Dreams are Magic

A Dream for Two

A cartoon world collides with a dream one.

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---

Cause where you're going

I'll follow you, follow you

And what you're feeling

I'll feel for you, feel for you

And what you're hearing

I'm singing for you

And when you're sleeping

I'm dreaming your dreams for you

- "Dreaming your Dreams", Hybrid

---

"Concentrate, Spike. We need all our concentration for this magic to work."

Purple dragon adjusted the pillow underneath himself, not taking his gaze away from the sparkling blue rock in front of him for a second.

Ponyville was unusually noisy today for some reason, and birds outside the library's window chirped louder than a steam engine. A trickle of sweat made its way down Spike's eyebrow: it took all his willpower not to give into all of the distractions of the small quiet village. With corner of his eye he noticed the rough crystal in front of him reflecting a smoky purple glow, shining brighter and brighter with each painfully passing second.

"Almost, almost..." muttered Twilight Sparkle, her glowing horn aimed firmly at the crystal.

More than anything in the world now she wanted to close shut the creaky library door, or shift herself even an inch across the wooden floor, or tell somepony outside to zip it about their baked apple pie, or pull drapes over the incessantly pleasantly shining sun - but instead she just sat like a statue on the old library's floor right in the middle of a large disheveled book pile next to the purple dragon.

Just a few moments more, she thought to herself as her horn glowed brighter and brighter. The blue uncut crystal in front of her made a tiny motion...

"TWILIGHT!"

Twilight blinked and turned away her gaze. The next moment, the blue crystal exploded with a loud pop. She and Spike were swept off their feet and sent flying half-way across the room. Books rained from the shelves in a rustling racket.

A few moments passed in indiscernible noise as the library filled with smoke and dust.

"Hi!"

Pinkie Pie popped her head out of the cloud of purple smoke and blinked innocently to herself.

"Haha! You're such a party pony, Twilight!" Pinkie Pie cheered. "What's with all the smokey? You and Spike preparing a party? Huh- Huh? Am I invited? Am I- Am I?"

Pinkie Pie giggled and clopped her hooves together in anticipation. Twilight emerged from underneath a sea of open books with an angry grimace.

"Say no more!" Pinkie Pie threw her hoof in the air. "Pinkie Twinkie is here to fight and- WHAM! Valiantly slay the monster of boredom! Why, why I giggle right in the face of!.."

Pinkie Pie paused, sat down on the floor and tapped a hoof on her chin.

"No, that's too meanie-mean," she continued. "Aww, let's invite him too! I can make lemonade for all of us! And cake! And cupcakes! He'll like cupcakes- you want cupcakes? Oh, oh, oh! Missis Cake just showed me how to make this positively fantabulous pink frosting and-"

Twilight watched the pink pony ramble obliviously to herself, but she couldn't hear the words: she loudly huffed and drilled a hole in the intruder with her gaze. Pinkie Pie didn't seem to notice: she just hopped next to Twilight and started throwing dusty books off her head, humming a cheerful tune to herself.

Pinkie Pie paused, stared at Twilight and innocently fluttered her eyelashes.

"Whacha doin'?"

Twilight's grimace turned into making strangling motions in the air with her hooves.

"Dream magic, that's what," disappointedly announced Spike from another end of the room.

The dragon climbed out of another small pile of books and brushed himself off - small plumes of dust rose in the air as he did.

"Ach! Great job, sister! Now I'll never get to find out what- Err, what a mountain of rubies taste like. YOU certainly won't!"

Spike jumped over to Pinkie Pie and disapprovingly poked her side; he tried to scowl, but a sudden sneeze made him look less than threatening. Pinkie Pie just tapped a hoof on her chin and stared at the plain ceiling, oblivious to Twilight trying to reach for her throat.

"I don't get it," she announced in frustration.

"What's there to get?" rolled his eyes Spike. "You do some magic and you're in any dream you want. Bam!"

"Yeah. Exactly. 'Bam.'" hissed Twilight, giving up on reaching Pinkie Pie. "And now you destroyed the crystal. So it's all over."

"You mean that crystal?" Pinkie Pie pointed upwards.

Above them hung a pristinely polished blue diamond, slowly spinning in the air to itself. The stare of all three was reflecting in its perfectly cut sides.

As on signal, the diamond spun faster and glowed brighter from its newfound attention - as it did, the room slowly filled with immaculate blue glow of dozens of solid rays. Before Twilight could open her mouth to warn anyone, the old library was bathed in yet another violent flash of blue light.

Twilight stood still as the flash cleared. The old library was spinning all around her. With a corner of her eye she noticed Pinkie Pie lying on the floor and Spike unsurely stumbling in place before falling onto a large bookpile. All sound echoed to her as if from a large distance. One more second, and she felt herself falling, lights going out around her and all thought vanishing from her head.

The trio lay on warm floorboards of old pony library in the middle of a bright, sunny day outside. Only their occasional quiet snoring broke the chirping silence.

A blue uncut crystal lay next to Pinkie Pie, faint glow emanating from its core.

***

Twilight blinked and opened her eyes.

She was standing in the middle of her dim-lit library. Ponies nonchalantly walked in an out of the door, going somewhere on their own business. Books were immaculately arranged up on the shelves, all in alphabetical order. Floorboards sparkled with polish, and smell of fresh ink hung heavily in the air. To her side, Pinkie Pie dangerously balanced herself on a ladder leaning against a large bookstand - she carelessly took out one book after another and carelessly dropped them down onto the floor.

Twilight sighed in frustration and meekly made her way under the ladder, carefully dodging the books falling from above. Twilight tried hard not to distract the pink pony above, cursing Pinkie Pie under her breath. She really needed to figure something out, if only she could remember what...

Twilight hovered her hoof over the shelf and reached for a book, but it slipped and slid deeper into the shelf, nowhere to be seen. Twilight leaned over and stuck her hoof into the bookcase as far as she could. Finally she grasped the book by the tip and slowly fished it out of the cold darkness.

"Ugh! Why aren't I allowed to use my magic?" she complained to no one in particular. "It'd be so much easier..."

A few passing ponies frowned at her monologue in disapproval; Twilight blushed and concentrated on recovering the uncooperative book.

After some effort, she finally pulled it out with a loud wet noise. A tiny smile shined on her face. Twilight cleared her throat and flipped the dusty book open, preparing to read out loud.

The pages read gibberish.

She flipped a few pages and rotated the book at different angles, but it didn't help in the slightest. She noticed a beautiful blue colt peering over her shoulder and kindly smiling at her efforts to himself.

"Hey. Want to be friends?" the colt asked in the sweetest voice.

"No thanks. I need to finish this book," politely refused Twilight.

But her hooves felt empty as she said it. Twilight blushed in embarrassment and looked down: she didn't have her book for an excuse. She looked back up: Princess Celestia stared at her disapprovingly from a distant corner of the room. She quickly turned away her gaze.

"There's a good reason," calmly explained Twilight.

The colt turned away and, without a word, headed upstairs and curled up in Twilight's bed. Twilight stared at him incredulously as he threw a bedsheet over himself and evidently went to sleep. Somepony else gently tapped her on the shoulder as she watched.

"Don't you want to go outside?" asked another pretty colt.

"No, no, thank you, I really need to find a copy of 'Supernaturals'..." explained Twilight again.

Her voice faded into defensive mumbling. The brown pony still stared at her innocently, his hoof thrown towards a nearby window. He nodded a few times, as if saying he only wanted to help.

Twilight sighed in surrender.

Twilight made her way up to the window, clumsily bumping into everypony on her way, making muffled excuses here and there. She stumbled with the plain latch for a while before the round window frame creaked open. Twilight uncomfortably climbed up and pushed herself out; she got stuck in the frame for a few moments before clumsily tumbling outside.

A strong gust of wind threw her mane in her face: outside, a giant tornado swept through Ponyville. Sky was dark as night and heavy pellets of rain were hitting everything in sight. Panicking ponies screamed in terror, scattering everywhere, and the racket was unbearable. Ponyville itself was shaking at the seams. Every so often a big chunk of somepony's house was torn out by the storm and carried high into the sky.

Twilight felt her hide instantly soak wet, and her hooves slowly sink in a big mud puddle. A frustrated frown slowly materialised on her face.

"Well, that's just great," she sighed.

Twilight rolled her eyes and angrily made her way against the storm. Wind and heavy rain against her face, the world disappeared into a blur.

"What am I even doing here?" she wondered to herself.

A few moments passed as she gloomily made her way through the wailing and panicking streets of Ponyville. Twilight only cursed the storm under her breath.

Somewhere up above, a big gray silhouette made its way towards the ground where she stood. It grew larger and larger and then, all of a sudden, grew into a whole building falling from the sky - with an earth-shattering creak, it landed right next to her in a flurry of splitting wood and crashing furniture. Twilight's heart raced in terror as she slowly walked past it, splinters and broken glass flying all around her. How did she get talked into all this?

"Don't you know how dangerous this is?" demanded Twilight.

"This isn't dangerous!" retorted a soaking-wet pony right next to her face. "Save us, Twilight!"

Twilight chortled. Bits of leaves flew against her eyes, making her blink uncontrollably. She covered her face with her hoof.

"Yeah, right," Twilight gestured over at a group of ponies flying through the storm in a big circle, shrieking with terror. "I don't know any anti-whatever magic. I don't care!"

With that she threw her mane upright and ceremoniously strolled away in a perfect stride, leaving the confused and disappointed pony to soak there in the freezing wind and rain.

***

"Another cup of tea, Spike?"

Applebloom bit the toy teapot and carried it over to Spike's cup. She tipped it over, but nothing came out of the nozzle. Applebloom carefully put the teapot back in its place on the round draped table.

Spike gloomily picked up the small cup and stared at its empty interior.

"You're stupid, Applebloom," loudly mumbled Spike, scowling at the tiny pony in front of him.

Applebloom just fluttered her lashes with an innocent smile. Spike rolled his eyes and took a sip of imaginary tea, making a sour expression like he just drank poison.

"Oh, Spike, darling, thank you for babysitting my dear sister Applebloom! What on earth would I do without you!"

Rarity walked up to the duo for a moment; a gentle scent of perfume filled the air. Rarity was still busily packing all manners of decorated sheets and colourful stripes into a large suitcase.

Spike perked up a little, content with himself, and took a sip of imaginary tea as elegantly as he could before Rarity.

"Anything for my lady."

Spike coquettishly tipped his cowboy hat, looking back at the white unicorn. Rarity kindly smiled back at him and levitated the suitcase onto her back.

Rarity made one final motion and gallantly strutted out of the door. As soon as she went, the door slammed shut behind her, and a few heavy locks and bars clinked in a musical sequence. The simple white door now stood behind a dozen heavy chains and locks.

Spike was left all alone with the decorated interior of Rarity's shop. He stood up and slowly strolled around it, carefully examining the bright walls and colourful nonsensical dresses and gizmos scattered all around the interior, each more boring than the last.

On one of the tables lay a parchment so long its end stretched all over the floor below.

"Rules of Etiquette, Volume 7," read Spike.

The dragon sighed and half-heartedly kicked the end of the scroll. Maybe there was something he could amuse himself with while Rarity was gone?..

Spike walked up to one of the mannequins and prodded it with his sword. It turned its empty head and angrily shushed back at him. Spike sighed again in disappointment and headed back to Applebloom's table. The boredom was crushing him like an ugly monster.

"More tea?" sweetly asked Applebloom.

"Hit me, lass," surrendered Spike. "I'll show ye scurvy dogs hafta drink!"

Spike meaningfully gestured over to his cup. Applebloom stared at him innocently for a moment before taking the teapot and tipping it over again - this time, boiling water poured out of the nozzle. Clouds of steam rose in the air.

Spike stared at the cup and took a sip against his better judgement. His tongue burned; he made a few chewing motions as the pain slowly subsided, trying to figure out what score on the taste scale to give the boiling water.

Suddenly he felt his stomach fall to the ground, as if someone swung him by an invisible hook. He looked at his cup to see the steaming water tilt over inside of it.

"What's going on?" asked Applebloom with fear in her voice.

Applebloom jumped up with dissonating calm resolve and looked around the shop. Drapes all around the room slowly bent sideways, and a few small pins and gizmos started floating in the air.

Spike nonchalantly looked out of the window to see trees and the sun spin outside in a blur like in a tumbledryer. The dragon slowly arched his eyebrow before a sense of dread washed over him and he, to his own surprise, firmly grasped the side of his chair.

Moments later, a loud creak sent a wide crack rushing through the shop's walls, splitting it in two. A brief pause, and all gizmos and furniture flew off their places and towards the ceiling. Walls caved in one after another, disintegrating into splinters and broken planks.

A moment later yet, and Spike was thrown towards the roof.

He landed onto it with a loud thump. A dull jolt of pain lazily arched through his body, but Spike didn't even notice: everything around him turned to a disarray of flying debris.

The world went dark and deaf for a few moments.

Slowly but surely Spike could make out the noise of wailing wind and rushing rain outside. With a great effort, he pushed the remains of the house covering him away.

He stood up inside a pile of debris in the middle of storm-ravaged Ponyville with a look of disappointment and confusion on his face.

***

"No... No... No-no-no!"

Pinkie Pie rummaged through a big pile of books in frustration. She lay on the floor of the old library, sipping colourful sarsaparilla from her straw-umbrella glass. The library was still filled with aimlessly wandering ponies, but they just walked around her as if she wasn't even there.

A distracting storm boomed outside. Thunder and whiffs of rain seeped in through an open window.

"Swear on the winds of Hayseed Plains, what ill travesty has befallen us... Whacha-whacha-macallit... Confound this cursed literature, how can it all be in such meanly inexplicable error!"

Pinkie Pie angrily threw away yet another tome before pulling out the next one from her bookpile: every page read gibberish just as the one before it, and before it, and before it...

Some colt from the Apple family stopped above her, chewing on a piece of straw with a sad expression. He looked at the broken ladder next to Pinkie Pie, then at the large pile of books, and then Pinkie herself. The colt sighed.

"Did you betray Twilight again?" he asked in a crestfallen tone.

"No, no, no!" Pinkie Pie violently shook her mane. "It's- it's- it's these silly damned errant books! See!?"

Pinkie Pie sniffed pleadingly at the stranger while somehow taking another sip of her beverage. She rummaged around herself and threw an open tome in colt's face, gesturing over to the jumping letters.

"Why does no one ever get it!?" she yelled in her high-pitched voice, almost tearing up.

The working pony stared at Pinkie Pie incredulously for a moment. He shook his head, tsked in disapproval and walked away, but not before picking up one of the glasses of sarsaparilla without even thanking her.

Pinkie's heart slowly filled with guilt as she slowly floated up to the ceiling and inaudibly landed on it, lost in her own thoughts. She tapped her hooves together in frustration. Think, Pinkie, think, remember, remember, reminiscence...

"Pinkie Pie, get down from there!" somepony shouting from below agonizingly broke her train of thought.

A small assembly stood below her, anypony not frowning curling their lips in disapproval. A few exquisitely-dressed mares in the crowd shook their heads looking at her.

"Get down from there, Pinkie Pie! This isn't normal!"

Somepony in a black tuxedo sporting a giant mustache tried to sweep her off the ceiling with a broom.

"There has been a grievous misunderstanding, illustrious fillies and gentlecolts!" ceremoniously gestured Pinkie Pie. "I am a pony, just like you! I bake you cookies and cupcakes. Yum."

Pinkie Pie meaningfully rubbed her stomach as a faint smell of fresh baked goods floated in from the outside. Still, the crowd remained unapologetic, much to Pinkie's disappointment.

A sudden large boom and noisy racket from the outside grabbed Pinkie's attention. She ran towards a nearby wall, instantly forgetting the angry mob below, and zipped open the ceiling line - why did no one think of that before? - only to have a strong gust of wind catch her and carry her outside - she tumbled in the air for a few seconds before it threw her down into the mud below with a noisy splat.

Pinkie Pie noisily shook herself off and scanned the landscape to identify the source of earlier racket among all the panic and screaming. It didn't take her long to notice a big ruined house lying right in the middle of the storm-ravaged town. Pinkie could see an indiscernible purple figure stand up from underneath the rubble and try to ineffectively brush itself off in spite of the heavy wind and rain all around it.

Pinkie's face shined with a wide smile; not a single raindrop landed on her. It took her her three carefree hops to scale the large distance between her and the purple figure.

"Best of days to you, Spike!"

Pinkie Pie hopped around the purple dragon and the ruined house in a wide circle like she was in the middle of a musical number.

"Whacha doin'?"

Spike followed her with a look of frustration: despite the heavy rain, an angry scowl was clearly visible on his face.

"Babysitting Applebloom because none of you ponies would. Duh!"

Spike meaningfully pointed to the crashed house. Applebloom was nowhere to be seen among the ruined walls and fabrics of Rarity's old shop.

"I'm not a kid, lass, I can handle it!" he added a little louder.

Pinkie Pie stopped her hop in mid-air and plunged down to the ground. She put on a stoic face and gave one big, gentle nod, her mane holding completely still despite the raging wind.

"I know, Spike. Exquisite performance."

Pinkie Pie held her head up with her eyes closed, as serious as she could be.

Spike's snout shined with a happy smile; the rain now carefully avoided his small figure. A few stormclouds above disappeared, giving way to a small slip of light spiralling down to the crashed house.

"Awesome!" Spike looked caught off-guard. "Erm- oh!"

He reached inside the remains of Rarity's shop and fished out a cracked plastic cup.

"You want some tea? You like tea, right?.."

Spike's sight nervously darted over Pinkie's face: she still donned an unreadable expression. Pinkie Pie elegantly shook her pink mane.

"Thank you kindly. Perchance you may happen to have come in possession of a teensy-insy umbrella? It has come to my attention that it is raining outside."

Pinkie Pie turned her hoof face-up to elaborate. A large wooden plank whooshed right past it, closely chased by a thick burst of rain.

Spike's face lit up with a sudden revelation, and he dived into the rubble whole. A few moments, and he appeared back up in a shower of rainwater and wooden splinters - with a great effort he pulled out from the rubble underneath, like a sword from its sheath, a glowing-pink umbrella that shined and sparkled in his claw like a magical artifact. A few nearby ponies stopped panicking to ooh and aah at the sight.

Spike turned to Pinkie Pie with a look of triumph, holding the pink umbrella up to the sky, like a glowing sword.

"Pretty sweet, eh? Yarr?" Spike's face glowed with unhidden gratitude. "Thanks too, lassie!"

Spike clumsily climbed out of the wreckage and jumped over to Pinkie Pie. He made a small curtsy and handled over the shining umbrella over the stare of fascinated ponies all around - a few carried by the storm even froze in mid-air to watch the ordeal.

Pinkie Pie made a mannerly bow and gently bit the umbrella's handle. Spike instantly hopped on her back, like onto a trusty steed, preparing for adventure. A gust of wind arched through the umbrella, and they were quickly pulled through the muddy grass. All the chaos and destruction around them turned to indiscernible blur.

A torrent of rainwater was now assaulting them upfront as they were dragged forward through the storm. The two closed their eyes, and the world went completely dark. Spike sneezed with indignation.

"Yarr, this doesn't help with the rain at all!" spat Spike, gesturing with his claws to protect his face.

"Oh, why ever would you worry about rain, darling?" nonchalantly chirped Rarity.

Spike opened his eyes.

He was in the middle of a large ball right in Canterlot's royal chambers. The spacious interior arched far into the distance with huge stretches of white marble, colourful ribbons and decorations. The entire ballroom was filled with pleasant sunshine and smell of freshly-cut grass. A spirit of celebration hung heavily in the air.

Spike blushed and tried to hide the glowing-pink umbrella somewhere in his newfound tuxedo, but the world spinning around him made him fumble a motion; Spike suddenly realised he was holding Pinkie's hoof, and his own legs carried him in a circle of dance along with her. All around them, figures of colts and fillies spun in pairs along the marble floor, locked in the same dance.

He felt something warm and fuzzy brush against his shoulder, and turned to see Pinkie Pie lean her head onto it.

Pinkie Pie gently brushed her cheek against Spike's shoulder like she was having a sweet dream, a wide smile lighting up her face.

"Oh, Spike, isn't this just the most exquisite bestest party ever?"

Pinkie Pie nudged Spike's shoulder like it was soft pillow; somehow she never wanted this moment to end.

Spike uncomfortably adjusted his collar. He didn't answer.

Pinkie Pie picked her head up and was now staring back at him with her usual wide smile. Her bright-white delicate dress glowed with magic. Spike contemplated for a moment if this wasn't some other kind of Pinkie Pie: this one looked nothing like the one he'd ever seen, elegant and well-mannered. The world behind her was just a spinning blur.

Spike looked over her head as if he suddenly remembered something. His sight darted nervously across the ballroom, searching for Rarity. With a corner of his eye he could see Fluttershy conducting a choir of birds somewhere above them with her usual coy smile. Further in the distance he could see a familiar silhouette of a white unicorn dancing with some pretty colt. His heart filled with burning shame and disappointment.

Spike instantly stopped the dance, much to Pinkie's surprise. He made a ceremonious curtsy, holding her hoof.

"I think I'll go catch a drink, m'lady," he pronounced in a sure voice.

Spike turned to stroll away, but Pinkie Pie didn't let go. Her dress lost all its fluorescence, and her lips were quivering. She stared at Spike with glaring shock.

"But- but, Sir!" she protested.

"Sir?.." dazedly repeated Spike.

He stared at her in disbelief for a few moments.

Seemingly out of nowhere, the ball crowd flooded in between them, so big that they could no longer see each other. A few ponies here and there scowled at Spike with disapproval. With nothing better to do, the dragon sighed and slowly headed somewhere else, scratching his head in confusion.

Spike turned back for a moment.

"It's just a dance, Pinkie Pie!" he yelled reassuringly over the crowd. "Have fun!"

Pinkie Pie could only barely hear his voice among all the chatter and rustle. She stood still, like a statue, staring blankly towards where Spike once were.

Pinkie's ears fell in silent disappointment. She lowered her head and quietly sniffed to herself. Her dress lost all its glow, and now appeared to be falling apart at the seams; a few broken jewels and braces fell from somewhere on it, scattering all over the floor like cheap trinkets; even the sun could barely shine on her dim figure. The pony crowd left a big empty circle around her.

The dancing pairs donned looks of sympathy as she stood all alone in the middle of the ball.

***

Twilight looked at the spinning ponies in front of her in defeat, afraid to move a hoof.

She sat on a golden throne in the middle of the ball that seemed like a prison to her right now. Her delicate purple dress did nothing to cheer her up. She dropped her head down onto her hooves, staring at the dancing couples with unending boredom. Oh, how she wanted this dance to just end...

Twilight raised her head up towards the clock above her, but its hands were just spinning wildly in all directions.

Somepony in white tuxedo approached her. The colt made a deep bow and asked with a note of worry in his voice:

"Don't you like your party, madam?"

Twilight bit her lip and cautiously looked back at the well-groomed pony.

"No, no..." She tried to give her voice a tone of sincerity and politeness, but it came out all wrong.

Twilight, against her will, glanced back at the clock for a moment.

"It's quite alright. It's nice..." she gulped, the words she were about to say hurt her throat. "T-Thank you."

The elegant pony smiled and made another deep bow. The colt slowly strolled away, about to leave her all alone again. Twilight opened her mouth, almost about to ask him not to leave.

Twilight clenched her teeth. She dropped down again and grasped her head in her hooves. A faint sound of ripping fabric echoed in the air: she ripped her dress. Twilight buried her head deeper into her hooves, blushing with embarrassment.

The racket around her was unbearable. A million thoughts buzzed in her head, refusing to take comprehensible form, but above them all, one bright image shined like a growing fire. A steady accusation formed in her mind: it was Pinkie Pie who was responsible for all this.

Twilight jumped up, striking her hoof on the throne's hard fabric.

"Aha!" she announced loudly.

But the second she did, a wave of disappointment flooded over her, and any shade of resolve faded from her face. She lay back down, blankly staring at the marble floor.

"Why can't you help me?.." she mumbled under her breath. "Where are you, Pinkie?.. And where are you, Spike?.. What did I-"

A loud sound of broken glass echoed through the royal chambers.

Twilight turned towards the noise, instantly locating the culprit; everypony around gasped and turned towards it too: in the distance, one of the big white-draped punch tables lay turned on its side. Right next to it stood Spike; the dragon was huffing loudly over the sudden silence. His fists were visibly shaking with rage.

Twilight jumped down from the her throne and ran through the stunned crowd towards the purple dragon. Everypony obligedly stepped away the second she ran close.

"Well- Well- I don't have any time either!”

Spike shouted at someone at the top of his lungs in an unsteady voice.

“I- I've saved the world so many times, you know! It really happened! Maybe I'm here to save it again, did you think of that!?”

Spike sniffed to himself and ineffectively tried to regain his composure.

“You- You'll be sorry! And happy! I promise! I..." Spike heavily drew his breath. "Pinkie-swear!"

Spike stood still for a second, huffing in exhaustion. He glanced somewhere away for a moment before hastily turning around and stomping away - he quickly made it to the giant gates covering the entrance to the chamber and threw them open with one angry strike. With a flash of light, the ballroom was bathed in rays of impossibly bright sun of a peaceful meadow outside.

The crowd obscured his disappearing figure. Ponies all around started to exchange shocked whispers and gossip over what happened.

Twilight stepped away from the crowd, looking at it with disgust. Her heart raced with worry. She turned around and quickly galloped after Spike ignoring, with embarrassment, calls from everypony around her to stay.

The crowd followed her with a fixed gaze all as one. Everypony went silent as she, too, disappeared in the bright light shining in from the outside. The pony crowd stared blankly into the big open meadow for a few minutes. Finally, with one quiet cough, each went on their separate way, abandoning the ball.

***

Spike gloomily made his way to the punch table with his claws in his pockets.

The draped-white table was big enough to fit more treats than the whole Sugarcube Corner. Spike looked over the table from one corner to the other - he didn't know what kind of punch Pinkie Pie liked.

"...Maybe the pink one?" he mumbled under his breath.

Spike stared at the table with a sad expression: there were twelve kinds of pink punch there.

He hesitantly stretched his arm towards one of the glasses, then another, but instead of making a decision he just turned away and searched for Rarity again. He noticed her dancing with some long-maned colt, as delicate and sophisticated as ever. Suddenly they stopped and headed over to his punch table, happily laughing to themselves. Spike nervously fiddled with an empty glass in his hand.

With a corner of his eye he caught a glimpse of Pinkie Pie standing all alone somewhere in the distance. At first he was unsure if it was even Pinkie Pie: a sad and pleading expression roamed on her face, unsure how it even got there. She stared straight back at him, now and again obscured by the dancing crowd.

Spike turned away: somehow the scene made him feel even more uncomfortable. He nervously tugged and scratched at his suit, and turned his gaze back to Rarity.

The white unicorn approached him and stopped only inches away. An unreadable smile shined on her face.

"Is anything wrong, darling?" she asked.

Behind her, Rarity's partner slowly grew large, pointed teeth. The colt's eyes filled with red, and he started to make biting motions next to Rarity's throat.

"Stop that," shushed him Rarity in an annoyed tone. "Spike, dearie, would you be so kind as to help me? I need to, oh! Relocate a few very large rocks - and I positively can't do it myself! Why, it would simply ruin my gorgeous mane! Look, look at how beautiful it is!"

Rarity threw her head up, content with herself. Her mane waved lightly in the invisible wind.

"It is beautiful," readily agreed Spike.

Spike lightly drew in air to ease up a little and leant on the table, trying to suppress a look of worry. Now and again he would glance at Rarity's partner still trying to bite her.

Spike remembered about the glass he was holding and determinedly took a sip of pink punch in his hand. The drink tasted flavourless: something was amiss. He looked down into the glass - in it, on a completely flat surface, was Pinkie's reflection, inaudibly sobbing to itself. Spike stared back at it, completely bewildered. Something heavy turned in his heart at the sight.

Spike opened his mouth to console her somehow, but the drink instantly exploded in all directions like a pink water balloon. Spike felt something brush against him: with one giant splash, Pinkie Pie burst out of the small glass and firmly grabbed him by the shoulders. Her mane was soaking wet with the pink sugary drink.

Pinkie Pie stared at the startled dragon with a pleading expression.

"Come back!" her voice reflected through the room, as if coming from a large distance.

Spike blinked and shook his head.

Pinkie disappeared as if she were never there. His glass was still sitting firmly in his hand - only his suit was a little disheveled. He dazedly looked around, confused and bewildered.

"Come back..." faintly echoed in his head.

Spike turned his sight back to the glass. There were only a few drops of liquid left at the bottom. Spike cleared his throat and quickly put it down.

Spike squinted, trying to concentrate, but Pinkie's image still glowed against his closed eyelids. Spike unconsciously took a step towards her in his mind, but the noise of the crowd around him made him flinch and open his eyes, dragging him back. He made a struggling effort to clear his mind again.

"Today's the day, the perfect moment, come on, come back... No..." he nervously mumbled to himself.

Spike shook his head, drew a deep breath and stood upright before Rarity. She stared back at him with an innocent smile, as beautiful as always. Spike let out his breath, trying his best to look as unconcerned as possible.

"So... You want to hang out?" he simply asked.

A few moments passed in silence. Then Rarity and her fanged partner burst into laughter, much to Spike's dismay.

"Oh, darling!" Rarity threw a hoof around the snarling colt next to her. "Why on earth would you ever think I have time for you of all things?"

She beamed at Spike with a bright smile. The sharp-toothed colt in her grasp stared at him with contempt. Spike felt something heavy turn in his gut and lowered his gaze in silent apology.

"And- And pray tell, what is so unseemly about having extraneous schedule?"

Spike raised his head a little: Pinkie Pie appeared at the scene in her disheveled dress. Hairs on her puffy mane stuck out in all directions as if she'd been through a tumbledryer.

Spike stared at Pinkie Pie with wide-open eyes - the frustration and bewilderment he tried so hard to suppress boiled over into his mind all over again. He involuntary dropped his composed posture.

Pinkie Pie stood firm, like a statue, and just glared disapprovingly at Rarity.

"A lady must not be some mean meanie-pants!" Pinkie raised her chest as she spoke. "It is of most posolutive kind of importance th-"

"Uh, Pinkie Pie?" started Spike under in his breath. "You- You really shouldn't-"

"NO!" Pinkie dropped low to the floor. "Never!"

Pinkie Pie scowled up at Spike from down below. Her delicate dress was coming apart at the seams.

Suddenly she rocketed towards Spike, pinning him to the floor. Somehow Spike managed to keep hold of his glass.

"You mustn't, sir!" carefully pronounced Pinkie Pie, standing above the yet more startled dragon. "High treason! The only kind of crime! Don't you see?- Do you?- Do you not?"

Before Spike could scrape together enough coherent thought to reply, she flew off of him and towards the nearest punch table. She turned against it and, with one swift buck, it rocked over - dozens of treats, dishes and drinks flew all over the ballroom, landing on the guests and dancing pairs here and there.

A few gasps and whispers rose in the air, but the dance continued its course as if nothing happened. Pinkie Pie looked at her handiwork, biting her lip. She turned back and pleadingly stared at Spike again.

The dragon slowly picked himself up and looked around. Two spinning ponies waltzed past him, one carrying a long string of spaghetti behind her ear, and another soaked in green liquid. Here and there, an occasional pony donned a puff of sugar powder, or bits of green salad, or even a whole punch bowl on their head.

Spike's snout lit up with a coy smile. The more he looked around him, the lighter he felt, until finally he let out a loud guffaw and burst out laughing.

Somehow he recognized an odd note in his chuckle: a note he'd heard before. Spike wiped tears from corners of his eyes and turned to Pinkie Pie. He drew his breath and paused in his laughter long enough to utter:

"I get it!"

Spike let out another chuckle and understandingly stared back at Pinkie Pie. It took all his willpower not to collapse in another giggling fit, but the urge to look around was bigger yet. His sight darted from Pinkie Pie to an odd pony in the crowd and back again.

Pinkie Pie grinned widely at the sight of the purple dragon holding his sides. Her coat shined a little more vibrantly.

Pinkie turned her head over to Rarity.

"See?" she declared triumphantly.

Rarity and her partner stared at her incredulously, glancing over to the turned-over table and back again. Rarity backed away a little, as if afraid Pinkie might try to buck her too.

"It is my humblest - but! - most strongest accusation," continued Pinkie Pie. "that your highness is being artful in their deceit. And I say, this is despicable!"

Pinkie Pie struck her hoof on the floor with a resounding echo.

"A lady- a lady must not be a meanie patinie!"

Suddenly Rarity and everypony around her burst into laughter.

"Meanie patinie?.." mockingly repeated a few ponies in the crowd.

Pinkie Pie froze still. Two red spots appeared on her cheeks, clearly visible despite her already fluorescent coat. She lowered her head.

"Uh... Madam," she lowly added.

Spike didn't join the crowd. He stopped laughing as soon as everypony else started to. A deep frown formed on his face.

Spike angrily clenched his glass. A hot wave coursed through his uncomfortable costume.

"Pinkie's right," he said quietly to himself.

Spike turned to Rarity and made a few heavy steps towards her. His claws were shaking with rage and frustration. Spike stared at the delicate unicorn like he'd never seen her before. He squeezed his glass so hard that a few cracks raced through its surface.

"So... You don't have time, sister?" he hissed through clenched teeth.

Rarity kindly turned to him like she'd only just noticed, but then instantly backed away: with one swift motion, he threw his glass to the floor, spilling pink punch everywhere. Everypony stopped laughing and gasped in shock.

The dancing pairs stopped. An eerie silence slowly hung in the air. The sound of broken glass faintly reverberated across the royal chambers.

Now Pinkie Pie won't be able to get any, Spike noted to himself with guilt.

***

Pinkie Pie followed Spike with her sight as the dragon's figure disappeared in the impossibly bright meadow outside.

The crowd around her exchanged confused explanations and indiscernible remarks. Pinkie Pie hesitantly looked over to the turned-over table, and the ponies around her. Somewhere under her hooves, a small pool of pink punch slowly spilled over the floor, seeping from a few pieces of broken glass.

Pinkie Pie stepped away from the crowd and approached the pink puddle. She lowered her snout, carefully surveying her surroundings, rolled out her tongue, and took one lap of the pink brew. The marble floor didn't seem to alter its sugary taste all that much.

Pinkie dropped down and cheerfully lapped the pink punch off the floor. Now and again she glanced over the crowd or the wide-open gates and sniffed to herself.

"So- so what," she mumbled to herself in-between laps. "I can have fun without Spike, all by myself! It's just a dance..."

Pinkie sadly stared at her own reflection in the pink puddle. Her puffy mane reflected in it as a straight and stern line, obscuring one of her eyes.

The reflection rippled and disappeared, and the next second Pinkie was bathed in a big splash: some impolite pony ran over the puddle.

"Do you mind!?" turned Pinkie Pie.

Pinkie licked the punch off her snout. The rude pony turned out to be Twilight - she galloped towards the open gates, after Spike.

Pinkie couldn't follow her further: from out of nowhere, a transparent blue crystal appeared in front of her face. It spun lightly to itself right in front of her nose, as if demanding something. Pinkie brushed it aside with her hoof, but Twilight was now nowhere to be seen. She turned towards the crystal but it, too, vanished.

Her nose itched. Something about reality seemed a bit off at the moment. Pinkie felt that she'd forgotten something, something important, but no matter how hard she tried, she just couldn't remember what.

Pinkie sighed and dropped back onto the floor. In the middle of the pink puddle now lay a few heavy tomes, turned open and bookmarked. If only ponies around her stopped their gossip for a minute, it'd be so much easier to read the jumping letters...

Wait, 'jumping letters'? One of them did indeed just jump out of the page. The letter put on a a top hat, gave a small bow and spun a tiny black stick in the air, doing a first motion of a musical number.

Pinkie stared back at it with burning-hot hatred.

"No."

Pinkie calmly put her hoof down on the intruder and swept it off the page. She turned her frown back towards her study. For some reason everything around her was completely silent now, save for a few faint steps and voices echoing in the distance.

Only quiet rustling of turning pages reverberated through the empty ball room.

Pinkie heard someone's hooves loudly clop along the marble floor. She raised her head in frustration to shoo away whoever was there, but then sighed with relief: it turned out to be Fluttershy. The yellow pegasus was showing a way for her choir of birds to leave the chambers.

Fluttershy looked over Pinkie Pie: the pink pony's mane was oddly disheveled, and her delicate ball dress was reduced to naught but a few ripped stripes. In front of her, thick tomes soaked in a pink puddle. She'd never seen the pink pony so miserable.

Pinkie Pie caught her sight and looked over herself, then unsurely back up at Fluttershy.

"Um. It's alright, mi- miss Laughter," Fluttershy whispered. "You'll figure it out. I'm sure you will. You are a smart pony."

Pinkie Pie was completely lost.

"But- But- gracious Fluttershy, lookit!"

Pinkie Pie gestured towards the book: letters on it rapidly jumped around, not one of them resembling any pony language. Fluttershy just lowly smiled down at her.

"Oh- No, no. Not the books, silly filly."

Pinkie Pie felt something break inside her. She jumped up, staring at the yellow pegasus with open dismay.

"No, no, NO! Why don't you understand!?" she yelled. "Why does no one ever understand!? Why is it always up to me!"

Pinkie grasped her head in her hooves and, once again, dove down to the floor. She buried her head into the open pages and lay still for a moment - only her muffled huffing was audible in the empty chambers. A second later, and she jumped back up with a steely resolve.

"That is IT!" Pinkie Pie towered above the yellow pegasus. "It has been foretold! I shall embark upon the quest to avert imminent oogy-woogy! I shall find good miss Twilight Sparkle, and together we shall restore the blue crystal to its formal glory!"

"And- and Spike, too," she added a little under her breath.

She gave Fluttershy one last determined glance and quickly galloped outside into the blooming meadow.

The sun, the candles, and the magical lights illuminating the royal chambers slowly went dim as her figure disappeared in the bright light outside. Inch by inch, the ballroom was swallowed up by darkness.

"Good luck," quietly whispered Fluttershy.

She stood in the middle of disappearing chamber and gently waved towards the gates with her white handkerchief. A coy smile shined on her face.

***

Twilight ran outside into the sparkling meadow.

She breathed heavily. Her heart threatened to jump out of her chest. She looked all around for Spike, but in front of her was just an endless stretch of green grass. Sun shined brightly across the clear sky. A hardly discernible smell of rain echoed in the air.

Twilight stepped from hoof to hoof, confused. She turned around, but the gates behind her have disappeared: there were no more marble floors nor a single pony in sight, only huge ripples of wind running through the arching stretch of short grass in the distance.

Soft wind played with her mane as she stood, lost and clueless, in the middle of green nowhere.

"Oh, no," Twilight dropped her ears. "I've lost him!"

Twilight sat down. The realisation dawned on her like a big gloomy shadow, and her heart raced even faster. She weakly looked around in despair and, with one giant effort, picked herself up. Despite the pleasant wind and sunshine all around her, she shivered from cold.

Twilight shook her mane, randomly picked a direction and instantly darted off, running somewhere she didn't know as fast as she could. The horizon came closer agonizingly slowly, and beyond it was nothing more than another stretch of the green. It took all her effort not to collapse on the spot, but she ran faster and faster yet.

The horizon stretched further and further, as if mocking her. Seconds passed like years, minutes turned to hours, and hours turned to days. Each moment echoed with yet more exhaustion, but she didn't give up.

Second winds opened up one after another, but the journey - slowly but surely, year by year - took its toll. She could no longer keep track of time, and she could no longer keep her pace. She felt herself grow older by the minute; she was slowing down, inch by inch, until she could no longer place a single hoof forward.

With a resounding thump Twilight crashed down into the dew-filled grass, huffing so hard hard her chest echoed with pain. Her joints and muscles betrayed her, as if made from fragile glass.

Her mind was a soft mush. The grass and the ground below were soft like a giant pillow. Incoherent thoughts raced through her mind, refusing to take shape.

Twilight turned her head to the side, dragging it across the ground - she tried to find something, anything, to concentrate on. The wonderfully sweet landscape stretched just as it were when she first saw it, all these years ago, and sun in the clear blue sky shined with pleasant warmth. Now as then, there was nothing else in sight.

Twilight's mind raced in despair. With a sudden strike of fear, she felt her memories slowly vanish from her head.

"No, no, no - remember..." she mumbled.

The world around her slowly blurred into indiscernible shapes. Twilight stood up on her shaking legs and squinted hard against the bright sun.

"Come on, Twilight, come on... Orion has four, no, three stars on his belt..."

Twilight half-opened her eye - the world around her became a little more clear. She squinted again.

"Four- Four is function of two and sixteen... In negative base four... Right? No, two- In base two. Yes. Yes, it is."

Twilight felt a pleasant gust of wind against her coat. She opened her eyes - the field all around her looked a little more welcoming now. The ground she stood on felt firm like a sheet of metal. Warmth and strength once again raced through her body in a steady rhythm. She sighed with relief.

Twilight took a few steps forward, remembering her multiplication table before she could remember anything else. The soft grass incessantly tickled her coat as she went. She turned her head left and right, seeing if anything has actually changed.

To her right was a plain beige wall. It looked like a part of somepony's house, but without a roof or other walls to complement it. Twilight strolled closer to it, examining the plain surface with some interest.

A few faint clicks echoed through the air. Suddenly she noticed a sickly-looking brown pony wandering aimlessly across the wall. He, too, noticed Twilight and unsurely headed in her direction in a series of zig-zags. The colt made a hazy painting wobble as he almost tripped over it.

Twilight smiled and cleared her throat, preparing to greet the odd pony. She noticed five cheese slices nested on top of his head as he approached.

The brown pony stopped a few steps away from her, looking down at Twilight from his place on the wall.

"Greetings, kind sir," greeted him Twilight.

The cheese-donning pony looked at her like she'd done something wrong. He closed his eyes and raised his head up - to the side - a little.

"I wear the cheese," he pronounced with every inflection of a gentlecolt's manner. "It does not wear me."

The sickly pony gave one small nod, turned around, and mannerly walked out of the window over to the other side of the wall. Twilight followed him disapprovingly with her gaze.

"Honestly, you meet the most appalling sort of ponies," she noted grumpily.

Twilight turned around and walked away from the wall. Something was different. Her expression and posture slowly changed - she now frowned from under her fading smile.

Suddenly she stopped dead in her tracks and firmly planted a hoof in the ground below - it stretched like a sheet of rubber beneath her, almost making her lose her balance. Gentle wind around her whooshed with one last scared gust and fell silent.

"He's right," Twilight announced to herself in surprised monotone. "I'm the one who wears the cheese!"

The grass all over the meadow froze like tiny icicles. The sun and the clouds stopped moving through the sky.

A mischievous grin stretched across Twilight's snout. Her eyes glowed with a bright shade of orange, and a few sparks of fire raced through her mine. She quickly spun around to face a few dozen ponies standing right behind her, and they gasped all as one in surprise. Somepony dressed in no less than three tuxedos glared at her so widely his monocle dropped down into the grass below, breaking with a faint crack.

"No," firmly said Twilight.

Her grin grew even bigger, and the sparks of fire in her mane grew even brighter. Some dropped from her mane and set a few straws of grass beneath her alight.

"But," stepped forward one particularly snooty pony. "But thou must!"

"No," repeated Twilight. "I don't owe you anything! At all!"

"But-" chimed in an innocent-looking filly.

"No!"

Twilight stood her ground. The scared filly tried to hide behind somepony else in the crowd. Twilight slowly strolled up to her, staring her down with the bright-orange glow in her eyes. The scared pony hugged the ground with tears welling up in her eyes.

Twilight's expression changed. She, too, lay down on the grass and hugged the near-crying pony with her hooves. Fire still waved gently across her purple mane.

"It'll be alright," Twilight consoled the shaking pony. "You'll figure it out... Err- whatever it is. You just can't always count on me to be there, you see."

One of the elegantly dressed ponies raised his hoof, opening his mouth to say something, but Twilight quickly turned and glared back at him, her mane flaring up with renewed force. The colt quickly snapped his mouth shut.

Twilight let go of the sobbing filly and stood up with calm resolve. She looked over the silent crowd, took a few steps away, then turned around and gave a small bow. Twilight turned back around to leave, but somepony grabbed her by the shoulder, holding her in place.

"Miss Twilight Sparkle! I do say, this is the most grievous dereliction of duty that I have ever, ev-"

Twilight clenched her teeth, and suddenly her mane exploded like a small volcano. The colt involuntary jumped away and tumbled into the burning grass. The sky went dark, and a few flashes of purple lightning rushed across it.

"Who do you think you are!"

Twilight turned back, shaking with rage. The air around her glowed with a rainbow of red and orange. She quickly advanced on the terrified pony and stared him down from only inches away. Her glowing eyes shot wide-open in disbelief.

"Do you think you can scare ME!?"

Streaks of magic lightning boomed with renewed force across the sky.

"Do you think you can bore ME with your nonsense!?"

Twilight pressed her muzzle close to the shaking colt's face. The fire in her eyes illuminated his trembling figure against total darkness.

"Why would you EVER think I care about YOU?"

Another fiery explosion engulfed the landscape. As it cleared, the meadow stood once again sparkling with gentle sunshine of the clear sky. Twilight stood above the frozen-still pony; all fire and magic vanished from her figure as if it were never there.

Twilight nonchalantly stepped away from the colt. The crowd of ponies to her side were all gaping in shock - only one filly lay on the ground staring at Twilight with tears rolling down her cheeks. Twilight smiled warmly back at her, and gave one small nod.

She took a few steps back and looked over the crowd, enjoying the gentle breeze and sunshine against her coat. The serene meadow stretched impossibly far around the tiny group.

"Good day," Twilight pronounced in her most mannerly voice. "I will find Spike on my own. With my own cheese."

She made a small bow, turned around, and walked away, eyes closed and snout up to the sky. The tiny filly in the crowd stood up from the ground, wiping tears from her eyes, and raised her head up to the sun.

"Good luck, Twi," she whispered. "Please don't leave us..."

The crowd stood still in complete silence, following Twilight with their gaze as she slowly strolled away towards an endless horizon.

***

"Twilight Sparkle!"

Pinkie Pie ran into the green meadow stretching far beyond the horizon. Gentle waves rippled through the short grass in chirping silence. Sun sparkled like tiny stars in the dew below. Only an occasional thin cloud slowly moved through the perfectly blue sky.

Pinkie Pie tripped and dropped down into the grass. She instantly jumped up, panicking. Her dress was reduced to a few small strips, barely visible on her glowing coat.

She committedly scanned the landscape: Twilight was nowhere to be seen.

"Spike?.." she asked under her breath.

She turned around - the huge gates behind her disappeared as if they were never there. Everything in sight was just an endless stretch of green and faint blue.

"Oh. Of course," she noted.

Her heart still raced like it was about to jump out of her chest. Pinkie took a whiff of fresh air around her to calm down. She felt the warm sun gently bake her from outside in like a vanilla cupcake. Her worries slowly washed away with another gentle gust of wind around her. A bright smile shined back on her face.

Pinkie took a few steps, and then a few hops, and then pranced into the green yonder, humming her own song to herself.

She closed her eyes and dived into the sprinkling grass below. With a yet louder giggle, she blissfully hugged herself and rolled to the side. One roll, two roll, three roll...

Pinkie felt herself bump into something. Something big.

Pinkie opened her eyes and raised her head from the ground, her world still upside-down. She saw something big, dark and shiny right in front of her - a large rock, a small wall, or maybe...

The big rock moved around like a snake, revealing it was attached to an ever bigger something.

"A tail!" loudly figured Pinkie Pie.

Pinkie froze in awe for a moment. Then she jumped back up to all four legs and gleefully skipped around the tail. The tail turned out to be attached to a large, dark-purple, sparkling in the sun dragon. The giant creature was frozen in place, perfectly still, like a giant statue.

Pinkie tilted her head, trying to get a better view. The dragon didn't seem to notice her. With a corner of her eye she saw something sparkling before its claws - two small puddles of water. They rippled in the gentle wind, giving off a faint sound of the ocean. Further yet lay a giant hoard of gems, sparkling with all colours of the rainbow in the sun.

Pinkie Pie scratched her head with her hoof, looking at the dragon and back down again. Finally something clicked: her eyes shot open in surprise. She gaped for a moment at the realisation, but then quickly donned a lustrous grin.

"Greetings, Spike!" loudly cheered Pinkie Pie, waving up at the dragon.

Spike blinked and shook his head, looking down to figure out what could have called his name. Somewhere down below jumped a small pink dot. Suddenly the dot froze in place, and now started getting bigger... No, closer, by the second.

Pinkie Pie slowly floated to level with Spike's surprised snout. She raised her hoof and waved at the dragon again.

"Look what I figured out!" she cheered.

Spike just silently gaped back at her. Tiny Pinkie Pie floated in front of his nose with her ever-oblivious smile.

Spike suppressed a quiet chuckle for a moment, but it quickly transformed into a thundering laugh: the ground shook as if from a small earthquake, and Pinkie struggled to keep herself in the sky against the sudden wind. Someone's deep, alien voice echoed across the landscape.

"How did you do it!?" the voice roared.

Spike wiped tears from a corner of his eye and stared at Pinkie Pie, still breathing heavily. A curious spark shined in his eyes.

Pinkie Pie finally regained her balance. She turned around, trying to figure out where the voice was coming from. She turned back to Spike, noticing his wide-open stare. The sudden realisation dawned on her. Pinkie giggled and hugged herself, glad that he noticed. She turned over in the air and stared at the dragon from upside-down.

"I dunno!" she announced.

With that she turned back over, landed on Spike's snout and took a few steps forward, staring at him with a playful spark in her eye.

"Whacha doin'?" she asked from just inches away.

Spike blinked a few times, caught off guard. Pinkie Pie was so close that the motion made her puffy mane jump in the wind.

"Well, I..." roared Spike again.

Spike broke off and froze in silence like a statue for a few moments. He straightened a bit, bringing Pinkie Pie yet higher into the air.

"...Waiting for someone, I guess," he admitted in a slightly softer tone.

Pinkie Pie tilted her head, confused. She turned around and looked over the serene meadow - there was nothing but green grass and clear sky at every horizon. She tapped a hoof on her chin and turned her head back to meet Spike's gaze.

"Can I-" she started cautiously. "Can I wait with you for a bit?"

Spike blinked once. Pinkie Pie jumped and turned back around.

"I'll be quiet! Like a fish!" she elaborated. "Well, except for those talking fish in Canterlot, not those ones... I mean, super-duper!.. Really-really-frilly quiet, like- Ssshhhh!"

Pinkie Pie lay down and covered her eyes with her hooves. Spike chuckled again.

"Sure," he dropped.

Spike smiled widely at the pleasant surprise. He certainly wouldn't mind some company, especially Pinkie Pie.

Spike slowly lowered himself and lay his head down on the ground. Pinkie Pie made a zipping motion across her mouth with her hoof and jumped off his snout. She skipped over to one of Spike's claws and quickly curled up inside it, closing her eyes. Spike froze still.

Gentle warm wind still aimlessly sailed through the endless landscape. Sun still frozen in the perfectly clear sky, as if it would never move. Minutes slowly passed in silence broken only by occasional gusts of wind.

The dragon lay still, careful not to make a wrong move. Spike fought an urge to reach out and pet her with his claw - instead he simply froze like a statue, not moving a muscle. Pinkie felt so small in his hand that a sting of fear ran through his spine. Still, in spite of the panic, Spike caught himself thinking he didn't want to be anywhere else right now. Pinkie Pie felt unusually warm and fluffy in his claws, like a big party balloon.

Pinkie Pie just lay still against the dragon's scales and giant sharp claws. She opened her eyes and stared into the distance, enjoying the company.

The chirping silence and the warm sun didn't ease Spike's conscience. He felt the small pony gently adjust herself in his grasp, nudging closer to his claws. He looked down: the pink pony lay perfectly still and silent, staring somewhere into the distance. Spike tried hard to remember if he'd ever seen her lie still for even a second before, but his memory was all a giant blur. He fought an urge to poke her with his claw to see if she'd jump up and start singing or jumping around or talking about something he could never understand.

Spike tilted his head and stared at the tiny pony with one eye. What would Pinkie Pie do?..

A gust of wind brushed against his nose, and he felt a spark ignite somewhere inside his mind, spreading like a warm river across his body. He bit his tongue: a tangled ball of words and melodies materialised in his head. He straightened a bit and drew in air as silently as he could, but the inhale still whooshed like a giant vacuum.

Pinkie Pie turned her head up. A strong gust of wind washed over the entire field, and the dragon began to sing:

Leave if you leave

I'll leave after you

Pinkie gaped in surprise. She obliviously stared up at the dragon and repeated the words after him. Unconsciously, she reached out and hugged one of his claws.

Run through the storm

I'll struggle with you

Pinkie jumped up with a wide grin and tenderly brushed her cheek against the dragon's claw. She bobbed her head to the rhythm and muttered the words to herself, trying to guess the next line. Pinkie opened her mouth and joined Spike in full force in the next verse:

Love what you do, know I will too

Love what reminds me of you

You gave me my wings, I'd give them to you

Dreaming your dreams is all- That...

Spike cut himself short. Pinkie Pie stared up at him from way down below, her mouth still open mid-verse and her hooves thrown up in the air. She dropped down to all fours and stared at the dragon with worry - the bright smile slowly faded from Spike's snout.

"Oh... No..." Spike muttered in a crushed voice.

The meadow faded into darkness for a split-second, and then blinked with bright white a few times. The grass and the sky turned a bit clearer and sharper, and Spike's giant figure slowly pulsed, fading to translucent and back again.

Pinkie Pie felt her heart do a somersault. She darted around and latched onto one of Spike's vanishing claws, squeezing it with all her strength. Spike's whole body vibrated like it was a giant piece of machinery. He dazedly looked down at Pinkie Pie.

Pinkie bit her lip; her sight nervously darted all over the place. She threw her head up and shouted:

"Wait!"

The dragon's form stopped fading in and out of view. Pinkie sighed with relief, but still firmly squeezed his claw.

"Erm, um- Oh! Have you perchance seen our dear friend Twilight Sparkle, Spikey?"

Spike opened his mouth to answer, but Pinkie Pie pressed on:

"It is of grave importance that we certainly locate her, for she may aid us in our most awesomest quest!"

Pinkie Pie cheered like she was talking about tasty treats, not matters of grave importance. Spike blinked in confusion and scratched his head with his spare claw.

"Nay, lassie," he roared. " I am naught but a humble knight, swear on my loyal bottle of rum!"

"Oh, that is most okay!" cheered on Pinkie Pie.

Pinkie let go of his claw and strolled forward a few steps, straightening like on military duty. She dutifully closed her eyes and gave one formal nod.

"A humble knight is exactly what we shall require in our grand campaign! Yes!"

Spike straightened himself and turned around to face Pinkie Pie in one giant motion, making the ground rumble.

"You do?" he asked.

Pinkie Pie gave one more deep nod and marched forward, but she only took a few steps before she felt herself bump into something - she bounced back like a soft pillow.

Pinkie shook her head and opened her eyes: before her was a giant hoard of gems, rising up into the sky. The gems brightly sparkled with all colours of the rainbow in the sun. Pinkie Pie looked over the small mountain of precious stone with total awe.

"What- And what would this happen to be?" she asked in unsteady voice.

Spike's sight jumped from Pinkie Pie over to the gems and back again. Suddenly something clicked in his head, and he defensively jumped over the pile of jewelry - the ground rumbled from the impact, and the sun bobbed up and down in the sky. Spike covered the gem pile with his body.

Spike angrily stared at Pinkie Pie like she was a thief over the top of the pile of sparkling rocks. The pink pony involuntarily backed away a few steps.

"Yarr, this be for Rarity," he snarled.

"Oh," replied Pinkie without any inflection in her voice.

Pinkie quietly sniffed to herself and turned her head away.

Spike huffed and puffed angrily at Pinkie Pie, but with every second his expression slowly faded to uncertainty.

Spike looked over his hoard with a poisonous feeling somewhere down under. Reflections in the gems played with moving pictures: one was of Rarity staring back it him, innocently fluttering her eyelashes. In another she were at a royal ball, spinning around in an exquisite long dress. Another gem had Pinkie Pie strut around a small pathway in one of her ridiculous outfits with a party blower in her mouth. Next one one had her kick over a big draped table, sending all the food on it all over the shocked ponies around it. In yet another he saw two of them together, singing a silent song in the middle of nowhere: his giant figure towered over the pink pony so much it made Spike's head spin a little.

One particularly lustrous gem reflected something he didn't remember seeing before. He picked it up and brought it closely to his snout: it was an image of him and Pinkie spinning in a dance back at the ball. Pinkie Pie lay her head on his shoulder and smiled to herself, a little brighter than usual. Spike expected himself to be looking for Rarity, but instead his reflection simply held Pinkie's hoof and tenderly looked straight at the pink pony.

Spike put the gem down and stared at the small mountain with a sad expression. With a corner of his eye he saw Pinkie Pie turn around and stroll away with her head down. Suddenly he felt like he missed a step on a staircase.

"Well, okay," heavily breathed Spike.

Pinkie Pie turned around. Spike brought up his clinched claw and slowly opened it, revealing the lustrous gem.

"Here, you can have one," he pronounced nervously. "Just don't eat it, Pinkie! Ponies can't eat gems," he added.

Spike gently put the sparkling crystal down at Pinkie's hooves. Pinkie Pie looked at the gem, then back at Spike, then back at the gem again. Her mouth slacked open in disbelief.

She stared at it in total silence for a few moments. Spike looked at her and the gem, nervously rubbing his claws against each other.

Suddenly Pinkie loudly gasped, making Spike jump a little, and carefully bit the gem. She grabbed it with her hooves and carefully examined it with a bright spark in her eye. Her coat shined a bit brighter in the sun, as if it was suddenly sprinkled with tiny diamonds. Her face lit up with a bigger grin than Spike had ever seen her don. She brought the lustrous gem close to her chest, and hugged it like a plush toy.

"Oh, that is- that... It- it's!.." Pinkie gasped, struggling to pronounce anything.

She bent down and bit the grass at her hooves a few times in a calculated frenzy. A few stretches of green chain and rope made of grass appeared in her hooves. In one quick motion she threw it all, and her gem, into a swirling cloud of dust in her hooves, and fashioned herself an exquisite necklace with the sparkling diamond in the middle. She giggled, bit the necklace by its chain, and gleefully threw it over her neck.

Pinkie Pie quickly threw her head up and stared back at Spike with a large grin, perfectly content with herself. The dragon huffed and smiled back at her.

The wind suddenly carried in a smell of pastry and sugary drinks, as if they were near a bakery or a large party. Spike, surprised, did a double-take with a few giant whiffs and closed his eyes. He was sure he remembered that smell from Sugarcube corner, but somehow it echoed with something else, something familiar...

An unpleasant, blurry memory that he couldn't even discern slowly materialised in his head like an unwanted guest. He flinched: all the joy of the moment disappeared with a loud crack of glass.

"Hi, Spike!" called an innocent high-pitched voice.

Spike opened his eyes. He found himself down on the ground, down to his usual, smaller than any pony size. Well, all but one pony.

"I like you, Spike. Let's have some tea!"

Applebloom stood right in front of him with her usual tiny smile. In her mouth she bit the handle of a toy teapot.

Spike felt his world turn in protest and despair. He stumbled away from the tiny pony in front of him like she was the scariest monster he'd ever seen. With a corner of his eye he could see Pinkie Pie, too, was back to her usual size. His cheeks flushed with red.

"No," muttered Spike.

With a cold strike of fear and shame he noticed his voice no longer carried any roar or impact.

"No, no, NO!" he cried in his usual high-pitched tone.

Spike gave Pinkie Pie one last scared look. He spun around and ran away from Applebloom as from death itself towards a plain white door frame in the middle of the idyllic meadow. He jumped onto the handle and pulled it with all his strength, but it refused to budge.

With one loud roar he gave it his best, and the handle flew right off: the lock broke into splinters. Spike fell down to the ground, but quickly jumped back up. The door slowly creaked open, and he immediately ran inside.

Pinkie Pie gaped at the scene. She turned to Applebloom, who still bit the toy teapot with the most innocent look. Pinkie Pie frowned and huffed at her, but her heart raced with worry - she turned back towards the broken door frame.

"Sir Spike, wait!" she yelled.

Pinkie Pie quickly sped after him and disappeared in the white door frame.

Applebloom was left all alone in the grassy meadow. She was now sitting in front of a haphazardly decorated small table full of toy cups and dishes. She hummed sweetly and innocently to herself and closed her eyes.

"Well, time to have imaginary tea and play with dolls," Applebloom noted cheerfully.

With that she took a sip of the smoking poisonous-green brew from one of the toy cups. Small plumes of smoke fell down on the grass below - it slowly withered and turned to dust in the gentle wind.

***

Twilight Sparkle strolled across the endless meadow with unending pride and joy as ponies in official dresses and party hats cheered her on from all sides in a parade in her honour. The air was filled the pleasant wind. All around were bright streamers, large waving flags and colourful banners. Twilight held her head up high, bobbing it from side to side to the music, and gently strolled along the warm grass.

Her eyes closed for a moment, she didn't notice as her procession took her all the way back into the middle of familiar Ponyville. The crowd all around her gave off one last big cheer and each pony walked away on their own separate business.

She looked over the village, and her smile slowly faded from her face: she noted, with guilt, the unkempt exteriors, the torn-out signs and fences, the scattered furniture and smashed buildings glittering in the warm sun from the last storm. The storm she didn't care to stop when she left.

Twilight took a painful gulp and lowered her head as the sun slowly went dim, storm clouds materialising in the sky above her. A crack of lightning lit up the empty village, and a gust of strong wind threw her mane in her face.

She slowly raised her head, a look of steely determination on her face. Hot flames played in her eyes, glowing in the dawning darkness.

"Not this time," she taunted the storm as clouds assembled themselves to form something much worse - a giant, grinning, sharp-toothed face in the sky.

The monster slowly assembled its body into myriads of long claws with what seemed to be a laughing grin. It's size masked by seemingly being everywhere at once, it now stretched over entire Equestria like a giant planet, threatening to come crashing down any second - but Twilight just calmly walked towards it. Wind violently flew against her mane. The fire in her eyes lit up the ground before her in all shades of red like a large fire.

The purple unicorn stopped with a single tiny smirk and simply sat on the ground, as if she were quite comfortable there and then. Splinters and broken wood flew all around her. Torn-out landscape and huge chunks of buildings crashed into each other just inches away. Wind wailed like the end of times, and huge torrential rain mixed with indiscernible debris obscured everything that could remain in sight. The enormous monster in the sky slowly opened his grin to swallow her whole, bringing itself closer and closer...

She suddenly jumped up, spinning a pair of giant golden cannons from behind her back. She effortlessly balanced them in the air with her hooves, looking the monster right in the eye for one split-second.

"Cor aut mors, BITCH!"

Thunder as of hundred storms rolled over Ponyville, putting the real storm all around the small pony to shame. Every piece of destruction around her flashed with fire and brimstone as a sea of giant empty shells streamed from the golden armaments, sending an unending wave of glowing projectiles high up into the sky and towards the giant beast. Time slowed down and debris paused in the air, unsure if it should continue its course.

A wave of blinding sunlight hit Twilight in the eye as the first glowing ball ripped through the dark clouds, making the giant monstrosity double over and wail in pain. Her grin grew bigger as she firmly squeezed her arsenal; bright spots of light teared up the dark sky over and over again with a dozen sunbeams that poured from heavens like giant waterfalls. A wave of satisfaction and fiery excitement rolled over Twilight: the worries of her life seemed all so meek and unimportant now, in this one moment of effortless struggle and victory happily playing in her head over, and over, and over again... The innumerable waterfalls of light threatened to fall down like a giant ocean, flooding everything below...

The giant beast hunched over and looked at her with pleading terror in its eye one last time before it let out a single fading shrill wail and vanished forever, sending big grey clouds roaming in all directions from where it once stood into the once again clear, blue sky over Ponyville. A huge, thin plane of liquid sunlight hung up there with the stars, slowly descending like a delicate veil.

Twilight paused for a bit, enjoying the moment. A pleasant warm gust of wind flew against her mane, thanking her for her victory. She half-closed her eyes with a crooked smile, elegantly spinning the elaborate golden cannons in front of her back into non-existence, and dropped back down to all fours.

Twilight looked around the destruction all around her with a victorious smile. Few surviving houses were barely visible among ruined fragments of wood and large spots of ground torn out whole. Rivers of rainy mud mixed with liquid sunlight flowed somewhere in the distance. She noted, with relief, that there wasn't a single party pony in sight to congratulate her.

Twilight's sight instinctively darted over to Rarity's shop, standing completely unscathed where it always were, rising into the sky like an elegant, gem-encrusted tent.

She calmly stood up and innocently skipped - probably like Pinkie Pie would if she were there - towards it. She just knew Rarity would appreciate what she had done.

***

Spike stood all alone in the middle of Rarity's shop.

Spike looked around: he remembered the shop booming with colour, but now it was just grey, empty, and distastefully striped. Still, a few dresses, even if he never understood why anyone would ever wear them, clearly showed an artist's touch. He did admire it, but now that admiration made him shiver with cold.

He strolled around a bit and lowly sat down on a chair in the corner. He twirled his thumbs with a sad expression, incredibly tired of waiting. He wasn't even sure what he was doing here anymore. Everything felt like one giant lie.

Spike still shivered with cold. He looked around the empty and sterile interior of the shop and noticed an open window. It quietly creaked in the draft.

Spike picked himself up from the chair and slowly walked up to the window. Sounds of his steps echoed in deafening silence. As he came closer, a few flashes of light came through the frame, and the next moment a heavy draft dropped a sprinkle of rain through it. Spike came closer and looked out of the window, covering his face from the heavy wind with his claw.

The sky outside was pitch-black. Ponyville looked completely different, empty. Here and there, an occasional building lay smashed to bits, others carried off by the storm whole.

Spike noticed something standing in the middle of all the chaos: Twilight Sparkle was staring somewhere into the distance with a more cock-sure smile than he'd ever seen her don. A moment later, and she was jumped in the air, illuminated by countless flashes of fiery colours. A deep, deafening thunder rocked the landscape.

Spike's heart lifted in hope for a moment, but just as soon came crashing down again. Somehow he surely knew his friend didn't need his help.

Spike sighed and closed the creaky window. Countless flashes reflected in its glass, illuminating Rarity's shop with bright colours for a moment. The small flimsy latch held the window perfectly shut.

Spike turned around and took a few steps nowhere in particular. He froze in place, hands behind his back, and stared at the floor. A familiar tune played in his head. Spike squinted, trying to remember where he heard it, but he couldn't no matter how hard he tried.

"Leave if you leave..." muttered Spike.

Nothing changed. Spike clinched his teeth in frustration.

"Why do I have to be here?" he asked himself.

No one answered.

Spike frowned, took a few more steps and hopped onto a nearby bed. He dropped onto his back and blankly stared at the plain white ceiling.

"Leave if you leave," he muttered again. "I'll leave after you..."

The room flashed with blinding white.

Spike was back at the royal ball. The crowd still spun in a mannerly dance, and the chambers still bloomed with pedantic decorations. He was frozen mid-curtsy, holding Pinkie's hoof. Surprised, he looked at Pinkie Pie with a wide-open stare. The pink pony stared back at him with tears in corners of her eyes.

"Why would you leave?.."

Pinkie's voice echoed as if from a large distance. Spike saw his reflection in Pinkie's eyes: small, meek, and ridiculously-dressed. Something big and scary turned inside his stomach. Spike froze like a statue, still holding her hoof, and didn't let go. He blinked.

Spike sat back up on the bed in the middle of Rarity's shop. He sat still and nervously scratched the side of his arm.

"Maybe," Spike started, unsurely. "Maybe I could go to Sugarcube Corner? You know, pick up a few donuts. Maybe a cake. I mean, why not?"

That seemed to reassure him enough. Spike smiled and picked himself up, but with a corner of his eye he noticed a dark, scary storm booming outside. The coy smile faded from his face.

"Run through the storm..." he unconsciously muttered.

Spike tried to sit back down, but instead he just clumsily collapsed on the floor. He flinched and looked around: the puffy bed disappeared without a trace.

Spike adjusted himself and sat on the floor, looking down. He glanced at the door of the shop for a moment - the door was closed shut. It's handle hung by a metallic cord from its splintered lock.

Spike's heart lifted in hope for a moment: maybe Pinkie Pie would follow him here? He perked up, leaning a bit closer to the door frame.

Nothing happened.

Spike turned away and dropped his head. The walls creaked and closed in on him a bit.

"Sorry for your drink, Pinkie Pie," he announced with bitter regret. "I didn't even know what kind of pink punch to pick!"

His voice reverberated in deafening silence.

"Oh, that is most okay," suddenly cheered a voice right next to him.

Spike jumped up, startled. Pinkie Pie appeared just a few steps away from him, standing like she had always been there.

"I like nettle sarsaparilla better anyway. Exxx-quisite"

Pinkie Pie innocently fluttered her eyelashes. Her usual oblivious smile shined on her face. Spike opened his mouth a few times, but he was completely lost for words to reply.

"Whacha doin'?" asked Pinkie Pie, leaning closer.

Spike froze in silence. A moment later, every single implement in the room fell down with a loud thump as if it all were hanging in the air before, making Spike jump. Suddenly Rarity's shop bloomed with renewed colours, warm and welcoming.

Spike smiled and opened his mouth to say something, but then closed it again - he felt his claw pressed against his chest. It hurt.

He looked back at Pinkie.

"How-"

He cut himself short, took a deep breath, and continued:

"How d-do you do it?" he stuttered.

Pinkie Pie tilted her head, looking somewhere at the ceiling.

She didn't answer.

"Oh!" Pinkie Pie suddenly perked up. "Well, I'm probably just being Pinkie Pie! At least that's what everypony says. To dry hay with imaginary tea!"

Spike felt a pinch of guilt. He remembered offering her a cup earlier on; for some reason that memory also echoed with something pleasant, too. Spike felt a sudden an urge to say something nice in return.

"Um... I don't think you're crazy, Pinkie Pie."

That came out much more insulting and insincere than he hoped. Spike blushed.

"I- I-" he stuttered. "No, I mean- I think you're cool. For a fru-fruiey, I mean," Spike paused mid-sentence, unsure what to add. "Aye. Also, and- and, you like sarsaparilla. Whatever that is."

"I most certainly do," nodded Pinkie Pie with a wide smile.

Pinkie noticed Spike holding his chest. She looked down and picked up the shiny jewel around her neck. Her ball dress materialised on her figure for a second, perfectly clean and shining, and vanished as soon as it had appeared.

The sparkling gem reflected an image of Twilight Sparkle unsurely staring back at her. Next to her stood a small purple dragon, gesturing with his claws and telling her something.

"Uh... Hello?.." Twilight's voice faintly reverberated in the air.

Pinkie reached out, grabbed Spike's claw and opened her mouth: she wanted to say something, a lot of something, but words in her head came out even more wrong than they usually did, steadily tumbling downhill into a tangled string of complete incoherence. Spike stared back at her, holding his breath.

Pinkie quickly let go and took a few steps back, cursing herself under her breath. She looked away, uncomfortably examined her surroundings for a bit, then turned her gaze down and dug the floorboards with her hoof. She threw her head back up, looking anywhere but at Spike.

"I- I can be elegant," announced Pinkie Pie in a completely unnatural tone, carefully studying her hooves. "And- and sophisticated. And- And smarty-smart, too, you know-" she couldn't continue as tears welled up in her eyes.

Spike's heart broke with an audible crack. He muttered something and slowly shook his head in silent dismay. He'd never seen the pink pony so miserable... No, he'd never seen her without her oblivious smile at all. More than anything in the world now he wanted her to jump around, do something crazy, anything at all, just not stand there with tears rolling down her cheeks. Anything at all.

But she didn't. She did something he expected her to do least of all in the world.

With one swift motion Pinkie Pie darted forward and threw her hooves around the purple dragon, just freezing still, instantly bathing him in sweet smell of her soft pink coat.

Spike felt himself freeze like a statue, only his jaw slacking open. All thought vanished from his head. He felt like he was back at the endless green meadow, bathing in the warm wind. Pinkie's coat softly pushed against his chest with her breath, and her puffy mane gently brushed against his nose.

"Hi," whispered Pinkie Pie.

Spike felt her warm breath against his back, and a tingling sensation ran down his spine.

Pinkie Pie painfully broke the embrace and stepped away from the startled dragon, biting her lip. Spike looked back at her with a wide-open stare, his eyes darting from place to place.

Pinkie's earlier monologue echoed through the room, thin as air. A tumbleweed slowly rolled past the two, completely out of place.

Pinkie Pie gently came back up to him and rubbed her neck over his side, feeling Spike shiver a little. She looked up at him with a faint, pleading expression, not saying a word in silent question.

Spike didn't answer. He looked down on Pinkie Pie with his mouth half-open, breathing heavily.

Spike gently stepped away. An empty punch glass materialised in his hand. He took a few steps and leant on a nearby table, staring down into it. All expression faded from his face, and he examined the table's surface with a look of utter boredom.

Something cracked loudly. Pinkie Pie heard a faint ringing in her ears, but above it she could hear Spike say indifferently, as if making small-talk about weather:

"I still love Rarity."

Pinkie Pie felt the ground beneath her hooves disappear and all colour drain from her surroundings. She stumbled and shivered: a cold feeling washing over her like she was just thrown into a frozen lake. Pinkie shut her eyes, but it only made her heart break into a million pieces with an earth-shattering crack. She felt like there was no more happiness in the world, and never again will be. She knew sure as day she will never even see a party again even through a slip of a door.

"It must be a dream," a faint voice inside her head called out in only consolation. "You're dreaming, Pinkie."

That's what it was: just a bad dream. A bad, bad, horrible dream. She felt something wet running against her cheek in another reality...

A cool, hard touch of someone's sharp claw drew her back to the middle of Rarity's shop. Pinkie opened her eyes to see Spike, in more detail than she'd ever seen him in real life, stand in front of her with a perfectly calm expression.

"But I love you more," he smiled.

The dragon held her hoof, looking her in the eyes. Pinkie Pie felt her world turn upside down. All feeling inside her creaked like a broken record and stopped. Everything she's been through all her life, everything she's been through in this dream, she couldn't even remember... And she knew she was in a dream clear as day, she felt her own cheek lay against warm floorboards of the library. Pinkie felt herself waking up...

Pinkie Pie shook her head and turned to Spike. The purple dragon was staring at her with a lost expression, his sight nervously darting across her face. A wide grin slowly spread over her face: that stare made her feel like the guest of the best party in all of Equestria.

Pinkie jumped, and her grin disappeared. She grabbed the dragon by the shoulders. Shivers ran down her spine.

"It's a dream! It's a dreamy-dream, Spike!"

The dragon flushed with red and shyly turned away.

"Well, let's not overreact," he muttered.

"Oh, oh, oh, do you remember the crystal, Spike?" Pinkie Pie jumped and wildly gestured in the air. "Back in the library? And the smoke, and the bang, and the poof, and the wham, and 'Whacha doin?', and then whiiiiirl and BLAM! And then nothing makes sense anymore and the books are all wrong! Oh it's all so meany-mean, it's all my fault, and why would Twilight ever abandon her favourite clever-clever books and books and more books like that?"

Spike loudly giggled at the show, covering his mouth. He let out one final chuckle and calmly nodded at Pinkie Pie.

"Sure, I believe you," simply said Spike.

Pinkie Pie, in turn, closed her eyes and hugged herself in a loud guffaw.

Spike scratched his chin. He felt gears grinding in his head, painfully trying to remember something he didn't even know what.

“Huh? Crystal, you say?.. And we're all... And this then?.."

"Yes, yes a dream!" jumped Pinkie Pie. "And in a dream, anything-anything can happen! Honest-honest! Pinkie-swear!"

With that Pinkie Pie huddled close to Spike and rubbed against him with her cheek. The dragon obliviously stroked her mane, catching himself thinking it was completely inappropriate.

Blurry images in Spike's head became more vivid, as if guided by a balloon rising into the sky. He remembered himself in the library with Twilight, making notes about magical crystals, and then helping Twilight with her study, and then Pinkie Pie bouncing herself over to them, and the sudden explosion.

Something clicked. The room was bathed in a flash of pure white, and Spike felt himself vanish far away for a split-second, his other self lying uncomfortably over a pile of disheveled book pages, bright sun against his eyelids making him frown.

"Anything?.." slowly pronounced Spike.

The world around him suddenly became clearer than he'd ever remembered seeing it.

Really, anything? Could he summon a whole mountain of rubies? Could he fight against a thousand enemies and come out a victorious knight? Could he sail and adventure across the seven seas? Could he be a hero in all of the land? Could he even?..

Spike looked at Pinkie Pie for a moment. In one swift motion he stepped away, holding her by her hooves, then brought her closer and gently leant her over his hand, closing his eyes.

Pinkie's eyes shot open in surprise as she felt a pleasantly cool touch against her lips, but before she had time to realise what was going on, her consciousness broke into a million pieces and her eyes dreamily wandered in ecstasy and finally closed shut. Her whole being shivered like it was winter inside her heart, spreading over her body like a stream of bubbling sugary soda.

The world around them spun into darkness before they appeared standing on an exquisite pedestal in the middle of a brightly-lit social gathering. Thousands of thunderous cheers materialised in the air: a countless crowd of ponies below applauded and cheered them on, throwing their hats and popping party streamers in the air, but neither of them could see it: they were completely lost in a world filled with one moment and one feeling. Unbearably pleasant jolts of pain coursed through their entire beings. Shocks of lightning coursed through entire reality, calling for more with sound of cheering thunder.

Spike and Pinkie Pie held each other in tight embrace as endlessly stretching eternity passed around them, and then another and another like it. Time stretched so far it had completely lost all meaning. They only remembered they shared a thousand lifetimes with each other, remembering every tiniest thought they shared, every fleeting feeling, every gentle touch, neither wanting it to stop ever for a tiniest second until the end of time, and even long past it.

"We don't have time for this!"

The couple clumsily fell onto the floor.

Twilight towered above them and clicked her tongue in annoyance, oblivious to having unceremoniously torn someone out of a completely different reality.

"Confound these ponies," she muttered. "And dragons."

Twilight threw her mane upright and took a few steps across the room.

"Honestly, you have no respect for gravity of the situation!" Twilight carefully pronounced in her teacher's voice. "Did you even notice what a heroic effort I made? Did you?"

Twilight sighed.

"I thought not..."

Pinkie Pie jumped up in excitement and tapped her hooves together, as if she just solved the hardest riddle.

"Oh, oh, gravity! GRAVITY! Do you get it, Spike?"

The dragon still lay on the floor, blankly staring at the ceiling.

"No," he replied in a blissful tone.

Spike had to do a double-take: Pinkie Pie swept him off the floor and brought him and Twilight close to herself, hugging them both.

"Pinkie, this isn't in the instructions," protested Twilight in yet grumpier tone.

"Silly Twilight! This is a dream!" cheered Pinkie Pie. "And you're in that dream! And I'm in that dream. And me and Spike are in that dream!"

Pinkie hugged them both closer, pushing all the air out of them, and nuzzled Spike's cheek.

"Show her your wings, Spike!"

Spike looked confused for a moment, then he perked up and somehow slipped out of Pinkie's embrace.

He stood upright in the middle of the shop, cleared his throat, closed his eyes and threw his claws outwards... And suddenly the room around them disintegrated into tiny splinters and strips of fabric, outwards into empty, brightly-lit Ponyville. Shiny gizmos melted and sparked in the air, falling down like glittering rain. A pair of giant wings shot from the dragon's back, and moments later his scales shined with bright light, covering the entire village in one blinding flash.

As the flash cleared, he stood a dozen times his size, exactly like the only other dragon the ponies ever saw, triumphantly spreading his claws and wings in the air. A wave of cool wind, like a small explosion, washed over the two ponies.

Spike gently lowered one of his giant claws down to the ground.

"M'lady," the dragon pronounced in a pleasant alien voice.

Twilight frowned back at him.

"Spike, this isn't in the instructions either. You'll ruin everything!"

But Pinkie Pie already put her hoof in the dragon's hand and, with Twilight in hold, she took to the sky in a stream of flame and smoke - the jetpack on her back creaked and huffed under the strain.

Pinkie Pie spiralled around Spike's neck and launched straight upwards, the dragon taking to the sky shortly after. They spiralled up, triumphant, even as Twilight was loudly yelling and protesting in Pinkie's grasp.

"Oh, don't you get it, Twilight? It's a dream!" yelled Pinkie Pie over the rushing wind. "And everypony knows there's ONE thing dreams are made of!"

A solid veil of air pushed against them harder and harder as they flew higher and higher into the sky, determined to reach the sparkling-white sea in the impossibly large distance. Yet still, cloud by cloud, spin by spin, the tiny pony and the huge dragon made their way higher and higher, second by second...

Pinkie Pie triumphantly broke the cover of clouds with her hoof and let out a cry of victory. Shortly after, the cloud behind her exploded into tiny puffs of white as Spike ripped a giant hole through the sky, right after her.

The world around them slowed down like someone forgot to wind it up and froze in the moment, slowly fading into an impossibly-bright flash of white.

***

Twilight frowned and squinted her already closed eyes. Bright sun was against her eyelids, making her eyes water.

Twilight turned away and blinked herself awake. She groggily pulled her head up from the dusty pages. Reality slowly started to make sense again. She heard muffled laughter and chirping birds outside, inviting her to stretch herself a little. Wind still peacefully creaked outside as she last remembered it, carrying sweet smell of grass and blooming trees into the old library.

With a corner of her eye Twilight noticed a tiny motion: a pink pony next to her opened her eyes and let out a sweet yawn, still stretching on the floor. Further down, over a pile of old books just like hers, lay a silhouette of a tiny dragon. He unsurely picked himself up and rubbed his nose.

Twilight looked up at the clock, expecting its hands to spin wildly or read nonsense, but it just showed hardly an hour's difference since when she last remembered looking at it.

"Ooooooh, what a wonderful dream!" loudly announced Pinkie Pie in her usual upbeat tone.

The pink pony was still stretching on the floor with her eyes closed and a wide smile on her face. Next to her side lay an uncut blue crystal.

Twilight perked up: something pinged in her head. The next second her eyelids fell half-closed in a dull frown.

"Good job, Pinkie," Twilight yawned.

Twilight groggily picked herself up and tried to give her face a look of frustration, but all she elicited was another yawn.

"Feel free to just bounce yourself in here anytime you want," she added. "There's a lot of other things you can break around here, you know."

Pinkie Pie jumped up from the ground with a bigger grin than Twilight had ever seen her don, clearly untouched by her sarcastic remarks.

"Oh I'm so-so-sorry Twilight!" cheered Pinkie Pie. "But thank you kindly! It's been super-duper super-fun!"

Pinkie Pie closed her eyes again and hummed something to herself. Twilight could only blankly stare back at her.

It the other corner of the room, Spike finally stood up on shaking legs. He reached out and leant against the book pile for support.

Spike looked over the library with a wide-open, completely lost stare, as if he'd never seen it before. He dazedly brought his claw in front of his face and jumped, imagining for a second he'd teleported into someone else's body. Reality slowly assembled itself back together in his head, picking up speed with each passing second.

Spike stood up properly and half-heartedly brushed himself off. Suddenly he noticed something with a corner of his eye and turned: Pinkie Pie was cheerfully bouncing next to Twilight, her eyes closed in an oblivious wide grin. Spike dropped in his posture again and stared at Pinkie Pie like he'd never seen her before, his gaze nervously darting over her figure.

A small racket broke the silence: Twilight noisily climbed out from underneath her pile of books and heavily dusted herself off.

"Well!" gasped Pinkie Pie. "All in a day's work!"

Twilight glanced at her like she wanted to incinerate her on the spot. Pinkie caught her gaze and lowered herself a bit.

"Soooo..." she sung in a lowly tone. "I gotta be going? Yes?"

Spike heard himself pronounce 'No' against his own will, but his voice was drowned out by Twilight's:

"YES. Yes you should," she replied a tinge louder than needed. "Thanks a lot for the visit, come again!"

Twilight stumbled and made her way to the library's door, tripping over burnt books and all manners of newly-found debris she'd never seen in her life on her way there. Twilight meaningfully held the door open and cleared her throat, glaring at the pink pony.

Pinkie Pie didn't hesitate long and bounced herself towards the door, humming something to herself.

Spike suddenly found himself outside, under the bright sun. He turned around, facing the library, remembering that his legs carried him outside against his own will just seconds ago.

Spike turned back around to find Pinkie Pie staring back at him with her usual bright smile, or maybe even a slightly bigger one, from just inches away. Sun played with her coat as if she were in a slim white ball dress. She just silently beamed at him, blinking occasionally. A gust of wind carried in a smell of spices and baked goods from Pinkie's coat - suddenly, a burst of long string of memories exploded in his mind: memories of something he was sure never even happened, and yet...

Spike's eyes darted across Pinkie's face, trying to discern a hint of something, anything under her oblivious grin.

Distracting, pleasant wind outside seemed completely unreal right now. Did she even remember?.. Did it even matter?..

Dragon took a large gulp, and then let out a loud huff, stalling the moment.

"So..." twirled his thumbs Spike, staring at the ground. "You want to hang out?"

---

Dreams are Magic

A Dream for Two

---

Cause where you're going

I'll follow you, follow you

And what you're feeling

I'll feel for you, feel for you

And what you're hearing

I'm singing for you

And when you're sleeping

I'm dreaming your dreams for you

- "Dreaming your Dreams", Hybrid

---

"Concentrate, Spike. We need all our concentration for this magic to work."

Purple dragon adjusted the pillow underneath himself, not taking his gaze away from the sparkling blue rock in front of him for a second.

Ponyville was unusually noisy today for some reason, and birds outside the library's window chirped louder than a steam engine. A trickle of sweat made its way down Spike's eyebrow: it took all his willpower not to give into all of the distractions of the small quiet village. With corner of his eye he noticed the rough crystal in front of him reflecting a smoky purple glow, shining brighter and brighter with each painfully passing second.

"Almost, almost..." muttered Twilight Sparkle, her glowing horn aimed firmly at the crystal.

More than anything in the world now she wanted to close shut the creaky library door, or shift herself even an inch across the wooden floor, or tell somepony outside to zip it about their baked apple pie, or pull drapes over the incessantly pleasantly shining sun - but instead she just sat like a statue on the old library's floor right in the middle of a large disheveled book pile next to the purple dragon.

Just a few moments more, she thought to herself as her horn glowed brighter and brighter. The blue uncut crystal in front of her made a tiny motion...

"TWILIGHT!"

Twilight blinked and turned away her gaze. The next moment, the blue crystal exploded with a loud pop. She and Spike were swept off their feet and sent flying half-way across the room. Books rained from the shelves in a rustling racket.

A few moments passed in indiscernible noise as the library filled with smoke and dust.

"Hi!"

Pinkie Pie popped her head out of the cloud of purple smoke and blinked innocently to herself.

"Haha! You're such a party pony, Twilight!" Pinkie Pie cheered. "What's with all the smokey? You and Spike preparing a party? Huh- Huh? Am I invited? Am I- Am I?"

Pinkie Pie giggled and clopped her hooves together in anticipation. Twilight emerged from underneath a sea of open books with an angry grimace.

"Say no more!" Pinkie Pie threw her hoof in the air. "Pinkie Twinkie is here to fight and- WHAM! Valiantly slay the monster of boredom! Why, why I giggle right in the face of!.."

Pinkie Pie paused, sat down on the floor and tapped a hoof on her chin.

"No, that's too meanie-mean," she continued. "Aww, let's invite him too! I can make lemonade for all of us! And cake! And cupcakes! He'll like cupcakes- you want cupcakes? Oh, oh, oh! Missis Cake just showed me how to make this positively fantabulous pink frosting and-"

Twilight watched the pink pony ramble obliviously to herself, but she couldn't hear the words: she loudly huffed and drilled a hole in the intruder with her gaze. Pinkie Pie didn't seem to notice: she just hopped next to Twilight and started throwing dusty books off her head, humming a cheerful tune to herself.

Pinkie Pie paused, stared at Twilight and innocently fluttered her eyelashes.

"Whacha doin'?"

Twilight's grimace turned into making strangling motions in the air with her hooves.

"Dream magic, that's what," disappointedly announced Spike from another end of the room.

The dragon climbed out of another small pile of books and brushed himself off - small plumes of dust rose in the air as he did.

"Ach! Great job, sister! Now I'll never get to find out what- Err, what a mountain of rubies taste like. YOU certainly won't!"

Spike jumped over to Pinkie Pie and disapprovingly poked her side; he tried to scowl, but a sudden sneeze made him look less than threatening. Pinkie Pie just tapped a hoof on her chin and stared at the plain ceiling, oblivious to Twilight trying to reach for her throat.

"I don't get it," she announced in frustration.

"What's there to get?" rolled his eyes Spike. "You do some magic and you're in any dream you want. Bam!"

"Yeah. Exactly. 'Bam.'" hissed Twilight, giving up on reaching Pinkie Pie. "And now you destroyed the crystal. So it's all over."

"You mean that crystal?" Pinkie Pie pointed upwards.

Above them hung a pristinely polished blue diamond, slowly spinning in the air to itself. The stare of all three was reflecting in its perfectly cut sides.

As on signal, the diamond spun faster and glowed brighter from its newfound attention - as it did, the room slowly filled with immaculate blue glow of dozens of solid rays. Before Twilight could open her mouth to warn anyone, the old library was bathed in yet another violent flash of blue light.

Twilight stood still as the flash cleared. The old library was spinning all around her. With a corner of her eye she noticed Pinkie Pie lying on the floor and Spike unsurely stumbling in place before falling onto a large bookpile. All sound echoed to her as if from a large distance. One more second, and she felt herself falling, lights going out around her and all thought vanishing from her head.

The trio lay on warm floorboards of old pony library in the middle of a bright, sunny day outside. Only their occasional quiet snoring broke the chirping silence.

A blue uncut crystal lay next to Pinkie Pie, faint glow emanating from its core.

***

Twilight blinked and opened her eyes.

She was standing in the middle of her dim-lit library. Ponies nonchalantly walked in an out of the door, going somewhere on their own business. Books were immaculately arranged up on the shelves, all in alphabetical order. Floorboards sparkled with polish, and smell of fresh ink hung heavily in the air. To her side, Pinkie Pie dangerously balanced herself on a ladder leaning against a large bookstand - she carelessly took out one book after another and carelessly dropped them down onto the floor.

Twilight sighed in frustration and meekly made her way under the ladder, carefully dodging the books falling from above. Twilight tried hard not to distract the pink pony above, cursing Pinkie Pie under her breath. She really needed to figure something out, if only she could remember what...

Twilight hovered her hoof over the shelf and reached for a book, but it slipped and slid deeper into the shelf, nowhere to be seen. Twilight leaned over and stuck her hoof into the bookcase as far as she could. Finally she grasped the book by the tip and slowly fished it out of the cold darkness.

"Ugh! Why aren't I allowed to use my magic?" she complained to no one in particular. "It'd be so much easier..."

A few passing ponies frowned at her monologue in disapproval; Twilight blushed and concentrated on recovering the uncooperative book.

After some effort, she finally pulled it out with a loud wet noise. A tiny smile shined on her face. Twilight cleared her throat and flipped the dusty book open, preparing to read out loud.

The pages read gibberish.

She flipped a few pages and rotated the book at different angles, but it didn't help in the slightest. She noticed a beautiful blue colt peering over her shoulder and kindly smiling at her efforts to himself.

"Hey. Want to be friends?" the colt asked in the sweetest voice.

"No thanks. I need to finish this book," politely refused Twilight.

But her hooves felt empty as she said it. Twilight blushed in embarrassment and looked down: she didn't have her book for an excuse. She looked back up: Princess Celestia stared at her disapprovingly from a distant corner of the room. She quickly turned away her gaze.

"There's a good reason," calmly explained Twilight.

The colt turned away and, without a word, headed upstairs and curled up in Twilight's bed. Twilight stared at him incredulously as he threw a bedsheet over himself and evidently went to sleep. Somepony else gently tapped her on the shoulder as she watched.

"Don't you want to go outside?" asked another pretty colt.

"No, no, thank you, I really need to find a copy of 'Supernaturals'..." explained Twilight again.

Her voice faded into defensive mumbling. The brown pony still stared at her innocently, his hoof thrown towards a nearby window. He nodded a few times, as if saying he only wanted to help.

Twilight sighed in surrender.

Twilight made her way up to the window, clumsily bumping into everypony on her way, making muffled excuses here and there. She stumbled with the plain latch for a while before the round window frame creaked open. Twilight uncomfortably climbed up and pushed herself out; she got stuck in the frame for a few moments before clumsily tumbling outside.

A strong gust of wind threw her mane in her face: outside, a giant tornado swept through Ponyville. Sky was dark as night and heavy pellets of rain were hitting everything in sight. Panicking ponies screamed in terror, scattering everywhere, and the racket was unbearable. Ponyville itself was shaking at the seams. Every so often a big chunk of somepony's house was torn out by the storm and carried high into the sky.

Twilight felt her hide instantly soak wet, and her hooves slowly sink in a big mud puddle. A frustrated frown slowly materialised on her face.

"Well, that's just great," she sighed.

Twilight rolled her eyes and angrily made her way against the storm. Wind and heavy rain against her face, the world disappeared into a blur.

"What am I even doing here?" she wondered to herself.

A few moments passed as she gloomily made her way through the wailing and panicking streets of Ponyville. Twilight only cursed the storm under her breath.

Somewhere up above, a big gray silhouette made its way towards the ground where she stood. It grew larger and larger and then, all of a sudden, grew into a whole building falling from the sky - with an earth-shattering creak, it landed right next to her in a flurry of splitting wood and crashing furniture. Twilight's heart raced in terror as she slowly walked past it, splinters and broken glass flying all around her. How did she get talked into all this?

"Don't you know how dangerous this is?" demanded Twilight.

"This isn't dangerous!" retorted a soaking-wet pony right next to her face. "Save us, Twilight!"

Twilight chortled. Bits of leaves flew against her eyes, making her blink uncontrollably. She covered her face with her hoof.

"Yeah, right," Twilight gestured over at a group of ponies flying through the storm in a big circle, shrieking with terror. "I don't know any anti-whatever magic. I don't care!"

With that she threw her mane upright and ceremoniously strolled away in a perfect stride, leaving the confused and disappointed pony to soak there in the freezing wind and rain.

***

"Another cup of tea, Spike?"

Applebloom bit the toy teapot and carried it over to Spike's cup. She tipped it over, but nothing came out of the nozzle. Applebloom carefully put the teapot back in its place on the round draped table.

Spike gloomily picked up the small cup and stared at its empty interior.

"You're stupid, Applebloom," loudly mumbled Spike, scowling at the tiny pony in front of him.

Applebloom just fluttered her lashes with an innocent smile. Spike rolled his eyes and took a sip of imaginary tea, making a sour expression like he just drank poison.

"Oh, Spike, darling, thank you for babysitting my dear sister Applebloom! What on earth would I do without you!"

Rarity walked up to the duo for a moment; a gentle scent of perfume filled the air. Rarity was still busily packing all manners of decorated sheets and colourful stripes into a large suitcase.

Spike perked up a little, content with himself, and took a sip of imaginary tea as elegantly as he could before Rarity.

"Anything for my lady."

Spike coquettishly tipped his cowboy hat, looking back at the white unicorn. Rarity kindly smiled back at him and levitated the suitcase onto her back.

Rarity made one final motion and gallantly strutted out of the door. As soon as she went, the door slammed shut behind her, and a few heavy locks and bars clinked in a musical sequence. The simple white door now stood behind a dozen heavy chains and locks.

Spike was left all alone with the decorated interior of Rarity's shop. He stood up and slowly strolled around it, carefully examining the bright walls and colourful nonsensical dresses and gizmos scattered all around the interior, each more boring than the last.

On one of the tables lay a parchment so long its end stretched all over the floor below.

"Rules of Etiquette, Volume 7," read Spike.

The dragon sighed and half-heartedly kicked the end of the scroll. Maybe there was something he could amuse himself with while Rarity was gone?..

Spike walked up to one of the mannequins and prodded it with his sword. It turned its empty head and angrily shushed back at him. Spike sighed again in disappointment and headed back to Applebloom's table. The boredom was crushing him like an ugly monster.

"More tea?" sweetly asked Applebloom.

"Hit me, lass," surrendered Spike. "I'll show ye scurvy dogs hafta drink!"

Spike meaningfully gestured over to his cup. Applebloom stared at him innocently for a moment before taking the teapot and tipping it over again - this time, boiling water poured out of the nozzle. Clouds of steam rose in the air.

Spike stared at the cup and took a sip against his better judgement. His tongue burned; he made a few chewing motions as the pain slowly subsided, trying to figure out what score on the taste scale to give the boiling water.

Suddenly he felt his stomach fall to the ground, as if someone swung him by an invisible hook. He looked at his cup to see the steaming water tilt over inside of it.

"What's going on?" asked Applebloom with fear in her voice.

Applebloom jumped up with dissonating calm resolve and looked around the shop. Drapes all around the room slowly bent sideways, and a few small pins and gizmos started floating in the air.

Spike nonchalantly looked out of the window to see trees and the sun spin outside in a blur like in a tumbledryer. The dragon slowly arched his eyebrow before a sense of dread washed over him and he, to his own surprise, firmly grasped the side of his chair.

Moments later, a loud creak sent a wide crack rushing through the shop's walls, splitting it in two. A brief pause, and all gizmos and furniture flew off their places and towards the ceiling. Walls caved in one after another, disintegrating into splinters and broken planks.

A moment later yet, and Spike was thrown towards the roof.

He landed onto it with a loud thump. A dull jolt of pain lazily arched through his body, but Spike didn't even notice: everything around him turned to a disarray of flying debris.

The world went dark and deaf for a few moments.

Slowly but surely Spike could make out the noise of wailing wind and rushing rain outside. With a great effort, he pushed the remains of the house covering him away.

He stood up inside a pile of debris in the middle of storm-ravaged Ponyville with a look of disappointment and confusion on his face.

***

"No... No... No-no-no!"

Pinkie Pie rummaged through a big pile of books in frustration. She lay on the floor of the old library, sipping colourful sarsaparilla from her straw-umbrella glass. The library was still filled with aimlessly wandering ponies, but they just walked around her as if she wasn't even there.

A distracting storm boomed outside. Thunder and whiffs of rain seeped in through an open window.

"Swear on the winds of Hayseed Plains, what ill travesty has befallen us... Whacha-whacha-macallit... Confound this cursed literature, how can it all be in such meanly inexplicable error!"

Pinkie Pie angrily threw away yet another tome before pulling out the next one from her bookpile: every page read gibberish just as the one before it, and before it, and before it...

Some colt from the Apple family stopped above her, chewing on a piece of straw with a sad expression. He looked at the broken ladder next to Pinkie Pie, then at the large pile of books, and then Pinkie herself. The colt sighed.

"Did you betray Twilight again?" he asked in a crestfallen tone.

"No, no, no!" Pinkie Pie violently shook her mane. "It's- it's- it's these silly damned errant books! See!?"

Pinkie Pie sniffed pleadingly at the stranger while somehow taking another sip of her beverage. She rummaged around herself and threw an open tome in colt's face, gesturing over to the jumping letters.

"Why does no one ever get it!?" she yelled in her high-pitched voice, almost tearing up.

The working pony stared at Pinkie Pie incredulously for a moment. He shook his head, tsked in disapproval and walked away, but not before picking up one of the glasses of sarsaparilla without even thanking her.

Pinkie's heart slowly filled with guilt as she slowly floated up to the ceiling and inaudibly landed on it, lost in her own thoughts. She tapped her hooves together in frustration. Think, Pinkie, think, remember, remember, reminiscence...

"Pinkie Pie, get down from there!" somepony shouting from below agonizingly broke her train of thought.

A small assembly stood below her, anypony not frowning curling their lips in disapproval. A few exquisitely-dressed mares in the crowd shook their heads looking at her.

"Get down from there, Pinkie Pie! This isn't normal!"

Somepony in a black tuxedo sporting a giant mustache tried to sweep her off the ceiling with a broom.

"There has been a grievous misunderstanding, illustrious fillies and gentlecolts!" ceremoniously gestured Pinkie Pie. "I am a pony, just like you! I bake you cookies and cupcakes. Yum."

Pinkie Pie meaningfully rubbed her stomach as a faint smell of fresh baked goods floated in from the outside. Still, the crowd remained unapologetic, much to Pinkie's disappointment.

A sudden large boom and noisy racket from the outside grabbed Pinkie's attention. She ran towards a nearby wall, instantly forgetting the angry mob below, and zipped open the ceiling line - why did no one think of that before? - only to have a strong gust of wind catch her and carry her outside - she tumbled in the air for a few seconds before it threw her down into the mud below with a noisy splat.

Pinkie Pie noisily shook herself off and scanned the landscape to identify the source of earlier racket among all the panic and screaming. It didn't take her long to notice a big ruined house lying right in the middle of the storm-ravaged town. Pinkie could see an indiscernible purple figure stand up from underneath the rubble and try to ineffectively brush itself off in spite of the heavy wind and rain all around it.

Pinkie's face shined with a wide smile; not a single raindrop landed on her. It took her her three carefree hops to scale the large distance between her and the purple figure.

"Best of days to you, Spike!"

Pinkie Pie hopped around the purple dragon and the ruined house in a wide circle like she was in the middle of a musical number.

"Whacha doin'?"

Spike followed her with a look of frustration: despite the heavy rain, an angry scowl was clearly visible on his face.

"Babysitting Applebloom because none of you ponies would. Duh!"

Spike meaningfully pointed to the crashed house. Applebloom was nowhere to be seen among the ruined walls and fabrics of Rarity's old shop.

"I'm not a kid, lass, I can handle it!" he added a little louder.

Pinkie Pie stopped her hop in mid-air and plunged down to the ground. She put on a stoic face and gave one big, gentle nod, her mane holding completely still despite the raging wind.

"I know, Spike. Exquisite performance."

Pinkie Pie held her head up with her eyes closed, as serious as she could be.

Spike's snout shined with a happy smile; the rain now carefully avoided his small figure. A few stormclouds above disappeared, giving way to a small slip of light spiralling down to the crashed house.

"Awesome!" Spike looked caught off-guard. "Erm- oh!"

He reached inside the remains of Rarity's shop and fished out a cracked plastic cup.

"You want some tea? You like tea, right?.."

Spike's sight nervously darted over Pinkie's face: she still donned an unreadable expression. Pinkie Pie elegantly shook her pink mane.

"Thank you kindly. Perchance you may happen to have come in possession of a teensy-insy umbrella? It has come to my attention that it is raining outside."

Pinkie Pie turned her hoof face-up to elaborate. A large wooden plank whooshed right past it, closely chased by a thick burst of rain.

Spike's face lit up with a sudden revelation, and he dived into the rubble whole. A few moments, and he appeared back up in a shower of rainwater and wooden splinters - with a great effort he pulled out from the rubble underneath, like a sword from its sheath, a glowing-pink umbrella that shined and sparkled in his claw like a magical artifact. A few nearby ponies stopped panicking to ooh and aah at the sight.

Spike turned to Pinkie Pie with a look of triumph, holding the pink umbrella up to the sky, like a glowing sword.

"Pretty sweet, eh? Yarr?" Spike's face glowed with unhidden gratitude. "Thanks too, lassie!"

Spike clumsily climbed out of the wreckage and jumped over to Pinkie Pie. He made a small curtsy and handled over the shining umbrella over the stare of fascinated ponies all around - a few carried by the storm even froze in mid-air to watch the ordeal.

Pinkie Pie made a mannerly bow and gently bit the umbrella's handle. Spike instantly hopped on her back, like onto a trusty steed, preparing for adventure. A gust of wind arched through the umbrella, and they were quickly pulled through the muddy grass. All the chaos and destruction around them turned to indiscernible blur.

A torrent of rainwater was now assaulting them upfront as they were dragged forward through the storm. The two closed their eyes, and the world went completely dark. Spike sneezed with indignation.

"Yarr, this doesn't help with the rain at all!" spat Spike, gesturing with his claws to protect his face.

"Oh, why ever would you worry about rain, darling?" nonchalantly chirped Rarity.

Spike opened his eyes.

He was in the middle of a large ball right in Canterlot's royal chambers. The spacious interior arched far into the distance with huge stretches of white marble, colourful ribbons and decorations. The entire ballroom was filled with pleasant sunshine and smell of freshly-cut grass. A spirit of celebration hung heavily in the air.

Spike blushed and tried to hide the glowing-pink umbrella somewhere in his newfound tuxedo, but the world spinning around him made him fumble a motion; Spike suddenly realised he was holding Pinkie's hoof, and his own legs carried him in a circle of dance along with her. All around them, figures of colts and fillies spun in pairs along the marble floor, locked in the same dance.

He felt something warm and fuzzy brush against his shoulder, and turned to see Pinkie Pie lean her head onto it.

Pinkie Pie gently brushed her cheek against Spike's shoulder like she was having a sweet dream, a wide smile lighting up her face.

"Oh, Spike, isn't this just the most exquisite bestest party ever?"

Pinkie Pie nudged Spike's shoulder like it was soft pillow; somehow she never wanted this moment to end.

Spike uncomfortably adjusted his collar. He didn't answer.

Pinkie Pie picked her head up and was now staring back at him with her usual wide smile. Her bright-white delicate dress glowed with magic. Spike contemplated for a moment if this wasn't some other kind of Pinkie Pie: this one looked nothing like the one he'd ever seen, elegant and well-mannered. The world behind her was just a spinning blur.

Spike looked over her head as if he suddenly remembered something. His sight darted nervously across the ballroom, searching for Rarity. With a corner of his eye he could see Fluttershy conducting a choir of birds somewhere above them with her usual coy smile. Further in the distance he could see a familiar silhouette of a white unicorn dancing with some pretty colt. His heart filled with burning shame and disappointment.

Spike instantly stopped the dance, much to Pinkie's surprise. He made a ceremonious curtsy, holding her hoof.

"I think I'll go catch a drink, m'lady," he pronounced in a sure voice.

Spike turned to stroll away, but Pinkie Pie didn't let go. Her dress lost all its fluorescence, and her lips were quivering. She stared at Spike with glaring shock.

"But- but, Sir!" she protested.

"Sir?.." dazedly repeated Spike.

He stared at her in disbelief for a few moments.

Seemingly out of nowhere, the ball crowd flooded in between them, so big that they could no longer see each other. A few ponies here and there scowled at Spike with disapproval. With nothing better to do, the dragon sighed and slowly headed somewhere else, scratching his head in confusion.

Spike turned back for a moment.

"It's just a dance, Pinkie Pie!" he yelled reassuringly over the crowd. "Have fun!"

Pinkie Pie could only barely hear his voice among all the chatter and rustle. She stood still, like a statue, staring blankly towards where Spike once were.

Pinkie's ears fell in silent disappointment. She lowered her head and quietly sniffed to herself. Her dress lost all its glow, and now appeared to be falling apart at the seams; a few broken jewels and braces fell from somewhere on it, scattering all over the floor like cheap trinkets; even the sun could barely shine on her dim figure. The pony crowd left a big empty circle around her.

The dancing pairs donned looks of sympathy as she stood all alone in the middle of the ball.

***

Twilight looked at the spinning ponies in front of her in defeat, afraid to move a hoof.

She sat on a golden throne in the middle of the ball that seemed like a prison to her right now. Her delicate purple dress did nothing to cheer her up. She dropped her head down onto her hooves, staring at the dancing couples with unending boredom. Oh, how she wanted this dance to just end...

Twilight raised her head up towards the clock above her, but its hands were just spinning wildly in all directions.

Somepony in white tuxedo approached her. The colt made a deep bow and asked with a note of worry in his voice:

"Don't you like your party, madam?"

Twilight bit her lip and cautiously looked back at the well-groomed pony.

"No, no..." She tried to give her voice a tone of sincerity and politeness, but it came out all wrong.

Twilight, against her will, glanced back at the clock for a moment.

"It's quite alright. It's nice..." she gulped, the words she were about to say hurt her throat. "T-Thank you."

The elegant pony smiled and made another deep bow. The colt slowly strolled away, about to leave her all alone again. Twilight opened her mouth, almost about to ask him not to leave.

Twilight clenched her teeth. She dropped down again and grasped her head in her hooves. A faint sound of ripping fabric echoed in the air: she ripped her dress. Twilight buried her head deeper into her hooves, blushing with embarrassment.

The racket around her was unbearable. A million thoughts buzzed in her head, refusing to take comprehensible form, but above them all, one bright image shined like a growing fire. A steady accusation formed in her mind: it was Pinkie Pie who was responsible for all this.

Twilight jumped up, striking her hoof on the throne's hard fabric.

"Aha!" she announced loudly.

But the second she did, a wave of disappointment flooded over her, and any shade of resolve faded from her face. She lay back down, blankly staring at the marble floor.

"Why can't you help me?.." she mumbled under her breath. "Where are you, Pinkie?.. And where are you, Spike?.. What did I-"

A loud sound of broken glass echoed through the royal chambers.

Twilight turned towards the noise, instantly locating the culprit; everypony around gasped and turned towards it too: in the distance, one of the big white-draped punch tables lay turned on its side. Right next to it stood Spike; the dragon was huffing loudly over the sudden silence. His fists were visibly shaking with rage.

Twilight jumped down from the her throne and ran through the stunned crowd towards the purple dragon. Everypony obligedly stepped away the second she ran close.

"Well- Well- I don't have any time either!”

Spike shouted at someone at the top of his lungs in an unsteady voice.

“I- I've saved the world so many times, you know! It really happened! Maybe I'm here to save it again, did you think of that!?”

Spike sniffed to himself and ineffectively tried to regain his composure.

“You- You'll be sorry! And happy! I promise! I..." Spike heavily drew his breath. "Pinkie-swear!"

Spike stood still for a second, huffing in exhaustion. He glanced somewhere away for a moment before hastily turning around and stomping away - he quickly made it to the giant gates covering the entrance to the chamber and threw them open with one angry strike. With a flash of light, the ballroom was bathed in rays of impossibly bright sun of a peaceful meadow outside.

The crowd obscured his disappearing figure. Ponies all around started to exchange shocked whispers and gossip over what happened.

Twilight stepped away from the crowd, looking at it with disgust. Her heart raced with worry. She turned around and quickly galloped after Spike ignoring, with embarrassment, calls from everypony around her to stay.

The crowd followed her with a fixed gaze all as one. Everypony went silent as she, too, disappeared in the bright light shining in from the outside. The pony crowd stared blankly into the big open meadow for a few minutes. Finally, with one quiet cough, each went on their separate way, abandoning the ball.

***

Spike gloomily made his way to the punch table with his claws in his pockets.

The draped-white table was big enough to fit more treats than the whole Sugarcube Corner. Spike looked over the table from one corner to the other - he didn't know what kind of punch Pinkie Pie liked.

"...Maybe the pink one?" he mumbled under his breath.

Spike stared at the table with a sad expression: there were twelve kinds of pink punch there.

He hesitantly stretched his arm towards one of the glasses, then another, but instead of making a decision he just turned away and searched for Rarity again. He noticed her dancing with some long-maned colt, as delicate and sophisticated as ever. Suddenly they stopped and headed over to his punch table, happily laughing to themselves. Spike nervously fiddled with an empty glass in his hand.

With a corner of his eye he caught a glimpse of Pinkie Pie standing all alone somewhere in the distance. At first he was unsure if it was even Pinkie Pie: a sad and pleading expression roamed on her face, unsure how it even got there. She stared straight back at him, now and again obscured by the dancing crowd.

Spike turned away: somehow the scene made him feel even more uncomfortable. He nervously tugged and scratched at his suit, and turned his gaze back to Rarity.

The white unicorn approached him and stopped only inches away. An unreadable smile shined on her face.

"Is anything wrong, darling?" she asked.

Behind her, Rarity's partner slowly grew large, pointed teeth. The colt's eyes filled with red, and he started to make biting motions next to Rarity's throat.

"Stop that," shushed him Rarity in an annoyed tone. "Spike, dearie, would you be so kind as to help me? I need to, oh! Relocate a few very large rocks - and I positively can't do it myself! Why, it would simply ruin my gorgeous mane! Look, look at how beautiful it is!"

Rarity threw her head up, content with herself. Her mane waved lightly in the invisible wind.

"It is beautiful," readily agreed Spike.

Spike lightly drew in air to ease up a little and leant on the table, trying to suppress a look of worry. Now and again he would glance at Rarity's partner still trying to bite her.

Spike remembered about the glass he was holding and determinedly took a sip of pink punch in his hand. The drink tasted flavourless: something was amiss. He looked down into the glass - in it, on a completely flat surface, was Pinkie's reflection, inaudibly sobbing to itself. Spike stared back at it, completely bewildered. Something heavy turned in his heart at the sight.

Spike opened his mouth to console her somehow, but the drink instantly exploded in all directions like a pink water balloon. Spike felt something brush against him: with one giant splash, Pinkie Pie burst out of the small glass and firmly grabbed him by the shoulders. Her mane was soaking wet with the pink sugary drink.

Pinkie Pie stared at the startled dragon with a pleading expression.

"Come back!" her voice reflected through the room, as if coming from a large distance.

Spike blinked and shook his head.

Pinkie disappeared as if she were never there. His glass was still sitting firmly in his hand - only his suit was a little disheveled. He dazedly looked around, confused and bewildered.

"Come back..." faintly echoed in his head.

Spike turned his sight back to the glass. There were only a few drops of liquid left at the bottom. Spike cleared his throat and quickly put it down.

Spike squinted, trying to concentrate, but Pinkie's image still glowed against his closed eyelids. Spike unconsciously took a step towards her in his mind, but the noise of the crowd around him made him flinch and open his eyes, dragging him back. He made a struggling effort to clear his mind again.

"Today's the day, the perfect moment, come on, come back... No..." he nervously mumbled to himself.

Spike shook his head, drew a deep breath and stood upright before Rarity. She stared back at him with an innocent smile, as beautiful as always. Spike let out his breath, trying his best to look as unconcerned as possible.

"So... You want to hang out?" he simply asked.

A few moments passed in silence. Then Rarity and her fanged partner burst into laughter, much to Spike's dismay.

"Oh, darling!" Rarity threw a hoof around the snarling colt next to her. "Why on earth would you ever think I have time for you of all things?"

She beamed at Spike with a bright smile. The sharp-toothed colt in her grasp stared at him with contempt. Spike felt something heavy turn in his gut and lowered his gaze in silent apology.

"And- And pray tell, what is so unseemly about having extraneous schedule?"

Spike raised his head a little: Pinkie Pie appeared at the scene in her disheveled dress. Hairs on her puffy mane stuck out in all directions as if she'd been through a tumbledryer.

Spike stared at Pinkie Pie with wide-open eyes - the frustration and bewilderment he tried so hard to suppress boiled over into his mind all over again. He involuntary dropped his composed posture.

Pinkie Pie stood firm, like a statue, and just glared disapprovingly at Rarity.

"A lady must not be some mean meanie-pants!" Pinkie raised her chest as she spoke. "It is of most posolutive kind of importance th-"

"Uh, Pinkie Pie?" started Spike under in his breath. "You- You really shouldn't-"

"NO!" Pinkie dropped low to the floor. "Never!"

Pinkie Pie scowled up at Spike from down below. Her delicate dress was coming apart at the seams.

Suddenly she rocketed towards Spike, pinning him to the floor. Somehow Spike managed to keep hold of his glass.

"You mustn't, sir!" carefully pronounced Pinkie Pie, standing above the yet more startled dragon. "High treason! The only kind of crime! Don't you see?- Do you?- Do you not?"

Before Spike could scrape together enough coherent thought to reply, she flew off of him and towards the nearest punch table. She turned against it and, with one swift buck, it rocked over - dozens of treats, dishes and drinks flew all over the ballroom, landing on the guests and dancing pairs here and there.

A few gasps and whispers rose in the air, but the dance continued its course as if nothing happened. Pinkie Pie looked at her handiwork, biting her lip. She turned back and pleadingly stared at Spike again.

The dragon slowly picked himself up and looked around. Two spinning ponies waltzed past him, one carrying a long string of spaghetti behind her ear, and another soaked in green liquid. Here and there, an occasional pony donned a puff of sugar powder, or bits of green salad, or even a whole punch bowl on their head.

Spike's snout lit up with a coy smile. The more he looked around him, the lighter he felt, until finally he let out a loud guffaw and burst out laughing.

Somehow he recognized an odd note in his chuckle: a note he'd heard before. Spike wiped tears from corners of his eyes and turned to Pinkie Pie. He drew his breath and paused in his laughter long enough to utter:

"I get it!"

Spike let out another chuckle and understandingly stared back at Pinkie Pie. It took all his willpower not to collapse in another giggling fit, but the urge to look around was bigger yet. His sight darted from Pinkie Pie to an odd pony in the crowd and back again.

Pinkie Pie grinned widely at the sight of the purple dragon holding his sides. Her coat shined a little more vibrantly.

Pinkie turned her head over to Rarity.

"See?" she declared triumphantly.

Rarity and her partner stared at her incredulously, glancing over to the turned-over table and back again. Rarity backed away a little, as if afraid Pinkie might try to buck her too.

"It is my humblest - but! - most strongest accusation," continued Pinkie Pie. "that your highness is being artful in their deceit. And I say, this is despicable!"

Pinkie Pie struck her hoof on the floor with a resounding echo.

"A lady- a lady must not be a meanie patinie!"

Suddenly Rarity and everypony around her burst into laughter.

"Meanie patinie?.." mockingly repeated a few ponies in the crowd.

Pinkie Pie froze still. Two red spots appeared on her cheeks, clearly visible despite her already fluorescent coat. She lowered her head.

"Uh... Madam," she lowly added.

Spike didn't join the crowd. He stopped laughing as soon as everypony else started to. A deep frown formed on his face.

Spike angrily clenched his glass. A hot wave coursed through his uncomfortable costume.

"Pinkie's right," he said quietly to himself.

Spike turned to Rarity and made a few heavy steps towards her. His claws were shaking with rage and frustration. Spike stared at the delicate unicorn like he'd never seen her before. He squeezed his glass so hard that a few cracks raced through its surface.

"So... You don't have time, sister?" he hissed through clenched teeth.

Rarity kindly turned to him like she'd only just noticed, but then instantly backed away: with one swift motion, he threw his glass to the floor, spilling pink punch everywhere. Everypony stopped laughing and gasped in shock.

The dancing pairs stopped. An eerie silence slowly hung in the air. The sound of broken glass faintly reverberated across the royal chambers.

Now Pinkie Pie won't be able to get any, Spike noted to himself with guilt.

***

Pinkie Pie followed Spike with her sight as the dragon's figure disappeared in the impossibly bright meadow outside.

The crowd around her exchanged confused explanations and indiscernible remarks. Pinkie Pie hesitantly looked over to the turned-over table, and the ponies around her. Somewhere under her hooves, a small pool of pink punch slowly spilled over the floor, seeping from a few pieces of broken glass.

Pinkie Pie stepped away from the crowd and approached the pink puddle. She lowered her snout, carefully surveying her surroundings, rolled out her tongue, and took one lap of the pink brew. The marble floor didn't seem to alter its sugary taste all that much.

Pinkie dropped down and cheerfully lapped the pink punch off the floor. Now and again she glanced over the crowd or the wide-open gates and sniffed to herself.

"So- so what," she mumbled to herself in-between laps. "I can have fun without Spike, all by myself! It's just a dance..."

Pinkie sadly stared at her own reflection in the pink puddle. Her puffy mane reflected in it as a straight and stern line, obscuring one of her eyes.

The reflection rippled and disappeared, and the next second Pinkie was bathed in a big splash: some impolite pony ran over the puddle.

"Do you mind!?" turned Pinkie Pie.

Pinkie licked the punch off her snout. The rude pony turned out to be Twilight - she galloped towards the open gates, after Spike.

Pinkie couldn't follow her further: from out of nowhere, a transparent blue crystal appeared in front of her face. It spun lightly to itself right in front of her nose, as if demanding something. Pinkie brushed it aside with her hoof, but Twilight was now nowhere to be seen. She turned towards the crystal but it, too, vanished.

Her nose itched. Something about reality seemed a bit off at the moment. Pinkie felt that she'd forgotten something, something important, but no matter how hard she tried, she just couldn't remember what.

Pinkie sighed and dropped back onto the floor. In the middle of the pink puddle now lay a few heavy tomes, turned open and bookmarked. If only ponies around her stopped their gossip for a minute, it'd be so much easier to read the jumping letters...

Wait, 'jumping letters'? One of them did indeed just jump out of the page. The letter put on a a top hat, gave a small bow and spun a tiny black stick in the air, doing a first motion of a musical number.

Pinkie stared back at it with burning-hot hatred.

"No."

Pinkie calmly put her hoof down on the intruder and swept it off the page. She turned her frown back towards her study. For some reason everything around her was completely silent now, save for a few faint steps and voices echoing in the distance.

Only quiet rustling of turning pages reverberated through the empty ball room.

Pinkie heard someone's hooves loudly clop along the marble floor. She raised her head in frustration to shoo away whoever was there, but then sighed with relief: it turned out to be Fluttershy. The yellow pegasus was showing a way for her choir of birds to leave the chambers.

Fluttershy looked over Pinkie Pie: the pink pony's mane was oddly disheveled, and her delicate ball dress was reduced to naught but a few ripped stripes. In front of her, thick tomes soaked in a pink puddle. She'd never seen the pink pony so miserable.

Pinkie Pie caught her sight and looked over herself, then unsurely back up at Fluttershy.

"Um. It's alright, mi- miss Laughter," Fluttershy whispered. "You'll figure it out. I'm sure you will. You are a smart pony."

Pinkie Pie was completely lost.

"But- But- gracious Fluttershy, lookit!"

Pinkie Pie gestured towards the book: letters on it rapidly jumped around, not one of them resembling any pony language. Fluttershy just lowly smiled down at her.

"Oh- No, no. Not the books, silly filly."

Pinkie Pie felt something break inside her. She jumped up, staring at the yellow pegasus with open dismay.

"No, no, NO! Why don't you understand!?" she yelled. "Why does no one ever understand!? Why is it always up to me!"

Pinkie grasped her head in her hooves and, once again, dove down to the floor. She buried her head into the open pages and lay still for a moment - only her muffled huffing was audible in the empty chambers. A second later, and she jumped back up with a steely resolve.

"That is IT!" Pinkie Pie towered above the yellow pegasus. "It has been foretold! I shall embark upon the quest to avert imminent oogy-woogy! I shall find good miss Twilight Sparkle, and together we shall restore the blue crystal to its formal glory!"

"And- and Spike, too," she added a little under her breath.

She gave Fluttershy one last determined glance and quickly galloped outside into the blooming meadow.

The sun, the candles, and the magical lights illuminating the royal chambers slowly went dim as her figure disappeared in the bright light outside. Inch by inch, the ballroom was swallowed up by darkness.

"Good luck," quietly whispered Fluttershy.

She stood in the middle of disappearing chamber and gently waved towards the gates with her white handkerchief. A coy smile shined on her face.

***

Twilight ran outside into the sparkling meadow.

She breathed heavily. Her heart threatened to jump out of her chest. She looked all around for Spike, but in front of her was just an endless stretch of green grass. Sun shined brightly across the clear sky. A hardly discernible smell of rain echoed in the air.

Twilight stepped from hoof to hoof, confused. She turned around, but the gates behind her have disappeared: there were no more marble floors nor a single pony in sight, only huge ripples of wind running through the arching stretch of short grass in the distance.

Soft wind played with her mane as she stood, lost and clueless, in the middle of green nowhere.

"Oh, no," Twilight dropped her ears. "I've lost him!"

Twilight sat down. The realisation dawned on her like a big gloomy shadow, and her heart raced even faster. She weakly looked around in despair and, with one giant effort, picked herself up. Despite the pleasant wind and sunshine all around her, she shivered from cold.

Twilight shook her mane, randomly picked a direction and instantly darted off, running somewhere she didn't know as fast as she could. The horizon came closer agonizingly slowly, and beyond it was nothing more than another stretch of the green. It took all her effort not to collapse on the spot, but she ran faster and faster yet.

The horizon stretched further and further, as if mocking her. Seconds passed like years, minutes turned to hours, and hours turned to days. Each moment echoed with yet more exhaustion, but she didn't give up.

Second winds opened up one after another, but the journey - slowly but surely, year by year - took its toll. She could no longer keep track of time, and she could no longer keep her pace. She felt herself grow older by the minute; she was slowing down, inch by inch, until she could no longer place a single hoof forward.

With a resounding thump Twilight crashed down into the dew-filled grass, huffing so hard hard her chest echoed with pain. Her joints and muscles betrayed her, as if made from fragile glass.

Her mind was a soft mush. The grass and the ground below were soft like a giant pillow. Incoherent thoughts raced through her mind, refusing to take shape.

Twilight turned her head to the side, dragging it across the ground - she tried to find something, anything, to concentrate on. The wonderfully sweet landscape stretched just as it were when she first saw it, all these years ago, and sun in the clear blue sky shined with pleasant warmth. Now as then, there was nothing else in sight.

Twilight's mind raced in despair. With a sudden strike of fear, she felt her memories slowly vanish from her head.

"No, no, no - remember..." she mumbled.

The world around her slowly blurred into indiscernible shapes. Twilight stood up on her shaking legs and squinted hard against the bright sun.

"Come on, Twilight, come on... Orion has four, no, three stars on his belt..."

Twilight half-opened her eye - the world around her became a little more clear. She squinted again.

"Four- Four is function of two and sixteen... In negative base four... Right? No, two- In base two. Yes. Yes, it is."

Twilight felt a pleasant gust of wind against her coat. She opened her eyes - the field all around her looked a little more welcoming now. The ground she stood on felt firm like a sheet of metal. Warmth and strength once again raced through her body in a steady rhythm. She sighed with relief.

Twilight took a few steps forward, remembering her multiplication table before she could remember anything else. The soft grass incessantly tickled her coat as she went. She turned her head left and right, seeing if anything has actually changed.

To her right was a plain beige wall. It looked like a part of somepony's house, but without a roof or other walls to complement it. Twilight strolled closer to it, examining the plain surface with some interest.

A few faint clicks echoed through the air. Suddenly she noticed a sickly-looking brown pony wandering aimlessly across the wall. He, too, noticed Twilight and unsurely headed in her direction in a series of zig-zags. The colt made a hazy painting wobble as he almost tripped over it.

Twilight smiled and cleared her throat, preparing to greet the odd pony. She noticed five cheese slices nested on top of his head as he approached.

The brown pony stopped a few steps away from her, looking down at Twilight from his place on the wall.

"Greetings, kind sir," greeted him Twilight.

The cheese-donning pony looked at her like she'd done something wrong. He closed his eyes and raised his head up - to the side - a little.

"I wear the cheese," he pronounced with every inflection of a gentlecolt's manner. "It does not wear me."

The sickly pony gave one small nod, turned around, and mannerly walked out of the window over to the other side of the wall. Twilight followed him disapprovingly with her gaze.

"Honestly, you meet the most appalling sort of ponies," she noted grumpily.

Twilight turned around and walked away from the wall. Something was different. Her expression and posture slowly changed - she now frowned from under her fading smile.

Suddenly she stopped dead in her tracks and firmly planted a hoof in the ground below - it stretched like a sheet of rubber beneath her, almost making her lose her balance. Gentle wind around her whooshed with one last scared gust and fell silent.

"He's right," Twilight announced to herself in surprised monotone. "I'm the one who wears the cheese!"

The grass all over the meadow froze like tiny icicles. The sun and the clouds stopped moving through the sky.

A mischievous grin stretched across Twilight's snout. Her eyes glowed with a bright shade of orange, and a few sparks of fire raced through her mine. She quickly spun around to face a few dozen ponies standing right behind her, and they gasped all as one in surprise. Somepony dressed in no less than three tuxedos glared at her so widely his monocle dropped down into the grass below, breaking with a faint crack.

"No," firmly said Twilight.

Her grin grew even bigger, and the sparks of fire in her mane grew even brighter. Some dropped from her mane and set a few straws of grass beneath her alight.

"But," stepped forward one particularly snooty pony. "But thou must!"

"No," repeated Twilight. "I don't owe you anything! At all!"

"But-" chimed in an innocent-looking filly.

"No!"

Twilight stood her ground. The scared filly tried to hide behind somepony else in the crowd. Twilight slowly strolled up to her, staring her down with the bright-orange glow in her eyes. The scared pony hugged the ground with tears welling up in her eyes.

Twilight's expression changed. She, too, lay down on the grass and hugged the near-crying pony with her hooves. Fire still waved gently across her purple mane.

"It'll be alright," Twilight consoled the shaking pony. "You'll figure it out... Err- whatever it is. You just can't always count on me to be there, you see."

One of the elegantly dressed ponies raised his hoof, opening his mouth to say something, but Twilight quickly turned and glared back at him, her mane flaring up with renewed force. The colt quickly snapped his mouth shut.

Twilight let go of the sobbing filly and stood up with calm resolve. She looked over the silent crowd, took a few steps away, then turned around and gave a small bow. Twilight turned back around to leave, but somepony grabbed her by the shoulder, holding her in place.

"Miss Twilight Sparkle! I do say, this is the most grievous dereliction of duty that I have ever, ev-"

Twilight clenched her teeth, and suddenly her mane exploded like a small volcano. The colt involuntary jumped away and tumbled into the burning grass. The sky went dark, and a few flashes of purple lightning rushed across it.

"Who do you think you are!"

Twilight turned back, shaking with rage. The air around her glowed with a rainbow of red and orange. She quickly advanced on the terrified pony and stared him down from only inches away. Her glowing eyes shot wide-open in disbelief.

"Do you think you can scare ME!?"

Streaks of magic lightning boomed with renewed force across the sky.

"Do you think you can bore ME with your nonsense!?"

Twilight pressed her muzzle close to the shaking colt's face. The fire in her eyes illuminated his trembling figure against total darkness.

"Why would you EVER think I care about YOU?"

Another fiery explosion engulfed the landscape. As it cleared, the meadow stood once again sparkling with gentle sunshine of the clear sky. Twilight stood above the frozen-still pony; all fire and magic vanished from her figure as if it were never there.

Twilight nonchalantly stepped away from the colt. The crowd of ponies to her side were all gaping in shock - only one filly lay on the ground staring at Twilight with tears rolling down her cheeks. Twilight smiled warmly back at her, and gave one small nod.

She took a few steps back and looked over the crowd, enjoying the gentle breeze and sunshine against her coat. The serene meadow stretched impossibly far around the tiny group.

"Good day," Twilight pronounced in her most mannerly voice. "I will find Spike on my own. With my own cheese."

She made a small bow, turned around, and walked away, eyes closed and snout up to the sky. The tiny filly in the crowd stood up from the ground, wiping tears from her eyes, and raised her head up to the sun.

"Good luck, Twi," she whispered. "Please don't leave us..."

The crowd stood still in complete silence, following Twilight with their gaze as she slowly strolled away towards an endless horizon.

***

"Twilight Sparkle!"

Pinkie Pie ran into the green meadow stretching far beyond the horizon. Gentle waves rippled through the short grass in chirping silence. Sun sparkled like tiny stars in the dew below. Only an occasional thin cloud slowly moved through the perfectly blue sky.

Pinkie Pie tripped and dropped down into the grass. She instantly jumped up, panicking. Her dress was reduced to a few small strips, barely visible on her glowing coat.

She committedly scanned the landscape: Twilight was nowhere to be seen.

"Spike?.." she asked under her breath.

She turned around - the huge gates behind her disappeared as if they were never there. Everything in sight was just an endless stretch of green and faint blue.

"Oh. Of course," she noted.

Her heart still raced like it was about to jump out of her chest. Pinkie took a whiff of fresh air around her to calm down. She felt the warm sun gently bake her from outside in like a vanilla cupcake. Her worries slowly washed away with another gentle gust of wind around her. A bright smile shined back on her face.

Pinkie took a few steps, and then a few hops, and then pranced into the green yonder, humming her own song to herself.

She closed her eyes and dived into the sprinkling grass below. With a yet louder giggle, she blissfully hugged herself and rolled to the side. One roll, two roll, three roll...

Pinkie felt herself bump into something. Something big.

Pinkie opened her eyes and raised her head from the ground, her world still upside-down. She saw something big, dark and shiny right in front of her - a large rock, a small wall, or maybe...

The big rock moved around like a snake, revealing it was attached to an ever bigger something.

"A tail!" loudly figured Pinkie Pie.

Pinkie froze in awe for a moment. Then she jumped back up to all four legs and gleefully skipped around the tail. The tail turned out to be attached to a large, dark-purple, sparkling in the sun dragon. The giant creature was frozen in place, perfectly still, like a giant statue.

Pinkie tilted her head, trying to get a better view. The dragon didn't seem to notice her. With a corner of her eye she saw something sparkling before its claws - two small puddles of water. They rippled in the gentle wind, giving off a faint sound of the ocean. Further yet lay a giant hoard of gems, sparkling with all colours of the rainbow in the sun.

Pinkie Pie scratched her head with her hoof, looking at the dragon and back down again. Finally something clicked: her eyes shot open in surprise. She gaped for a moment at the realisation, but then quickly donned a lustrous grin.

"Greetings, Spike!" loudly cheered Pinkie Pie, waving up at the dragon.

Spike blinked and shook his head, looking down to figure out what could have called his name. Somewhere down below jumped a small pink dot. Suddenly the dot froze in place, and now started getting bigger... No, closer, by the second.

Pinkie Pie slowly floated to level with Spike's surprised snout. She raised her hoof and waved at the dragon again.

"Look what I figured out!" she cheered.

Spike just silently gaped back at her. Tiny Pinkie Pie floated in front of his nose with her ever-oblivious smile.

Spike suppressed a quiet chuckle for a moment, but it quickly transformed into a thundering laugh: the ground shook as if from a small earthquake, and Pinkie struggled to keep herself in the sky against the sudden wind. Someone's deep, alien voice echoed across the landscape.

"How did you do it!?" the voice roared.

Spike wiped tears from a corner of his eye and stared at Pinkie Pie, still breathing heavily. A curious spark shined in his eyes.

Pinkie Pie finally regained her balance. She turned around, trying to figure out where the voice was coming from. She turned back to Spike, noticing his wide-open stare. The sudden realisation dawned on her. Pinkie giggled and hugged herself, glad that he noticed. She turned over in the air and stared at the dragon from upside-down.

"I dunno!" she announced.

With that she turned back over, landed on Spike's snout and took a few steps forward, staring at him with a playful spark in her eye.

"Whacha doin'?" she asked from just inches away.

Spike blinked a few times, caught off guard. Pinkie Pie was so close that the motion made her puffy mane jump in the wind.

"Well, I..." roared Spike again.

Spike broke off and froze in silence like a statue for a few moments. He straightened a bit, bringing Pinkie Pie yet higher into the air.

"...Waiting for someone, I guess," he admitted in a slightly softer tone.

Pinkie Pie tilted her head, confused. She turned around and looked over the serene meadow - there was nothing but green grass and clear sky at every horizon. She tapped a hoof on her chin and turned her head back to meet Spike's gaze.

"Can I-" she started cautiously. "Can I wait with you for a bit?"

Spike blinked once. Pinkie Pie jumped and turned back around.

"I'll be quiet! Like a fish!" she elaborated. "Well, except for those talking fish in Canterlot, not those ones... I mean, super-duper!.. Really-really-frilly quiet, like- Ssshhhh!"

Pinkie Pie lay down and covered her eyes with her hooves. Spike chuckled again.

"Sure," he dropped.

Spike smiled widely at the pleasant surprise. He certainly wouldn't mind some company, especially Pinkie Pie.

Spike slowly lowered himself and lay his head down on the ground. Pinkie Pie made a zipping motion across her mouth with her hoof and jumped off his snout. She skipped over to one of Spike's claws and quickly curled up inside it, closing her eyes. Spike froze still.

Gentle warm wind still aimlessly sailed through the endless landscape. Sun still frozen in the perfectly clear sky, as if it would never move. Minutes slowly passed in silence broken only by occasional gusts of wind.

The dragon lay still, careful not to make a wrong move. Spike fought an urge to reach out and pet her with his claw - instead he simply froze like a statue, not moving a muscle. Pinkie felt so small in his hand that a sting of fear ran through his spine. Still, in spite of the panic, Spike caught himself thinking he didn't want to be anywhere else right now. Pinkie Pie felt unusually warm and fluffy in his claws, like a big party balloon.

Pinkie Pie just lay still against the dragon's scales and giant sharp claws. She opened her eyes and stared into the distance, enjoying the company.

The chirping silence and the warm sun didn't ease Spike's conscience. He felt the small pony gently adjust herself in his grasp, nudging closer to his claws. He looked down: the pink pony lay perfectly still and silent, staring somewhere into the distance. Spike tried hard to remember if he'd ever seen her lie still for even a second before, but his memory was all a giant blur. He fought an urge to poke her with his claw to see if she'd jump up and start singing or jumping around or talking about something he could never understand.

Spike tilted his head and stared at the tiny pony with one eye. What would Pinkie Pie do?..

A gust of wind brushed against his nose, and he felt a spark ignite somewhere inside his mind, spreading like a warm river across his body. He bit his tongue: a tangled ball of words and melodies materialised in his head. He straightened a bit and drew in air as silently as he could, but the inhale still whooshed like a giant vacuum.

Pinkie Pie turned her head up. A strong gust of wind washed over the entire field, and the dragon began to sing:

Leave if you leave

I'll leave after you

Pinkie gaped in surprise. She obliviously stared up at the dragon and repeated the words after him. Unconsciously, she reached out and hugged one of his claws.

Run through the storm

I'll struggle with you

Pinkie jumped up with a wide grin and tenderly brushed her cheek against the dragon's claw. She bobbed her head to the rhythm and muttered the words to herself, trying to guess the next line. Pinkie opened her mouth and joined Spike in full force in the next verse:

Love what you do, know I will too

Love what reminds me of you

You gave me my wings, I'd give them to you

Dreaming your dreams is all- That...

Spike cut himself short. Pinkie Pie stared up at him from way down below, her mouth still open mid-verse and her hooves thrown up in the air. She dropped down to all fours and stared at the dragon with worry - the bright smile slowly faded from Spike's snout.

"Oh... No..." Spike muttered in a crushed voice.

The meadow faded into darkness for a split-second, and then blinked with bright white a few times. The grass and the sky turned a bit clearer and sharper, and Spike's giant figure slowly pulsed, fading to translucent and back again.

Pinkie Pie felt her heart do a somersault. She darted around and latched onto one of Spike's vanishing claws, squeezing it with all her strength. Spike's whole body vibrated like it was a giant piece of machinery. He dazedly looked down at Pinkie Pie.

Pinkie bit her lip; her sight nervously darted all over the place. She threw her head up and shouted:

"Wait!"

The dragon's form stopped fading in and out of view. Pinkie sighed with relief, but still firmly squeezed his claw.

"Erm, um- Oh! Have you perchance seen our dear friend Twilight Sparkle, Spikey?"

Spike opened his mouth to answer, but Pinkie Pie pressed on:

"It is of grave importance that we certainly locate her, for she may aid us in our most awesomest quest!"

Pinkie Pie cheered like she was talking about tasty treats, not matters of grave importance. Spike blinked in confusion and scratched his head with his spare claw.

"Nay, lassie," he roared. " I am naught but a humble knight, swear on my loayal bottle of rum!"

"Oh, that is most okay!" cheered on Pinkie Pie.

Pinkie let go of his claw and strolled forward a few steps, straightening like on military duty. She dutifully closed her eyes and gave one formal nod.

"A humble knight is exactly what we shall require in our grand campaign! Yes!"

Spike straightened himself and turned around to face Pinkie Pie in one giant motion, making the ground rumble.

"You do?" he asked.

Pinkie Pie gave one more deep nod and marched forward, but she only took a few steps before she felt herself bump into something - she bounced back like a soft pillow.

Pinkie shook her head and opened her eyes: before her was a giant hoard of gems, rising up into the sky. The gems brightly sparkled with all colours of the rainbow in the sun. Pinkie Pie looked over the small mountain of precious stone with total awe.

"What- And what would this happen to be?" she asked in unsteady voice.

Spike's sight jumped from Pinkie Pie over to the gems and back again. Suddenly something clicked in his head, and he defensively jumped over the pile of jewelry - the ground rumbled from the impact, and the sun bobbed up and down in the sky. Spike covered the gem pile with his body.

Spike angrily stared at Pinkie Pie like she was a thief over the top of the pile of sparkling rocks. The pink pony involuntarily backed away a few steps.

"Yarr, this be for Rarity," he snarled.

"Oh," replied Pinkie without any inflection in her voice.

Pinkie quietly sniffed to herself and turned her head away.

Spike huffed and puffed angrily at Pinkie Pie, but with every second his expression slowly faded to uncertainty.

Spike looked over his hoard with a poisonous feeling somewhere down under. Reflections in the gems played with moving pictures: one was of Rarity staring back it him, innocently fluttering her eyelashes. In another she were at a royal ball, spinning around in an exquisite long dress. Another gem had Pinkie Pie strut around a small pathway in one of her ridiculous outfits with a party blower in her mouth. Next one one had her kick over a big draped table, sending all the food on it all over the shocked ponies around it. In yet another he saw two of them together, singing a silent song in the middle of nowhere: his giant figure towered over the pink pony so much it made Spike's head spin a little.

One particularly lustrous gem reflected something he didn't remember seeing before. He picked it up and brought it closely to his snout: it was an image of him and Pinkie spinning in a dance back at the ball. Pinkie Pie lay her head on his shoulder and smiled to herself, a little brighter than usual. Spike expected himself to be looking for Rarity, but instead his reflection simply held Pinkie's hoof and tenderly looked straight at the pink pony.

Spike put the gem down and stared at the small mountain with a sad expression. With a corner of his eye he saw Pinkie Pie turn around and stroll away with her head down. Suddenly he felt like he missed a step on a staircase.

"Well, okay," heavily breathed Spike.

Pinkie Pie turned around. Spike brought up his clinched claw and slowly opened it, revealing the lustrous gem.

"Here, you can have one," he pronounced nervously. "Just don't eat it, Pinkie! Ponies can't eat gems," he added.

Spike gently put the sparkling crystal down at Pinkie's hooves. Pinkie Pie looked at the gem, then back at Spike, then back at the gem again. Her mouth slacked open in disbelief.

She stared at it in total silence for a few moments. Spike looked at her and the gem, nervously rubbing his claws against each other.

Suddenly Pinkie loudly gasped, making Spike jump a little, and carefully bit the gem. She grabbed it with her hooves and carefully examined it with a bright spark in her eye. Her coat shined a bit brighter in the sun, as if it was suddenly sprinkled with tiny diamonds. Her face lit up with a bigger grin than Spike had ever seen her don. She brought the lustrous gem close to her chest, and hugged it like a plush toy.

"Oh, that is- that... It- it's!.." Pinkie gasped, struggling to pronounce anything.

She bent down and bit the grass at her hooves a few times in a calculated frenzy. A few stretches of green chain and rope made of grass appeared in her hooves. In one quick motion she threw it all, and her gem, into a swirling cloud of dust in her hooves, and fashioned herself an exquisite necklace with the sparkling diamond in the middle. She giggled, bit the necklace by its chain, and gleefully threw it over her neck.

Pinkie Pie quickly threw her head up and stared back at Spike with a large grin, perfectly content with herself. The dragon huffed and smiled back at her.

The wind suddenly carried in a smell of pastry and sugary drinks, as if they were near a bakery or a large party. Spike, surprised, did a double-take with a few giant whiffs and closed his eyes. He was sure he remembered that smell from Sugarcube corner, but somehow it echoed with something else, something familiar...

An unpleasant, blurry memory that he couldn't even discern slowly materialised in his head like an unwanted guest. He flinched: all the joy of the moment disappeared with a loud crack of glass.

"Hi, Spike!" called an innocent high-pitched voice.

Spike opened his eyes. He found himself down on the ground, down to his usual, smaller than any pony size. Well, all but one pony.

"I like you, Spike. Let's have some tea!"

Applebloom stood right in front of him with her usual tiny smile. In her mouth she bit the handle of a toy teapot.

Spike felt his world turn in protest and despair. He stumbled away from the tiny pony in front of him like she was the scariest monster he'd ever seen. With a corner of his eye he could see Pinkie Pie, too, was back to her usual size. His cheeks flushed with red.

"No," muttered Spike.

With a cold strike of fear and shame he noticed his voice no longer carried any roar or impact.

"No, no, NO!" he cried in his usual high-pitched tone.

Spike gave Pinkie Pie one last scared look. He spun around and ran away from Applebloom as from death itself towards a plain white door frame in the middle of the idyllic meadow. He jumped onto the handle and pulled it with all his strength, but it refused to budge.

With one loud roar he gave it his best, and the handle flew right off: the lock broke into splinters. Spike fell down to the ground, but quickly jumped back up. The door slowly creaked open, and he immediately ran inside.

Pinkie Pie gaped at the scene. She turned to Applebloom, who still bit the toy teapot with the most innocent look. Pinkie Pie frowned and huffed at her, but her heart raced with worry - she turned back towards the broken door frame.

"Sir Spike, wait!" she yelled.

Pinkie Pie quickly sped after him and disappeared in the white door frame.

Applebloom was left all alone in the grassy meadow. She was now sitting in front of a haphazardly decorated small table full of toy cups and dishes. She hummed sweetly and innocently to herself and closed her eyes.

"Well, time to have imaginary tea and play with dolls," Applebloom noted cheerfully.

With that she took a sip of the smoking poisonous-green brew from one of the toy cups. Small plumes of smoke fell down on the grass below - it slowly withered and turned to dust in the gentle wind.

***

Twilight Sparkle strolled across the endless meadow with unending pride and joy as ponies in official dresses and party hats cheered her on from all sides in a parade in her honour. The air was filled the pleasant wind. All around were bright streamers, large waving flags and colourful banners. Twilight held her head up high, bobbing it from side to side to the music, and gently strolled along the warm grass.

Her eyes closed for a moment, she didn't notice as her procession took her all the way back into the middle of familiar Ponyville. The crowd all around her gave off one last big cheer and each pony walked away on their own separate business.

She looked over the village, and her smile slowly faded from her face: she noted, with guilt, the unkempt exteriors, the torn-out signs and fences, the scattered furniture and smashed buildings glittering in the warm sun from the last storm. The storm she didn't care to stop when she left.

Twilight took a painful gulp and lowered her head as the sun slowly went dim, storm clouds materialising in the sky above her. A crack of lightning lit up the empty village, and a gust of strong wind threw her mane in her face.

She slowly raised her head, a look of steely determination on her face. Hot flames played in her eyes, glowing in the dawning darkness.

"Not this time," she taunted the storm as clouds assembled themselves to form something much worse - a giant, grinning, sharp-toothed face in the sky.

The monster slowly assembled its body into myriads of long claws with what seemed to be a laughing grin. It's size masked by seemingly being everywhere at once, it now stretched over entire Equestria like a giant planet, threatening to come crashing down any second - but Twilight just calmly walked towards it. Wind violently flew against her mane. The fire in her eyes lit up the ground before her in all shades of red like a large fire.

The purple unicorn stopped with a single tiny smirk and simply sat on the ground, as if she were quite comfortable there and then. Splinters and broken wood flew all around her. Torn-out landscape and huge chunks of buildings crashed into each other just inches away. Wind wailed like the end of times, and huge torrential rain mixed with indiscernible debris obscured everything that could remain in sight. The enormous monster in the sky slowly opened his grin to swallow her whole, bringing itself closer and closer...

She suddenly jumped up, spinning a pair of giant golden cannons from behind her back. She effortlessly balanced them in the air with her hooves, looking the monster right in the eye for one split-second.

"Cor aut mors, BITCH!"

Thunder as of hundred storms rolled over Ponyville, putting the real storm all around the small pony to shame. Every piece of destruction around her flashed with fire and brimstone as a sea of giant empty shells streamed from the golden armaments, sending an unending wave of glowing projectiles high up into the sky and towards the giant beast. Time slowed down and debris paused in the air, unsure if it should continue its course.

A wave of blinding sunlight hit Twilight in the eye as the first glowing ball ripped through the dark clouds, making the giant monstrosity double over and wail in pain. Her grin grew bigger as she firmly squeezed her arsenal; bright spots of light teared up the dark sky over and over again with a dozen sunbeams that poured from heavens like giant waterfalls. A wave of satisfaction and fiery excitement rolled over Twilight: the worries of her life seemed all so meek and unimportant now, in this one moment of effortless struggle and victory happily playing in her head over, and over, and over again... The innumerable waterfalls of light threatened to fall down like a giant ocean, flooding everything below...

The giant beast hunched over and looked at her with pleading terror in its eye one last time before it let out a single fading shrill wail and vanished forever, sending big grey clouds roaming in all directions from where it once stood into the once again clear, blue sky over Ponyville. A huge, thin plane of liquid sunlight hung up there with the stars, slowly descending like a delicate veil.

Twilight paused for a bit, enjoying the moment. A pleasant warm gust of wind flew against her mane, thanking her for her victory. She half-closed her eyes with a crooked smile, elegantly spinning the elaborate golden cannons in front of her back into non-existence, and dropped back down to all fours.

Twilight looked around the destruction all around her with a victorious smile. Few surviving houses were barely visible among ruined fragments of wood and large spots of ground torn out whole. Rivers of rainy mud mixed with liquid sunlight flowed somewhere in the distance. She noted, with relief, that there wasn't a single party pony in sight to congratulate her.

Twilight's sight instinctively darted over to Rarity's shop, standing completely unscathed where it always were, rising into the sky like an elegant, gem-encrusted tent.

She calmly stood up and innocently skipped - probably like Pinkie Pie would if she were there - towards it. She just knew Rarity would appreciate what she had done.

***

Spike stood all alone in the middle of Rarity's shop.

Spike looked around: he remembered the shop booming with colour, but now it was just grey, empty, and distastefully striped. Still, a few dresses, even if he never understood why anyone would ever wear them, clearly showed an artist's touch. He did admire it, but now that admiration made him shiver with cold.

He strolled around a bit and lowly sat down on a chair in the corner. He twirled his thumbs with a sad expression, incredibly tired of waiting. He wasn't even sure what he was doing here anymore. Everything felt like one giant lie.

Spike still shivered with cold. He looked around the empty and sterile interior of the shop and noticed an open window. It quietly creaked in the draft.

Spike picked himself up from the chair and slowly walked up to the window. Sounds of his steps echoed in deafening silence. As he came closer, a few flashes of light came through the frame, and the next moment a heavy draft dropped a sprinkle of rain through it. Spike came closer and looked out of the window, covering his face from the heavy wind with his claw.

The sky outside was pitch-black. Ponyville looked completely different, empty. Here and there, an occasional building lay smashed to bits, others carried off by the storm whole.

Spike noticed something standing in the middle of all the chaos: Twilight Sparkle was staring somewhere into the distance with a more cock-sure smile than he'd ever seen her don. A moment later, and she was jumped in the air, illuminated by countless flashes of fiery colours. A deep, deafening thunder rocked the landscape.

Spike's heart lifted in hope for a moment, but just as soon came crashing down again. Somehow he surely knew his friend didn't need his help.

Spike sighed and closed the creaky window. Countless flashes reflected in its glass, illuminating Rarity's shop with bright colours for a moment. The small flimsy latch held the window perfectly shut.

Spike turned around and took a few steps nowhere in particular. He froze in place, hands behind his back, and stared at the floor. A familiar tune played in his head. Spike squinted, trying to remember where he heard it, but he couldn't no matter how hard he tried.

"Leave if you leave..." muttered Spike.

Nothing changed. Spike clinched his teeth in frustration.

"Why do I have to be here?" he asked himself.

No one answered.

Spike frowned, took a few more steps and hopped onto a nearby bed. He dropped onto his back and blankly stared at the plain white ceiling.

"Leave if you leave," he muttered again. "I'll leave after you..."

The room flashed with blinding white.

Spike was back at the royal ball. The crowd still spun in a mannerly dance, and the chambers still bloomed with pedantic decorations. He was frozen mid-curtsy, holding Pinkie's hoof. Surprised, he looked at Pinkie Pie with a wide-open stare. The pink pony stared back at him with tears in corners of her eyes.

"Why would you leave?.."

Pinkie's voice echoed as if from a large distance. Spike saw his reflection in Pinkie's eyes: small, meek, and ridiculously-dressed. Something big and scary turned inside his stomach. Spike froze like a statue, still holding her hoof, and didn't let go. He blinked.

Spike sat back up on the bed in the middle of Rarity's shop. He sat still and nervously scratched the side of his arm.

"Maybe," Spike started, unsurely. "Maybe I could go to Sugarcube Corner? You know, pick up a few donuts. Maybe a cake. I mean, why not?"

That seemed to reassure him enough. Spike smiled and picked himself up, but with a corner of his eye he noticed a dark, scary storm booming outside. The coy smile faded from his face.

"Run through the storm..." he unconsciously muttered.

Spike tried to sit back down, but instead he just clumsily collapsed on the floor. He flinched and looked around: the puffy bed disappeared without a trace.

Spike adjusted himself and sat on the floor, looking down. He glanced at the door of the shop for a moment - the door was closed shut. It's handle hung by a metallic cord from its splintered lock.

Spike's heart lifted in hope for a moment: maybe Pinkie Pie would follow him here? He perked up, leaning a bit closer to the door frame.

Nothing happened.

Spike turned away and dropped his head. The walls creaked and closed in on him a bit.

"Sorry for your drink, Pinkie Pie," he announced with bitter regret. "I didn't even know what kind of pink punch to pick!"

His voice reverberated in deafening silence.

"Oh, that is most okay," suddenly cheered a voice right next to him.

Spike jumped up, startled. Pinkie Pie appeared just a few steps away from him, standing like she had always been there.

"I like nettle sarsaparilla better anyway. Exxx-quisite"

Pinkie Pie innocently fluttered her eyelashes. Her usual oblivious smile shined on her face. Spike opened his mouth a few times, but he was completely lost for words to reply.

"Whacha doin'?" asked Pinkie Pie, leaning closer.

Spike froze in silence. A moment later, every single implement in the room fell down with a loud thump as if it all were hanging in the air before, making Spike jump. Suddenly Rarity's shop bloomed with renewed colours, warm and welcoming.

Spike smiled and opened his mouth to say something, but then closed it again - he felt his claw pressed against his chest. It hurt.

He looked back at Pinkie.

"How-"

He cut himself short, took a deep breath, and continued:

"How d-do you do it?" he stuttered.

Pinkie Pie tilted her head, looking somewhere at the ceiling.

She didn't answer.

"Oh!" Pinkie Pie suddenly perked up. "Well, I'm probably just being Pinkie Pie! At least that's what everypony says. To dry hay with imaginary tea!"

Spike felt a pinch of guilt. He remembered offering her a cup earlier on; for some reason that memory also echoed with something pleasant, too. Spike felt a sudden an urge to say something nice in return.

"Um... I don't think you're crazy, Pinkie Pie."

That came out much more insulting and insincere than he hoped. Spike blushed.

"I- I-" he stuttered. "No, I mean- I think you're cool. For a fru-fruiey, I mean," Spike paused mid-sentence, unsure what to add. "Aye. Also, and- and, you like sarsaparilla. Whatever that is."

"I most certainly do," nodded Pinkie Pie with a wide smile.

Pinkie noticed Spike holding his chest. She looked down and picked up the shiny jewel around her neck. Her ball dress materialised on her figure for a second, perfectly clean and shining, and vanished as soon as it had appeared.

The sparkling gem reflected an image of Twilight Sparkle unsurely staring back at her. Next to her stood a small purple dragon, gesturing with his claws and telling her something.

"Uh... Hello?.." Twilight's voice faintly reverberated in the air.

Pinkie reached out, grabbed Spike's claw and opened her mouth: she wanted to say something, a lot of something, but words in her head came out even more wrong than they usually did, steadily tumbling downhill into a tangled string of complete incoherence. Spike stared back at her, holding his breath.

Pinkie quickly let go and took a few steps back, cursing herself under her breath. She looked away, uncomfortably examined her surroundings for a bit, then turned her gaze down and dug the floorboards with her hoof. She threw her head back up, looking anywhere but at Spike.

"I- I can be elegant," announced Pinkie Pie in a completely unnatural tone, carefully studying her hooves. "And- and sophisticated. And- And smarty-smart, too, you know-" she couldn't continue as tears welled up in her eyes.

Spike's heart broke with an audible crack. He muttered something and slowly shook his head in silent dismay. He'd never seen the pink pony so miserable... No, he'd never seen her without her oblivious smile at all. More than anything in the world now he wanted her to jump around, do something crazy, anything at all, just not stand there with tears rolling down her cheeks. Anything at all.

But she didn't. She did something he expected her to do least of all in the world.

With one swift motion Pinkie Pie darted forward and threw her hooves around the purple dragon, just freezing still, instantly bathing him in sweet smell of her soft pink coat.

Spike felt himself freeze like a statue, only his jaw slacking open. All thought vanished from his head. He felt like he was back at the endless green meadow, bathing in the warm wind. Pinkie's coat softly pushed against his chest with her breath, and her puffy mane gently brushed against his nose.

"Hi," whispered Pinkie Pie.

Spike felt her warm breath against his back, and a tingling sensation ran down his spine.

Pinkie Pie painfully broke the embrace and stepped away from the startled dragon, biting her lip. Spike looked back at her with a wide-open stare, his eyes darting from place to place.

Pinkie's earlier monologue echoed through the room, thin as air. A tumbleweed slowly rolled past the two, completely out of place.

Pinkie Pie gently came back up to him and rubbed her neck over his side, feeling Spike shiver a little. She looked up at him with a faint, pleading expression, not saying a word in silent question.

Spike didn't answer. He looked down on Pinkie Pie with his mouth half-open, breathing heavily.

Spike gently stepped away. An empty punch glass materialised in his hand. He took a few steps and leant on a nearby table, staring down into it. All expression faded from his face, and he examined the table's surface with a look of utter boredom.

Something cracked loudly. Pinkie Pie heard a faint ringing in her ears, but above it she could hear Spike say indifferently, as if making small-talk about weather:

"I still love Rarity."

Pinkie Pie felt the ground beneath her hooves disappear and all colour drain from her surroundings. She stumbled and shivered: a cold feeling washing over her like she was just thrown into a frozen lake. Pinkie shut her eyes, but it only made her heart break into a million pieces with an earth-shattering crack. She felt like there was no more happiness in the world, and never again will be. She knew sure as day she will never even see a party again even through a slip of a door.

"It must be a dream," a faint voice inside her head called out in only consolation. "You're dreaming, Pinkie."

That's what it was: just a bad dream. A bad, bad, horrible dream. She felt something wet running against her cheek in another reality...

A cool, hard touch of someone's sharp claw drew her back to the middle of Rarity's shop. Pinkie opened her eyes to see Spike, in more detail than she'd ever seen him in real life, stand in front of her with a perfectly calm expression.

"But I love you more," he smiled.

The dragon held her hoof, looking her in the eyes. Pinkie Pie felt her world turn upside down. All feeling inside her creaked like a broken record and stopped. Everything she's been through all her life, everything she's been through in this dream, she couldn't even remember... And she knew she was in a dream clear as day, she felt her own cheek lay against warm floorboards of the library. Pinkie felt herself waking up...

Pinkie Pie shook her head and turned to Spike. The purple dragon was staring at her with a lost expression, his sight nervously darting across her face. A wide grin slowly spread over her face: that stare made her feel like the guest of the best party in all of Equestria.

Pinkie jumped, and her grin disappeared. She grabbed the dragon by the shoulders. Shivers ran down her spine.

"It's a dream! It's a dreamy-dream, Spike!"

The dragon flushed with red and shyly turned away.

"Well, let's not overreact," he muttered.

"Oh, oh, oh, do you remember the crystal, Spike?" Pinkie Pie jumped and wildly gestured in the air. "Back in the library? And the smoke, and the bang, and the poof, and the wham, and 'Whacha doin?', and then whiiiiirl and BLAM! And then nothing makes sense anymore and the books are all wrong! Oh it's all so meany-mean, it's all my fault, and why would Twilight ever abandon her favourite clever-clever books and books and more books like that?"

Spike loudly giggled at the show, covering his mouth. He let out one final chuckle and calmly nodded at Pinkie Pie.

"Sure, I believe you," simply said Spike.

Pinkie Pie, in turn, closed her eyes and hugged herself in a loud guffaw.

Spike scratched his chin. He felt gears grinding in his head, painfully trying to remember something he didn't even know what.

“Huh? Crystal, you say?.. And we're all... And this then?.."

"Yes, yes a dream!" jumped Pinkie Pie. "And in a dream, anything-anything can happen! Honest-honest! Pinkie-swear!"

With that Pinkie Pie huddled close to Spike and rubbed against him with her cheek. The dragon obliviously stroked her mane, catching himself thinking it was completely inappropriate.

Blurry images in Spike's head became more vivid, as if guided by a balloon rising into the sky. He remembered himself in the library with Twilight, making notes about magical crystals, and then helping Twilight with her study, and then Pinkie Pie bouncing herself over to them, and the sudden explosion.

Something clicked. The room was bathed in a flash of pure white, and Spike felt himself vanish far away for a split-second, his other self lying uncomfortably over a pile of disheveled book pages, bright sun against his eyelids making him frown.

"Anything?.." slowly pronounced Spike.

The world around him suddenly became clearer than he'd ever remembered seeing it.

Really, anything? Could he summon a whole mountain of rubies? Could he fight against a thousand enemies and come out a victorious knight? Could he sail and adventure across the seven seas? Could he be a hero in all of the land? Could he even?..

Spike looked at Pinkie Pie for a moment. In one swift motion he stepped away, holding her by her hooves, then brought her closer and gently leant her over his hand, closing his eyes.

Pinkie's eyes shot open in surprise as she felt a pleasantly cool touch against her lips, but before she had time to realise what was going on, her consciousness broke into a million pieces and her eyes dreamily wandered in ecstasy and finally closed shut. Her whole being shivered like it was winter inside her heart, spreading over her body like a stream of bubbling sugary soda.

The world around them spun into darkness before they appeared standing on an exquisite pedestal in the middle of a brightly-lit social gathering. Thousands of thunderous cheers materialised in the air: a countless crowd of ponies below applauded and cheered them on, throwing their hats and popping party streamers in the air, but neither of them could see it: they were completely lost in a world filled with one moment and one feeling. Unbearably pleasant jolts of pain coursed through their entire beings. Shocks of lightning coursed through entire reality, calling for more with sound of cheering thunder.

Spike and Pinkie Pie held each other in tight embrace as endlessly stretching eternity passed around them, and then another and another like it. Time stretched so far it had completely lost all meaning. They only remembered they shared a thousand lifetimes with each other, remembering every tiniest thought they shared, every fleeting feeling, every gentle touch, neither wanting it to stop ever for a tiniest second until the end of time, and even long past it.

"We don't have time for this!"

The couple clumsily fell onto the floor.

Twilight towered above them and clicked her tongue in annoyance, oblivious to having unceremoniously torn someone out of a completely different reality.

"Confound these ponies," she muttered. "And dragons."

Twilight threw her mane upright and took a few steps across the room.

"Honestly, you have no respect for gravity of the situation!" Twilight carefully pronounced in her teacher's voice. "Did you even notice what a heroic effort I made? Did you?"

Twilight sighed.

"I thought not..."

Pinkie Pie jumped up in excitement and tapped her hooves together, as if she just solved the hardest riddle.

"Oh, oh, gravity! GRAVITY! Do you get it, Spike?"

The dragon still lay on the floor, blankly staring at the ceiling.

"No," he replied in a blissful tone.

Spike had to do a double-take: Pinkie Pie swept him off the floor and brought him and Twilight close to herself, hugging them both.

"Pinkie, this isn't in the instructions," protested Twilight in yet grumpier tone.

"Silly Twilight! This is a dream!" cheered Pinkie Pie. "And you're in that dream! And I'm in that dream. And me and Spike are in that dream!"

Pinkie hugged them both closer, pushing all the air out of them, and nuzzled Spike's cheek.

"Show her your wings, Spike!"

Spike looked confused for a moment, then he perked up and somehow slipped out of Pinkie's embrace.

He stood upright in the middle of the shop, cleared his throat, closed his eyes and threw his claws outwards... And suddenly the room around them disintegrated into tiny splinters and strips of fabric, outwards into empty, brightly-lit Ponyville. Shiny gizmos melted and sparked in the air, falling down like glittering rain. A pair of giant wings shot from the dragon's back, and moments later his scales shined with bright light, covering the entire village in one blinding flash.

As the flash cleared, he stood a dozen times his size, exactly like the only other dragon the ponies ever saw, triumphantly spreading his claws and wings in the air. A wave of cool wind, like a small explosion, washed over the two ponies.

Spike gently lowered one of his giant claws down to the ground.

"M'lady," the dragon pronounced in a pleasant alien voice.

Twilight frowned back at him.

"Spike, this isn't in the instructions either. You'll ruin everything!"

But Pinkie Pie already put her hoof in the dragon's hand and, with Twilight in hold, she took to the sky in a stream of flame and smoke - the jetpack on her back creaked and huffed under the strain.

Pinkie Pie spiralled around Spike's neck and launched straight upwards, the dragon taking to the sky shortly after. They spiralled up, triumphant, even as Twilight was loudly yelling and protesting in Pinkie's grasp.

"Oh, don't you get it, Twilight? It's a dream!" yelled Pinkie Pie over the rushing wind. "And everypony knows there's ONE thing dreams are made of!"

A solid veil of air pushed against them harder and harder as they flew higher and higher into the sky, determined to reach the sparkling-white sea in the impossibly large distance. Yet still, cloud by cloud, spin by spin, the tiny pony and the huge dragon made their way higher and higher, second by second...

Pinkie Pie triumphantly broke the cover of clouds with her hoof and let out a cry of victory. Shortly after, the cloud behind her exploded into tiny puffs of white as Spike ripped a giant hole through the sky, right after her.

The world around them slowed down like someone forgot to wind it up and froze in the moment, slowly fading into an impossibly-bright flash of white.

***

Twilight frowned and squinted her already closed eyes. Bright sun was against her eyelids, making her eyes water.

Twilight turned away and blinked herself awake. She groggily pulled her head up from the dusty pages. Reality slowly started to make sense again. She heard muffled laughter and chirping birds outside, inviting her to stretch herself a little. Wind still peacefully creaked outside as she last remembered it, carrying sweet smell of grass and blooming trees into the old library.

With a corner of her eye Twilight noticed a tiny motion: a pink pony next to her opened her eyes and let out a sweet yawn, still stretching on the floor. Further down, over a pile of old books just like hers, lay a silhouette of a tiny dragon. He unsurely picked himself up and rubbed his nose.

Twilight looked up at the clock, expecting its hands to spin wildly or read nonsense, but it just showed hardly an hour's difference since when she last remembered looking at it.

"Ooooooh, what a wonderful dream!" loudly announced Pinkie Pie in her usual upbeat tone.

The pink pony was still stretching on the floor with her eyes closed and a wide smile on her face. Next to her side lay an uncut blue crystal.

Twilight perked up: something pinged in her head. The next second her eyelids fell half-closed in a dull frown.

"Good job, Pinkie," Twilight yawned.

Twilight groggily picked herself up and tried to give her face a look of frustration, but all she elicited was another yawn.

"Feel free to just bounce yourself in here anytime you want," she added. "There's a lot of other things you can break around here, you know."

Pinkie Pie jumped up from the ground with a bigger grin than Twilight had ever seen her don, clearly untouched by her sarcastic remarks.

"Oh I'm so-so-sorry Twilight!" cheered Pinkie Pie. "But thank you kindly! It's been super-duper super-fun!"

Pinkie Pie closed her eyes again and hummed something to herself. Twilight could only blankly stare back at her.

It the other corner of the room, Spike finally stood up on shaking legs. He reached out and leant against the book pile for support.

Spike looked over the library with a wide-open, completely lost stare, as if he'd never seen it before. He dazedly brought his claw in front of his face and jumped, imagining for a second he'd teleported into someone else's body. Reality slowly assembled itself back together in his head, picking up speed with each passing second.

Spike stood up properly and half-heartedly brushed himself off. Suddenly he noticed something with a corner of his eye and turned: Pinkie Pie was cheerfully bouncing next to Twilight, her eyes closed in an oblivious wide grin. Spike dropped in his posture again and stared at Pinkie Pie like he'd never seen her before, his gaze nervously darting over her figure.

A small racket broke the silence: Twilight noisily climbed out from underneath her pile of books and heavily dusted herself off.

"Well!" gasped Pinkie Pie. "All in a day's work!"

Twilight glanced at her like she wanted to incinerate her on the spot. Pinkie caught her gaze and lowered herself a bit.

"Soooo..." she sung in a lowly tone. "I gotta be going? Yes?"

Spike heard himself pronounce 'No' against his own will, but his voice was drowned out by Twilight's:

"YES. Yes you should," she replied a tinge louder than needed. "Thanks a lot for the visit, come again!"

Twilight stumbled and made her way to the library's door, tripping over burnt books and all manners of newly-found debris she'd never seen in her life on her way there. Twilight meaningfully held the door open and cleared her throat, glaring at the pink pony.

Pinkie Pie didn't hesitate long and bounced herself towards the door, humming something to herself.

Spike suddenly found himself outside, under the bright sun. He turned around, facing the library, remembering that his legs carried him outside against his own will just seconds ago.

Spike turned back around to find Pinkie Pie staring back at him with her usual bright smile, or maybe even a slightly bigger one, from just inches away. Sun played with her coat as if she were in a slim white ball dress. She just silently beamed at him, blinking occasionally. A gust of wind carried in a smell of spices and baked goods from Pinkie's coat - suddenly, a burst of long string of memories exploded in his mind: memories of something he was sure never even happened, and yet...

Spike's eyes darted across Pinkie's face, trying to discern a hint of something, anything under her oblivious grin.

Distracting, pleasant wind outside seemed completely unreal right now. Did she even remember?.. Did it even matter?..

Dragon took a large gulp, and then let out a loud huff, stalling the moment.

"So..." twirled his thumbs Spike, staring at the ground. "You want to hang out?"

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