"Twilight darling," Rarity said, opening the door to the library and entering it to find Twilight pouring over some sort of gigantic thorn, "I take it I came at a bad time?"
"Course not Rarity," Spike stuttered, his feelings for her overriding his mind for a couple of seconds.
"I'm just researching something that Princess Luna asked me to research," Twilight groaned, rubbing her eyes as she stopped looking in the microscope, "Its a thorn from the Dreamscape, located in an area that almost nopony visits."
"The Dreamscape?" Rarity asked, not understanding the term as it flew over her head, "Please Twilight, tell me what you mean plainly."
"Its the Dream World," Twilight replied, jotting something down in a notebook that sat near the thorn, "There's some corruption in one of the areas and Princess Luna wants me to get to the bottom of it. I told her that I would do what I can and that I would see if you girls would be willing to help out during some of the nights."
"Twilight, your a Princess now," Rarity said, shaking her mane as she sat on the couch that rested across the room from where her friend was, "you must stop calling them by their titles seeing how your equal to them. I would love to help you out Twilight, but I cannot get my hooves dirty. It is unbecoming of a lady to get her hooves dirty."
"Oh come on Rarity, you won't be getting your hooves dirty." Twilight stated with some annoyance, "The dirt of the area in question is actually quite clean and there aren't many creatures roaming the woods. Besides, even if you got some dirt on you the Dreamscape could probably take care of it in no time at all."
"I don't follow."
"Its quite simple actually," Twilight answered, "Your dream world, the zone you usually stay in during your dreams, shapes itself for whatever you desire. So say you wanted the best shower and cleaning system in the entire world at the moment, the zone will shape part of itself to that desire and in seconds you'll have the shower of your dreams. You could even make the design studio of your wildest imagination and craft the dresses that most would see in their most wild of dreams."
"So you want me and the girls to help you research the dream world?" Rarity asked, not understanding some of what Twilight was talking about, "What exactly are we getting out of all of this?"
"I'm not exactly sure yet," Twilight admitted, yawning slightly before another thought entered her head, "I have to tell the others about the research and see if they'll help. Maybe we'll find out whats happening quickly and we wont have to search for every long."
~An hour later~
Twilight had managed to convince her friends to come and speak with her, the only down side to all of it was that she could only get one pony to help her at the beginning. Fluttershy was the only one of the five to be remotely interested in researching the dream world and the strange corruption that hit one of the zones. She had managed to interest Rainbow and Applejack with the possibility of relaxing or training or spending time with some of their idols. End of the line was that three of them were willing to help her out and she wasn't sure about Pinkie, seeing how she was still bouncing around the room with a giant smile on her face.
Problem was that she had to explain the concept of the Dreamscape to her friends again, some of it still going over Rarity's head in the process. She would have more time to convince Rarity to accept the Dreamscape and she might even have some help if her friends liked what they saw when they came to help her. If anything Fluttershy would help her pave the way to reaching Rarity and Pinkie, seeing how Rainbow and Applejack had opted to let her be the first to 'invade' the dream world, as Rainbow put it.
"Okay then Fluttershy," Twilight sighed, wondering how she was going to deal with this now, "I will see you sometime tonight after we all go to sleep. If everything works out well we should figure out what's happening and get back to our own dreams before too much time has passed."
~Dream World, Later that night~
It was quite easy for Twilight to find Fluttershy's dream area; it was a tranquil place filled with all types of trees from across Equestria and a bunch of animals she had read about in books. As she walked down a dirt path she came across what looked like a huge white boulder, but upon closer inspection she realized it was a snow bear from the frozen north. Everywhere Twilight turned she saw animals from the Crystal Empire and everywhere else in Equestria. Fluttershy's dream was as peaceful as her friend was, Twilight realized, but it also made it almost impossible to find her.
That was what she thought for a couple minutes, but that changed when she came to a stop in front of a giant tree that was far larger and wider than all the other trees she had seen. As Twilight inspected the tree she came across something interesting, something she had not been expecting to find on such a tree. In the direct center of the tree's trunk was the symbol of Fluttershy's cutie mark, three butterflies spread out together like they were in the real world.
The trunk buckled and the area below the mark began to swirl, causing Twilight to stumble backwards as she watched what was happening to the tree. Fluttershy walked out of the tree before her very eyes, the wood of the tree turning into her skin and fur as she stared at Twilight. Once all the wood had settled down and the tree had become quiet again Fluttershy gave her a small smile, which was usually what she gave her friends.
"Um, hi Twilight," Fluttershy weakly greeted, which was true to her nature, "I wasn't expecting to see you, um, so soon."
"I thought it would be best if we started immediately." Twilight replied, beckoning to the path she had taken, "I know that leaving your dream zone will be a little weird at first, but given some time you might find the journey to be quite relaxing."
Leading Fluttershy to the barrier around her dream zone was the easy step, making the barrier phase so she could pass seemed to be a challenge. Twilight had to resort to using a spell that Luna taught her the previous night, a spell that would allow anypony it was cast on to pass through the barrier with no problem. It was unusual for her to forget something that would help them out, but once she remembered the two of them were moving onto the corrupted zone in no time.
As with the last time Twilight approached the corrupted zone the thorns bashed at the barrier, but when they approached the thorns settled down and almost became like stones. Twilight had still found out nothing about the thorns and their strange goo, but she was determined to figure out something about the corruption. The new additions to the area was a giant laboratory zone that had everything that Twilight would ever need to figure out the truth and a special holding zone in case she discovered who was behind the corruption. She could easily contain the pony behind this and tell her fellow princesses before her prisoner could escape.
"Um, why did they stop attacking the barrier?" Fluttershy asked, peaking out from behind Twilight to stare at the thorns.
"I honestly don't know," Twilight commented, passing her hoof through the barrier before the two stepped through, "They did the same thing the last time I came here on the request of Luna. In fact they only stopped bashing the barrier when I arrived and not a single second before that. Something is telling me that the thorns aren't striking out at us, but why I don't even know."
"So, um, what are we doing here?" Fluttershy inquired, stepping up to a tree to examine the bark for a second and heard no reply, "Twilight?"
Fluttershy turned around to find her friend and watched some sort of smoke vanish into thin air as she tried in vain to find Twilight. She knew her friend well enough to know that Twilight would never disappear on her friends, but the smoke reminded her of a fallen king. Her mind was focused on the fact that the corruption she was seeing could have been all Sombra's fault, but without evidence she wasn't sure. Plus she couldn't go jumping at guesses until she learned the truth...wait, what was that growling noise she just heard?
Thanks to living with the wild creatures on the edge of the Everfree Forest she had developed the ability to understand when animals were either hungry or in some form of pain. Right now she was hearing the sound of pain, something she had grown used to dealing with whenever the animals were hurt. Twilight could wait, there was an animal in pain and she had to help anyway she could.
She turned down the dirt path she was on and began to sprint, her eyes peeled for whatever poor animal was making the noise. The more she moved the more she realized that the area around her was changing from a forest to what appeared to be an old castle. She slowed down just a bit and took in the sites, not believing that somepony had dreamed up such a beautiful castle that was surrounded by a forest of thorns. She slowed to a trot and took in the statues of ponies that were dressed in what appeared to be amethyst colored armor that resembled the armor of the royal Canterlot guards. The only difference was that the normal five sided gem was now a ten sided star.
"Oh Mistwing, you have returned to me," said a voice as an elderly unicorn stallion walked out from behind one of the statues, "No? Your not my Mistwing, your just somepony who resembles her."
The stallion in question had a amethyst colored coat, a draped mane and tail that had a dark blue outer area with a light blue inner area, and nearly dull red eyes. He was currently wearing what appeared to be an aged dark brown cloak, full of holes that were caused as if it were actually real and not something made of the dream world. On his hooves were what appeared to be some sort of black shoe, something that looked like what Princess Celestia wore, but then again it could very well just have been some dirt or ash covering the stallion's hooves.
"Um, excuse me sir?" Fluttershy asked, making the stallion notice her again, "I heard an animal crying out in pain. So, um, do you know where the poor animal is?"
"What's that? the stallion said, which meant that his hearing was damaged and likely hadn't heard her, "A hurt animal? Oh! You must be referring to my poor snow leopard, Victorious. Come along my dear...?"
"Oh, um, my names Fluttershy," she answered, surprised the stallion had heard her question.
"Then come along my dear Fluttershy," the stallion continued, turning around and continued Fluttershy's surprise by trotting to the courtyard of the castle pretty quickly.
What waited for them in the courtyard was a sight that not even Fluttershy had even seen before in her entire lifetime of taking care of animals. Laying on what she assumed was a large bed sheet was the largest white furred cat she had ever seen, a cat that was at least as tall as she was. The cat stared up at them as they approached, looking at the stallion peacefully and giving a soft growl as he noticed Fluttershy. That was when she noticed the amethyst plate armor laying on what appeared to be a shelf not too far away, which was even stranger than seeing what was supposed to be an extinct creature.
"Um, hi there," Fluttershy weakly said, approaching the dangerous cat as she looked for some sign that indicated any pain, "My names Fluttershy and I was wondering what was causing you pain."
The cat lifted up his front left paw and held it in front of her, making her search for something that would have hurt the poor creature. At first she saw nothing, absolutely nothing, that would have caused any creature any sort of pain. The more she stared the more she was convinced that she was hearing things and this wasn't what she was supposed to be doing at the moment, but then she found it. Stuck in the direct center of the cat's paw, nearly hidden by the fur, was a small black thorn that resembled the thorns growing in the forest. She grabbed it with her teeth, yanked the thorn out, and spat it out before she did anything else.
The cat winced as the thorn was removed, but once it was gone he purred as he brushed up against her. Apparently the thorn had been the cause and he was relieved to have it removed, going as far to rub himself up against her as a way of thanks.
"Hehe, should have known it was in the paw," the old stallion said, clearly pleased that his cat wasn't in pain, "You have my thanks miss...I'm sorry dear, I seem to have forgotten your name."
"Oh, um, I'm Fluttershy," she said, watching a pink butterfly land on the stallion's horn, "and, um, I'll be taking my leave now. I mean, if that's okay with you."
"Oh, your more than welcome to leave my dear," the stallion continued, a smile creeping onto his face, "Feel free to come around some time. We'll have some fun and I'm sure Victorious will enjoy seeing you again sometime."
Fluttershy gave the stallion a weak smile and started to walk out of the castle, but as she passed the thorn she picked it up with her teeth and put it in a bag. Twilight would be glad to have another piece to research on, but she needed to know that she might have discovered the owner of the corrupted dream area. Maybe she and the other princesses could figure out this mess before long.
She was unaware of the fact that the stallion was still staring at her, watching her leave the rotting castle courtyard as the pink butterfly began to glow. Deep in the dream area one of the pillars was beginning to glow, that the stallion was sure of, but he also knew the mare wouldn't know that. He continued to smile and beckoned to his cat, the two fading into thin air as they began to walk into the castle, as if neither of them truly existed. But before the stallion completely vanished his smile grew wider, as if he knew something that nopony else knew or would ever know.