So, what will it be?”
The queen didn’t need to say anything else as Rainbow had already decided. She no longer felt tired or weary, she felt great even. Full of energy, ready for flying, better than she had felt in a long time. Jumping out of the bed, Rainbow flung open the window of the guest room and spread her wings.
And in an instant, Rainbow was gone, leaving the moment Applejack rushed into the guestroom.
Through the Ponyville night sky Rainbow dashed, giddily flying more than she had in days, restraining herself just enough to not set off a sonic rainboom. She knew her destination, the cloudominium, a place to rest, away from everyone else, away from Twilight, and maybe even away from herself.
As quick as flash, Rainbow threw her body through the front door, nearly breaking it in the process. Collapsing down onto the cloudy floor, the reality of the situation set itself in Rainbow’s head. Her smile vanished as it hit her. What was she doing? Why did she come here?
“You made the correct choice,” said the queen into Rainbow’s ear, “The right choice.”
“What was my choice?” Rainbow asked in bewilderment to the air, “Why did I listen to you?”
“Yet you’ve decided to let me- let us help you. You knew I was right, about your friends, about everything. You’ve made your choice, there’s no turning back now Rainbow.”
Rainbow tried to ignore the queen’s voice, pacing about. She paused, turning towards the sitting area, where the remains of the book still lay. Resting against the chair was the silver mirror.
Rainbow eyed the mirror, approaching it cautiously, “I need to call Twilight,” she said to herself, “Talk to her, explain everything. I need help.”
“You can’t call her. You won’t call her.” This was enough to make Rainbow pause, “Don’t you feel great Rainbow? Listen to me and you can feel like this all the time. Or would you rather run back to Twilight. The pony who has been lying to you.” The voice paused, it’s tone almost like it was pleading to Rainbow, “Twilight’s never trusted you fully. Oh, she remembers your failures, but she’s never appreciated your success. I do. Because I am you. We are one.”
Rainbow shut her eyes, trying to ignore the queen’s voice. “Stop!” Rainbow yelled, waving her hooves in the air. As she did, she lost grasp of the mirror. It flew through the air, shattering against a wooden shelf. But Rainbow ignored the flying glass.
“Shut up! I’m not listening to you!” Rainbow tried to yell, but the pain in her throat was too great. Her breathing became shallow, and Rainbow collapsed. The breathing changed again, becoming ragged coughs that shattered her throat.
“But you do listen, I know that” said the voice as Rainbow coughed, “You’ve always listened. You’ve listened since the ringing of the bell.”
Rainbow continued to cough. But then she stopped, falling on the ground as something flew out of her throat and onto her hooves.
Her breath ragged, her hooves shaking, Rainbow sat down, looking down at her hooves in wide-eyed horror. Her throat no longer hurt as much, the queen’s voice had stopped talking, but now there was irrefutable proof that Rainbow needed to do something.
But for now, she was speechless, gazing down at the sticky slime that she had coughed out onto her hooves. The slime that dripped down onto the cloudy floor and glowed in the luminescent shades of a rainbow.
As the morning arrived, Twilight nearly forgot to raise the sun, having been busy and focused the entire night. After the events in Rainbow’s dream, Twilight had been forcibly knocked out of the dreamscape, snapping her back to reality, much to the distress of Spike.
He wanted her to rest, outwardly expressing concern over her wellbeing. He claimed that she had a seizure of some kind while casting the spell, but unconsciously used magic to prevent anyone from interfering. Twilight, however, refused to rest, wanting to do something immediately about the state of Rainbow Dash.
As soon as she raised the sun, Twilight spread her wings and prepared an immediate excursion down to Ponyville. “Tell the castle staff that I’m going out,” she explained to Spike, “Maintain the peace while I’m gone. I- I hope this won’t take too long.”
He didn’t protest, sharing his worth of worry over Rainbow Dash as well. So Spike waved her goodbye as Twilight left. All Twilight knew at the moment was that Rainbow was staying at Sweet Apple Acres the previous night, so that was her first destination. She flew as fast as she could with her alicorn wings, making quick timing to Ponyville and landing in front of the farmhouse.
Twilight only needed to knock on the door once before Applejack answered. The earth pony looked dejected as she opened the door, but quickly hid away any evidence of that feeling as she noticed the princess on her doorstep. “Oh, hi Twilight, it's a surprise seeing you-”
“Where’s Rainbow Dash?” interjected Twilight, trying to force herself past Applejack through the doorway.
“Oh, um-” Applejack sounded nervous, “Well, she was her last night, but- I can’t really say-”
“Please Applejack,” pleaded Twilight, her voice taking on a serious tone, “This is important. Where is Rainbow Dash?”
“I don’t know!” Applejack yelled, “She was sound asleep the last time I saw her, but then she jumped out the window or somethin’, I was plannin’ to look for today, you just arrived before I could leave!”
Twilight rubbed her chin, furrowing her brow, “She’s gone? And Tank just disappeared too. There’s no way these events aren’t connected.”
Applejack bore an expression of unease, “Well sure they’re connected. Rainbow’s mighty upset ‘bout Tank and all.”
“No Applejack, not like that. Something is gravely wrong with Rainbow Dash, and we need to find her as quickly as possible before things get any worse. Come on, we have to head to Rainbow’s place now.”
Twilight could have teleported straight to the cloudominium, but she owed an explanation to Applejack, who, despite interacting directly with Rainbow the previous day, was completely dumbfounded by Twilight’s regaling of the events in the dream, a reaction Twilight expected the rest of her friend’s would share.
“So what the hay happened in that dream?” A shocked Applejack asked as she approached the floating cloudominium, “Did Rainbow, or that voice, kick you out? Can ponies do that?”
“I don’t know,” Twilight sighed, “I was completely unprepared for any of it. I wish I could have done something, it’s just-”
“Twilight, it’s okay. We’ll find Rainbow and take her to the hospital.”
Twilight sighed, “Hmph, I hope so.” Having reached the floating house, she cast a cloud-walking spell on Applejack and levitated the both of them up to the front door. Applejack pushed open the door, not even bothering to knock, and possibly not wanting to alert the already erratic Rainbow and make her flee again.
But as the door opened, both ponies gasped in horror. The cloudominium was a wreck. The house looked like it had been looted, furniture had been tossed, things torn off the wall and haphazardly tossed onto the floor. In one corner, the books had been ripped up, their pages scattered across the ground alongside the shattered remnants of Twilight’s mirror.
The ponies exchanged a silent glance with each other and gravely nodded, each splitting off to search the house for Rainbow. Applejack slowly trot her way upstairs, pulling out a glimmer light, a glowing magical stick of Twilight’s design, and illuminating the darkened upper floor.
The clouds that made up the walls on the upper floor had darkened to a dark gray color, a sign that they had not been maintained, while also blocking off the natural sunlight outside, giving the sensation that someone had turned off the lights.
Applejack made her way into Rainbow’s bedroom, warily looking for a sign of life, but not a pony or tortoise was to be seen. The room itself wasn’t any better. The cloud mattress had been torn down the middle, the furniture had been visibly bucked, split down the middle by angry hooves, and Rainbow’s prized wonderbolt uniform had been torn off its hanger and shredded into pieces that now lay on the ground.
Applejack grimaced at the state of the room. Was Rainbow hurt? Had she done this?
She didn’t know. But then Applejack heard something, a soft sound, like a low moan. It was quiet, but just loud enough that her ears could trace the source. Walking in the left corner of the bedroom, Applejack looked up. The sound was coming from the walls.
In the meanwhile, Twilight continued her search on the lower level of the house. Tank’s nook was empty, and so was the dining area as well as Rainbow’s training room. Twilight hmphed before pausing, she had a spell she could use.
Quickly and efficiently, Twilight prepared and cast a location spell, specifically a spell that would locate if any living beings, pony or otherwise was in the location. Like a radar, a pulse of magic spread radially from her horn, with dots of knowledge appearing in her mind subconsciously.
The largest dot was her of course, being the most powerful source of magic in the house. Another showed up upstairs, one with the orange glow of honesty, Applejack. But there was no red dot. Twilight sighed, there was no evidence that Rainbow was here, but then she paused.
The spell began to flicker, not enough to vanish, but just enough for Twilight to notice. She looked over the spell’s results again, noticing a small white dot appear at one point in the house, then another, then another. Soon, the white dots were rapidly appearing, all of them being detected by the spell.
She froze, panic growing in her legs, as she heard something new, a knocking sound on the house’s support beams, a sound that came from the walls.
Applejack grunted as she heaved over a shelf to the corner, hoisting herself up so she could reach the ceiling. The sound continued, further growing Applejack’s intrigue. She used her earth pony strength to easily pry apart the clouds and stick her head up through the ceiling of the bedroom.
It led up into the dark attic-like area of the cloudominium, a place of stiffly packed clouds and small columns of wood. She stuck in the glimmer light, shining a light into the darkness, but Applejack quickly realized she wouldn’t need the light.
The place was gently illuminated by dozens of webs of sticky slime, spreading from floor to ceiling, slowly dripping down in irregular patterns. And all of these webs glowed. Glowed in the bright, luminescence hues of a rainbow.
Speechless, Applejack felt dread bubble up to her mouth, making her nearly jump as the sound, the sound that led her there, came out from behind her. Spinning her light around, Applejack shined the light onto a welcome sight.
Tank, the tortoise who had gone missing, had been right there all along, right underneath, or above in this case, Rainbow’s hooves. Tank blinked his weary eyes in the light that revealed his emancipated state. The tortoise was ensnared in one of the webs of rainbow goo. His beady eyes were tired, his face sunken, and his limbs were nearly skeletal. Tank attempted to smile at his rescuer, letting out a feeble moaning sound, but he was too weak for even that.
“Tank!” cried Applejack, climbing further up to pull out the pet. She hugged the injured pet closely, “You look terrible. What did this to you?”
Tank didn’t answer, because he was a tortoise, but an expression of terror crossed his face as he looked over Applejack’s shoulder. A pair of four, white eyes appeared behind Applejack, glistening in the darkness. Soon another appeared. Followed by even more.
Dozens of identical pairs of eyes appeared, looking at Applejack from all angles. Holding the trembling tortoise tightly, Applejack froze. The sound of the eyes chittered out. A sound that sounded like ticking almost. A tch tch tch that came out in unison from the iris swarm.