Xanterlot University

by Neonz

Chapter 3

A beautiful white mare stood proud atop a pedestal in a huge room. She had powerful-looking feathered wings and a huge spiraled horn on her forehead. Her flowing mane was coloured with soft pastel shades, and she wore a huge gold necklace with a single purple jewel that perfectly matched the crown on her head.

Twilight was overcome with respect. She lowered her neck, allowing her own navy-blue mane to cover part of her face, and extended her lavender forelegs downwards in a bowing position. When she looked up again, the white mare was giving her a warm smile.

“Twilight Sparkle.” the mare addressed her. “My ever-faithful student. We need to discuss something very important– ” She was cut off as the floor beneath their hooves started to rumble violently.

Twilight whipped her head around, trying to find some sort of clue as to why the ground was shaking. When she looked back, the white mare had vanished. “Princess Celestia?!” she cried.

In a flash of purple lightning, a new mare took her place. She was a bit smaller, with the same feathered wings and large horn, but coloured a deep indigo. She was clothed in blue armour, and had a malicious expression on her face. Twilight took a few steps back, breathing heavily.

The mare looked at her and cackled. “One thousand years I’ve waited for this moment… And look at you, all alone! Haven’t even gathered the elements, have you?”

Twilight couldn’t do anything except stare in disbelief. She felt as if her worst fears had been realized.

“I am Nightmare Moon!” the mare continued, cackling. And with another flash of purple lightning, everything went black. Twilight felt the ground beneath her slip away, and she screamed as she fell through the air.

“Twilight.” The voice of Princess Celestia calmly surrounded her. Twilight looked everywhere, but could see nothing but darkness. “Twilight.” The voice repeated. “This is what you must prevent. Gather the elements. The time is approaching, and I cannot protect you for much longer. My faithful student… I know you will succeed.” The voice faded away, and a rushing sound replaced it. The sound of somebody crying started echoing around her. Twilight knew she was just moments away from hitting the ground –

Twilight woke up, gasping desperately for air. Her heart pounded in her chest, and after a few moments, she realized she had just been dreaming again. She rubbed her forehead, groaning. It wasn’t the first time she had dreamt about the white mare, but the purple one was new. Something about these recurring dreams seemed so real and familiar to her…

As she started to calm down, she realized that the crying she was hearing hadn’t been coming from her dream. She looked over, and in the faint light of the rising sun could see Fluttershy curled up and sobbing in her sleep.

“Please… please no…” Fluttershy muttered, her voice desperate and terrified. “Get away from me… I-I…!” Her breathing picked up, and she whimpered.

There was a loud thud as something hit the other side of the wall that separated their room from Rainbow Dash’s. Twilight flinched, and Fluttershy’s eyes shot open. The blonde girl started shaking as she eyed the room, clearly still half asleep, and confused to have woken up somewhere unfamiliar.

Twilight got out of bed and knelt beside her. “It’s okay, Fluttershy… Shh…” she said softly as Fluttershy’s sobbing died down and a few final tears escaped from her eyes. Twilight moved some of the hair that had fallen into Fluttershy’s face, and the shy girl’s breathing evened out as she looked at Twilight questioningly.

“T-Twilight?” Fluttershy asked, starting to sit up.

Twilight nodded. “You were just dreaming… it was just a dream,” she told Fluttershy, trying to convince herself of the same thing. It was just a dream… wasn’t it?

“Oh.” Fluttershy said softly, seeming a bit embarrassed to have caused Twilight any trouble. “I’m sorry… Thank you. I’m okay now, you can go back to sleep if you want.” Fluttershy sunk back into her covers.

Twilight wasn’t sure if she would be able to go back to sleep after all that had just happened, but Fluttershy clearly didn’t feel like sharing whatever she had been dreaming about, so she just nodded and crawled back into her own bed.

The clock set up on Twilight’s desk read 5:14am. She rolled onto her back and stared at the ceiling. There wasn’t any truth to the dream… she hoped. After all, horses didn’t talk, or have wings and horns. She tried to brush the familiar feeling off as déjà vu, but she couldn’t help but admit that there was something weird about it at the same time.

Twilight stole a glance over at Fluttershy, and saw that she was staring at the ceiling much like Twilight. Twilight resumed her former position, and let her thoughts overtake her until she drifted off to sleep again.

Twilight awoke to a beaming face and a mess of brown and pink-streaked hair hanging over her. “Rise and shine sleepyhead!” The face sung happily.

Twilight screamed and recoiled backwards, knocking her head on the closet behind her. Dazed, she stared at the girl dressed all in pink standing over her, then over at Fluttershy, who was still holding the door open and looking just as stunned as Twilight.

“I just wanted to introduce myself, because I didn’t meet you two last night when I met everybody else! My name’s Pinkie Pie!” She grinned widely. “What are your names?”

Twilight blinked rapidly, unsure if she was still asleep or not. “I… uh, my name’s Twilight. Twilight Sparkle.”

Pinkie Pie clapped excitedly. “That’s a fun name! I don’t think I’ve ever met anybody with that name before, and trust me, I’ve met lots of people so that’s saying something! You must be super-duper unique!”

Twilight just stared at her. “Uh…”

Pinkie Pie turned suddenly towards Fluttershy, who shrank back. “What about you, what’s your name?”

Fluttershy stared at her, wide-eyed. “I-I… um…”

“Her name’s Fluttershy,” Twilight said, deciding to save Pinkie the trouble she went through for the same answer the day before.

“Fluttershy?” Pinkie asked, looking thoughtful. “…Nope! Never heard of that name either! You two are super unique roommates!” She giggled. “I’ll have to have a party for you tonight so you can meet some people! After all, we live on the same floor!” She beamed, clearly excited.

“O-oh, I don’t know…” Twilight said uncertainly.

“Don’t worry about it!” Pinkie insisted, waving her hand dismissively. “It’ll just be a really small party, after all, classes start tomorrow, and everyone needs sleep sometime! Come over to my room at six, I live in 303! Anyways, I need to go eat a banana. I’d better see you two around soon!” With that, she skipped out of the room, leaving Twilight and Fluttershy stunned.

“…What just happened?” Twilight asked, staring at the door where Pinkie Pie exited.

Fluttershy shook her head. “I don’t know. But Pinkie Pie seems nice to me.” She smiled.

Twilight sighed. “Yeah, but I don’t exactly want a wake-up call every morning at…” she trailed off, glancing at the clock. “Oh my goodness, it’s eleven already?!”

“Oh, yes,” Fluttershy said meekly. “I didn’t want to wake you, so I snuck out really quietly and ate breakfast and bought my textbooks.” She gestured towards the stack of them, which were on her desk next to the fishbowl.

Twilight looked over curiously, noting that the first one on the stack was the same intro to psychology book that Twilight had purchased the day before. “So you’re taking psychology?”

Fluttershy shook her head. “Oh, no, psychology is just an elective. That and music.” She smiled fondly. “I’m taking biology. I want to be a vet one day.” She glanced over at the fishbowl, where the half-dead looking betta fish swam around feebly with torn fins and pale colouring. “I just love helping animals like Fin here. I found him in the pet store, so I decided to take him with me.” Fluttershy traced a line across the bowl, and Fin followed her finger eagerly. She giggled. “Isn’t he cute?”

Twilight looked at the mangled fish skeptically. ‘Fin’ didn’t seem like an appropriate name. “Yeah, I guess.”

Fluttershy picked up a box beside the fishbowl labeled “freshwater aquarium salt”. She held it over the bowl, and tapped gently, a tiny bit of salt falling into the bowl every time she hit it. Once satisfied that there was enough salt, she placed the box back beside the fishbowl. “You’ll like him better once he’s looking like himself again, I’m sure. The salt will help him heal.” She looked at Twilight, smiling.

Twilight couldn’t help but notice that Fluttershy seemed to be warming up to her. She wondered if it had something to do with what had happened last night…

Last night! Twilight remembered the events from her dream with a jolt. She was compelled to do research on it. Even if she didn’t find anything, Twilight figured she’d at least get a feel for the school’s library.

“Fluttershy, I’m going to go check out the library. You want to come?” Twilight hurried around to find her purse and key.

Fluttershy shook her head. “No, thanks.” The blonde’s attention was focused on her biology textbook. “You have fun, though.”

Twilight nodded, and left. The hallway was much quieter than it had been the day before. Twilight quickly freshened up in the bathroom, then headed downstairs.

She was about to head out the door when a voice stopped her. “Hey, Twilight!”

Twilight sighed internally, then turned to see Will, Garrett, a few other boys whom she didn’t know, and, a bit randomly, Pinkie Pie, all in the lounge that was near the entrance of Kismet.

Pinkie Pie’s face lit up when she saw Twilight. “Twilight! We were just talking about you!” Twilight raised an eyebrow, but Pinkie waltzed over happily and dragged Twilight to their group.

“What Pinkie Pie means,” Will said quickly. “Is we were just wondering if you’d seen Rainbow Dash today? Because you’re neighbours and all.”

“Uh, no, I guess I haven’t. I just got up myself…” Twilight said, glancing at the exit. She really didn’t want to converse when she had more important things to do.

“Oh.” Will said. He and the rest of the group exchanged glances.

“…Why, did something happen?” Twilight asked, giving in to curiosity.

Garrett laughed. “No, everything’s fine. That girl’s a champ… probably has a wicked hangover.”

The others nodded, still looking a bit uncertain.

Twilight took a step backwards. “Well, maybe you should check on her? Anyways, I reeeeally have to run. Bit late on my schedule for today.” She waved and turned to the exit to make her escape.

“Remember Twilight!” Pinkie Pie called after her. “Six o’ clock!”

Author's Note:

Decided to upload up to chapter three because FIMfiction likes to be very sure that stories are connected to FiM. Hopefully this is proof enough... :3

Comments

[Dratini4]

2052482

Keep it up this fic deserves all the praise it gets that's for sure

[Neonz]

2063763 Rarity will be in the next chapter, which will hopefully be up in an hour or so.