Twilight found her self in a strange room. It was dimly lit and all the furniture was made of some sort of blue velvet. Where she was or how she got there was the first question that came to mind, that is until a voice brought her out of her musings.
"Welcome to the Velvet Room."
Twilight turned towards the voice emanating from the other side of the table in front of her. She wanted to gasp but for some inexplicable reason she could not make a sound.
For sitting across from the pony were two humans. One an aged balding man with an absurdly long nose wearing a suit, the other a beautiful young woman with silver hair cascading down her back wearing a blue dress.
"This is a place between dream and reality. Between mind and matter," The man said. "Only those who have or are soon to be bound by a contract of some kind may enter this place."
Dream and reality? Twilight thought. Surely if this place was some sort of dream realm than Luna would have known about it. This was all too strange to be some fantasy conjured up by Twilight's subconscious mind.
"Ah," the man continued. "But where are my manners. My name is Igor. This is Margarette."
"Hello," The woman said coldly. "like my master, I am a resident of this place."
"Now... Might you tell us your name?" Igor asked.
Twilight, confused, found herself in control of her vocal cords once again. "Twilight Sparkle."
"Splendid!" Igor spoke. "You are quite an unusual guest. Never before have we entertained one of your kind before. But that is irrelevant. Now if you would be so kind, Miss Sparkle, I would like to get to know you a little bit better." Igor waved his hand over the table and seven bizarre cards materialized. "Please point to a card, Miss Sparkle."
Twilight obeyed, pointing at a card close to herself. Igor snapped his fingers and the card flipped over.
"The fool, in the upright position... Yes. I expected as much."
Igor waved his hand again and seven new cards replaced the old ones. "Now let us take a look into your future, shall we? Please point to three cards."
Scanning the cards Twilight pointed her hoof towards three, each one flipping over as she pointed to it.
"The first card is that of the moon in the upright position." Igor explained. "This card represents... Hesitation. The next card is the lovers in the upright position. This card represents decision making. Finally we have death, representing transitions and changes."
Twilight looked over the cards, inspecting them closely. She had heard of a type of fortune telling like this before. Tarot cards, she believed it was called.
Igor looked up at Twilight with his big, bulgy eyes. "It seems sometime in the near future, a great mystery will be thrust upon you. Over the course of that mystery, you will have to make a choice of some kind that will lead to some sort of dramatic change for you." He explained. "It is our duty as residents of the Velvet Room, to guide you along this path."
Margarette reached into her pocket and handed a bizarre key to Twilight. "Hold onto this," The woman explained. "In time, it's purpose shall be revealed to you."
"It seems we have kept you here long enough" Igor said. "We shan't hold you any longer. Go forth young guest and discover this path."
Twilight felt her mind begin to cloud. Her vision began to darken as she felt herself lose her grip on consciousness. Something latched onto the young alicorn's shoulder and began to push her out of the bizarre room.
"Twilight..." A familiar voice began to call. "Twilight.... Twilight..."
Twilight opened her eyes and founder self lying in her bed. To her left was Spike trying to shake her awake.
The young alicorn stifled a yawn as she patted Spike's head. "Mornin' Spike."
"Man, Twilight," The young drake said. "You were out cold!"
Twilight turned her head to the clock on her nightstand. Nine thirty A.M., an hour later than when Twilight normally rose from the grips of sleep.
Slowly, Twilight's mind began shaking off the mugginess that comes with just waking up and remembered something very important. "Spike," She began, "did you get all the eclipse glasses ready?"
Spike nodded his head eagerly. "Yep! They're all on the kitchen table ready for this afternoon."
"That's great Spike. Good work." Twilight said as she pulled the tiny dragon into a hug. "What about are friends? Do they all know where to go?"
"Yeah. Dash and AJ are already at Fluttershy's place, and I saw Pinkie heading there a couple minutes ago." Spike explained.
"What about Rarity?"
"She said she'll be there later. Had some massive order to finish up or something."
Twilight nodded and kicked the sheets off her legs. Today was scheduled to be the first total solar eclipse in Ponyville in over three hundred years. There was no way in Tartarus Twilight was going to let anything stop her or her friends from viewing this once in a lifetime occurrence.
"Okay then, Spike," Twilight said, smoothing down her mane. "Let's get some breakfast and head down to Fluttershy's. If everypony's arriving early than so should we."
The young wyrm nodded and said, "There are some waffles in the oven. They'll be ready in a couple minutes."
Twilight nodded and stretched lazily before climbing out her bed completely and getting ready to face the day.