Princess Twilight Sparkle was reading a book in her library tree.
“Twilight, Derpy sort of knows about the other world,” said Spike, “You know, the one we went to recently.”
“What?” said Twilight Sparkle, ”How?”
“She ‘sort of’ knows about it,” Spike then told Twilight what Derpy had told him earlier.
“She dreams of it?” said Twilight.
“I guess,” said Spike.
Canterlot High School's hallways were unusually empty. Empty except for Derpy.
‘Did I somehow miss a holiday?’ thought Derpy.
Watermelody walked into the hallway dragging a piano. Luckily for her, The piano was on wheels. It was a simple one, small enough to put inside a classroom without taking it over anyways.
“Derpy? What are doing here? Everyone’s got a few days off to recover from that thing,” said Watermelody.
“Really?” said Derpy. She tilted her head and raised an eyebrow, ”Wait… then why are you here?”
Watermelody’s eyes darted back and forth. Sweat started to form on her brow.
“Um… Uh… I’m moving this piano… for reasons,” said Watermelody.
“Okay…” said Derpy.
An alicorn and a dragon stood in front of a peculiar house in Ponyville. It was a house on the ground, but it seemed to have a small cloud house growing out of its side on the second story.
"Are you sure we should break in to Derpy's house?" said Spike.
"This could be a scientific break-thru, Spike, it'd be a crime not to study this possibly unique subject," said Princess Twilight Sparkle.
Derpy didn’t know what to do with the rest of her day. She had planned it around the fact she would be in school that day. Eventually she decided to sneak into the school’s library and browse the books.
She stayed for hours. She even read thru all the released Daring Do books.
‘I wonder what it would be like if those adventures were real,’ thought Derpy.
After she ran out of both Daring Do books and read most of the comic books in the library she started to aimlessly wander the along the shelves. Derpy noticed a book that was askew compared to the others in its row.
Upon the books cover she could read the words “Provoking Thoughts” in a very large print and below those words she read “Delusions of Reality” in a smaller albeit still rather large print.
Curiosity overcoming her, Derpy picked up the book and began reading it.
"I can't believe we're doing this, " said Spike.
Spike and Twilight were in Derpy's house. They were in the ground-touching area of the house.
“Knowing pegasus traditions, the incongruous cloud part of the house is probably the bedroom,” said Princess Twilight Sparkle.
Derpy’s house was eerily empty on the inside. There were no personal decorations on any of the hallway walls. When they reached her room, Twilight found the few signs that somepony actually lived in the house. There was a picture with Derpy and all of her friends in it, it seemed that it was made of three separate pictures placed next to each other, Carrot Top was in it twice.
The other sign of life was the life herself.
Derpy was fast asleep in her bed.
Twilight entered the bedroom. Spike tried to enter the room, but backed out when his foot fell thru the cloud floor.
“Time to wake up a mysterious pegasus,” said Twilight.
Closer examination of the book revealed that ‘Provoking Thoughts’ was the name of the author, a woman from Fillydelphia. The book talked about how reality as we see it was merely an illusion and how other worlds exist on the very same plane of as this world. Derpy couldn’t bear to really finish it, she sat cross-legged on the ground when she started her read. She remained there and just stared off into the distances, contemplating her situation.
A loud thump echoed thru the nearly empty library.
“Swear word!” said the voice of Watermelody.
Derpy snapped out of her stupor and went to check to see what happened.
“Ugh, I thought transporting the piano would have been harder, but at least that had wheels!” said Watermelody.
Derpy approached where the sound had come from and tried to absorb the scene in front of her.
Watermelody was sitting on the ground and clutching her right foot. To her left there was a tuba case resting in a position that clearly showed that it wasn’t purposefully set down that way.
"Did you just drop a tuba on your foot, Watermelody?" Said Derpy.
"N-no," said Watermelody.
Watermelody stood up and lifted the tuba from its awkward position. She tried to walk while keeping her weight off of her right foot.
"Are you gonna be okay, Watermelody?" Said Derpy.
" Yeah sure," said Watermelody.
Derpy tried her best to stare at the limping girl carrying an evidently heavy tuba.
"Why are you moving instruments anyway?" said Derpy.
"Uh um uh, no reason..." said Watermelody.
Twilight poked the sleeping Derpy with her hoof.
“C’mon, wake up,” said Twilight.
Then she tried using her wing to tickle Derpy’s nose. When that didn’t work she tried yelling in her ear.
“Wake up!” said Twilight.
Then she tried vigorously shaking her.
“I, uh, I don’t think she’s going to wake up!” said Spike.
Twilight removed herself from Derpy’s bed, slumped, and let out a sigh.
“Yeah, you’re right, Spike,” said Twilight, “We’ll have to stay the night!”
Spike cupped his face in both of his claws.
Watermelody and Derpy were both sitting just a few feet from the library’s entrance. If there had been anyone going in, they’d have been trampled on. The Tuba was resting next to Watermelody in a more or less intentional orientation. Watermelody herself was wet with sweat and out of breath.
“I’ve been thinking, Watermelody,” said Derpy.
“Why… would you want… to do… that?” said Watermelody.
“Sometimes I... I’m not sure what’s real, ya know?” said Derpy, “I see the sunrise from both sides, both sides.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” said Watermelody, “That you have a counterpart in Asia or something?”
“Closer,” said Derpy, “and farther.”
“I always wonder what is. And I’m not sure you exist,” said Derpy.
“Gee, thanks,” said Watermelody.
Derpy had a nervous smile on her face.
She let out a weak, “Heh heh…”
Watermelody tried her best to look serious.
“Listen, about whatever it was you’re talking about,” said Watermelody, “It doesn’t matter, does it?”
“Huh?” said Derpy.
“Well, I mean, reality’s just more real,” said Watermelody, “Ya know?”
Derpy said nothing, but to herself she thought, ‘No.’