TIME: 1 Month after the Canterlot Wedding (End of Season 2)
LOCATION: Ponyville, Equestria

A good size rain storm for Ponyville had been overdue for over a week now. An intense thunderstorm dominated the midnight sky all across Ponyville and into the Everfree forest. The Pegasi that controlled and scheduled the weather tried to schedule a less severe storm, but without a good drench, some of the local crops were endanger of withering. At Twilight Sparkles home, the local library, the main 6, Spike, and Vinyl Scratch spent the night for a fun sleepover after a long day’s work, celebrating and keeping each other company through the storm overnight.

Applejack lay asleep on the main living room sofa, while Pinkie Pie curled up near a corner. Fluttershy made a little bed next to the landing on the stairs, full of pillows stacked up like a miniature fort. She was not fast asleep; Fluttershy was very much awake, hoping that the storm would soon pass. Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Twilight slept in Twilights room, along with Spike (the baby dragon) on his miniature bed. Vinyl Scratch was still up, sitting at the kitchen table on the main floor trying to compose an original song for Rainbow Dash’s practice audition in seven days. Pinkie Pie insisted that Vinyl come over for the sleep over, and she gladly accepted the token of friendship. Vinyl had most of the song composed and written out, but she couldn’t help but feel something was missing. She thought to herself, in essence, that the song needed to be about 20 percent cooler. Vinyl rested her tired head on her hoof, blankly staring at the music piece written in front of her. She experimented with several types of bass beats and rhythms on the magically controlled computer program, but none seemed to fit just right.

Back in Twilight's room, Twilight Sparkles ears began to twitch as she lay asleep. She began to toss and turn rapidly…
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Twilight stood above water, and began to find herself in a strange world; a world that she never could have imagined. She began to slowly trot backwards, as the ground began to shake, and something was closing in fast from a distance. Suddenly, she ran into something, and quickly turned around frightened. A silhouette of a tall figure appeared before her. She tried to call out to it…

“Hey, my name is Twilight, what’s your…..your name?” The ground continued to tremble.

The figure began to slowly come into the light. Twilight’s eyes were gazed upon the eyes of a human woman, who looked upon her with concern and confused.

“My name is Aki, and you must be a figure in my dream. But strange, I don’t know what you are, or what this means?”

“What do you mean?” Twilight shouted with lesser volume, “What does what mean?”

Suddenly, the two found themselves before two huge alien army’s, each carrying some type of advanced weaponry. The alien armies stopped and starred at each other, creating an ear ringing silence. But their attention was drawn to a burning flash of fire coming down from the heavens. Twilight was suddenly blinded by a flash of blue light, and she raised her hoof in front of her eyes. When she looked again, everything around her was spinning and disappearing. Suddenly, the blue light began to flash brighter and brighter….
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BANG…A huge crash of thunder shook the library, sending Fluttershy diving for the covers, and waking up Twilight into a scream…

“Ahhhhhh!” Twilight set up and yelled frantically, until she quickly gained consciousness.

Vinyl was just about to doze off, when her red magenta eyes suddenly shot open from the crash of the lightning bolt. All of the other ponies, as well as spike, were also rudely awakened by the crash of thunder. Rarity sat up from her bed rubbing her tired eyes with her hoofs. Rainbow Dash quickly awakened and glided over to Twilights bed, her wings only making a small whisper in the air. Twilight was still breathing heavily while she held her throbbing head.

Rarity met Twilight and Dash at the other end of the bed. “Yes, dear, are you ok? You are sweating and all shook up. Is…is it another nightmare?”

Twilight did her best to conjure up something to say, “No, it’s ok girls. Thank you though. It’s probably just the lightning”.
“Hmm, that lightning bolt was offely close to this place for a controlled Pegasus storm. A little too close…” Rainbow Dash said, her voice cracking in the middle of the statement. “Rarity, can you stay with Twilight? I’m going to check to see what all the commotion is about.”

Rainbow Dash then proceeded out to the hallway, and flew down to the main floor, “Up and atom everypony!” she shouted, just as Fluttershy began to emerge from the covers at the staircase landing, only to retreat to them once more.

“Rainbow Dash! Y’all best watch your level of volume this time of night, you scared poor Fluttershy” Applejack stated firmly, while sitting up from the couch.

Fluttershy tried to crawl out a bit, still shaking from the sudden crash of the lightning bolt: “Oh, ummm, um, I ah, I’m fine! See, no worry! Angel here is keeping me company” (Angel: Fluttershy’s pet rabbit).

“See!” Dash said in a cracked voice, “She’s fine. Now if you’ll excuse me, Applejack, I’m going outside for a bit to see where that bolt came from”. Rainbow Dash proceeded outside into the pouring rain, not caring about getting the least bit wet. She looked left, and then right…nothing. Suddenly, she heard the groaning of some pony above her, and naturally, Rainbow looked straight up above her, only to find a wet grey Pegasus pony with blond hair sitting on a dark thundercloud rubbing her head.

Dash shrugged and let out a sigh: “Derpy! What are you doing out this time of night in the pouring rain...crashing into houses?”

Derpy, still dizzy from the cloud impact and discharge of the electrical bolt, looked down upon Rainbow Dash with a concerned look, “I ummm, I ummmmm…”

“Ugh, that’s your answer for everything! ughhhh” Rainbow brought her hoof up to her face for a facehoof. She then looked back up at Derpy Hooves and slightly changed her tone of voice to being more comforting. “Hey, listen, why don’t you come down here and spend the night with us Derpy (Dash thought to herself: Am I really saying this?) ...It’s too dangerous out here right now.”

Derpy suddenly gave Dash a huge smile, “Okay!” and proceeded to fly down. Derpy trotted inside as Rainbow Dash flew up and pushed the thundercloud back into the sky. Rainbow Dash and Derpy were soon inside, their mane and tails drenched from the pouring rain.

Pinkie Pie, wide awake and fully energized, broke the silence.
“DERPY! You came over for a, SLEEP OVER! Oh my gosh, I’ve never had time to hang out with you much, we’re going to have so much fun, and it’s going to be awesome, and we can play games, and eat ice cream or stay up all night…or we could do all THREE of those things! Or was that more like four things? I guess it could have been two things, more like a bazillion things…”

“Umm Sugarcube, that’s sounds great! But let’s get these two some blankets and a warm fire goin so they don’t catch a cold” Applejack stated kindly.

“That sounds like a plan!” Spike stated as he walked down the stairs, “…man, haha, a nice fire sounds pretty awesome right about now.”

“Spikey,” Rarity called behind him, also coming down the stairs, “would you be so kind to build that fire for us!? Pretty please please please!?

“Of course Rarity! I’ll get right on it! (Anything for you Rarity! Spike thought to himself).”

Vinyl Scratch emerged from the kitchen out into the main floor of the library, her head also still slightly spinning from the crackling lightning bolt: “Derpy! Alright, now this sleep over just got twice as cool. I wub it!” she winked while grinning.

Rainbow Dash, Derpy and the others began to gather around the fireplace as spike began to get it going pretty good. Just one small breath of fire was enough to light the wood and straw. Spike was extremely satisfied that he began how to control his small fire breathing, not needing an unplanned belch to initiate it. Although it was Spring going into Summer, the storm brought a cold front through the town of Ponyville, decreasing the outside temperature to around 40 degrees Fahrenheit. The houses in Ponyville relied on fans to mostly keep cool, and their shining fur coats (coupled with a working fireplace) kept them warm through the winter. Although electricity was known, magic was much easier and simpler to control.
Twilight began to start another conversation, as the seven other ponies gathered around the fireplace.

“Well, since it’s an hour past midnight and we are all wide awake; I guess we might as well stay up until the storm passes!” Twilight stated, trying to put her strange dream out of her mind. “So Vinyl, how is that song coming along!?”

Rainbow Dash’s ears propped up as she met eye contact with Vinyl “Oh yeah! How is it coming? I mean, I am sure it’s going to be awesome! You are one of the best electronic music composers Equestria has ever seen! “

Vinyl smiled, brining her right hoof behind her head: “Aww, thanks Dash! And it’s coming along pretty well! I haven’t gotten much sleep yet, but that lightning bolt sure woke me up…”

Derpy’s expression began to sadden “Oops. I’m sorry Vinyl, I’m sorry everypony. It’s just; I thought I was told to work through the night to make sure the storm didn’t get out of control. The other Pegasi are still up in Cloudsdale monitoring the rainfall. I was pushing the thundercloud through the sky, when a gust of wind sent me toward the ground, and before I knew it….”

Applejack chimed in “Awe shucks Sugarcube, it was just an accident! These things happen! Y’all best be not working through the night next time though. I reckon you have enough on your hoofs as it is!”

Randomly, Vinyl Scratch’s eyes widened as she jumped in the conversation…”Hey everypony, that’s it!” she then turned her attention to Rainbow Dash, “Hey dash, I know what’s going to make your song so much more epic! At the last part, when you perform your signature filly flash and then sonic rainboom, what else would the audience need to hear, than the crackling sound of some electronic thunder sound effects! Yeeeeah!” (Vinyl began bobbing her head back and forth as she imagined what the song would sound like with the added effects).

Rainbow smiled, while slightly lifting off the floor, slowly moving her wings “Alright! That sounds awesome V! I trust you completely! Best-composer-EVER!” Rainbow said, as she reached across the floor to give Vinyl a hoof bump.

“Except for Octavia”, Vinyl winked, “she herself is totally awesome!”. Everyone nodded in agreement.

Rarity steered the conversation in a new direction, while Fluttershy sat next to her, enjoying the company of Angel and the warmth of the fire.

“So Twilight dear, you seem to be a lot better than you were 30 minutes ago. I don’t suppose you want to talk about it, but from almost every night a week after your brother’s wedding, you’ve been having bad dreams. We are all a bit concerned for you!” Rarity stated, half hugging Twilight who sat next to her.

Twilight sighed, “Well, I guess it really is that obvious, hmm. I don’t know everypony,” she said in a calm yet frustrated voice, “a nightmare sure would be nice right about now, because the same dream has been haunting me almost nightly. I know you guys won’t think I’m crazy, but…” Twilight’s horn began to glow a purple hue, and she used her magic to retrieve a book from the library shelf. She turned to a particular page in the book about reoccurring dreams, “it says here in this book:

Most dreams contain messages that serve to teach you something about yourself. However, soon after you wake up to go about your daily routine, you tend to quickly forget what you dream about. The message in recurring dreams may be so important and/or powerful that it refuses to go away. The frequent repetition of such dreams forces you to pay attention and confront the dream. It is desperately trying to tell you something. Such dreams are often nightmarish or frightening in their content, which also helps you to take notice and pay attention to them.

Recurring dreams are quite common for anypony or any creature, and are often triggered by a certain life situation, transitional phase in life or a problem that keeps coming back again and again. These dreams may recur daily, once a week, or once a month. Whatever the frequency, there is little variation in the dream content itself. Such dreams may be highlighting a personal weakness, fear, or your inability to cope with something in your life - past or present.

The repetitive patterns in your dream reveal some of the most valuable information about yourself. It may point to a conflict, situation or matter in your waking life that remains unresolved or unsettled. Some urgent underlying message in your unconscious is demanding to be understood.

(Twilight then skipped ahead to the next paragraph)

In rare cases (although only documented through testimony)

nightmares for pony’s particularly specializing in magic may not concern the past or the present at all. It may in fact, concern something that is set to happen in the near or distant future. Whatever the reason, it’s important to pay attention to the underlying message of the dream, but not to become consumed in its content. If you are experiencing such dreams with a regret or feeling of void, something in your past or current present is amiss. If you feel a sense of urgency and you have expertise in the field of magic, it may be a prophecy that has yet to be fulfilled…”

Twilight stopped reading, as she had gotten to the point she wanted to make, “You see, these nightmares…the sense of urgency fits my description so well, it’s almost like this book was meant for me. And in my dream, it’s not a nightmare about Discord, the Changelings, or any of that. I see myself in another world, staring at the face of a human woman -(the other ponies dazed in confusement at the term ‘human’)- and so far, the last two nights have been the same dream. But Rainbow Dash, I have dreamt that you were surrounded by a blue, almost vortex blue light, and then you just disappeared. And we were all in another world, and we…”

Applejack interrupted as Twilight’s speech pace quickened, “Whoa Twilight, you lost some of us there a couple minutes ago. But if I may speak for everypony, if this is really concerning you, we should all talk about it.” Applejacks voice began to soften, as she widened her eyes and slowly smiled at Twilight, “we trust your judgment Twilight, especially after you were right all along about the Changelings.”

The other ponies nodded in agreement, along with Spike. Pinkie Pie then chimed in enthusiastically, “Yeah Twilight! You are like a super awesome know-everything best friend! If there is anything you need, we’ll be there together! We all watch out for each other, because our friendship is magic!"

Everypony nodded and smiled, and some hugs an encouragement were exchanged throughout the group. Spike made it his mission to be sure to get the change to give Rarity a hug as well.
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The group stayed up till 3 in the morning, as they began to talk more about the dream, but also about the normal happenings around Ponyville. Pinkie Pie passed out the remaining chocolate cupcakes left over from dinner, as well as some special muffins for Derpy. The expression and joy on Derpy Hooves’s face made Pinkie Pie’s night. All eventually began to quiet down, as everyone slowly migrated back to their sleeping areas. The stormy night died down to only a slight gust of wind with a light drizzle. Fluttershy was finally able to shut her tired eyes, curling up next to Angel with a slight grin. Vinyl Scratch made her way back to the kitchen table, putting the finishing touches on Rainbow Dash’s song. She added the thunder effects at the end, and timed it to match Rainbows demonstration perfectly. Vinyl then made her way to a small air mattress, and slowly shut her eyes while listening to some smooth new age classics from the old days.

Tomorrow was going to be a big day for her, but mostly for Rainbow Dash. Rainbow Dash was going to practice her flight routine for the second annual young flier’s competition, this time with Vinyl Scratch’s awesome song. For now, it was time to get some rest. The remaining ponies that lay awake eventually shut their eyes, dozing off into a deep sleep through the calm night, listening to the smooth sounds of the raindrops echoing in the wind.

When Three Worlds Collide

by steelmatt6

Chapter 2: Friendship is Magic