"Good evening, Owlowiscious", Twilight greeted her owl quietly enough so as to not wake up Spike on her back as she opened the door of the library. Owlowiscious hooted a greeting in return and flapped after Twilight as she entered. Twilight carried Spike upstairs levitated him into his cot and covered him carefully. She then returned to the library hall, looking around a little uncertain. She finally picked up a piece of paper and a quill and began to write:
Dear Princess Celestia,
So far so good, but Twilight didn't really know how to continue. She started chewing on a strand of her mane and let her eyes wander. Seeing Owlowiscious perched on top of a little celestial globe she had acquired recently, Twilight continued:
Mr. Blanket arrived here early this morning and had a thorough conversation with Owlowiscious.
Twilight looked at the line and for a moment she felt tempted to cross it out again, remembering Celestia's reference to Frank's quirks and her own suspicion that perhaps Celestia had had a bit of a hidden agenda of sending him as a practical lecture of sorts as well as for his own studies.
"What did he tell you there?" asked Twilight.
Given his intelligence Twilight would not have been as surprised as the occasion would have
warranted if Owlowiscious had given an actual answer rather than just a hoot.
"And what do you think of him?"
Another hoot.
"I wonder where he did set up his tent. The others and I are going to have a picnic with him in the morning", Twilight said, not sure if she was talking to Owlowiscious or to herself. The owl in any case considered himself addressed, flapped over to a table and started plucking at a map of Ponyville and its surrounding that was lying there, mostly covered by books resting on top of it.
Twilight put down the quill and paper, walked over and levitated the books from the table, stacking them up on the ground beside it.
Owlowiscious tapped a spot on the map between Sweet Apple Acres and Fluttershy's cottage beside a little pond.
"Really?" Twilight asked. "We won't have to head anywhere else for the picnic then. It is as good a spot for that as can be."
Twilight thought for a moment and then headed upstairs to the library's viewing balcony with its telescope. Not that she doubted Owlowiscious' information, but since the spot was within sight from the balcony she could check out just as well. Sure enough she spotted the outlines of a small tent on the meadows just where her owl had indicated on the map.
Returning to the escritoire on which she had left the letter to Celestia she picked up the quill again and continued...
He is posing many interesting questions, the pursuit of which seems quite worthwhile. Mr. Blanket decided to tent rather than staying at the library. You probably know he is more accustomed to this than
Twilight eyed the lines and then crossed them out with an annoyed snort. It sounded stupid. She just didn't really know what to write and it was probably pointless to just fudge a story. Besides she wasn't going to wake up Spike to send the letter. She rumbled the paper and levitated it into the dustbin, earning herself a surprised look from Owlowicious.
"I think I should just call it a day", she explained. "If I got something to tell I'll write the princess."
She headed upstairs and laid down on her bed. Not for the first time since her transformation did she struggle with her wings. Lying on top of them felt as uncomfortable as it felt to lie face down against her pre-transformation habits and attempts at compromise by lying on her side weren't all too successful either. Though Twilight was getting used to her wings and sometimes didn't mind them anymore at all, there were still times when she wished for some kind of magic to just get rid of them in exchange for a more comfortable resting pose.
It was raining golden bits and each one of them turned into a horseshoe of different size, color, and material as it hit a floor of invisible ice that was not cold. Each bit gave a different tone as it hit and transformed creating a very odd music. Every time Twilight thought she had caught on to a melody the music continued entirely different from how she had expected it to. She tried to pick up a brazen horseshoe into which a bit had transformed that had landed right in front of her. But as she reached out for it the horseshoe sprouted wings and flapped away quickly. A horseshoe made of solid stone turned out to be too heavy to move. She tried to catch one of the bits raining around her, before it touched the ground but as if it had a mind of its own the bit changed directions and avoided being caught. Twilight cast a spell on one of the bits to teleport it to her stretched out hoof, but as the spell hit, the bit exploded into a whirl of densely written sheets of paper. She couldn't make out the words however.
"I always told you you were drinking too much tea, Twilight", Rainbow Dash said balancing six mugs of cider on her stretched out wings and another on her head.
"No you didn't!" Twilight contradicted. "Spike did."
"Darling dear, why did Robing Hooves not just die the patch of his flank that sported his cutie mark?" Rarity demanded to know as she was jumping from the cupola of the town hall that was drifting by. "I am certain they could have done so at a spa sparing him the need to always wear that filthy cloak over his wanted poster cutie mark."
"I am not filthy!" said Mr. Rich as he was passing by on a rolling barrel while playing a lyra.
"But whoever would name a kid that?" asked Applejack as she emerged from one bit that hadn't transformed into a horseshoe as it hit the ground but instead remained a huge coin with Applejack's face on it.
"Beats me", Twilight shrugged.
"But why did you never ask them?" Pinkie Pie emerged from the ground wearing diving goggles and a snorkel. "I mean, they made it neither light nor dark. And besides, why is there no cake under the icing?"
"Pinkie, you are the only one here acting no different from how you would if this was not a dream, but honestly I still don't get what you are talking about."
"And for all that you are still certain I am not to inconvenience anyone who is not a pony?" Discord asked as he walked out of a colorful tent with Fluttershy peeking out of his mane.
"Get out of here, Discord! This dream is chaotic enough already without you messing it up further!"
The dragonequus shrugged and evaporated leaving Fluttershy standing on top of a large harmonica dangling in thin air.
The rain of bits had ceased by now and same as the one from which Applejack had come the last few had not turned into horseshoes. Instead they had remained coins that bore depictions of various cutie marks to some of which Twilight could put a name. Among those which she hadn't seen was one coin bearing the sign of a large winged horseshoe with a unicorn's horn in the center. As Twilight approached to take a closer look the coin turned into stone however and the image on it faded away to leave but only a blank slice of stone.
"Uhm, Twilight? If you don't mind, could you help me down from this harmonica please?" Fluttershy asked. "I don't think I can get away without the Elements of Harmonicy."
"What are you talking about Fluttershy? You are a pegasus. You have wings. You can just fly down here."
"Oh yes", Fluttershy said. "This is funny. I had totally forgotten. Maybe it is just because the wings annoy you so much—"
"Not your wings, Fluttershy. Just my own get on my nerves sometimes."
"Yeah, we should really do something about that, Twilight", said Rainbow Dash who levitated the mugs of cider from her wings to everyone else. "But you hardly ever practice. You are a bit of a lazy student!"
"No, I am not! And just because you can levitate things in this dream that doesn't mean that I was less of a student."
Rainbow Dash shrugged.
"Now what are you, Twilight? A student or a princess?" Applejack asked.
"Both I think", Twilight answered. "Why would the one exclude the other?"
"Exactly", Rarity agreed. "After all you can be a hobo and a student too."
"But why don't you then have like a crown and a book as a cutie mark?" Pinkie Pie asked.
"I don't want such trinket as a cutie mark!" Twilight said.
All of the others were smiling at her. Suddenly Twilight remembered that she wanted to ask something but much as she tried to remember what exactly it was, the question became ever more elusive the harder she tried to remember it and suddenly everything popped like a soap-bubble and Twilight opened her eyes.