//------------------------------//
// You Love Her 
// Story: Breaking The Norm 
// by The Wizard of Words 
//------------------------------//

“Into dreams?” Luna repeats your request with a questioning tone. You cannot tell if she is merely clarifying your words or speaking in disbelief. You hope for the former, but you fear for the latter.

“Y-Yeah,” your voice stutters, again. “I told you how I thought of an idea to help Twilight, and I needed your help for it. Well… if you want to help me, that is.” You try your best to put on your most confident smile. But the mask you wear feels off centered and fake, like trying to walk on your rear legs. Possible, but horribly awkward.

“I see,” the princess speaks in response, turning her head as her crystal covered hoof is raised to her mouth. Her eyes are partially hidden beneath her billowing mane, but you can still catch glimpses of her sapphire orbs. Her lids are closed half way over them, as if just barely kept open as her mind meanders in thought.

You roll your tongue in your mouth, swallowing on a ball of saliva that has collected in the back of your throat. You swallow on it, trying to do so as quietly as possible. With the stillness of the air, however, it sounds as if you had performed a Sonic Rainboom in the face of the princess. Needless to say, you feel your face heat up.

But the princess still doesn’t pay you any mind, her thoughts focused more on the words you have already said than the sounds you are making. You’re grateful for that much, but still nervous as a filly. You’re out of metaphors to describe just how strong the butterflies in your gut are.

You hear the princess whisper your name, “Rainbow.” It causes you to stiffen, back straightening like a board. “Would it surprise you if I were to tell of the number of times I have received such a request?” You let the question sift through your head, carefully digesting what it means. You answer back with a carefully worded response.

“Only if you told me that it didn’t happen a lot.” She smiles at your words. That’s a good thing, at least right now it is. Smiles are almost always good things.

“An honest response,” she phrases through her lips. “I can count the number of times such a request has been given to me, through my rule both in this present and the far reaching past. I confess however, the reason for such a low occurrence could very well be due to its secrecy.”

“Yeah, that tends to stop ponies from asking about things.” You said that too fast; you didn’t think about it. However, at least this time, there was no threat or harmful barb to your words. Luna only nods in agreement.

“Indeed, for ponies are rightfully hesitant to venture into areas they know little of.” Her cerulean eyes look at your own pink ones, and you fight the urge to shrink your head into your shoulders. No matter how friendly you are with her, or she is with you, it’s impossible to ignore how intimidating her figure is.

“However, I will also offer another confession, if only for entertaining me this night.” You have no idea how to respond to that, so you chose to stay silent. Years later, you’re sure you’d still be able to swear it was the right move.

“I have often thought fondly of inviting another pony into the walking world of dreams, letting them experience the joy and wonder than can only be found in a world free of rules and law, yet still unaffected by the actions of others. No expectations of what to grow, no goals that must be met, only you, your imagination, and a canvas as endless as my night sky.” Listening to the princess speak, listening to her voice flow with an almost serendipity level of joy, you feel yourself further engrossed with every passing millisecond.

“Ponies often fall into sleep without the desire to dream. Those that do, the few who sleep for the joy to dream, know of what I speak. They know the thrill of moving mountains, of twisting the sky, of commanding seas, and forging reality. It is a rare and delicate treat to ever taste, and I would enjoy more than little else to take another pony into such a state.” She ends her speech, letting her lips pull into a soft and gentle smile as she continues to gaze upon you. You swallow something hollow in your throat before you ask your own question.

“So… that’s a yes?” You aren’t sure if the soft rumble of laughter she responds with is a good or bad sign. That is, until she speaks.

“Yes, Rainbow, I will aid you.” You just barely resist the urge to jump for joy. “However, there are warnings I must first give.” That stops you.

“Warnings? Like, something bad happening?” The dark alicorn nods towards your words, and you feel your coat stand on end. “Oh, don’t tell me that if something bad happens to me in my dreams, it happens to me in real life! That’d be stupid!” As soon as the words leave your lips, you bite your tongue. However, there isn’t scorn or laughter, but you do see Luna smile.

“I assure you that if any harm befalls you during your rest, you will merely awaken, as you would in any dream.” You hear the sigh pass through your lips. “The words of caution I have to speak deal more with how to command a dream, and prevent it from commanding you.”

“Commanding… me?” You ask the question back to the alicorn, to which you receive a nod. Her hooves adjust over her cushion, no doubt from the amount of time she’s spent laying down and speaking with you.

“It is not uncommon to have a dream overtake the dreamer. How often you would say you had, I believe the phrase today would, ‘the strangest dream ever?’” You stop yourself before say something you might regret. Instead you nod your head left, then right, then forwards.

“Yeah, I see your point.” You feel your cheeks pull upwards sheepishly. Luna mimics the gesture. “So, how do you stop that? Like, just keep thinking happy thoughts, or what?” The princess’s cheeks only rise further with your words.

“You are half correct, Rainbow Dash.” Her horn flares for a moment, shimmering with a blue aura that looks as soft as the pillow you’re resting on. You don’t have the courage to see if it’s as warm. “In order for ponies to work their best, or to accomplish the goals at hand, they often need to focus. I myself am no different.”

An object floats through the air, hanging by an unseen string between you and the princess. You can tell immediately that it’s just a piece of paper, probably with something important written across it. But from where you are, you just can’t tell.

“To focus one’s mind is to control one’s thoughts. Preventing distracting notions from swaying you from your current goal. A unicorn must focus to cast a spell, and a pegasus most focus to fly well.” You can’t tell if she’s directing that last part at you or some event that happened to her in the past. You listen on regardless.

“In the realm of dreams, focus is the key to preventing yourself from being swallowed by the dream. If you focus your thoughts, solidify your mind, you stop the dream from taking you over.” That sounded too simple.

“It’s not that easy, is it?” You can tell in an instant that the smile Luna is giving is nothing short of pleased.

“You are as swift as your name implies.” Again, it’s impossible to tell just how she means that, but again, you stay silent. “Focusing the mind often requires a subject of focus, something that you need to keep your mind thinking upon.”

“So, like Twilight, right?” You think it sounds simple, very simple. But then again, you’ve learned after being around Twilight and the rest of your friends that things are rarely that simple. The small frown from Luna is clue enough you’re wrong.

“That would not be a wise idea.” The princess gently cajoles your idea. “Dreams are the center of creation, the location where your thoughts are given form. To think of Twilight Sparkle would be to conjure your own creation of her. I suspect you wish to talk to the real pony, if I have heard your request correctly thus far.” You feel a bit sheepish as she finishes.

“Yeah, you’re right.” Your hoof lightly scratches at your fur, trying to smoothen out the fibers as you think of what to say next. “So, then I have to think of something that… isn’t alive, or normally wouldn’t be. Why?” From the smile she gives you, you can tell you’re on the right track. You’re a little more than hesitant to just say you’re right.

“Correct,” she congratulates you in a proud tone. “You need to think of something hard, tangible, usually a reminder that you are in a dream. It wouldn’t be something you would normally carry on you. Such things would not help you distinguish the realm of dreams from the waking world.” You keep yourself from showing your confusion as best as you can.

“Okay…” You slowly let out, making sure you really do understand what the princess is saying, even though you don’t. “So… I just gotta think of something I wouldn’t normally carry, but make sure that I keep it with me, because that will help stop the dreams from… overtaking me?”

“You make it sound a bit more complex than what it truly is, but yes, I would say you have the, how would I phrase it, general idea.” Luna’s words offer you some peace of mind. Your eyes are distracted, however, as you see a blue aura coming closer towards you. It takes only a moment for you to realize that it’s the paper Luna was holding moments before.

“Please, take this.” She gently commands, letting the parchment hover in front of your nose. Your hooves slip out from beneath your frame grabbing at the paper in the air. The magic surrounding it instantly begins to dissipate, the hum from the princess’s horn simultaneously vanishing.

“What is it?” You ask as your eyes scan over the paper. You thought originally it was some kind of reminder the  princess had for herself, but no matter how many times you look it over, you don’t see anything written on it. There’s no ink, no paint, nothing to make it anything but a blank piece of parchment.

“That,” Luna begins, “Is going to aid me with my spell.” You don’t understand, and you’re sure you face is making that more than clear, as the princess continues to speak. “There exist some spells, developed long ago, that require catalysts in order to properly function. They often took the form of medallions, or crowns.” Something clicks in your head.

“Or an amulet?” Memories of Trixie and her escapade across Ponyville are more than just vivid in your mind. The nodding head of the dark alicorn is all the confirmation you need.

“Exactly,” she begins, “They allow spells to hold their function after they are cast. A spell to send you to slumber is not difficult, but one to keep you within a different realm will require a source of constant power.” You nod your head. You do understand. Still, paper didn’t make much sense. But then again, this was an alicorn that literally slept the day away and only worked at night. There was room for a few oddities.

“Okay, alright.” You speak more to yourself than to Luna. The paper in your hooves crumples slightly as your legs flex together.

“You are prepared then?” The question doesn’t raise a doubt in your mind. It just solidifies your conviction. This is how you’ll see Twilight, how you’ll get her to forgive you, and fix all the problems you started.

Yeah, you could do this.

“Yeah, let’s do it.” You feel a smile grow over your lips. It’s not too different than the one you see on Luna’s.

“Very well.” You hear the horn begin to hum as that blue magical aura begins to surround the bony protrusion. The princess’s eyes are shut, probably in concentration. You don’t need to focus on anything yet, but you still close your eyes. It’s not like you’re nervous, you just don’t what will happen.

“I am familiar with the energy and aura of the young Twilight Sparkle. It will be simple for me to locate and direct you to her dreams.” You understand her words, but the meaning behind them was probably the only thing you can admit you would never be able to catch, because you sure didn’t understand what it was.

“Rest well, Rainbow Dash.”

You never feel your head hit the pillow.





Falling, falling. What is it always falling?

You know you’re falling because you’ve fallen so many times before. The odd sensation of weightlessness, the lack of control in your movements, and the sudden sense of nausea in your tummy.

Yeah, you’re definitely falling.

You spread your wings as far as they can stretch, hoping to capture some of the air racing past you, but they don’t grab onto anything. Your legs flail as you feel yourself spin and tumble, but they don’t touch a thing, not even a cloud. You want to search for something, to grab onto anything.

But it’s hard to know where to go when you’re surrounded by darkness. That’s right, you’re falling into the black, surrounded by nothingness.

It’s just a vast empty space, nothing to hold onto and nothing to reach for. No air, no clouds, no nothing. Just nothing.

Your mind is screaming at you to make it stop, to wake up and just forget all about your plan to help Twilight. You’re terrified, and you have no idea how to stop it. Falling is part of flying, but endlessly falling is like endlessly failing. You can’t handle that.

But you’re not here for yourself. You’re not risking your health... mental health for kicks and giggles. You’re looking for Twilight, looking for the mare that you hurt, and it’s going to take more than just a little fall to make you lose confidence in yourself.

You are Rainbow Dash, fastest pegasus in all of Equestria, and you are not going to let yourself be swallowed by this dream.

You remember Luna telling you about focus, about control, about how you are in control and the dream needs you to be made. If there’s nothing to build, then it will swallow you whole. You have to think of something, anything to focus on. A single thought, a constant reminder, drifts through your head.

Twilight.

From the nothingness beneath you, you see a garden grow, an explosion of colors that all at once memorizes and dazzles you, drawing you out of the endless fall you had found yourself in. The colors pass you, surround you, capture you, and even whisk by you, all like they are made of air, like you are just falling through a colored sky.

Maybe now you can fly.

Your wings try to beat again, trying desperately to hold onto something in your descent. You feel a surge of joy as you feel the force of your wings pushing against the dense colors, slowing your free-fall into a mild descent. For every beat your wings make, you fall just that much slower; you’re just that much safer.

Finally, you find yourself still amongst the colors, surrounded by the endlessly mixed rainbow. It feels like you had just flown into your own mane and was lost in its fibers, searching for a way out. You look up and see green mixing with yellow, beneath your red swirling within grey, and all around you white, black, blue, violet, and even pink mix.

You swallow on nothing as you start to fly forward, gliding through the mix of violet and blue. The further you approach, the denser the colors appear, large and looming in size. You feel the blue swim beneath your hooves, tracing your fur like the water in an ocean.

The lavender purple isn’t so much surrounding you as it is embracing you. Like a cloud you would rest on, it takes in your shape, soft and forgiving. You can’t help the urge to fly a bit higher into the mass of color, hoping to find yourself lost in that touch. But as you ascend higher into it, you lose track of the blue beneath you.

Just like that, you’re lost again. Except this time, it’s in a cloud of endless purple, not a bottomless pit of darkness. Still, it got you no closer to finding solid ground.

You bite your lip in frustration, too angry to scream and too focused to even think of it. You have to focus this time, really think about Twilight, but not just that you have to find her. You have to think about what you’re going to say to her, about what you’re going to do when you meet her, about how the conversation is going to go.

She might still be angry at you, maybe a little frustrated that you’ve gone so far as to invade her privacy in sleep. It was possible she would be a little tart with you, maybe even ask you to leave again. But, you wouldn’t. You were sure of that. You had asked too big a favor to simply up and leave by her request.

When you see her-- yes when, not if-- you will do your surest to apologize for everything you did and said, every beat of your wings that caused that Rainboom and every word you let your lips speak without thought or filter.

You let out a silent gasp as the color around you begins to change again.

This time, however, it’s more than just color. There are shapes, figures, bends and angles to the colors that start to grow from the veil of lavender surrounding you. You can see trees, green and tall with strong brown trunks rising from some unseen ground. You follow their ascent with curious eyes, watching as the purple above you begins to split.

The dark shade begins to fade into an even darker color, the darkest of them all actually. You fear for a moment that you are being swallowed into the nothingness again, that you may not have ever really gained your focus. But when your head swings downward, determined to look away from the abyss, you see something else.

There’s green, so much green, a bountiful amount of it. It’s green like the grass outside Ponyville, like the meadow that Fluttershy raises her animal friends in. It looks so real, so detailed, so vivid and beautiful.

But more than anything else, it’s coming closer to you.

Your wings slow their beat as the land comes closer to you, lifting towards you gently.  Your hooves touch down on the soft grass. You slowly fold your wings back into your sides as you take a real look at the land around you.

You’re in a meadow, of sorts, surrounded by trees. There isn’t anything immediately apparent or noticeable about them, only that they look real enough. But that was pretty much it. There wasn’t any noticeable landmark, no obvious sign as to where you were, and definitely no purple unicorn waiting for you with a shocked expression.

After everything you had just felt, everything from the second Luna cast her spell to the moment you were currently in, you could deftly conclude one detail. Dreams were, and always will be, one very obvious thing.

Weird!

But that didn’t matter right now, comfort that it was. This is where you needed to be; at least it felt like it.

It was hard to tell where exactly you were, with so many things shifting and changing, moving like they were made out of water. The trees were swaying back and forth like they were made of rubber, and the ground changes from lush and green to barren rock before turning back into an untouched field.

This may all have been formed quickly and easily, but it looks like it’s ready to fade away just as fast again.

You remember Luna’s words, her calm but serious warning to you. You need to focus, on more than just your goal. You need to know where you have to go, and to do that, you have calm yourself.

You blink once, trying to focus your mind. Nothing changes. You clench your eyes shut, trying again. But when you open them, the sky has changed from night to day and the trees are replaced by mountains.

It isn’t working.

You need to do more than just calming actions, you need to think calming thoughts, that’s what Luna told you. A totem, a pillar, something you know you can hold onto, something tangible that you can focus on. That shouldn’t be too hard, right?

But you have to be careful about this, Luna warned you. Trying to make a totem too big or too small would make it either too hard to keep solid or too easy to lose track of. It had to be something familiar, something you wouldn’t easily let go of.

The sky enters your mind, tempting you with its vast space and unending road, but you quickly push it away. You can’t hold onto the sky like that, that’s probably the biggest thing you could have ever thought of. Your head shakes once, then twice, but you can’t stop thinking about how much you love the sky.

But there are other things you care about. Smaller things, things you can carry. Feathers! You love the feathers in your wings. Their size, their shape, their ability to push and flow through the air. That’s what you love about them. Without them, you wouldn’t have wings to fly.

Something tickles your nose, causing you to scrunch up your muzzle in annoyance.

You open your eyes to see a feather hanging in the air.

Immediately, you know it’s not one of your feathers. Any pegasi can tell their feathers from another pegasi, like unicorns and their horns. Your feathers are shorter than most other pegasi, angled more towards the tip to have less drag. This feather was longer, a bit taller than yours, even without the pinion. There was no angle to it either.

Of course, the fact that it was purple was also a dead giveaway that it wasn’t your feather.

But still, there it sat, hovering in the air in front of you, neither falling to the ground nor swaying in the air. Like it was tied to a string, it twirled in front of you, carrying the focus of your gaze so easily, mesmerizing you with every small sway.

Hesitantly, you raise your hoof to touch it, careful as if it were to shatter into a million pieces. Given the absolute intangibility of everything else around you, such a thing wouldn’t be impossible, especially in a dream.

Yes, that’s right, this is a dream.

You had almost forgotten that, too focused on the feather and not enough as to why you are here. The feather is a totem, a thing to keep you grounded. The dream is your path, the road you have to take to reach your goal. You had to see Twilight, and she was waiting for you, sort of.

Your hoof reaches forward then, hesitance gone from its touch. The feather feels no different than any other feather. It has fibers running the thin skeletal frame, most likely made out of the same cartilaginous frame as your own feathery appendages. But then, of course it would.

It may not be your feather, but you did create it. You’re in a dream, so it’s whatever you want it to be.

You hold it in your hoof for a moment, thinking about how to carry it. You don’t have a bag on you, and there’s no way you’re walking with three hooves through a dreamscape looking for Twilight. It could fit into your wings, but just flexing the wrong way could cause it to tumble free and be lost into the realm.

You stop to think, really think. If you weren’t a pegasi, Luna and Celestia forbid, where would you keep something small? You don’t have a bag, you don’t have magic, and you don’t have anyplace immediately strong enough to hold. Your eyes close in annoyance, ears flicking above your head.

Ears…

The thought of them forces you to raise your other hoof up to them, feeling one of them as if it were the first time. They are strong, but not supportive. However, you have seen them used for other things before. Pinkie Pie holding a spatula between her head and one of her ears, Twilight holding a pencil in the same way, Applejack and a hammer when raising the barn, even Rarity with a few pins and needles.

Why not a feather?

You raise the hoof holding your dream-created part, biting your tongue as you slide the feather into place. The end of it pokes you briefly, earning a small grimace of discomfort, but another attempt you find it secured in place.

You can feel it sitting there, solid and strong, tangible. It’s proof that this is a dream, that this isn’t real, but that you are in control. It might feel wrong saying it later, but right now, in the moment, you can’t help but admit how good it feels. A part of you, a very persuasive and manipulative part of you, wants you to.

But you can’t, right now anyways. You came here for a reason, and that reason is what you have to focus on. Somewhere in this random free forming world is Twilight Sparkle, and you are going to find her.

It’s just then you realize you have no idea how to find her.

Even though Luna sent you to Twilight’s dream, even though she’s somewhere around here, you have no idea where. It’s like telling some pony that you’re up in the sky. It’s an awfully big sky to search through.

Your lips is twisted to and fro in between your teeth. There has to be something you can do, some sign or easy way to track the unicorn. This is her dream, or at least it’s supposed to be. It was hard to tell. Too hard. After all, it can’t be your dream. Luna told you she was going to send you to Twilight. You could trust her. She did trust you enough to invite you to her private chambers.

Yeah, you’re in Twilight’s dream. Now you just have to find her. It’s a good thing you know a foolproof way how to find some pony. You spread your wings, taking care to flex them in large circular gaits before crouching low the ground. Your eyes are looking upwards, ready to jump into the endless dark you see above you.

You flap your wings as you jump into the air.

You grimace as your body hits the ground again.

For a moment, you’re too shocked to move, sure that you must have just slipped on the ground before your wings had a chance to lift you. But, you beat your wings once, twice, then thrice, each one earning the same result as the next.

Nothing.

You have no idea why that would happen. That’s never happened before. You may not go into dreams that often, but when you dream, you can fly clear across Equestria in a couple of minutes, hay, maybe even a minute.

But here, apparently you can’t.

A disgruntled sigh leaves your lips, angered by the sudden discovery. But that’s all you do.You don’t curse, you don’t complain, and you don’t give up.

You came here to find Twilight, and you’re not going to leave until you do.

You stand to your hooves, sucking a deep breath of air through your nostrils, flaring your chest outwards. Like the proud and determined pegasi that you are, you march forward into the forest, ready for anything else Twilight’s dream might throw at you.





You know that you are in a dream, that all of what’s around you is only theoretically real. You know, like a filly knows when it’s hungry, that no matter what you do, nothing you do in here will have any physical impact on the world outside. You don’t have to be an egghead to know that.

But you swear to the princess that sent you here, you wish your body would stop feeling so tired.

It must have been hours within the dream, marching through the woods without a view of the sky above, searching fruitlessly for the unicorn you came here to find. You walk over the branches on the ground, feel the grumbled leaves beneath your hooves, and suck greedily on the cold air.

Your hoof rises to push aside another stubborn branch, eager to block your path through the woods. You push it out of the way with what was probably more force than necessary, but you can’t see it in yourself to care too much.

You walk two hoof lengths forwards to feel grass beneath your hooves, feeling an odd sense of joy at having something soft beneath your hooves again, instead of the harsh and unforgiving branches of the forest.

Your eyes glance over the open space in the forest, free of any trees or growth aside from the soft and, dare you think, inviting grass. There is, however, another figure in the open plain, something that wouldn’t belong in the forest, and something that wouldn’t belong in a glade either.

It’s the thing you have come all this way to find.

Twilight Sparkle.

You maintain just enough control of your brain to stop yourself from running forward and barreling into her. That would be the best way to ruin your journey, you’re sure about that. You crouch to the ground, hiding as much of yourself as you can from her, choosing instead to watch her from a distance.

She’s sitting alone in the meadow you’ve entered, resting in the open center free of any canopy the trees might create. Her eyes are skyward, away from you, but still showing enough for you to see her.

She doesn’t look any different now than what she does outside of her dreams. A lavender coat that is well cared for, a spiral horn pushing through the darker purple locks of her mane, that almost cute pink stripe that runs down her mane, and of course, her violet eyes.

It’s nothing special or significant to say it’s easy to see what a pony’s thinking when you look into their eyes. Even foals can tell when another pony is lying just by the look they give. The pupils dilate when they are curious or mesmerized, shrink when they’re scared or terrified, and glow when they’re happy.

That’s why you can tell how sad Twilight looks.

You still far away from her, too far to really say you’re near her at all, but even from here you know that she’s depressed. Her eyes are misted, lids closed to half-mast, and neck just barely holding her head up. Everything about her combined with everything you know about is screaming that she’s sad, morbidly so.

Her head lifts up then, looking around the sky above you. Your legs instinctively crouch, hiding you just a bit more in the dark thicket. A part of you wants to laugh, finding the situation of you hiding from a friend absolutely ludicrous, if not, hilarious. Not to mention that you, the pony with a rainbow for a mane and tail, is trying to hide at all. Just one good glance and she’d see you no problem.

But she doesn’t see you. She doesn’t even search the woods around her. Twilight’s gaze is stuck looking upwards, looking into a night sky that you know you both have seen more than a hundred times before.

Her horn is alight as her hooves dance in front of her, swaying back and forth. They gently mingle in a charade you can’t follow, twisting into odd shapes as they continue to move on some path your eyes can’t see. Her head tilts left, then right, then settles back to her center.

You watch her hooves continue to dance as her horn continues to shine, shimmering with that ever familiar lavender aura. You never were that curious about magic, but right now, watching her work, you can’t help but wonder why her horn glows purple. Why not pink? Why not blue? Why not any color that she wants? It’s always purple though, like Rarity’s white aura and Luna’s blue mist.

For a moment, you're curious what it is her magic is doing. You’ve seen Twilight do just about everything with her magic, but right now, you don’t see anything changing. There’s nothing moving around her, there’s nothing floating above her, and there’s nothing changing about her either.

She’s just there, perfect as she’ll ever be.

Slowly then, you watch her as she starts to fall backwards. You’re not worried or scared, you can’t be. She’s just falling back to lie back, like you do on picnics, or on clouds, or anywhere else you feel like just relaxing.

Her head hits the grass with an inaudible thud, her mane splayed around her and legs up in the air.

That’s when she sees you.

You freeze up. She freezes up. You both freeze like ice in the Crystal Mountains without love around the Crystal heart.

In a flash you could later admit to being impressed by, Twilight flipped herself over and onto her four hooves. She’s crouched low to the ground, staring at you with the same large teary eyes. Your wings have extended to their fullest length, sure for a moment that she’s going to run.  But she doesn’t. Instead, she does the very thing you have been hoping the past day for.

She speaks to you.

“R-Ra-in-b-bow?” Twilight whispers your name like it’s spelt across broken glass. It only takes a glance to realize that her speaking your name must feel like walking across that same glass.

Her eyes are tearing up, the mist from before trailing down her cheeks in thick trails. Her lower lip has retracted into her mouth, stick between both of her teeth as she bites on it. Maybe it’s to keep herself from screaming, maybe it’s to keep herself from sobbing.

All you know is that she’s still in pain, regardless of the kind.

“H-Hi… Twilight…” Even in your most optimistic of moods, you know that response is cowardly. It sounds just as jaded and nervous as the unicorn is. Your tongue finds its way between your teeth, held in place by your clenched jaw.

“Ho-why-I don’t…” Twilight rambles incoherently the as she continues to gaze at you, eyes unmoving and no less pain filled with every passing moment. A moment of fear flashes through you that something bad will happen.

Maybe she’ll wake up, maybe she’ll run away, maybe she’ll just scream for you to leave again. So many maybes and you have no idea what you think would be worse.

“Is that… you?” Her question is spoken as if she’s doubtful of herself. “As in… really you, the real you?” You don’t miss the way her legs are shaking. You still can’t tell if that’s her getting ready to run, or being too weak to stand.

It honestly feels like you can’t tell anything about her.

“Y-Yeah,” You admit again, voice as unsure and jaded as the first time you had spoken. “I… I got myself to Canterlot, took me a good couple of hours to fly all the way there. It’s just… I had an idea of how to talk to you, since you didn’t want to see me, and I know you have the force field magic thing. So then, the only pony who could help me would be another pony who was good with magic. Another pony… like Princess Luna.”

The gasp that comes from Twilight is more audible to you than a clap of thunder.

“The princess?!” She asks without feigning her shock, the surprise of your admittance overtaking her appearance of pain, if only for a moment. Her wide eyes are almost all you can see when her hoof raises to hide her mouth, which you are more than sure is agape. A nervous chuckle flows through over your lips.

“Yeah,” you don’t stutter this time, but it’s of little consequence. “I… yeah, my… idea was that you didn’t want to see me, but I really wanted to apologize to you, so… I… I needed to think of someway to talk to you without seeing you. Like… did you know I spent the entire day after you told me to leave just thinking about you?” Even to your own ears, something about that question felt… implied.

“R-Really?” A hot blush over Twilight’s cheeks is all you need to see to know you had said something wrong.

“Well, not like… yeah, but…” A gruff sigh of annoyance is pushed through your lungs. Your hoof raises itself to your head, scratching at your mane as you avert your eyes from Twilight again. It’s hard to look at her right now. You're sitting in front of the mare you had literally called in a favor from the princess to see, and you’re too embarrassed to even look at her. Perfect.

You need to look at something else, even if for just a moment. The woods around you are plain, at least compared to the real forest back in Ponyville. The same can be said for the meadow you’re in. There’s nothing around you to look at, so you look in the next most logical place.

You look up.

You suck in a breath of air in shock.

You had thought before that the night sky Twilight was looking at was the same one in the waking world. Littered with stars and given the grand white moon. A dark canvas with empty space, free for anything to fly in.

That’s not what this sky is. The sky is alight with color.

You remember, like a passing dream, the cloud and cascade of colors you descended through in order to make it here. You were surrounded by them like you were caught in a net, lost and confused, trapped and uncertain. Now, now you were looking up at the display, watching the same colors in the same pattern making the same movements that they had before.

You have never seen anything so beautiful before.

The night sky is dancing with life, colors blending and twisting together in ways you are 100% sure would never happen in Equestria, even with the most powerful of magic. The colors are twisting into one another, mixing like streams before exploding into confetti and ending at marvelous displays of rainbow hues.

You can see so much in the colors as well.

Entire shapes taking form through the mirage of color, entire figures and beings rising and falling through the rainbow cloud. You can see a pony with a beard as long as your mane, running through the gray clouds with trails of lavender falling behind him. You can see a figure proud tall and white shining with a golden hue through the mass of white. The dark and smaller colors both cower in fear and adoration of the power.

But then, there’s the pink and gold jumping and hovering around the others, making sure that none of the colors are neglected from their touch, curly wisps of salmon color jumping around as soft elegant feathers of gold fall from the yellowish cloud.

You can’t miss the strength of the orange cloud either, as hidden as it was. You think for a moment that it might be too mixed or too buried to really shine, but every motion that it makes to break the surface conveys to you a power you can barely fathom and a level of dedication you can only respect.

But what those figures really are, who they really are, you aren’t ignorant to. You’re a bit thick at times, but you aren’t blind, never have been.

You see Pinkie Pie in the pink, Fluttershy in the yellow, Applejack in the orange, Rarity in the White, Celestia in gold, and even that old unicorn Starswirl in the gray.

Then there is you, and you’re sure it is you.

You’re flying through the colors, leading their path, and directing their flow. For all intents and purposes, Twilight made you, or a figure like you, the brush to paint this dream.

“It’s beautiful.”

The words leave your lips before you even realize you had thoughts them. Regardless, you don’t want to take them back. It’s hard to say you’ve ever spoken more honest words before.

“You… You mean that?” Twilight’s question from behind you catches you off guard. You make a small jump of surprise as you turn to see her. She still looks a little pained, eyes wet and mane a mess, but she looks far less mournful than before.

“Yeah,” you breathlessly reply, eyes glancing over Twilight once more before you let them gaze upon the sky high above. “It’s… it’s like watching an ocean in the sky.” You compare to the best of your literary abilities. You’re sure Twilight’s heard better.

But you mean what you say, even if you were able to describe what you see in words, the beauty that is falling over your eyes, you doubt that you’d be able to ever do it justice. You’d give up flying a day to stare at this, you’d miss a chance to go to a Wonderbolt show for this, you may even forget to pull a prank on Pinkie Pie just to watch this for one more hour.

It’s just that good.

“You know, I never really thought about art before.” Twilight’s words distract you, earning your gaze. She’s fidgeting. A lot. “I always used to think that stuff involving arts and was something left to ponies with more time on their hooves. I love books. I love to study. I used to think that all the time.”

You have no idea where she is going with this. At all. You wouldn’t consider yourself one for art either. Maybe the art of flying, but comparing that to what was currently moving in the sky was like comparing a stream to a waterfall. It just wasn’t justice.

“But then when I came to Ponyville, I started to learn so much more than just friendship.” Her smile is genuine, peaceful, and before all else, beautiful. “I learned how to care for other ponies, how find happiness in the simple things, how to take a lazy afternoon even.”

“That one’s on me, right?” You say the words with only a little bit of forethought, but they do justice, as Twilight giggles at your response. That makes you feel good as well.

“Yes, you did,” she admits, but she’s not done talking yet. “But you also taught me something else, something I’m not even sure you know.” Now she has you.

“What? What’s that?” Your two parts curious and one part worried. Instead of giving you a straight and easy answer, she does something different instead. You should have seen it coming, because you’ve always had a hard time understanding Twilight. Not as hard as Pinkie Pie, but much harder than Fluttershy or Applejack, or even Rarity.

She trots over to your side, settling beside you on her rear haunches. Her coat touches yours and mingles with the fur, twisting them together like knots in your mane. She’s warm against your side, like a pillow that’s been sitting in front of a fire for just the right amount of time. Not too hot to be annoying, and not so quick that you can hardly tell the difference. Just the right amount of warmth to make you feel comfortable.

You feel her head lower beneath yours, muzzle resting just below your chin. Your only further confused by her actions, sure that this is some kind of misunderstood gesture on her part. Then you feel a bit of force being supplied by her head, pushing against your weight. It takes a second for the action to kick in, but you allow your muscles to relax, letting the force Twilight is supplying to raise your head.

It forces your vision to return to the sky above, to watch the stars dance, the pictures move, and the colors to blend in an unending display. Even now, what has to be the third time you’ve seen it in the past short amount of time, it continues to take your breath away. You feel Twilight’s head move out from beneath yours, but your head is secure enough to continue to gaze at the dream filled sky.

“Even though this is a dream,” Twilight begins to talk to you, outside your eyesight but easily within earshot. “Even though this is something I don’t think I could ever be able to do in real life, I still made this with my magic. I made this with the very thing I have been working to perfect my entire life.” You don’t know where she’s going with what she’s saying, but you continue to listen as you also continue to stare.

“You’ve worked all your life for something as well.” That earns another turn of your gaze. “You’ve been flying since you were just a filly, working to make yourself stronger, faster, the best that you could ever possibly be. Every race is a challenge to yourself, every flight preparation for the one that comes next. You’re the absolute best pony I know when it comes to pushing past your limits.”

You try not to blush, you really do, but there are some things that are impossible even inside a dream.

“What you don’t realize is that when you are doing your best, when you’re doing what you love, it looks amazing to everypony else.” She has you there. Has you as in you didn’t understand a word of that.

“What… does that mean?” You phrase your words carefully. The last thing you need is for something to go wrong because you said something bad.

“What I mean is this Rainbow.” You see Twilight’s hoof raise by your side, swiping over the sky in a single stroke. The moving collage of wonder above ripples with the motion. You feel yourself suck in a breath of air at the sight. To you, it looked like the purple unicorn had just moved a mountain.

“That was easy for me, because this is my dream.” Twilight explains easily. “And because I did it so easily, I don’t feel anything because of it.” You feel her hoof press against your chest. Your eyes look down, seeing the foreign hoof push into your fur like a hug from behind you. Another roll of your eyes lets you see Twilight’s own, staring at you with a level of compassion that was almost alien to you.

“When you fly at your best, when you are breaking records, it’s just an everyday thing to you. It’s nothing you're overly impressed by, because you only want to do better. But when some pony else looks at you, when another pony is watching your work, they can’t even think about looking away.” Is she right about that?

“How… How would you know… something like that?” She smiles at you again, that peaceful alluring smile.

“Because that’s how I look at you Rainbow, ever since you first ‘showed off your stuff’ to me at our first meeting. What you did with such ease, I couldn’t even blink while watching. Yet, you just took wing and flew off, like it was just another day.” You feel her draw closer, her breath gently brushing against your muzzle. “Do you think I get to see a pegasus move like that everyday?”

You can’t stop yourself.

“I sure hope not, cause that would mean I’m not the fastest pegasus alive.” Your cocky grin takes its place across your lips. Twilight mirrors it with her own graceful smile. You calm yourself quickly though, knowing that you can’t play all of this off. Twilight meant everything she said, now you have to show her you understood. Otherwise, it’s right back to square one.

“Then do you understand why I was so mad?” The question is not one you are expecting, but in reality, you should have. It was such an obvious thing to ask. It’s a wonder in itself you weren’t more prepared for it. But you know better, now at least. Think, then speak.

“Yeah, I do understand,” you carefully explain, making sure every ounce of pain you felt was carried in your words. “What I said... it was stupid, beyond stupid. Even for me.” You look at her with the most heartfelt expression you can manage, short only a few tears to shed.

“Magic means so much to you, like flying to me.” You take a short breath of air before continuing. “It’s what you have worked on all your life. You’re not just good at it, you’re the best at it. But you don’t get to be the best without making a few mistakes along the way. I can speak from experience on that one.” You let out a small chuckle, trying to break the tension you created. It only makes the air feel thicker.

“Look, you said you like my flying, because it’s... like this,” your hoof stretches across the sky as you speak, making sure Twilight knows what you’re speaking of. “But, really, your magic back in real life is like that to me. No matter what you do, no matter how many mistakes you might make, you keep moving forward.” You swallow on something, unsure if it’s saliva in your mouth, or just butterflies tryings to escape your gut again.

“You’re the only pony I know who can always find a way to move forward, always.”

You’re blushing and you know it. You don’t need to raise a hoof to your cheeks to feel the heat surrounding your head. However, you do need to blink to assure yourself that the unicorn next to you is blushing all the same. It’s dull against her purple coat, a shade of red under a shade of purple, but you know it’s there. If not by what you see, then by how she reacts.

Twilight twists her head from you, hiding it in the crook of her leg and chest. You can’t help but smile at the sight.

This… you know how to work with this.

You lower your head to her, letting your muzzle tickle at her stretched neck. You feel her coat shiver at your touch, bristling at the sensation. You nuzzle her a bit closer, rubbing up and down her exposed coat. You can feel her body press further and further against you.

Slowly then, hesitantly, you feel Twilight’s head twist back, pushing against you as it does so. You raise your own as turns her head towards yours. You have only a moment to realize that she’s nestling herself under your head like before. This time, however, she’s there to stay, leaning against you and sighing in utter bliss.

With a pure genuine smile, you rest your head over hers, letting your wings unfurl from your back and surround both of you in their embrace. You hear Twilight give a contest sigh from beneath you, feeling the breath move across your coat as well.

That’s a good sign.

You know that there’s an amazing display of magic just above your head, an art form that you’ll never be able to see outside of this dream. It really is a once in a lifetime sight, and you’re missing out on it, but with Twilight tucked just beneath your head, settled peacefully into the crook of your neck, you could miss out on the chance to perform a Double Rainboom and still be happy.

Still, there is one question you have to ask, no matter how awkward it might be.

“So, all’s forgiven?” You venture nervously, unsure if everything is alright. But, the calm touch from Twilight, her gentle embrace, doesn’t change with your words. Instead, she just continues to speak.

“Of course, Rainbow. I probably would have apologized first if you didn’t beat me to it.” You can’t stop yourself from saying what you do next, mostly because you want to say it.

“Well, I am the fastest pegasus alive, even in your dreams egghead.” She laughs, a sound that you know you absolutely enjoy to hear. You hold her a bit tighter as she does so, and you can feel her gripping you just the same.

“Just promise me one thing Rainbow.” You’d promise her the sun if it meant she would keep holding you like this.

“What’s that?” With her face pressed to your underbelly, her coat hairs tickling your skin, you can feel the smile that works its way to her lips.

“Be there when I wake up.”

You feel your legs involuntarily hold her harder. Her warmth seeped into you even more, soaking into your coat like water into a sponge. You couldn’t get enough of it, and from the way she was holding you in return, Twilight couldn’t either. But that more than just okay.

“Do you promise?” You don’t need to think hard to know your answer.

“Yeah, I promise Twi, I promise.”





“Prmish,” you feel yourself mutter into some soft material. It’s warm, and fuzzy, but it has too much give to be Twilight’s coat. You twist your head, releasing a groan of discomfort as you do so. Your muscles are tight, like they’ve been sitting still for too long.

You stretch your legs, earning another disappointed sigh from your lips. They push out away from your body as far as they can, probably making you look like a cat waking from some mid-day nap.

Nap… dreams…

Your eyes open to their fullest as the realization of what happened hits you.

You’re not next to Twilight, or even in a meadow for that matter. You’re back in Luna’s room, in a chamber filled with a visible darkness, sitting on a pillow that was as soft as a cloud, but as warm as the sun’s glow.

You raise your hoof to your head. It doesn’t hurt, and you’re not dizzy, but you have to check for something. The end of your leg ruffles your rainbow mane, moving over your head and around your ear. Nothing. You twist your head, performing the same quick search for the other size. Again, nothing.

“Your totem is gone, Rainbow Dash.” You almost jump out of your skin as the voice rips through the stillness that once belonged to the air. It isn’t particularly deep or cold, it was just a complete surprise to hear.

A small twist of your head, in addition to a bend of your back, and you see Princess Luna sitting opposite of you again, head laying peacefully over her two forelegs. Her billowy mane is still flowing around her, gently cascading over her features, giving a look so peaceful that it almost makes you feel tired again. But there’s something else about her that keeps you wide-awake and alert.

The proud smile set over her lips.

“So… did I just wake up… or…” You don’t know why that’s your first question. But then again, this is the first time you’ve been able to walk into another pony’s dream. The princess’s smile doesn’t grow, but it doesn’t falter either. Instead, her head slowly rises from her hooves, stopping only when she is once again looking over you. You can’t say looking down on you, because that’s not something she would do.

“I chose to take you from the dream world, as you appeared to have finished your conversation with Twilight Sparkle.” You see something sparkle in one of her eyes. “You did come to an agreement.”

“Y-Yeah, we did.” You feel one of your legs nervously run up and down the back of your head, eyes averting themselves from the alicorn’s gaze. You remember with vivid clarity how you hugged Twilight, how she hugged you back, how good it felt for her to talk to you again, and how you promised her…

“Oh!” You let out a small cry as you jump to your hooves. Luna’s eyes open wide with your cry.

“Is something… amiss?” She questions to you, but you have a feeling that she knows all too well why you are in such an excited state.

“I-I’m sorry princ-LUNA!” You shout her name, earning another raise of the princess’s brow. “Luna, yeah, just Luna, sorry, but I gotta go. I made a promise. A big promise. Biggest one yet. Can’t mess this up, not this time.” Your wings flare as you prepare yourself for another marathon flight home, ready to beat the sun to Ponyville.

“Rainbow Dash.” The commanding tone of your name freezes you in place. Your eyes, still wide and excited, look backwards to see Luna watching you, slowly rising from her pillow with her wings drawn into her sides and mane billowing in the unfelt wind.

“Y-Yeah?”

“Be careful this time.” You can’t help but smile a bit wider at her words.

“I will, promise.” You watch her smile grow fonder as your words leave your lips. “And thank you so much Luna. Thank you.” Of the many things you are sure of in that moment, there is one thing you could swear by your grave on.

You know for a fact that the princess is blushing.

“Y-Yes, well…” Her voice stutters and drifts off, leaving you a bit confused and a bit more lost. Her hoof lightly waves at you as she speaks again. “You best begin your flight now if you wish to reach Ponyville before my night’s end.” Her words grip and throw you back into reality harder than any hedge wind ever could.

“Horsefeathers!” You curse aloud. “You’re right, again! Later Princess!”

Your wings send you over Luna’s balcony and into her night, leaving the princess alone in her room. Your muscles feel refreshed, your wings at ease. The air is cool, though the night is old, and you know that there isn’t much time for you to get back home.

But somehow, you know, you just know, that everything is going to be okay.