"Alright Spike, I'm going to finish some things here real quick. Go find the girls and let them know what's going on, alright?"
The young dragon nodded as he walked toward the library door,"You got it, Twilight. Are... are you sure you want to do this?”
Twilight gave a small grin up to her assistant, “Yes Spike, i’ll be fine.”
Spike returned the smile as he closed the door behind him, leaving the lavender unicorn alone inside the tree once again.
After having the emotional moment with Spike the day before, Twilight was told by him what the princess had asked of her to do. At first, Twilight felt angered that Spike had gone and told Princess Celestia that she had been hiding something troubling from everypony for some time. 'Who does Spike think he is? If I had a problem that I wanted others to know about, I would've told them! What gives him the right to go off and start spouting off that I am having a mental breakdown!?' After ranting inside of her mind, however, she knew something was wrong with her.
The nightmares she had been experiencing were becoming more and more vivid with each night that she slept. She had been lucky enough to not experience one from last night. Despite her single night of peace, her mind kept thinking on what her other self kept saying to her.
'You do not have a choice.'
Shaking her head, Twilight knew that she had to figure out what just what was going on. She was preparing to head out to Canterlot to see the princess and explain everything that had been happening to her. "She's going to hate me. .." She whispered to herself, "there is no way that she would ever forgive me for having such horrible thoughts of hurting my friends."
"But, what if she says that I just need to get rid of these nightmares... She could probably be able to finally help take these thoughts out of my head."
'Your dreams are showing visions of what’s to come' a whisper inside of her head said.
Twilight's eyes shot open immediately hearing that voice again. She knew it was her other self that said it, because she heard the same thing said to her yesterday while sifting through her own thoughts. While most pony's would have panicked at a voice telling them such things, Twilight was able to rationalize what was true from farce.
Many times in Twilight’s life, she had heard pony's say how when one has a dream, it is important to remember it for the future. Most of the time she never put much thought into silly things like that, yet now she couldn't help but believe that all of these recurring thoughts had to truly mean something. If any kind of idea was being replayed so much in her sleep, she had no choice but to try and figure out what it meant.
Knowing her bag was already packed and had plenty of time before the train was ready to leave, Twilight walked over to one of the many bookshelves on the wall. She began to scroll through the many different colored tomes that lined the wooden shelves. Coming across a book called 'Sleep Deprivation' , she decided to pull it out and turned to the table of contents. "Hallucinations..." she said to herself, "I could try there first." Flipping to the labeled section, she began reading through the long list of different things on the subject.
"When one is deprived of sleep, the mind will begin to play tricks on itself, creating visions and false images in the line of sight. The hearing of the subject may also be affected, picking up or hearing different sounds and words that were never made. Being able to tell what is real and what is not will become harder for the affected to distinguish if the subject does not rest and allow their mind to recover."
Twilight frowned as she stopped reading and flipped through more of the section. "These aren't happening because I don't have enough sleep. These dreams are happening in my sleep."
She skimmed through the rest of the section looking for more things that could help her out, but then tossed the book aside when she didn't find anything. Levitating the book back up to its spot, she began to look through the list of books again for more things that could help her understand what was going on inside of her troubled head.
---
"Twilight is leaving for Canterlot?"
Spike sat at a table in Sugar Cube Corner with Rarity, Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash as he explained what was going on, "Yeah Rarity, she is going to see the princess to talk to her about what is happening."
Rarity gave a sigh of relief, "Well, I must say that is splendid. Twilight certainly needs someone to help her regain control of herself.
Spike shook his head "I still don't know what you girls are saying that she 'needs' help like that. Twilight just has something that is bothering her. I don't think it could be that bad."
"Don't kid yourself Spike..." Rainbow interjected, "Twilight has been off and you know it. Like I told you yesterday what happened when you were gone, she just snapped all of a sudden."
"I know you said she did, but what if she-"
"Quit trying to defend her weird actions, Spike. You went over inside the library yesterday, what was she like?"
Spike suddenly felt himself tense up at the question. He didn't tell anypony how he found Twilight locked up in her bedroom, or how she had panicked when she woke up from her sleep and threw herself on him and wept her eyes out. 'Maybe she is really having a serious problem.' he thought to himself. Despite this, he didn't want the others to think Twilight was a freak.
"Sh-she was fine. She just slept mostly. She is very tired from being so busy with her studies you know, heh heh." he said with an awkward smile.
Rarity frowned at him for a moment, looking up and down his nervous exterior, "Spikey, I may not have the eye like Applejack when it comes to spotting a lie, but you just make it far too easy for anypony to see."
Spike's eyes grew wide as he realized he couldn't hide his uncertainty. Beads of sweat trickled down his forehead as he began to panic, "I- I'm not lying. I just went inside of the house and Twilight was sleeping."
"And what about when she did wake up?" Rainbow chimed in as she leaned over the table towards the young dragon.
Swallowing the lump in his throat, Spike answered the impatient Pegasus, "She didn't have red eyes like you said that she got."
"Well duh!" Pinkie Pie suddenly shouted out. All three heads at the table turned to look at the pink pony as her fluffy hair bounced up and down as she threw her emphasis in every word. "Her eyes aren't going to stay red silly. They were gonna turn back to normal like they did last time."
"What?" all three of the others asked simultaneously.
Pinkie pie shook her head at how her friends could never remember the second long details from the past."Oh Spike, don't you remember that one time that Fluttershy went into the bog to go enjoy her frogs and then I had that doozy of a shake?"
Putting his claws on his chin, Spike thought for a moment as his mind worked, "Oh I remember now! Then that hydra attacked us there!"
Rarity then had something click inside her head, "Now I remember you telling us this story now. How that hideous monstrosity tried to eat every one of you in that truly revolting bog outside of the town.
Pinkie pie grinned seeing that the others remembered the story, "Ok then, now that we all remember what happened now, let's get to the point. Anyway, we go to the pond because I had a doozy and feared it might have had something to do with Fluttershy. Once we finally got there, we were attacked by a big, giant, devilish, mighty, fat, two legged, four headed hydra! Can you believe it?"
Rainbow rolled her eyes at the question, "Yes Pinkie, we all just said how we remember about the hydra. What was the thing you were going to tell us about Twilight?"
Pinkie Pie gave Rainbow the stink eye for interrupting her tale, "Who is the one telling the story? not you. because if it was you, they would be asking you!"
Rainbow grunted as she slumped back in her chair. Her mind began to fog as she began to space out from not paying attention to Pinkie. She knew her friend would go into explaining every tiny detail that happened to each pony that was there that day. She began to daydream of flying in the wonderbolts, performing to crowds of thousands as pony's cheered her on from below. A large grin spread across her muzzle as she pictured walking with the rest of the team in the center of a large...
"... And then we finally got away from the hydra across the little gorge!"
Rainbows mind picked up on that last sentence. She sat up straight to focus, knowing now that the story was near its end, "Ye-yeah, what happened next Pinkie?"
"Once we were across, my doozy twitch was still going..." Pinkie pie then began to vibrate in her chair to demonstrate what she meant, causing some of the silverware on the table to bounce off, "... And that's when I realized that the hydra wasn't the doozy. Twilight became so frustrated that she couldn't understand my pinkie sense. She jumped up into the air and BOOSH!" pinkie pie then jumped up in the air like Twilight did, and by some unknown force, was able to sit there in mid air floating to the others astonishment. "And then Twilight's coat turned white, hair in fire and her eyes were bright red like they were yesterday!"
Rarity gave a surprised look after hearing that last part, "What? I've never heard any of you tell me about that part about Twilight in the end. You mean her strange change in demeanor has happened before?"
Pinkie Pie then floated back down into her chair to be eye level with the others, "Of course, silly! It happened when she was really, really angry, but then it disappears after. Her magic is super crazy like that."
"Wait, why did you act so scared yesterday if you knew exactly what it was that happened to Twilight?" Rainbow asked.
"I wasn't scared; I was so sad that Twilight didn't even want to smile at all." Pinkie the. Put on a sad, puppy dog face with her lip curled, "Anypony that doesn't want to smile makes me sad."
"So, that's why Applejack and Fluttershy were so frightened yesterday when they saw the change; they just didn't remember it was normal, or at least, normal for Twilight" Rarity said with a smirk, "Oh this is wonderful! Now we all know that Twilight is fine. That takes a large load off of my shoulders."
"By the way, where are they, anyway?" Spike questioned as he looked around, "Didn't you say you would go get them Rainbow?"
Rainbow Dash shrugged her shoulders, "I tried to Spike, but Applejack said she had a lot of work to do at the farm. When I asked Fluttershy to come down, she said she had to make sure one of her birds was alright because it had eaten a bad acorn or something like that."
"Don't you worry about anything, Spike. We will make sure that we tell them after you and Twilight leave for Canterlot later." Rarity cheerfully said.
"Actually, I'm not going to Canterlot. Twilight is going alone tonight." spike responded.
"Really? She doesn't want you to come along?"
“No, she asked if she could visit the princess alone. She said it would make her feel better if she did."
Rainbow took a sip of the fruit punch that was on the table before giving an annoyed grunt, "Like I said, she is trying to hide something and that is why she is being so distant from all of us."
Rarity shot a glare over to the athletic pegasus. She had no idea what was making Rainbow so short lately."Rainbow, now that is not what is happening to Twilight! She is probably just stressed out over something. At least she is seeing the princess over this."
"Yeah, and whenever you get stressed out with one of your dresses you burst into flames." Rainbow sarcastically sneered, "Can't believe you totally agree with Spike on how she is fine. A normal unicorn does not do that."
"Twilight is not a normal unicorn!" Spike shouted out, "Twilight is the strongest unicorn I know! Her power might just be a little different than everypony else." stepping down from the table, he stomped off to the door, "I'm not going to sit here while you insult Twilight like this."
Before his claws gripped the door handle, Pinkie felt a sudden feeling coming on her, "Ooh, what is that!?" her ears started to flop over, then her eyes fluttered, "Ooh, a combo! Ear flop...eye flutter..." she stopped when her knees started shaking, "...knee twitch! Uh oh!"
BOOM!
The door to Sugar Cube burst open suddenly, crashing Spike into the wall behind it. The cutie mark crusaders fell onto the floor of the bakery all tied up in a mass of ropes. The Young orange Pegasus with a purple mane and tail in the group stood up with an awkward grin on her face, "Heh heh, sorry about that."
Rainbow chuckled at seeing them all on the ground, "Hey Scootaloo, what are you three up to this time?"
The white unicorn filly of the group threw off the rope wrapped around her horn as she got off the ground brushing off her pink and purple mane, "We were trying to get our cutie marks in rodeo roping. Applebloom said her big sister is an expert at it."
Rarity frowned at her younger sister, "Sweetie Belle, do you three realize you crushed poor Spike in the wall when you crashed in here?"
"Huh?" all three of them said at the same time. Applebloom, a yellow earth pony with a red mane, pulled herself out of the mess and walked over to the door and yanked it off the wall to find a dazed Spike fall to the floor, "Oops."
"Sorry Spike, I felt it coming on too late..." Pinkie Pie said, "I felt and ear flop, eye flutter, then knee twitch. That meant a door was going to suddenly open."
The three fillies all looked down to the dazed dragon, then all gasped in excitement.
"Maybe we can get our cutie marks as nurses!" Sweetie Belle stated.
"Yeah, ah bet helping out Spike will surely get us that!" Applebloom cheered.
"Come on girls, to the clubhouse!" shouted Scootaloo as they hoisted up Spike and dragged him out of the shop.
---
"No no no!"
Twilight threw another book into the large pile that had built up in the center of the room. She didn't care about trying to put them back on the shelves anymore as she continued to pull out different books to search their contents.
Reading the title of another intriguing premise, she flipped the pages until she reached the section the section that she was looking for. "Recurring dreams, now this is what I'm looking for." she said to herself as she continued to read out loud.
"When one experiences an important or traumatic event in their life, the subconscious mind will sometimes replay these experiences during the subjects dreams. If the event or dreams have a strong enough impact on the conscious thought of the one experiencing it, the events may begin to replay during future dreams. Depending on the reactions and the thought of the subject, the length of time in which the dreams repeat themselves will vary."
Shaking her head, Twilight skimmed back a few pages for more detailed reasons of the causes of recurring dreams. "I never experienced what I am seeing. There has to be another cause." She stopped at the section that she wanted.
"Scientists have determined that some forms of recurring dreams are not of any past event, but of something completely created from the subconscious mind. The reason for many forms of these dreams to ever be made are still trying to be Deciphered by the analysts in these fields of work."
Frustrated, she tossed that book aside as well across the room. "Does no book have any answers!?" but then took a deep breath and sat back on her haunches. She had less than an hour until her train was scheduled to leave for Canterlot, and she at least wanted to somewhat understand her problems before seeing her teacher. Getting back up, she walked over to one of the lower shelves and pulled out another book, but paused when something behind it caught her eye, "Huh?"
Sliding the few books on that shelf out of the way, she saw an old, bronze horseshoe on the back wall inside of the cabinet. Curiously, she reached out a hoof to touch it, but was surprised to feel it go back into the wall. Suddenly, the entire back pulled apart, revealing another book hidden inside of an old, dusty compartment. Pulling it out, she immediately recognized the torn cover, "This is that book Spike found when Pinkie Pie copied herself from the Mirror Pool. He must have put it back here afterward."
Last time she had it, Twilight flipped straight to the section regarding the legend around the pond and then was done with it, giving it back to Spike. Now, curiosity overtook her troubled mind, wanting to see what other old secrets and legends were in this book. Flipping the page open, she saw that there was many more different things that she found to be very interesting in just the table of contents, "Let's see. Places of secret. Wars and conflicts. Figures of power."
The last one sounded interesting to Twilight, making her flip through the pages to the section towards the back. There wasn't a list of names, but instead categories of different classes of figures. "Hmm, royal sisters. Great unicorns. Unnatural beings."
Twilight personally knew Princess Celestia and Princess Luna; so she decided to skip that section for the things that she didn't know. The great unicorns sounded interesting, but mentioning ponies that were "unnatural" seemed so intriguing to learn about. Flipping through the pages, she came across the first one in that section. Sure enough, it was one that she had met in her past.
"Discord; the deviant spirit of chaos. This draconequus is composed of a mix of different creatures, symbolizing his own personal nature. His power is drawn from disharmony among others and the world around him. Due to this attribute, the magic he contains is considered limitless, for it continues to grow as more things are thrown into chaos."
“I already met Discord. I don’t want to read more about him.” “Not wanting to read anymore on the one who divided her friends, Twilight skipped past the rest of the pages that talked about him. Coming up to another being, she looked down and was really drawn into it now.
"Aligon; the great hybrid. This creature was a genetically engineered being made through science and sorcery. Using stolen DNA acquired from Star Swirl the Bearded himself (For information of Starswirl, see Great unicorns), a cultist group of pony’s known as the Shadow Walkers wanted to create a pony strong enough to allow them to overthrow Equestria. Using the unicorns DNA and the DNA of a dragon, they created a pony unlike anything ever seen before. With the body of a unicorn and the wings and tail of a dragon, the creature Aligon was born."
"Once awakened, however, Aligon went on a killing spree, wiping out all of the members of the shadows, and then leaving to kill everything else that stood in its way. Star Swirl then confronted this beast and engaged it. For three days they did battle, destroying most of the land . Eventually, Star Swirl overpowered the hybrid and defeated him."
Twilight turned the page to find an Artist's depiction of Aligon.
The creature was definitely something that was interesting; large blue stallion with a strange, curved horn on his forehead. The large dragon wings spread out, which somewhat resembled Princess Luna's lunar guards, but in a much more menacing way. She sat astounded at the facts she was learning, "This is amazing. Why haven't I ever learned of these things before?" Going on to the next pony, she eagerly wanted to see what other things happened.
"Crimson Flames; the Fire monster. Very little is known about the origins from where he came from. A talented unicorn who had the unique gift to control and manipulate fire or other forms burning materials."
Twilight felt a strange chill go up the back of her neck as she was reading it. Something about it was... Familiar.
"His strange gift was something that not even the great Princess Celestia could control (for information on Princess Celestia, see Royal sisters). Eventually, he went insane for some unknown reason, even his body took a different form as he soon became enshrouded in fire. In his insanity he proceeded to burn the land of Equestria."
Twilight was now sweating as she hesitantly flipped to the next page of the book. While wanting to see who and what this pony the more she read about him, the strange feeling inside of her chest began to grow stronger.
"As Crimson's powers erupted out of control, the level of destruction grew beyond anything prior to that event, and possibly to ever happen again in history. Cities and towns fell as they were engulfed in flames. Any pony or creature that was able to escape out of his path alive decided to create a new name for the pony; The Destroyer."
"Princess Celestia herself rose up to stop his malicious destruction, but even herself was not able to stop him. Overpowered, she barely escaped with her life as The destroyer continued his wave of terror across the land, before mysteriously disappearing. No further known information exists on what became of him."
Twilight stared at the last sentence on the page for a moment, shocked to see a documented story cut off in this manner, "That's it!? Where is the rest of the information? What happened to him? No information just ends like that!" she flipped to the next page, but then wished she hadn’t.
The magic that surrounded the book faltered, causing it to drop down onto the floor with a loud thud. The air in the library felt very cold and dark in a single instant. Even the normal ring inside of the ears when in a quiet room was not detectable, leaving a complete and utter silence. Still open, the image that she saw stared right back at her, making her heart feel like it was going to explode out of her chest. Her legs felt wobbly as she stumbled backwards away from the terrible picture that was on the page.
The picture looked exactly like her other self.