Important Note: This story takes place between "A Canterlot Wedding" and "The Crystal Empire".
Part I - Two Worlds
Chapter 1 - Dreaming
A fiery-red sky, and a vast sunset cast shadows on tall, dizzying rectangular structures ringed with rows of lights. Twilight Sparkle found herself standing on the tallest of these structures, which felt unnaturally cold and hard on her hooves. She found herself face-to-face with a massive monster... thing; its small but brightly glowing eyes stared at her, shining like a pair of flashlights. In spite of the glow, the monster itself appeared black; a silhouette cast from the sunset. From what she could tell, it was massive, but it has a squat and bulky appearance with no distinct legs.
She didn't even know what she was doing or why. She couldn't make out the scene around her, as everything was so alien to her. But she felt as if she were defending her land from it after all it has done to it. She looked side-to-side to see her friends, up on their hooves and poised to strike. Knowing this, she joined in with them, and then they made their move by floating up in a geometric formation. A great surge of power came through them, one that felt very familiar like it was part of their very being. It grew stronger and more intense as they collect it There was no telling what disastrous attack it would make, or if they would live or die, but it was anything to protect the world by defeating it!
Twilight opened her eyes to find herself on her side in bed, inside her own room. It was morning, and strong, warm sunlight shone through the window. She looked around still shaken by the dream. It felt so intense, so alive, so unlike any other normal dream she had that it would've been something else. But of course, dreams are dreams, and anything can happen in them, even if they wouldn't make sense to common reality. Being a unicorn pony possessing the Element of Magic did have its strange set of quirks, but in that case, she would tell Princess Celestia about it. Perhaps she knows what to do about it. So, with a yawn and a stretch, she got out of bed and looked over herself in the mirror. Her hair was untidy from tossing and turning, so she used her magic on her hairbrush and she set it right.
But before she could go downstairs, a huge shadow zoomed silently across the window and filled the room, and then disappeared. Curious, Twilight looked, but she only found the tree branch that was part of the library. Could that have been Rainbow Dash? The pegasus was notorious her habit of barging in unannounced. Annoyed by the possibility, Twilight stick herself out the window and looked thoroughly for Rainbow Dash or some other flying creature, but found nothing. It bewildered her at first, with such a large-looking creature passing by without a sound. But soon, she shrugged it off saying perhaps it was a bird or pegasus pony flying overhead, especially during the summer when activity in Ponyville was at its height.
As Twilight headed downstairs, Spike greeted "Hey, Twilight!" He was busy dusting the shelves. Twilight yawned and stretched as she said, "Good morning, Spike."
"You slept in a little, so I spent my time to do some dusting for you."
"Oh, thanks Spike. I really appreciate it. Uhh…" She collected her thoughts about the dream. Is it worth telling Spike about it? What would he think about it? She needed to tell him something. She sighed and said, "I-I want to write something to Princess Celestia today."
"Huh?" Spike was a little surprised to hear that, for she usually does this each time she learns something important about friendship, at roughly once a week. But since the start of the season, things have gone along fine and, as a result, no friendship letter was written. To have her write one so early in the morning - a time she would not have learned anything at all yet - was news to him. "Why? Is there something important? You haven't learned anything, yet. Have you?"
"No," The unicorn answered, "It's not a friendship letter. It's just something that… uhh…" She wanted to write to Princess Celestia about the dream, but she wondered if it was really just some ordinary dream, or a vision, or anything like that. She didn't want to waste her time reporting about some natural occurrence, but having recalled how it felt, giant monsters and all. So Twilight decided that perhaps she should take her chances, just in case. Perhaps the Princess can tell her about its true nature. So she continued, "I had a crazy dream".
"A dream?" Spike was growing more curious, "What's it about? Was it about zombie diamond dogs trying to bite you as they spread the infection?!" Spike scared himself with the thought.
"No, Spike," Twilight answered with an agitated sigh, remembering how they've gone through this some time ago, "It's not like that! It's where…" She thought about trying to describe the dream to Spike, but she didn't feel she had the time, so she continued "You know what? Why don't I tell you as I write the letter, okay Spike?"
"Okay," Spike exclaimed with an eager nod!
Twilight slipped out a sheet of parchment and readied her quill when she arrived at the table. She spoke aloud as she wrote the following:
Dear Princess Celestia,
Just this morning, I had a dream that I thought you should know about. It's where I was in this strange place where there are these huge, tall structures that cover the entire landscape. There were no trees or mountains, just the shapes. In fact, I stood on the tallest one of them all. I found myself with my friends confronting a huge monster that was trying to kill us; I never saw anything like it before! It had eyes that glow like street lights, and strange arms that have no hands! I felt that we had to defeat it before it does something horrible! So we used great powers to destroy it once and for all! And that was when I woke up.
I don't know if it's one of those dreams people have all the time, but I write this to you because it felt so odd, so deep that I wondered if it was something important. So I will let you be the judge and see if there is something special about it that we should be aware of.
Your Faithful Student,
Twilight Sparkle
After finishing the letter, Twilight rolled up the paper and gave it to Spike.
"After you", she said.
"My pleasure!"
Spike took a breath, and then breathed green fire at it, burning it and sending it to the Princess. Not long after did he let out a sudden belch of the green flame, which quickly manifested into another roll of paper. It must be from the Princess! Twilight magically took the paper and unrolled it. She read aloud:
My Faithful Student,
The dream you told me about sounds very interesting! The surge of energy you described sounded a lot like when you were using the Elements of Harmony. I am confident you and your friends will handle off a monster like that, like you have with Discord, and I am confident you will do the same again. But maybe your mind was just figuring out all the events you've gone through; you've gotten into all sorts of scrapes! So please, try not to focus too much of your attention on it, it'll hurt your head! Why don't you keep it at the back of your mind as you continue on your studies? Who knows? It could happen!
Your Mentor,
Princess Celestia
"The Elements of Harmony?" Twilight pondered the similarities between the events with Discord, and those of the dream, "Could it be that we're dealing with another threat at some point?"
"Maybe", Spike pondered, "But I'm pretty sure that you can just beat'em up, just as always!" He emphasized it with a fist to his palm.
Aside from Discord, Twilight Sparkle recalled the earlier incident with Nightmare Moon, a corrupt version of Princess Luna who was banished to the moon one thousand years ago. At both times, she and her friends used the Elements of Harmony against them to restore Equestria from their influence. But now with the dream in mind, she wondered if this were a third kind of threat where they would have to use it again. But once again, dreams are dreams, and they could not be relied on at all.
Twilight chuckled again and said, "Well, Spike. I don't know if this were real or not, but it's like what the princess said, we should keep it at the back of our heads. We'll see what happens."
"Okay, Twilight."
Twilight went on to Suddenly, Spike realized something. "Oh!" he exclaimed, "I-I didn't make your breakfast! What would you like? Omelets? Pancakes? Hash browns?"
"Spike, you don't have worry about that today."
But then Twilight's stomach growled in hunger. Perhaps that's what she got for sleeping in. Spike chuckled, "Looks like your stomach doesn't agree with you!"
Twilight sighed again, but then again, she could use something delicious to eat.
"Alright, Spike." She considered the options. "Some pancakes will do, Spike. Blueberries."
"Sounds good!" Spike immediately rushed off to do cooking! Once he was done, Twilight went to the table and ate her breakfast. After she was done eating, Spike took the dishes and cleaned them. Now, Twilight can do what she was going to do: simply head outside and find something to do. But before she could open the door, she called as she turned, "Hey Spike, aren't you coming with?"
"What? Oh, no thanks. I gotta take care of Peewee."
The unicorn raised an eyebrow, "Peewee?"
A tiny, gold-plummed chick hovered down on Twilight's head, feeling its stubby talons grasp her scalp.
"Peep!"
Twilight sighed again, knowing that she would have to go alone this time. Spike popped out of the kitchen, "C'mon, Peewee." He whistled, and Peewee fluttered its tiny wings towards the child dragon. Concerned that Spike and Peewee would unwittingly make a mess in the library, Twilight prompted, "Well, make sure that you don't play too rough. Okay? The last thing I want is to have any mess in the library. I'll be back in a few hours."
"Yes, ma'am!" Spike saluted.
"Okay," the unicorn assured herself as she opened the door.