A Dream is a Wish...or a Nightmare

by Mekon


Guests

Quickly dashing out of bed into her morning routine, Twilight berated herself for allowing the PRINCESS of all ponies to see her in such a pitiful, bedraggled state. Her mane was a mess, frizzy and unkempt, her coat was oily and riddled with misaligned patches, and her poor tail was frayed and split by rebellious hairs that had roamed free in her two-day coma. The fact that she also smelled of sweat, baked and fermented underneath a thick woolen blanket, only served to horrify her more.

Twilight wasn't a very superficial pony, but she did like to look her best, especially in front of friends and guests. She shuddered at the thought of Rarity being substituted in her place, because her unholy screams would surely be enough to wake the sleeping dead from Tartarus into the prime of life.

However, her previous state was quickly cast aside with vigorous washing, careful combing, and various scented shampoos and body washes, and Twilight was ready, sighing in relaxation as she took in that feeling of being sparkly clean.

Stepping out, she began her descent into the kitchens where the wafting smells of Spike's savory cooking were originating, but suddenly, an abrupt pair of small claws wrapped themselves tightly around her forehoof, stopping her in her tracks before she could place even one hoof on the first step down.

“Twilight! Are you alright?! Fluttershy and the princess told me that you were finally awake! I was really worried, because I didn't want anything bad to happen to you. And I was freaking out because you had never come back with so many injuries before or anything like that, and I knew that you had gone into the Everfree Forest. And there are lots of crazy scary monsters in there and so....” Spike rambled on before being forced to stop by Twilight's soft hoof upon his mouth. The purple unicorn grinned and enveloped Spike in a warm, loving hug, silently thanking him for his concerns and for taking care of her. Twilight was sure her assistant had run himself to the point of exhaustion while she was unconscious. “So are you alright now?”

“Perfectly fine,” Twilight answered with a giggle, nuzzling her faithful assistant, “I'm absolutely sure you did a fantastic job of taking care of me while I was bedridden.” Spike blushed at the high praise, puffing his chest out impressively as he soaked his ego, and the lavender mare laughed as she patted his head as a reward. “Let's talk downstairs. I'm starving, and I smell my favorite coffee.” The child dragon chuckled but nodded as he hopped onto Twilight's back, letting her lead them back down where Luna and Fluttershy were already feasting away at Spike's perfectly crafting morning breakfast.

Finally arriving at the table, the purple unicorn was so famished that she simply levitated all of the appropriate foods to her plate instead of grabbing them manually, taking out nearly half of their supply as a mountain of food rose from the depths of the plain white plate.

Her friends and Spike looked on, amused, and the unicorn flushed scarlet; levitating voluminous amounts of food through the air onto your plate was usually considered less than polite in respectable company.

The two other ponies simply laughed, however, and Luna even floated over the rest of the coffee pot, half-filled, as a joke, which Twilight quickly declined with a small squeak, grabbing a nearby mug and pouring herself a reasonable quantity, burying her face into its black depths in the hopes that it would block most of her reddened cheeks.

“I see your appetite definitely hasn't suffered,” Luna commented with a giggle as she took a demure sip of her apple juice, winking at her friend who looked no worse for wear than normal, “Miss Zecora's herbal remedies really are quite miraculous.”

Twilight suddenly jolted in her seat, remembering her zebra friend who had been on the receiving end of the chimera's claws to begin with. “Zecora! Is she alright?! How is she?” She demanded, feeling the raw nibbling of guilty worry at her sides. Immediately, Fluttershy quickly affirmed the zebra's safety, and the purple unicorn felt relief wash through her body. Twilight would have never forgiven herself if something had happened to her.

“Once Zecora got back to her hut, she pulled out a bunch of these strange potions and balms and started applying them. She actually left you some earlier today. You should use them later,” the pegasus answered with a smile, “She really thanks you for carrying her so far and saving her life.”

“Well thank goodness she's alright. She looked really beat up when I found her,” Twilight said, a large weight disappearing from her chest.

“What were you doing out there in the first place Twilight?” Luna suddenly asked with a serious expression, “You of all ponies should know how dangerous it is in there, especially in the deep jungle.” Before Twilight could respond properly, however, Fluttershy stepped in for her.

“Um...well..she was escorting me on my visit to Zecora, because I'm really afraid of the forest. But then, we found out that Zecora wasn't there, and we were worried that something bad had happened to her. That's when Twilight decided to go outside and look for her,” the butter-colored mare murmured as she looked down at her plate, shifting stray bits of uneaten food around, “It's my fault really...If I had gone with Twilight to search for her maybe...”

“It's not your fault Fluttershy,” Twilight cut in sternly and genuinely, “It's nopony's fault.”

“But...”

“No. Don't blame yourself please. I sure don't. What matter's is that nopony got hurt... permanently anyway. It's a good thing Luna appeared to save me though,” Twilight admitted, “But....what were you doing out there anyway Luna? How did you find me?”

“Well originally, Celestia had sent me here to check up on you since the night court is currently in recess for the rest of the month. I had plenty of time to fly down here, and I actually planned to stay here for my vacation,” the lunar princess explained, “I actually came to the library first to greet you and announce my arrival, but you weren't here. I found out from Spike that you had gone into the forest, and you know the rest from there.”

“What a way to come upon your friend huh?” Twilight mused, chuckling.

“Indeed.”

The purple unicorn nodded gratefully. “Well thank you then. You saved my life,” she said, her gaze locking with the night alicorn sitting across the table, and Luna answered her with a shy smile of her own.

“Consider us even then hmm?” she laughed, “But anyways, near-death experiences aside, how are you doing Twilight? Any interesting developments lately?”

“Hmm...not really,” Twilight responded slowly, “Other than the fact that Nightmare Moon is sitting in my head right now.”

“You called?” the black alicorn chirped suddenly, surprising Twilight because the usually talkative and provocative alicorn had been quiet for nearly twenty minutes already.

“Where the heck were you? For a second there, I thought you had decided to go possess some other unfortunate soul,” Twilight deadpanned, though she meant it lightly.

“I just wanted to let you have a good and normal conversation with our dearest Lulu and your adorable pegasus friend is all,” Nightmare answered sweetly and innocently, giggling, “Don't tell me that you missed the melodious sound of my deliciously seductive voice already my dear mistress?”

“As if...”

“So what do you think Twilight?” Luna's suddenly happy voice asked, breaking Twilight out of her thought conversation.

“Huh? What? Yes. Sure! Why not?” the lavender mare answered randomly, turning her attention back to the real world and her guests, hoping she had responded correctly.

“Really? Thank you so much!” the night goddess said, clapping her hooves together, “Oh we're going to have so much fun!”

“Uh...wait. What's going on?” the purple unicorn asked sheepishly, rubbing the back of her head in embarrassment, “I was kind of lost in thought there...”

“Oh...um...well..I asked if I could stay over here during my vacation since the court's in recess for another three weeks,” the lunar princess said, flushing slightly for having to repeat it a second time, “I mean...if it isn't too much trouble. I wouldn't want to impose.” Twilight flinched guiltily, already knowing her answer.

“No no. It's no problem at all! In fact, I'm sure that it will be tons of fun Luna!” she amended quickly, apologizing for not paying attention to the goddess.

“Oh my. Two grown mares living underneath the same roof. How cunning of you mistress. Don't jump her in your sleep okay? Though if she consents, it's fair game after all,” Nightmare snickered, creating a few choice images to fill Twilight's head, most of which pertained to activities that were considered rude to utter in public.

“Shut up! I'm just being a nice friend is all...which is what we are! Friends! There is nothing going on between us, and it is definitely not going to come to THAT! Twilight screeched mentally as images of Bon Bon and Lyra's “activities” suddenly invaded her consciousness too, only adding to her rising blush. The black alicorn laughed deliciously, forgetting how much fun it was to tease Twilight.

“Maybe you can invite Luna into your passionate dreams then hmm? You never know what sort of kinky things you could do there. I hear she's still got that ability. I did teach it to her after all,” Nightmare continued. The fact that the object of Nightmare's teasing were only serving to empower the images and suggestions being made, causing more and more blood to rise to Twilight's cheeks.

And again, before Twilight could grace Nightmare with her own rebuttal, Luna's cheerful voice broke her thoughts.

“Wonderful! Thank you so much Twilight. I know we'll have the best time here! But..I am curious. What were you thinking so hard about? It must be something extremely important to make you lose your consciousness in the real world,” the night alicorn asked with a small chuckle, raising her eyebrow in interest. “Perhaps your mind is lingering on the thoughts of a secret love and their reaction to knowing you were bedridden for two days,” she joked, giggling at her own cleverness. However, she was surprised to find that nopony else was laughing as hard as she was.

“That is probably the actual reason,” Spike supplied with a cheeky grin, poking his caretaker and beating her to the punch, “Twilight confessed that she had somepony special on her mind a few days ago. Everypony went pretty ballistic over it, but I don't have a clue as to why.”

Twilight cursed quietly as the rest of the blood in her body congregated on her cheeks as all eyes turned to her. There was no way out of this one. Saying it was a lie could potentially expose her secret, and not denying it would only give her more trouble. She decided on the only possible thing she could use: diversion.

“Haha...yeah...well speaking of everypony else. Have they come in to see me?” Twilight asked with the widest and falsest grin she could muster, not really convincing anypony. With a smirk, Luna decided it was time to go fishing.

“Hmm....of course. They all visited you dutifully, but I wonder which one of them have caught your attention, particularly your more amorous ones,” the night princess teased, observing her target carefully for reactions, “Perhaps it's Rainbow Dash? The fastest and most athletic pegasus pony in this day and age whose skills could be compared to your ability for magic?” ......No reaction from Twilight.

“Hmm..or Miss Pie? Whose aptitude and appetite for fun surely outclasses all others? I believe she compliments your personality perfectly.” ......Nothing still.

“Possibly Applejack? Whose due diligence is rather astounding.” No cigar.

“Rarity who possesses grace and elegance?” Nope.

“Fluttershy.” Twilight remained quiet, and only a squeak from the present pegasus answered Luna's last query.

“It's not any of them,” Twilight answered with a huff, only encouraging the young alicorn more, “You're never going to guess it right, and why would you only include my friends? They are all girls after all.”

“Hmm...well it is not uncommon for strong friendship to transform into love after all,” Luna answered truthfully, “Though if I offend because they are all girls, I apologize.” Twilight just grunted in a noncommittal fashion; she had nothing against it, but Fluttershy was here. Her friends all thought she liked a stallion after all.

“Well..um...I don't see anything wrong with it personally,” Fluttershy chimed in nervously, shuffling her hooves together, “I think as long as there is love involved, it's okay.” Twilight blinked in surprise, replaying what her pegasus friend had just said; it surprised her. She had not figured Fluttery, the down-to-earth, shy pegasus pony, to be so radically accepting. Before the purple unicorn could respond in turn, however, the clock struck at the latest hour, and the pegasus suddenly shot out of her seat. “Oh no! I forgot! I have to feed Angel and all the other animals! Oh dear, Angel is going to throw a fit. I have to go! Thanks for everything Spike. Goodbye Luna, Twilight!” And suddenly, she was already gone before the two ponies and the dragon could return her goodbyes, leaving only Luna and Twilight at the table as Spike went about on his daily errands.

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“Are you sure this is a good idea Twilight? You just recovered, and we don't know if your magic can handle this yet,” Spike repeated for the tenth time, “I mean it's great and all that you want to test out Luna's suggestions, but shouldn't you do it when you're...you know. Fully healed?” They were back at the desolate testing spot where Twilight had first attempted to create a pocket dimension, and Nature had yet to reclaim the ravaged area that was devoid of trees and grass. If this test went anything like the last ones, Nauture would most likely give up.

“Nonsense Spike! I've rested for two days already. My magic should be at one-hundred and ten percent after such a long recovery period. My body doesn't directly affect my magic anyways unless it's under high strain,” Twilight waved off as she levitated the two new additions to her experiment in place.

After Fluttershy had left, Luna had struck up a conversation about her latest experiments and forays into the enigmatic world of magic. Of course, Twilight had eventually come upon the topic of her pocket dimension spell, which the night alicorn had taken immense interest in.

“What are we doing again? I hardly see how this is any different from the last attempt we made. All we have now is two mirrors,” the baby dragon said as he pushed the tools in place, “What will these even do?”

“It's a bit complicated Spike,” Twilight said as she remembered what she had animatedly discussed with Luna earlier that day.

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“So how are your experiments going? Any progress?” Luna asked as she placed her dirty dishes in the sink, “I heard from Spike that you have something in mind that you have been working really hard on for quite some time now.”

“Yeah,” Twilight said from her seat at the table, nearly done with her pile of food, “I've been trying to create portable pocket dimensions via magic foci crystals and crystallized spell latices, but every time I attempt to break the barrier between this dimension and the next, it usually results in a miniature black hole. I just can't seem to control the singularity complex with magic no matter how many foci nodes I use.”

“That is interesting. Did you factor in the possibility of magic decay rates and dimensional distortion?” the princess conversed naturally as if the topic was easy enough for a kindergartner to understand, “There's also the possibility that the singularity complex is absorbing some of the controlling magic measures as well.”

“Yeah. I've mostly got those covered, but I think the problem is that I don't have enough magical reserves, or that I don't output magic fast enough to handle the high amounts of magical feedback,” the purple unicorn scientist said, “If there was a way for me to alter and increase my rate of magic output, it might be possible for me to simply saturate the singularity complex in a pulse of magic long enough to keep it stable. But I haven't thought of a viable way to do that other than training or using other unicorns. And that still isn't viable because the foci aren't attuned to other pony's magic, and training would take a few years.”

“Have you ever considered magical interference and compounding? If you do it right, you can fill in the magical gap with enough magic energy to substitute for lost power,” the blue alicorn asked as she sat down again, deeply invested in the topic at hoof.

“I mean...I've thought about it, but there's really no real way for me to do that without expensive reflection crystals, and even then, I'd have to make sure they are attuned and correctly proportioned. Finding two perfect reflection crystals could take ages as well,” Twilight sighed.

“True. However, you can achieve similar results, albeit a bit less effective, by using magically reinforced glass you know. Mirrors would do perfectly fine. It might not be able to withstand the same amounts of magical stress as a reflection crystal, but for your purposes, I bet it would be enough, especially with a strong reinforcement spell,” the night alicorn said with a smile, “Your magic is already astoundingly powerful. I believe you'd only need a little extra to start a chain reaction that would create enough energy to overhaul the instability of the singularity complex.”

Twilight thought about it for a moment, formulating and postulating the amount of magical power she would need to stabilize the birth of a new, mini dimension. It was theoretically possible if the mirrors could hold. Then she could introduce the crystallized spell while inducing her own magic, which would further raise the energy levels.

“That actually might work!” the purple unicorn suddenly declared excitedly, “Brilliant Luna! Thanks so much!” The lavender mare was already gathering materials, levitating two of her house's mirrors out the door along with her myriad of jewels, quills, scrolls and Spike.

Luna giggled. Once that mare started, there was nothing stopping her. “Well good luck!” she called as she followed her host out the door, “I'm going to be gone for a day or so, because I have have to fill out the proper paperwork for my official vacation to stay here in Ponyville. I'll see you tomorrow Twilight!”

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“Still got no idea what you guys were talking about,” Spike muttered as he pushed the mirror in place, facing the other mirror about fifty feet apart, “And if I end up flying through the air towards certain death again, I quit.”

Twilight ignored that comment and observed the setup carefully, telling Spike to suddenly stop. “Perfect! According to my calculations, this distance should be enough. Let's hope this works!” Spike took a couple hundred steps back, wary of what was going to happen next as he anchored his tail underneath a nearby boulder.

The unicorn stepped in between the two enchanted mirrors, aiming her horn right down the center of one of them as she built up her magic for as long as she could hold it through her focus, the steady glow on her horn becoming blindingly bright.

At the apex of her power, she fired a long beam of pure, purple magic at the first mirror, hoping that it would hold, and amazingly, the crystalline surface bounced the ray of magic back easily, causing Twilight to jump out of the way as she reveled in her success. The lavender unicorn smiled and waited for the magic to pass by again before jumping back and firing another prepared beam. The process repeated itself over and over again until there was no way for Twilight to time a jump. What had been just empty air moments before was now a powerful, continuous beam of magic, moving back and forth between mirror to mirror, pulsing strongly with each pass.

“Now to just move the mirrors closer,” Twilight said to herself, and she gingerly grabbed the two with her magic, slowly shuffling them closer and closer to the point where the magic beam became so intense that they resisted the movement of the mirrors. This was as far as she could go.

“Now to charge and place the crystallized spell,” she chanted as she began to charge the light blue, holding jewel, laced with her enchantment, in place. This was it, the moment of truth.

Then, just as the pre-charged crystal was centimeters away from contacting the volatile ray of magical energy, a particularly random gust traveled through the area, slightly knocking the mirror askew, and the beam reacted in turn. It was headed straight toward Twilight's body.

Twilight screamed and cursed her foolishness at the same time, wondering how in the world she had forgotten to account for natural disturbances. In her own zealousness, she had forgotten proper preparations and was now paying the price.

The beam connected, and the lavender mare yelled in fear as she felt her own raw magic course through her and envelop her completely. She didn't know what was going on. Up was down, down was up. Real was fake, fake was real. She was alive, she was dead. Time was space, space was time.

And she could do nothing but hope and pray.

All of a sudden after a few tense moments, the light died down as Twilight took in the raw magic, small arcs of magic still flicking around her. Then she fell to the floor, dropping the crystal with her.

“TWILIGHT!” Spike cried out in fear as he wrenched his tail from underneath the rock. He rushed over to her unmoving form, crying out the same name over and over again in the hopes that she would wake, but the only response he got was the soft, pulsating glow of the black crystal in her hooves.