Things had been going smoothly for Twilight Sparkle lately. Not many disasters or villains had reared their heads in quite a while, and while a few things needed to be taken care of in Ponyville, they weren’t really noteworthy.
Unfortunately, something new had started to crop up, and she could feel it. During a pensive moment, she looked out the windows adorning the oaken walls of the city’s tree-turned-library and could feel that something wasn’t right. For several days now, the townsponies were having strange dreams involving pink swirls moving about like eyes, and a wide smile. It wasn’t often that they could remember the dream, but they knew it spoke of some sort of world for them to join. There was a catch, however:
The laughing voice would tell them that they just needed to give up their sanity. After all, it was a ‘mere trade of no value’, and they would benefit the most from the transaction.
Such a story made Twilight wonder if it wasn’t Discord somehow influencing everypony even within his prison, but that was impossible. A sibling? A member of the same race? Who knew? The dreams were so vivid to the ‘victims’. They would find themselves in front of enormously tall, steel-gray doors that would vary in size depending on the individual. As always, the swirls and the smile would always be there and, more often than not, terrify the pony as it reminded them of when Discord was freed from his prison and created havoc and disorder. Unfortunately for Twilight and her research, Discord was incapable of such things and would rarely laugh unless it was towards the misery of another. The mare put her notes down. Ponies had been coming to her talking about them, and she had both overheard and read about the persistent, multiplying dreams lately in newspapers. They had somehow become so common and prominent in Equestria that they became a worthwhile topic of news.
These dreams would never become nightmares, and although Twilight asked Princess Luna to go into the dream world to discover the culprit, the alicorn would not budge. She was quite distant as to why, consistently dodging Twilight's questions then making her leave altogether. Celestia's reaction to her sister's behavior was to 'leave it be'. To the voice, if one said ‘no’, the smile would remain, but the spirals seemed to bend at their tops and bottoms as if to mimic sadness, but that didn’t prevent the voice from saying:
“Fine. You have fun being boring. We kewl kids on the block will be having fun. The offer is always present if you want to join us. I’m not picky.”
A little juvenile as a reply, but curious nonetheless. While the dreams seemed random enough, they only appeared to affect those within higher standings of pony society, such as Mayor Mare. Stories about aristocrats being affected in Canterlot also seemed to be a part of the current events. Strangely enough, Pinkie Pie, the only one who was always extremely crazy and random and performing feats that Twilight gave up on understanding, was never ‘visited’. Not once. Maybe...maybe she was already part of the world? It would explain the strangeness of her ‘abilities’.
Regardless, Twilight had some free time and decided to read a book about astronomy written by O. Marvel in order to relax and take her mind off the mysteries during said time. The author’s name carved a frown of disapproval onto Twilight’s face every time she saw it, but the contents of the book itself were too interesting to dwell on the name for long.
Unfortunately for Twilight, she was not alone in the library, and her incessant need to gaze into the sky outside despite her book caught the attention of the current, sole attendee there. Lowering their book and cocking an eyebrow, they asked:
“You okay there, Twilight? You seem a bit more ‘gone’ than usual.”
It was Rainbow Dash. She was reading the latest Daring Do book whilst laying against one of the bookcases for comfort.
“Hmmm?” Twilight hummed while turning her head. Her dull expression made one wonder if she wasn’t in a ‘zone’ with her name branded on it. “Oh. It’s nothing. I’m just thinking about some...strange things,” she trailed off.
“I thought you got over Pinkie’s ‘Pinkie Sense’,” Rainbow chuckled.
“Not that! There are other things aside from Pinkie’s weird abilities that I think about.”
“Then what’s wrong? I’m your friend, Twilight, so I want to help you. Plus, I want to thank you for letting me read the newest Daring Do book before anypony else. I can’t wait ‘til she gets to the Twinlock Mazeiyan.”
“Twinlock Mazeiyan?” Twilight turned around with a disgruntled look on her face. “She actually finds one?”
“I guess so. So what’s wrong? And please! No mushy stuff.”
“It’s just the dreams that everypony has been getting lately.”
“Dreams?”
“Yeah! It doesn’t make any sense, either!”
“Pfff. They’re just dreams.” Rainbow waved her hoof in dismissal.
“But for everypony to have the same one? Some ponies who know each other very well and are very close can get the same dreams, but for everypony in Ponyville, let alone Equestria, to have the same one? It’s...It’s impossible!”
Rainbow cocked an eyebrow at her friend a bit as she puffed up her wings and stood up with a proud pose. “Impossible? I’ve shown that impossible isn’t impossible! Pinkie and I have proved that! Mostly Pinkie!” Rainbow quickly emphasized.
Twilight tapped her chin slightly, then nodded. “I guess you’re right. I just want to read this book so I--”
“Twilight! There’s a letter from the princess!” Spike shouted.
He ran down the steps built into the oak and tripped slightly, causing him to tumble down the steps and faceplant into the ground. Horrified, Twilight rushed to him as fast as she could.
“Spike! Spike! Are you okay?”
The baby dragon only replied by lifting his right arm and holding up the scroll.
“Could you read it for me?”
“Sure.”
Spike cleared his throat and started to read.
Dear Twilight Sparkle,
It has come to my attention that you have made strides in learning about the magic of friendship, which gives me hope that we may yet reform some of the villains we have both encountered.
To this regard, I believe that you can help Luna and I with somepony I have kept hidden for over a millennium. We don’t know how or why, but he has not perished. Generations have gone by yet he remains, and I fear that he may be the cause of the strange dreams you and many others have reported. I don’t know why he would start this now. Rest assured that while he is harmless, he tends to go too far with his ‘activities’.
My sister and I request your help in returning him to ‘normal’. Since we have kept him a secret for so long, we would prefer that you came alone and that you kept this a secret. This letter is of extreme importance, so please tell Spike to burn it when you are finished reading and come to the castle as fast as you can.
Spike’s expression slipped from proud to an expression of embarrassment.
“Eheh...woops.”
“Oh no. I need to get there right away. Spike, please burn the letter.”
Spike saluted the lavender unicorn, and burnt the letter in a torrent of green fire then wiped his claws clean from the dust and soot left over. “There we go. Super secret spy letter burnt.”
“Thanks a lot, Spike. I wasn’t expecting a letter from Princess Celestia to be that important. I...Could you two keep it a secret? I don’t want her to get angry at me.”
The two nodded and motioned closing a zipper on their mouths. Spike even came to ‘attention’.
“Our lips are as sealed as the bank account of a very rich pony,” Spike said.
Twilight lifted an eyebrow to compliment her bemused expression.
“What?”
“Nothing. Now, I just need to get a few of the necessary items, such as my saddlebags, paper, ink, quills, books, charts, parchments--”
“If you take the whole library with you you might be there by next year,” Rainbow sighed.
“Oh...You’re right. I’ll just get a few things and go. Thanks a lot for telling nopony. I want to keep this a secret until I get back.”
“Alright. See you, Twilight,” Rainbow said.
“Bye, Twilight. We’ll keep the library clean,” Spike assured.
Twilight quickly reached the train station, paid her ticket, then rushed inside to claim her ‘throne’. The cabin was nothing special. There were just blue couches on either side and nets above both areas in order to hold heavy luggage for any weary traveller. Twilight always did like a ride on the train, but meeting up with the princesses was stressing her out, and the ride would be several hours long to boot. Left to her thoughts, the lavender unicorn looked outside to see all the stores and houses of Ponyville slowly moving away as the engine of the train began to reawaken. Twilight, however, was slowly doing the opposite and was little by little, drifting off into the world of dreams.
The dream started to become lucid, and then Twilight saw them: The giant doors with the swirls and a smile looking right at her. She reeled back slightly but mostly kept her composure.
“Who are you? What do you want?”
“What do I want? To have fun, of course! But what do you want? Do you want to join?”
“Join what?”
“Join what I’m want you to join which will be what you joined!”
“But...you’re not making any sense!”
“Pfff. You silly ponies and your logic. What fun is there in making sense?”
Twilight gasped. “Discord!”
The voice immediately changed to that of a proud butler: “Madam, I have not insulted you, so I would appreciate you not do the same to me. I am not chaos.”
Twilight’s worries were soon replaced by confusion.
“What?”
“What what?”
“What are you talking about?”
“I just talked about it.”
Twilight started to get steamed with anger. “Now listen here, swirls. I--”
“I know what you’re like anyways. It’s so much fun to bug you!” The grin became wider.
“YOU...you...what?”
“You heard me, or are your ears home to a colony of wax bees?”
Twilight was unamused. If anything, she looked bored. “So...I heard you gave tours around this ‘world’ and I want no part in it.”
“Oh, I would love to give you a tour, but I don’t do that anymore. Makes you insane, so I’ve heard, and insanity is not funnity.”
“Wh--”
“So do you want to join? All you have to do is give me your sanity, and you get a free, complimentary animal balloon!”
A giraffe balloon morphed into existence right next to Twilight and gently floated towards her face. Try as she might, her swatting wouldn’t make it go away.
“I don’t want your balloons!”
The balloon then hissed at her and exploded in Twilight’s face, catching her off guard and stunning her momentarily and turning her hair into an aerodynamic construct.
“I’m sorry. He gets a bit rabid.”
Twilight stroked her mane back into place and rubbed her eyes. “Wh...Why are you doing this? Who do you work for? Is this just you? How are you doing this?!”
“Say, aren’t you the student of Tia-Tia? Have you met Woona? I never met full-grown alicorns”
“Tia...What?”
“As for your question...with the Illogic, of course! If you join it, what you can do in your dreams won’t be limited to just them! You can do everything in the real world too!”
“You didn’t...fine. What is the ‘Illogic’?”
“I’ll only tell you if you join! Why, I’d even love it if we dated! You look very pretty!”
Twilight ignored the last, out of place statements and went directly to the joining offer. “And lose my mind in the process? I don’t want to join you or your bizarre world, and what you said doesn’t make sense!”
“Oh…” The swirls appeared saddened, then they brightened up almost immediately after.
“Would you like a smackerel instead?” the voice asked innocently.
“What’s a sma--?”
A giant mackerel smacked Twilight on her face, waking her up instantly in her cabin. Her heart was pounding painfully in her chest and she was gasping for air as if she had drowned. She looked around for the potential culprit of her rude awakening, but found nopony. It only took a few seconds for her to realize that she was covered in a gross slime and reeked of fish.
“What the--”
“We are now In Canterlot. All passengers for Canterlot, please disembark. Our next stop is Foland.”
Twilight cleaned herself off using her magic and promptly put her saddlebags back on. She looked around one more time in the cabin to see if there was a hidden prankster, but found that there was none, unfortunately. Too many questions ran through her mind as to what happened in her dreams and how she awoke drenched in fish slime.
Caught in her thoughts, she stepped off the train and began to climb the white streets of Canterlot. However, due to her distracted mind, she did not see that within the windows of her former cabin were two very faint, pink swirls and a smile. The swirls followed Twilight as she slowly disappeared into the massive labyrinth that was Canterlot.
“That was a strange dream. A creature almost as aggravating as Pinkie but with a more juvenile and extremely unstable personality. Worse, still, I think he knew Princess Celestia, but calling her ‘Tia-Tia’? And, those things it said. Anything I can do in my dreams can be done in the real world? That’s nonsense! I don’t care what Rainbow Dash says or what Pinkie can do. That sort of magic is impossible! Unless...Discord has done things like this in the past. The swirls could be chaos and that thing is just denying or it could be using magic unknown. Oh! A new kind of magic! This is so interesting!”
Determined to get to the root of this issue, Twilight started to make up theories and calculations in her head. Of course, her concentration was often interrupted by the sloped streets leading up to Canterlot Castle due to the difficulty of climbing up them.. Besides, whatever had happened with the fish could only be coincidental and was certainly the work of a prankster who quickly scampered out of the cabin.
More importantly, she wanted to know just how this entity knew princesses, let alone what it meant by ‘full grown’. Was there more about them that she didn’t know? Furthermore, why did the spirals refer to Celestia as ‘Tia-Tia’ and Luna as ‘Woona’?