//------------------------------//
// Be Brave and Rave 
// Story: A New Hero 
// by Alex The Lone Wolf 
//------------------------------//

	My surroundings felt spacey and limitless as I hopped over to Twilight with my present in my mouth. She was sitting comfortably in front of the fireplace while wearing a comfortable scarf around her neck. I sat down in front of her as the light from the warming flames casted our shadows across the room. Twilight took a sip from her freshly made hot chocolate and chuckled at the sight of me as I sat down in front of her.

"It's such a cozy night, isn't it, Alex?" She asked.

"We've yet to exchange gifts, don't forget!" I reminded, patting my gift by my side.

"Don't worry!" Twilight closed her eyes and returned a gleeful smile while presenting a gift of her own. "I could never!"

"I think it's about time to open them, don't you think?"

"Fine by me!"

I grabbed my present and stretched it over to her. "I couldn't afford a present this Hearth's Warming Eve, so I got you this box." I stated confidently.

"That's what I got you!" She made the same motion towards me.

Afterwards, we began laughing giddily and cheerily towards one another. Both of us wrapped each other with our forelegs and rubbed cheeks. This seemed to last a long while until the door to the room opened up.

Another pony walked in and found our way of expressing our feelings for one another to be rather weird.

"Uh…what are you doing?" She asked with a cringing look on her face.

"Hey, Spirit!" I called out, Twilight and I continuing to hold each other closely. "You missed it! We just exchanged our gifts!"

"Gifts for what? Why the heck are you two so close like that? It's disturbing." She walked closer and stopped near us.

"Don't you know? It's Heath's Warming Eve!" Twilight announced merrily.

"What?" Spirit's original expression exaggerated. "No, it isn't. Not even close." She continued staring at our bond with disgust. "S-stop that. It's weird."

"Is somepony in a grumpy mood today?" I asked teasingly. "You know bad ponies don't get any presents."

"You're seriously starting to freak me out." Spirit began backing away slowly. "What's gotten into you two?!"

"What's gotten into you?" I contradicted. "It seems Twilight and I are the only ones in the right mood."

Twilight supported me with an enthusiastic nod.

"What the heck is going on?" Spirit began observing the interior design of the room. "How did you two put up these decorations so fast? Why do you have the fireplace going on in the freaking morning? It's not even winter yet!"

"Did you fall out of bed and hit your head or something?" I asked, unable to lose my merry mood. "It totally is."

Spirit's eyes caught a clock nearby and raced towards it. "No way! It's not midnight!"

"Yes, it is." Twilight corrected. "Why do you think we exchanged gifts?"

Twilight held her gift up for Spirit to see as an example. Spirit snatched the box and opened it up only to find it was empty. "What the? It's just an empty box!"

"Yep! It's the best gift ever!" Twilight exclaimed out in glee.

"Twilight gave me the best gift ever too!" I showed off my box to Spirit as well.

"Okay." Spirit pulled away from the box. "This can't be happening. Am I still dreaming?" She tightly shut her eyes and then forcefully opened them. However, she remained staring at the two of us in silence for a brief moment. "No…No. No. This is way too real. And I can't wake up…"

"Why would you think it's not real?" I asked.

"Because things were not like this yesterday!" Spirit exclaimed and raced around the room to try to find an explanation for whatever was bothering her. Then, she suddenly stopped at a mirror and gasped. "My eyes…"

"What?" I inquired.

"They're… They're normal!"

"Huh?"

"Look!" Spirit raced towards me and stopped close enough for me to get an eyeful of her own eyes. They were both light blue.

"So?" I didn't find anything odd about that.

"So?" Spirit repeated. "So?! Don't you remember?! My eyes aren't like this! One is a darker blue than the other!"

"Uhh…" I found myself unable to understand what she was getting at. Before I knew it, I realized that at some unknown point, her eyes changed back to the way she had been describing them. "Wait, you mean like that?" I pointed out.

She backed away from me with a look of confusion and then quickly turned back to the mirror. "Y-yeah…! What the hay?! How…?!"

"Come to think of it…" Twilight's mood suddenly shifted. She picked up her empty box and eyed it closely. "…why are we giving each other empty boxes…? What's the point in that?"

My own thinking weirdly changed as well. Before, exchanging empty boxes seemed all the normal to me, but now, for some reason, it felt completely weird. "You're right." I turned to the lit fireplace. "Wait…I can't remember putting these decorations up." I mentioned as I looked over the winter décor in the room.

"Me either." Twilight stood up and unwrapped her scarf. "And it's not even cold. Is it really Hearth's Warming Eve?"

"That's what I've been trying to tell you two!" Spirit faced us and spoke with feeling. "I thought you were just going insane at first, but after seeing what just happened with my eyes a few seconds ago, something strange is going on!"

"But…everything felt so normal…" I tried to reason with both her and myself.

"You think it's Hearth's Warming Eve?" She mentioned. "Let's go out and I'll show you it isn't!" She pointed us in the direction of the door. She raced towards it as we followed with eagerness.

We had no reason to hesitate going into the next room as we expected to be in the hallway of the castle, but what we experienced proved Spirit's point of something amiss even more. As soon as we had passed through the doorway, everything was black.

"Aah! What happened to the lights?!" Spirit cried out.

A faint glow protruded from Twilight's horn. "Well…we did just have the fireplace on…for some reason."

"And it's midnight." I added. "Pretty normal for it to be dark."

"But it shouldn't be midnight!" Spirit argued. "It should be morning!"

Twilight sent me a look of concern. It looked as if she wasn't taking Spirit's protests lightly. "We still were doing something weird back at the fireplace. I don't remember it being Hearth's Warming Eve, and I definitely wouldn't give you some empty box as a gift."

"So what? Did somepony erase a part of our memory and that's why we're freaking out?" I asked.

"If the other girls were here, I wonder what they'd say…" Twilight thought out loud with a soft voice.

Suddenly, muffled yet still loud booming music came through from what felt like the door closest to us.

"What the? Is somebody throwing a party in the castle this late?" I wondered.

"I don't remember inviting anypony!" Twilight mentioned.

"Maybe somepony broke in!" Spirit shared and then gasped sharply. "Yeah! Maybe somebody broke in during the night and casted some kind of spell on you so you wouldn't have a clue on what actually was going on! And I'm the only pony who actually knows what's going on because they didn't know I existed! And the reason it's not morning is because I woke up in the middle of the night while you two were acting all goofy?"

"That's some kind of imagination you've got there…" I reacted, feeling as if what she said was too far-fetched. I wouldn't think something like that would actually happen.

"Well, to be honest…it sort of…makes sense and explains things a lot better than whatever we thought at first." Twilight admitted. "I know it's crazy, but given our circumstances, I think I'm kind of willing to believe it."

"What about Spike?" I brought up. "Why isn't he here with us?"

"Honestly, he's probably still asleep. I don't know." Twilight returned. "I'm still really confused about all this."

I sighed in frustration. "What I want to know is how somepony could have casted a spell on us in the first place? Did they sneak into our rooms or something and do it? Couldn't we have heard? And what about Spirit's eyes changing? I don't get it."

"I think the best way to start is through that door." Spirit pointed directly at the apparent door the sound was coming from. "I think we'd be wasting our time trying to think how things happened when we can find out what's going on for ourselves."

I turned to Twilight, awaiting her input.

She shrugged in response. "We have no idea what's going on. It's probably the best thing to do right now."

"I guess…" I decided to agree. "Lead the way then." I allowed Spirit.

She grabbed ahold of the door and practically busted it open. The techno-sounding rhythm grew insanely loud and clear, but a bright flash blinded our eyes from seeing anything inside. However, the light promptly faded away, and we came to realize that the light appeared 
to be an illuminating revolving spotlight. To put it in hopefully better words, it was a sort of light used mainly for parties and the like.

Besides that, the room appeared to have the interior room lights completely turned off, but there were enough sources of portable lights that revealed a clear sight while emitting a bluish tint or glow.

"…what is…going on?" Twilight asked in a slow pace as her shock had her focusing on the surroundings in the room instead.

"Looks like some kind of…party?" I guessed.

"Look at these!" Spirit exclaimed, catching our attention. She pointed to some objects she had been wearing on her neck and hooves. They appeared to be…neon-colored glow sticks?

Since when did she have glow sticks?

As I scanned over her body, I found something even more disturbing and unexplainable. Her mane and tail seemed to have suddenly grown strands of highlights that matched the glow sticks she wore. "What about your mane? Since when did you mess around with it?" I asked.

"What?!" Spirit became alarmed after my comment and quickly attempted to stretch a part of her hair to the front for her to see. "What the heck!? I didn't do this!"

"Yours too, Alex!" Twilight pointed out.

It didn't take long to realize that my mane had become just as oddly different, and I was wearing neon glow sticks too. I looked over to Twilight to see if she suffered the same change just as us. I was able to spot the glow sticks on her, but her mane and tail seemed unchanged.

Maybe because her hair already had sort of highlights in them?

"Okay, this is going too far. Party in our castle? Messing with our hair? We gotta find whoever's responsible for this."

"No one messes with my hair!" Spirit screeched out in disgust.

"Let's make it quick." Twilight directed. "I want to get this sorted out as soon as possible."

I nodded and looked around for any clues.

I noticed that the room we were in was oddly structured. To put simply, the interior design of the room was a mess, almost as if was like a maze. The center of the room itself was clear enough, but on every side, there was a door, including the one we just walked in through.

"I don't remember a room like this being in the castle…" I mentioned. "But then again, with all the rooms the castle has, I can't say that I would…"

"Let's try that one first." Twilight pointed towards the door directly in front of us.

"Might as well." I decided. "Have no idea where to start anyway."

I walked forward as the others joined along. I opened the door and pushed it forward. The sound of the music grew even louder to the point where we'd have to practically shout to hear each other. Nevertheless, there was an immense crowd of ponies inside. Each of them stepped and danced to the rhythm while some others merely stood at the sidelines and conversed with others. There were tables set up with punch, chips, snacks, other refreshments, etc.

Twilight bumped herself as close as she could to me so I could hear her through the thumping bass.

"You don't think Pinkie has something to do with this party do you?"

Pinkie Pie did love her parties, but I couldn't see this being a stunt of hers whatsoever. I shook my head in answer to Twilight. "This doesn't seem like the kind of party Pinkie would do. We should see if we can find out what's going on from somepony. They should probably know who's running things here."

"I guess so." Twilight began messing with her perked ears as if the music was beginning to get to her. I wouldn't blame her. I'd assume she'd be into something far more calming and soothing.

Everypony seemed too busy enjoying the music or talking with others to be bothered. It wasn't until we came across someone enjoying themselves over at the table full of snacks.

"Hey!" I shouted as I tapped this pony on the shoulder.

The pony looked to give a big swallow and turned to us with huge grin. "YES?!"

It took us only a second to associate the features like her smile and hair to the crazy and uplifting Pinkie Pie.

"Pinkie?! What are you doing here?!" Twilight exclaimed at the sight of her. "Don't tell me you're the one who's throwing this party in the castle at midnight! We should be sleeping!"

"Chill your frills, Twilly Bean!" Pinkie cheerfully and friendly responded. "I didn't throw this party! But you have to admit, it's a super fantastic one to be in! Just listen to that beat! Whoo!" She cheered. "And all these yummy snacks? Delish! Who wouldn't enjoy a party like this?!"

"Maybe those who have no idea what's going on in the first place?" I asked with a slight tone of annoyance. "Why didn't you tell us there was a party going on here?!"

Pinkie shrugged a little sheepishly. "I thought you'd be having a good time here already."

Twilight shook her head. "Do you know who's in charge of this party? I want to know who's been messing with us earlier when we were in the fireplace room."

"What do you mean 'messing' with you?" Pinkie asked in confusion.

"Alex and Twilight thought it was Hearth's Warming Eve." Spirit explained. "They were giving each other empty boxes and acting all giddy and normal about it! I'm thinking some pony put a spell on them or something so they wouldn't realize that a party was going on at the castle!"

"Oh gee, really?" Pinkie Pie returned a face that shared concern. "That's not nice! I don't know anything about that!"

"Well, do you know who's running this party in the first place?!" Twilight returned to the main question.

"Yeah!" She bounced back ecstatically.

"Everyone having a good time?!" A voice boomed from speakers that were set up all throughout the area.

"There she is now!" Pinkie pointed, leading our eyes to a stage where many other ponies were gathered at. Many ponies had been blocking the view of the stage in the first place, but once I got to get a look at the color scheme of this character near a seat of electronic objects, only one pony came to my mind.

"Is that…Vinyl?!" I asked, seeing her interact with the audience that apparently adored her.

"DJ-Pon3!" Pinkie responded. "You got it!"

"What is she doing here?" Twilight began questioning. "Don't tell me she snuck in or has been the cause of all the weird things going on around here!"

I shook my head, unable to believe she would do such a thing.

"No, no. There's no way she'd do something like that…" I turned my head back to the stage where she remained on. "We've got to go talk to her."

"But all those ponies are in the way!" Spirit reminded, looking bitterly at the sight of the crowd. "They don't look like they're moving."

"And we should probably stick with a non-violent approach…" Twilight advised. "We don't want things getting out of whack…"

I sighed, but with the sound of the music, I was sure it wasn't audible at all. "So, maybe there has to be another way onto that stage?" I wondered and then turned to Pinkie Pie who continued to gobble up on the free treats in front of her. "Pinkie. You have any idea how to get up there?"

She turned to me with cookies stuffed in her mouth. She only returned a shrug with a muffled "I don't know". Afterwards, she returned back to her binge eating.

"Guess we're on our own…" Spirit watched as Pinkie endlessly shoveled the food down her throat.

"Let's try checking out those doors in the beginning." I mentioned. "Maybe they lead towards the stage somehow."

"It's better than nothing." Twilight commented before we trotted back to the first room.

We had decided to try the right door in the direction we had first originally walked in. As we opened it and entered in, another bright flash enveloped our vision. It was a moment before the bright white blinding light faded away and we were welcomed with another completely different but rather soothing experience.

The thumping and pounding music had strangely become muted, as if the room we were in was capable blocking out any kind of outside sound. Instead, the musical atmosphere was replaced with a sort of orchestral muse instead. The room wasn't only faintly lid up with neon lights like previously. Instead, the entire room was brightly filled with mellow yellow lighting.

"…huh…?" Twilight appeared to be overwhelmed in her bafflement. Her eyes almost twitched as if her logic couldn't comprehend how everything so far was happening. Were we still being affected by some kind of magic or something?

Nevertheless, we began hearing the sound of light humming, followed by gently tugged strings of a classical instrument. We followed the sound to find a pony resting on a comfortable-looking stool as she played what looked like a cello.

Of course, the only reason I'd be able to label the specific instrument as a cello would be because of…

…Octavia?

She listened to the sound of music she produced herself and began fervently following along without losing her peace of mind. She appeared to be in a state of serenity as she flawlessly produced her quite amazing compositions. Her eyes closed as she placed most of her focus on her ears and hooves to provide uninterrupted or pausing music.

"Well, at least it's a lot better than having my ears blasted out back there…" Twilight commented.

Octavia gasped as she opened her eyes and turned in the direction of us. They scanned the three unexpected ponies before her until they stopped at me.

"A-Alex. I wasn't…ahem…expecting you to be here watching me play…" She expressed embarrassingly as her cheeks turned a light shade of red.

"Octavia…?" I began speaking, my stuttering mind almost causing me to hesitate with my words. "Wh…what are you doing here?"

"What am I doing here?" She asked, appearing in a state of confusion herself as she couldn't completely comprehend the reason for my question. "Why, I'm practicing, of course. Am I not allowed to?"

"No, I mean, you are. But what are you doing in the castle right beside Vinyl's crazy rave party?"

"Rave…party…?" She repeated. "I…I'm afraid I don't understand."

"You don't think she was put under a spell too, do you?" Spirit whispered over to me.

With squinting eyes, I slowly shook my head. "I don't know… Why would she have to be? This isn't making any sense!"

"Alex… What's going on?"

Octavia seemed innocent and completely unaware of what was going on, just as we were.

"I don't know…" I responded with a lack of the knowledge she yearned for. "We're just as clueless as you are."

She placed away her instruments and began walking towards us. "You said Vinyl was having a crazy 'rave party'?"

"Yeah, right next door." I gestured my head over to the door we came through.

"That's very strange. Last I remember, I was at home…not in a castle… How is Vinyl doing?"

"Surprisingly…" I crossed my forelegs. "She seems to know more about what's going on than any of us. Even Pinkie Pie. We came across her earlier, but it seemed like she was just attending some cool party. We wanted to talk to Vinyl about the party. There's been some…suspicions going around." I lightly glanced over towards Spirit. "Anyway, we just want to get a clear understanding on what's going on. Why is there a party being thrown in the middle of the night? And why are all these weird things happening?"

"I'm afraid I can't help you there." Octavia shook her head solemnly. "But I'd like to accompany you to speak with Vinyl, if that's alright. I wish to know what's going on as well."

"Yeah, I guess." I didn't see any harm in that. "You might want to be careful though. There's crowds of excited enthusiastic ponies at that party. We were trying to look for another way around to get to the stage she was on."

"That sounds quite…chaotic." Octavia appeared uncomfortable with the idea. After all, she was practically the opposite of Vinyl, despite being best friends.

"Just stay close. I don't think we want you getting lost in there."

"I understand." She nodded and stuck by us.

Returning back to the main room with each wall having a door, there was only one door we actually hadn't gone through yet. Across us was that door.

"Ahh!" Octavia cried out in surprise. "What happened to my mane? And why am I wearing…these?" She shook her hooves almost frantically.

"Yeah, that happens…" Spirit mentioned.

"It's another reason why we think there's some magic going around…" Twilight added.

"Let's try that door." I pointed forward and suggested.

After walking in through that last door, we came across an area that was very faintly lit. It was much darker than the area where the crowds of ponies and Pinkie were. However, I noticed that there appeared to be some kind of stands and curtains to the right and the wall to the left. The curtains and stands provided a sort of makeshift wall and blockade that not only prevented ponies from the other side getting through, but it also blocked a lot of the light that could be lightly seen through the curtains.

"This has Vinyl written all over it." Octavia commented as she planted her hooves on her ears. "Only she would have her music this loud."

"Better find her quick." Twilight seemed to side with Octavia. "Before this music does any serious damage to my ears."

We followed the path as we moved rather slowly. It was dark, so we didn't want to trip or bust anything. It felt like we passed by various types of equipment before we finally came across a small set of steps. It sounded like we began stepping on a wooden floor, but the area was still almost completely dark. There was a dark red curtain to our right now. In fact, it looked like huge stage curtains, so I believed we were now at the stage part of the show. I poked my hoof through and slowly set the curtain aside enough to see through.

Beyond, I noticed the back of Vinyl's body as she messed with some of her equipment with her left hoof while she constantly pumped her right hoof into the air, nodding her head to the beat of the music. I felt another head look out by me.

"That's her!" Octavia exclaimed. "What does that pony think she's doing?!"

"Partying, apparently." Spirit remarked.

"Vinyl!" Octavia shouted out for her attention, but Vinyl paid no mind. It didn't seem like she heard anything. It sounded as if there was a low growl that came from within Octavia. "VINYL!" Octavia now screamed out, sounding as if it came from the top of her lungs. Had the room been silent, her voice surely would have echoed all over and froze anypony in the tracks. However, with her voice being contested with the music, Octavia's yell was only clearly audible for those nearby.

Vinyl stopped pumping her hoof in the air and stood motionless for a second before she slowly turned around. She proceeded to stare at the hole we created in the curtains out of curiosity before she began cautiously walking towards it. Before she could poke her hoof through the curtain towards us, Octavia caught it and forcefully pulled it towards us.

"Whoa!" She cried out as she stumbled behind the stage in front of us.

As Vinyl took her time to recover from her disorientation, Octavia didn't falter in cutting straight to the point. "Vinyl, what is going on here?!"

With a last shake of her head, Vinyl noticed Octavia and seemed to become distracted with something else. "Tavi! You came! I didn't think you liked my parties!" She threw her arms around Octavia and squeezed tightly.

"Gehh!" Octavia returned a short grunt that almost sounded as a gasp for air. She managed to pull away from Vinyl's grasp. "I'm here to find out what's going on with this 'party' of yours. Why is it that I'm just in the other room practicing my cello and you're having a party in this castle!?" Octavia took a second to remember about the change of her look. "And what happened to my hair?! It was perfectly normal until I came here! Do you have some magic roaming wildly around here?!"

"Huh?" Her lost smile persisted among her confused and tilted face. Vinyl looked like she had no idea what Octavia was talking about or at the very least didn't catch everything she had said.

I decided to help fill in with what Octavia was trying to say.

"Vinyl, you're having this party in one of the rooms of the castle." I explained, catching her attention. "What has us all confused is how you exactly got a party up in this castle without us knowing. Is there some magic going around that we don't know about?"

"I-I don't get ya." Vinyl obviously still seemed dazed about the situation. "Why would you guys think magic is being a problem here?"

"Twilight and Alex were in the other room in front of the fireplace exchanging empty boxes, thinking it was Hearth's Warming Eve!" Spirit exclaimed.

"Whhaaat?" Vinyl reacted dumbfounded. "What are ya talking about? It's nowhere near Hearth's Warming Eve."

"That's what I've been saying!" Spirit emphasized.

"Well, it's pretty obvious Vinyl doesn't really have a clue on what's happening to all of us either." Twilight concluded from her analysis. "There's something we're missing here." She turned to Vinyl. "Vinyl, tell us exactly how you were able to have a party here in the first place."

"Uhh…" She rubbed her head and thought for a moment. "Actually… I don't remember…" She strained her answer as if she was surprised that she didn't know this for herself.

"What?" Octavia questioned in shock.

"I've just been partying." Vinyl answered. "I don't remember setting up or waiting for the room to fill up with ponies or anything." She chuckled. "Weird, huh?"

Before I could ask how she could have not remembered at all on how she got this party here in the first place, I turned to Twilight. "Twilight, do you remember anything before we started exchanging gifts in front of the fireplace?"

Twilight lowered her eyes to the floor and pressed a hoof to her chin. "…no, nothing… We were just celebrating Hearth's Warming Eve…or at least we thought."

"I woke up and found you two like that." Spirit clarified. "It's like I'm the only one who hasn't suffered some kind of memory loss or something."

"And Octavia said she thought she had been in her home but…" I mentioned, but I didn't finish my sentence. Things were just way too confusing.

"And here I thought you all came here looking like the way you do because you liked my stuff and wanted to support me." Vinyl sounded and appeared a little depressed.

Octavia sighed heavily. "Vinyl, we're in a state of utter confusion as of right now." She placed a comforting hoof on her shoulder. "Normally, I'm sure things would be…" She paused for a moment. "…different."

"Yeah, I guess you're right." Vinyl admitted. "I mean; I would think I'd be able to remember what I was doing before running this rave." She took a brief moment to think to herself. "As a matter of fact…I thought that I had already gotten into—"

Vinyl's music had suddenly ceased.

"What is going on here?!"

"Who is causing all this ruckus!?"

"Nurse! Where's my oatmeal?!"

These voices were definitely not right.

Vinyl immediately trotted over to the curtains and open them enough to see through. A few of us joined her to see what all the commotion was about. Before we could look for a good while, Vinyl immediately backed out and cried out in terror.

"Ahhhh! Where did all my fans go!? It's all old ponies!"

"What?" Twilight questioned.

"Tavi! Run!" Vinyl reached for Octavia's hoof and scrammed away with her.

"Vinyl!" Octavia's voice faded away as she disappeared from our sight.

"Aahh!" Spirit screamed in disbelief as her hooves pressed against her temples in frustration. "What the heck is going on?!"

"I have no idea!" I immediately began feeling the stress levels inside me skyrocket.

Spirit grabbed ahold of me and began shaking me fiercely. "Alex please stop all this! This is driving me nuts! I want everything to be normal again!"

"What am I supposed to do?! Wave my magic horn and make it disappear?!" I argued.

"Yessss!" She cried, tears beginning to brim in her eyes.

I immediately began feeling deeply concerned for her. "Whoa, Spirit. Calm down! This isn't like you!"

She sounded like she began hyperventilating. "Th-The whole place is filling up!" Her head swung side to side almost frenziedly. She shut her eyes tightly. "Get me out of here please! I don't want to drown!"

"H-huh?" I questioned.

Drown? In what? Water? There's no water anywhere in sight!

"Twilight, what do you th—" I turned to search for Twilight's face, but she was nowhere to be found.

"It's rising, Alex! Make it stop!" Spirit pleaded.

Having no other idea on what to do, I decided to remove Spirit from the area. "Come on!"

I pulled her back towards the main room we first began in. The room with four doors; one on each side. Spirit immediately closed the door behind us and barricaded it with anything she could find.

"It's still seeping through!" She panicked as she stared at the floor below her.

"What are you talking about?!" I exclaimed, feeling as her state of panic was passing on to me as her anxiety was terrifying to see. "What is—"

Suddenly, something tried to barge through the door we had just came through, but the blockade Spirit had set up prevented it from doing so. Nevertheless, it didn't look like it would hold much longer. From there on, like magic, I could see water scattering over the floor, submerging the end of our hooves.

"We have to get out of here!" Spirit begged.

"Okay, okay!" I felt my heart's pace increase gradually the longer we spent in this horrid situation. The first thing I thought of was taking the door that led out to the dark hallway. I guided Spirit through but still felt water slowly rising from our hooves.

I expected to be back at the darkened hallway, but I knew something was immediately wrong when I realized we weren't. I looked around and recognized that we were in the exact same room!

"Why's it the same room?!" I felt my panic meter rising.

"No way!" Spirit ran towards another door, which was the one we took and found Octavia in.

I followed her to find us still in the same room. It was almost as if we were in an endless loop.

However, that didn't stop pieces and parts of the wall cracking and breaking open. From all over, water began to fill in at a quicker pace.

"Aaah!" Spirit screamed strongly in distress and practically began to sob.

I wasn't sure what scared me more. The rising water or her out of control emotions. I felt myself unable to move as I stared at her in what felt like horror.

"Th-th-there's gotta be a way out of here!" I stuttered and moved to another one of the doors to open them. My movement slowed down as the water had rose about halfway at my legs. I tried opening one of the doors, but surprisingly, I found water gushing out endlessly from the other side into the same room. I grunted loudly as I attempted to push back the door with great force.

When I finally managed to close it completely, the water that had gushed in brought the level up to our torsos now. Spirit was now frozen in shock as her breathing grew heavier and deeper.

"Spirit!" I raced over to her and attempted to carry her on my back.

"C-Can't y-you fly h-higher?!" She stumbled with her words.

Seeing as I couldn't even jump with the weight of both her and the water, there was no use trying.

"No! The water's too high and my wings are completely drenched!" I explained.

Spirit wrapped her hooves tightly around my neck. "C-Can't you zap the ceiling and get us out of here?!"

Giving it a try, I tried blowing the ceiling to bits as best as I could, but nothing.

"I…I'm sorry, Spirit." I felt emotionally distressed.

Spirit now ceased speaking, sobbing greatly instead.

Desperately not wanting to just stand and wait for nothing, I looked around and decided to reach higher ground using the objects in the room. But all they did was just bring us a little higher. If I could break open the ceiling somehow, I could probably get us out or at the very least away from the water for a moment of time. But for some reason, the ceiling looked like it was hard as diamonds.

"Spirit… I'm sorry!" I apologized, feeling immensely guilty. "I don't know what to do!"

"No! This can't be it, Alex!" Spirit pulled through her tears. "I-I haven't even told you everything!"

"What do you mean?" I turned my head to her while the sounds of rushing water blasted constantly.

"Ab-about us!" She paused to struggle with gasps for air. "Even if I wanted to, you'd never believe me! You wouldn't!"

"Spirit! What are you saying?!" It began feeling hard to think now.

Water was up to my head now.

"I-I'm sorry, Alex!" Spirit shook her head. "This is all my fault!"

Come on! There has to be some kind of magic spell or something I can do to save us! But I can't think right now! My mind's drawing blanks!

At that point, there was only one thing I could think of. And it would most likely save one of us if the water were to stop at some point soon. With the water covering my mouth, I began focusing my magic on Spirit. The aura surrounded her and began lifting her up and much as it could. I brought her up to ceiling, and she was out of the water, but the water itself was definitely not far behind.

I felt the pocket of air held in my mouth running out. I managed to lift my head to gain some extra time to breathe, but it was only a matter of seconds before the water would win over.

"Alex! Y-you can't stay there!"

"I don't know what else to do!" I admitted. "I can't think of any spells that will help!"

"B-But if you go, I go too!" She stared at me from above. "I need you! I love you!"

Sigh. I forgot she was a part of me, and that must have meant that I needed to stay alive for her to remain.

"Well…if I can't save you…then hopefully you won't have to suffer as much."

"Noo!" She cried.

The water was already at my lips, so now there was no point in talking unless I wanted a mouth full of it. I decided to take my last deep breath of air and hold it as I drenched my face in the roaring rapids. Of course, everything sounded differently underwater, and as if I still had a shred of remaining hope, I looked towards every corner of the room for a way out.

Nothing…

I thought about just closing my eyes and letting whatever happen happen, but then I unexpectedly saw the door in front of me slowly open. From the darkness within, I managed to see a silhouette coming towards me. I could see the form of wings and a horn.

Twilight? Is that you?

Then there was just silence.

My sight grew dim and then eventually faded out.



	

I then felt my eyes slowly opening. There was still silence, and it was honestly kind of…calming. Nevertheless, I was able to hear and feel my heartbeat pump from within. I eventually found myself staring at the ceiling of what appeared to be my bedroom. I had been lying down and sat myself up to look around. Everything looked completely normal.

"What the…" I whispered under my breath. "Was it…all a dream…?"

I remained silent and thought about it for a while.

"No way… It all felt too real… It didn't feel like just any dream…"

I decided to get out of bed and walk to the door to see what else was going on. To my surprise, I found Fluttershy standing in front of me as soon as I opened the bedroom door.

"F-Fluttershy?" I spat out in surprise.

She began playing with her hair as she looked away in what appeared to be embarrassment.

"Can I come in, honey? There's something I want to talk to you about…"

I felt extremely disoriented, so I couldn't give a straight answer.

"Uh…sure, I guess…" I decided to go along. I closed the door after she walked in. It sounded like there was something private she needed to tell me. Nonetheless, I felt myself gulp nervously before I began speaking. "So, um, what is it?"

"I've been thinking…" She brushed her mane with her hooves and turned her eyes towards me with a slightly flushed face. "…maybe it's time."

"T-time?" I inquired. "Time for what?"

"Time for us to move on." Her answer shocked me. I almost thought that she wanted to end what we had, but by the look in her face, it appeared to be far from that. "I…want the two of us to settle down… I want to spend the rest of my life with you, if you haven't already noticed… I want to get married really soon…so, eventually I can have your baby."

My heartbeat immediately began revving out of control. I felt immense flashes of heat hitting against my face almost to the point where I could hardly breathe. After barely swallowing any saliva I could find within my mouth dryly, I stuttered and stumbled with my words.

"B-b-baby?"

"Don't you think it's a sweet idea?" Fluttershy asked as she slowly closed in towards me, locking eye contact.

I don't know if I ever saw her so direct and composed.

"W-well, this is sudden. I w-wasn't expecting y-you…"

She had already entered within my intimate space all without breaking her eye contact. Instead, she revealed her innocent yet curious charm as she calmly began to silence me with an incoming kiss.

"It'll be okay…" She mentioned between light and careful strokes of her lips. "It'll all be okay. I love you, and that's all that matters…"

I had already begun to lose my self-awareness with her advances. I suppose nothing seemed out of the ordinary for me, even when it sounded like her voice suddenly somewhat changed.

"You're safe with me."

At this point, I felt myself opening my eyes once again, but this time, it was much different. I could hear a normal ambience in the room that previously wasn't there in the first place. I felt…completely in control. From what I began to notice, there was a blurry purple haze in front of me. Once it cleared up, I realized it was a pair of pony eyes. However, they were obviously not Fluttershy's and they were extremely too close.

I began remembering that before I reopened my eyes, I was expressing my feelings for Fluttershy, but as I studied the scene more in the current situation, I realized that that was not the case. In fact, my eyes immediately opened widely as my pupils dilated greatly once I noticed I had been performing the same action with a different pony.

My lips broke contact to scream out loud as I felt my body fall from bed. "Aaah!"

This scream alarmed the one that had been in front of me, causing her to quickly sit up and look around in surprised and shock. "H-huh?!"

"You two!" I heard another familiar voice in the room. "Are you alright?!"

I turned my head to see my mother standing near the bookcase in the room.

"M-mom! What are you doing here?!"

"I came to…fix things." She confessed, as if she had done something wrong to begin with.

"What?" I asked, composing myself and getting back on my hooves.

"What just happened?" Twilight asked, worriedly roaming her eyes around the room.

Princess Luna sighed greatly. "Do you two remember what happened when you were asleep?"

"Uhh…" I tried looking back, but I had already began forgetting large chunks of it already. "Something about…Vinyl in the castle…"

"You too?!" Twilight's head shot straight towards me. "I swear I thought it was real!"

"Yeah, so did I!" I returned.

"Yes." Luna agreed. "However, I'm afraid that wasn't supposed to happen."

"What do you mean?"

"The two of you were having your own dream in which the both of you participated. I had only wanted to make sure things were going alright, but it seems I instead caused the opposite. I had been notified of another pony's state of worry in a dream, so I decided to handle that task before continuing my visit with yours. Nevertheless, it appears that I didn't quite…secure the door before I left."

"'Secure the door'?" Twilight questioned.

"You see, everypony's dreams are…connected." Luna began attempting to explain herself. "To put simply, the way I manage in entering different ponies' dreams is by entering a "doorway". In the case of you two, your case of being semi-lucid along with my foolishness caused what you experienced tonight to happen. Let's say there are three states of consciousness you can undergo while you're dreaming. You can be completely unaware how odd things are in a dream compared to reality. This is usually the case when everypony dreams. Then, there is being completely aware that you are dreaming, and in this state, you are usually able to manipulate what happens in your dream and practically do anything your heart desires. As for you two, you were in the middle of these states of consciousness. You were aware about the odd things occurring in your dream, but you were not fully aware that you were dreaming. So, when you opened the door to the room you two were in, you stumbled upon which looked like the hallway of castle. But in reality, it was my hallway of doors to different dreams. Had you been completely aware that you were dreaming, you would have seen this. But you never would have stumbled onto my "hallway" had I "locked the door" to it. From this hallway, you seemed to have stumbled onto your friend's dream, and not being aware of your dreaming caused you to believe that it was occurring inside of the castle."

I rubbed my chin as I thought back. "Octavia was there…so we must have stumbled into her dream too. She didn't know anything about what was going on other than what she was doing in her room." I remembered something else about a different pony. "But Pinkie Pie was there enjoying Vinyl's party."

"Sometimes, friends may dream in a same atmosphere, such as the reason you two were dreaming the same dream as well."

"That explains a lot…" I softly shook my head, almost unable to believe everything that had just happened. "So wait…" I paused, realizing I had apparently been sleeping alongside Twilight. "Why am I with Twilight?"

"Do you remember where you were before you fell asleep?" Luna asked.

I could have sworn I had fallen asleep in my own bed, but my mind wouldn't accept that so easily.

"Oh!" Twilight sounded as climbed off the bed. "We were going over the Hearth's Warming Eve story for some reason late last night!"

"Oh yeah!" I pointed out with my hoof, remembering practically everything now. "Spirit was bored and you thought it'd be a good idea to go over that story for her!"

"Yeah!" Twilight began chuckling lightly over reminiscing what happened last night. "It didn't seem like she was too interested, so she went to bed while we finished the rest of the story." Twilight tapped her chin. "I don't remember much after that. I know we were pretty tired…but I can't remember if we just slept walked over here or…"

"So, you two are feeling alright?" Princess Luna asked again.

"Yeah, I guess. I don't feel any different." I responded.

"It feels more like waking up from a nightmarish dream." Twilight expressed.

Luna nodded. "As long as things don't appear or seem any more different than how they usually are when you truly wake up, it seems you two are fine. I apologize for the inconvenience I caused."

"It's fine. It was…interesting." I shared.

"If you'll excuse me, I'm afraid I must leave and check with the others that may have been involved in this slight fiasco. Should you have any worries or questions, don't hesitate to notify me."

The princess of sleep and dreams took her leave once we returned our understanding of the situation. Twilight and I began taking a walk in the castle hallways, giving us time to grasp a grip back on reality.

"We were in your room with the story, weren't we?" I asked, turning my head in Twilight's direction.

"Hm?" She returned.

"I think you had the book in your room. That's why we were in there. I guess we must have just dozed off."

"Yeah. That makes sense." Twilight agreed and then suddenly stopped. "Wait, wasn't Spirit in our dream too?"

"Yeah?"

"Wasn't she the one telling us things were off back there? That's how we starting realizing what she was talking about?"

I had to think about it for a moment before I could come up with something.

"Do you think…she 'woke up' while she was still dreaming? Like she thought she was awake when she was actually still in my dream or something?"

"She is a part of you, isn't she?" Twilight added. "Maybe that has something to do with it."

"Maybe." I said before I finally released an exhausted sigh. "Let's forget about all this dream talk. I think it's too early to be thinking about complicated stuff like this."

"Yeah, I guess you're right." Twilight agreed. "By the way, what happened earlier? You like screamed and hit the floor."

I had actually just forgotten what happened with Twilight, so I felt myself growing flushed when the image came back to mind. "Um… I don't think you want to know…"

Twilight took notice of my expression. She must have had no idea…

"What?" Twilight grinned teasingly. "Did you dream something embarrassing that woke you up?"

"You…could say that." I hesitated with my words.

"Tell me!" Twilight excitedly persisted. "I want a good laugh, especially after the dream we both had."

"Errr…" I didn't want to share that at all, but I figured she deserved to know since she technically took part in it. "Well… I remember thinking I woke up. Fluttershy came to my room and began talking about getting married and…having a baby…"

"Aww!" Twilight cooed. "That's so cute! Nothing to be embarrassed about!"

"Yeah, well…" Wait until you hear the rest. "Right before I woke up, I was kissing her."

"Okay?"

"And when I woke up…" I brushed my foreleg a bit timidly for what I was about to say next. "Let's just say…I was still kissing her…"

"Huh?" Twilight now tilted her head in confusion. "When you woke up… But only you and I were…" After a moment of silence, her eyes immediately widened and dilated from shock. "Oh my gosh! You mean…! You…!"

"…sorry!" I flinched, hoping I wouldn't receive some kind of outburst or negative reaction. Twilight's face continued to redden up by the second as she stood completely frozen. "…are you alright?" I slowly waved a hoof over her eyes.

Eventually, she threw her head from side to side before she could move once more. "Y-yeah! Um... Geez…I…"

"You don't need to say anything…" I advised, feeling a tad guilty. "Maybe we should just forget it ever happened."

"What about…Fluttershy?" Twilight asked a bit worriedly. "You think she'll be upset about it?"

"It was completely an accident." I attempted to not only reassure her by myself as well. "She'll understand… I hope… Either way, I'll probably try telling her later today. After all, I want to be completely honest about any little thing like this that happens. I'd hate to lie or not say anything and hurt her in the worst possible way in the end."

"I understand…" Twilight returned. "If you need any help trying to explain it to her…I don't mind coming over."

"I think I'll be fine." I decided. "Come on. Let's see if Spirit or Spike are awake."

We walked into the throne room and heard some entertained giggles along with a baby dragon's talk of hoofball.

"Now you can probably see what I do in my free time when you all are off having your own adventures and yada yada." Spike twirled his claw over an open binder that appeared to hold sleeves for cards.

"That's crazy how you have so many cards!" Spirit had been leaning over the table, carefully examining the cards presented in the binder. "The shiny ones look so cool!"

"I didn't know you were into hoofball…" I mentioned as Twilight and I joined them at the table.

"Alex!" Spirit recognized me and immediately clamped me tightly between her forelegs. "Oh my gosh! You won't believe the nightmare I had!"

"Crazy party Vinyl was having?" Twilight guessed.

"Y…yeah…" Spirit slowly released me. "How'd you know…?"

"We all had the same dream." I explained. "Don't ask why or how because I don't think any of us feel like thinking about it."

"So…" Spirit cautiously turned towards me. "You also dreamt about almost drowning…?"

My ear slightly twitched at hearing that. "Yeah. I think so." I remembered it having to do with Spirit.

"I don't remember anything about drowning." Twilight mentioned.

"Out of curiosity…" I turned to Twilight. "What were you dreaming about before we had woken up?" I tried to subtly ask without bringing up the embarrassing event.

Nevertheless, her cheeks began heating up and looked like they could almost catch fire. "Ohh…! It was something stupid. I don't really remember. Heheh…" She chuckled nervously.

I wasn't even going to get into that. Not after what happened between us.

Despite that, as I turned to Spirit, I noticed she looked clueless. She had apparently been here in Spike instead of with us after all.

"All you guys had a nightmare? I slept like a baby!" Spike boasted.

"Let's get some food!" Spirit suddenly jumped up from her chair and planted her forelegs on the table. She almost crushed Spike's binder, causing him to quickly pull it away in panic.

Twilight sighed in relief. "That sounds about good right now." She turned her eyes towards me. "Food could probably distract me from what happened earlier."

"What happened?" Spirit asked, her curiosity now sparkling in her eyes.

I opened my mouth but felt myself already beginning to choke.

"Uhh, nothing!" Twilight diverted and began trotting away. "Come on! Let's go to the café!"

"Alright! Hayfries, here I come!" Spike jumped up from his seat and ran after Twilight.

Before I could join them, Spirit startled me when she stood in front of me with her squinting eyes. "Is there something you're not telling me?"

"What?" I didn't have time to think of a proper and convincing answer. "What do you mean? I don't know what you're talking about. Come on, let's eat."

"Hey~!" Spirit called after me as I trotted quickly away from her.

I really hope this isn't going be more trouble than its worth…