/*NoPony:Catch22A*/
/*20121007 Terl*/
"Oh Rareity, Is it hot in here, or is it just you." Twilights eyes snapped open in the predawn light as Spike moaned out loud, turning over in his backet, then dropping back into deep sleep. Smiling at Spikes infatuation with Rareity, Twilights features relaxed, and she lowered her head back to the pillow to catch a last snooze before the new day. As she started to drift off to sleep once more, the constantly analytical part of her mind metaphorically grabbed her by the horn, slapped her awake both sides of her muzzle, then pushed her face up against the slowly brightning window. Wait, not against the window, just next to the window, where her small but efficient local weather station kept track of the pegasis effort and the complex interactions with the housng and populance. Twilight grumbled to herself, and started to try to slip back to the happy night, when she snapped fully awake, and stiffened, then very slowly turned back to, and looked very carefully at the thermomenters. It was reading half a degree above the theoretical absolute maximum for the current weather and occupancy conditions, far too high to be due to a single candle, or even a fair number of candles. There was an extra source of heat in the library. One that shouldnt be there, and it was pony sized.
Twilight became very confused. Owlicious was a night time bird, and so watched over the library during the dark hours, and yet he hadnt raised a hoot about anything. Phe, although very young, was still perfectly capable of sensing and dealing with small incidents of combustion. Both would deal with any unwarrentd intruders, or at least raise the alarm. She quietly slipped out of bed, then eased herself down the stairs, holding the frying pan out in front with her horns magic, the weak glow helping to light her immediate surroundings. Reaching the bottom of the stair, Twilight strained her eyes to see in the gloom at first, thought a little, then closed her eyes, and relaxed, swinging the frying pan to and fro slowly in front of her. As she relaxed, she could feel her face warming and cooling more to one side than the other as the frying pan covered and uncovered the source of the heat, and she slowly turned in that direction. When both sides of her face felt like they were responding the same, she slowly opened her eyes. There, in the corner of the shelves directly under her sleeping quarters, was barely visible the form of a pony, somewhat misshapen, slightly larger than herself, head down, asleep on its feet. Twilight slowly moved closer towards the obscured pony, and twitched her ears as she started to pick up sounds and voices amongst the mumblings of the still unknown figure. Suddenly, the words became all too clear. "General Kala, Flash Gordon approach." Twilight blinked at the heavily accented toally non pony like voice, but the next voice totally bewildered her. A perfectly formed female voice came from the still unknown pony. "What do you mean, Flash Gordon approaching." The first male voice replied, "On a Hawkman rocket cycle. Should I inform His Majesty?" The female voice effectively spat back the reply. "You fool, he would have your head for this. All weapons, Open Fire." By this point, Twilight was scared far too much to even consider trying to work out what was going on, and on the word Open, was already swinging the frying pan down towards the unknown ponies head, where on the word Fire, it impacted, with a prolonged, drawn out whump of distorting metal. There was a small whooshng sound as something flew from the unknown ponies muzzle, bounced a couple times on the far side of the room, landed on the floor with a small crack, the required pause, then the tinkle of broken glass slipping from its frame. Just one more sound occured. The unknown pony quiet clearly spoke just one word in its own voice. "Ow."
Twilights jaw hit the ground pretty much the same time as the heavily deformed fryingpan. "Booster?" she called quietly, gently reaching out to lift his head, so she could look for signs of concussion in his unshielded sun comeing in through the bedroom window. Twilight blinked, and raised her hoof to block the beautiful morning sun, magnified by the covering of snow, blinking her bright light tears away in confusion. "What?" Spike jumped as Twilight suddenly teleported in next to him, looked round wildly, then teleported out again. for the next few minutes there was the sounds and flashes of Twilight teleporting rapidly to every corner of the library, inside and out, holding herself just above the freshly fallen snow in an attempt not to tread in any tracks left from the previous day. Eventually she ported back inside the library, to the sight of Spike holding a plate of freshly fried waffles with maple syrup. "Im sorry the waffles are a bit burnt today Twilight", Spike apologised, "The frying pan seems a bit, well, I dunno, bent. It was ok when I pulled it from next to the sink this morning, although come to think of it, I did put it away yesterday. Did you get up for a midnight fryup or something Twi?" He paused, and looked at Twilight, or rather, just above her, somewhat puzzled. "When was the last time you stuck your notes on your horn so you wouldnt lose them, Twilight?" She looked at Spike, then said calmly, "I never use my horn as a note spike, Spike, and you know perfectly well why, it leaves a hole in the paper in the worng place." Spike nodded, and waved the spatula towards Twilights horn. "Then I wouldnt want to be the guy who left you with that." He moved out of the way, to wash and clean up. Twilight sighed, moved so she could lift a hoof to her head, and carefully worked the piece of paper off her horn, placing it on the table so she could flatten the creases out. After a while at looking at the short phrase written on the side facing her, she turned it over. there was nothing else. she turned it back, and the phrase was still there, enigmatically. "Aww, isnt that cute, he drew a heart, and then speared it through with your horn." Twilight looked up to remonstrate with Spike that it wasnt a heart, but the number 22 with the first digit simply laterally inverted, when she noticed he was gazing at her horn again. "Oh, so thats what it was covering up. Looks like you have a secret admirer Twilight." Spike grinned widly at her and turned away, only to lean back hard as Pinkie Pie leaned in from out of frame. "Twilight Sparkle has a Secret Admirer? This calls for a party!" Pinkie pie vanished off frame with a light shower of confetti, leaving Spike with a party hat and a party blower. He slumped back, then turned and shrugged at Twilight, and headed back to the sink.
Twilight groaned, and dropped her face down onto the table. "How can things get any worse." the front door opened, and her freinds came into the library, Rainbow Dash at such speed that she tumbled trying to avoid a chair, and ended up in a crumped heap next to the table leg. Twilight slumped, then lifted her head to face her freinds, her usual smile returning, for a moment, before realisation set in. A collection of snorts, giggles and a short laugh led Rareity to voice her opinion. "You know, Twilight dahling, cucumbers are fah better for the eyes, than waffles in maple syrup." Twilight sighed, and carefully worked the waffles off her eyes and back onto her plate, where they were quickly grabbed and chomped by Dash. Rareity stepped forward, lifted her hoof, and moved Twilights head up and down, to and fro and around, her spectacles lifting onto her muzzle by her horn. "Hmm, most intriguing, if I didnt know better dahling, I would ask you if your father had tucked you in last night, but we would know if they were visiting. Wouldnt we?" Twilight pulled back a little, then paused. "Rareity, what makes you ask?" Rareity smiled slyly. "Because dahling, the kiss is still on your forehead. Just visible due to its most gentle caress, but it is there." Twilight sighed, then held her hoof out to where Spike was stood, holding a wash towel. Spike silently handed the towel over, then sniggered slightly as Twilight carefully washed all traces of breakfast and before off her face, handing the rumpled dirty towel back to Spike. Holding herself straight, Twilight closed her eyes for a moment, opened them, and looked round at her freinds. "I was woken by a sound about an hour before dawn, the thermoment caught my eye because it was reading higher than it should, which given everything else, implied there might be an intruder." Fluttershy eeped quietly and hid behind Rarity at this, where Dash jumped up and started air boxing. "Lemme at them, Ill" "No Dash," Twilight tried to calm her freinds, "It wasnt like that, Owlicious is awake all night, and he hadnt raised any form of alarm, same for Phe. I went down the stairs, with the frying pan just in case," "Hey." Spike started. Twilight smiled wanly, "I found him," "Him?" "Girls, girls, please?" Twilight held her hooves up." Tucked right in the corner over there, where Id obvioulsy overlooked him when closing up for the night, asleep on his feet, was Booster. I dont know, maybe its because he spends so loong in here reading everything he can that Ive become used to not seeing, even ignoring him, that I locked him in for the night. Without wanting to cause a fuss, he did the only thing he could think of, remain as still as he could in teh last place he was. Anyway, I approached him, not knowing it was him because it was still dark, and heard him muttering in voices Ive never even heard before, when suddenly he spoke quite clearly, Open Fire. At that point, because I was suprised, I hit him as hard as I could with the frying pan, which bent, and caused his spectacles to fly off over that way and break."
Twilight paused for a few moments while her freinds looked round at the corner, then where the spectacles were supposed to have landed and broke. Rarity walked over, then used her gem magic in the area to lift a small collection of tiny shards and fragments from the cracks and crevices, carrying them back over to the table, where she placed them on the piece of paper. "These are what little I can find Twilight dear, but you didnt say anything about helping him recover, mend them. Please, go on, what happened next?" Rarity leaned in along with everypony else. Twilight hmmd to herself, tapped her chin with a hoof,and looked at the cieling,then back at her freinds. "All I know is, when the unknown figure said Ow, I recognised Boosters voice, because nopony sounds like he does. then when I went to check for concusion by lifting his head and looking into his" "TWILIGHT, come on girl, snap out of it, please." Twilight blinked, then blinked again, then shook her head violently as the water still dripped into her eyes, blurring her vision. Applejack took hold again of Twilights muzzle, and moved it roughly side to side, up and down, then used both hooves to open Twilights eye lids wide to let her peer in more easily. "Applejack, what are you doing?" Twilight raise her hooves to try and get some control back." Applejack quietly pointed round the devastation that the library had somehow instantly become. "We tried everything hun. Spike dumped water on you, Dash tried a rainbow tornado, Rarity tried books and flashing lights from gems, Fluttershy, well, Fluttershy tried her Stare. Rarity is trying to comfort her over there." Applejack pointed to where Fluttershy was sobbing uncontrolably against Rarity. "You were talking Twi, then you just, stopped. Nothing. Rarity had to use the mirror trick just to make sure you were still breathing. But, Fluttershy, when she tried to look into your eyes, screamed louder than Ive heard anyone before, then collapsed crying. Its taken all this time for Rarity to help her back." Twilight quietly took the large dry towel Spike held out for her, and started to dry her mane and neck, as she moved slowly towards the slowly recovering Fluttershy. "Do you feel well enough to go home to rest, with Rarity? Or would you prefer to stay with her here for a while longer, or at the Boutique?" Fluttershy shook her head suprisingly roughly. "please. i want to stay with you, my freinds." she still managed to vocalise, almost too quiet to hear. "Twilight? In your eyes, I saw his eyes, and in his eyes, Waaaaaaaaaaaaa.." Fluttershy started sobbing loudly against against Rarity, who comforted her gently. "There there, Fluttershy dear, I have all my orders for this week already done, so I can stay with you for the next few days at least, how does that sound?" Rarity smiled at the gentle pony, who responded by wrapping her legs around Rarity tightly enough to cause mild discomfort. Twilight pondered. "I discovered it was Booster, I loo" "TWILIGHT" Twilight winced as her ear was bitten, "You almost went on us again there girl. Cut out that bit if you can." Applejack gazed herself into Twilights eyes, but by now enough time had passed to leave her unaffected. "Um. I. Found out it was Booster. Then. Um. I woke, tucked up in bed with the sun shining in my eyes, with this note on my horn, covering what you say is a gentle kiss Rarity?" Rarity nodded carefully, holding tightly to the now quietly crying Fluttershy. Twilight moved back to the table, to gaze down at the sodden note, Applejack looking from one side, Dash floating in the air on the other. "So, Catch your heart? Catch his heart? But with your horn spiked right through the middle? Catch a broken heart? what kind of message is that anyway." Dash flew round the room a few times in frstration. Twilight looked down at the paper. "I dont see Catch heart, I see Catch 22, and I have a very uncomfortable feelng about it.
Twilight stared at the note long enough to start worrying her freinds again, then took the materials offered by Spike, carefully moving the wet paper to a blotting sheet, onto a drying area. "Spike, I think you had better write a quick letter to Princess Celestia, as it seems I would have problems finishing it today." "Sure Twilight, what should I put in it?" Spike already had parchment and quill ready. "Just, I found Booster in the library because I accidentally locked him in, and, ah, you had better write the rest. Especially what happened to Fluttershy. I think its very important." Twilight shuddered. "Just what Did happen?" Spike wrote rapidly after the usual greetings, putting down as best he could comprehend what had been occuring. "Its done Twilight, Ill send it now." Twilight moved up next to Spike, but carefully looked away from the words on the parchment. "Wait a moment Spike, can you add a PS to that? Ask Princess Celestia if she can send me any books in the Canterlot library, on the meaning of the phrase, Catch 22." Spike blinked at Twilight, scribbled down the request, then rolled up the parchment, and sent it off to Canterlot with a short blast of green dragon flame. "All done Twi, now what?" Dash and Applejack moved in, "We all will help with tha cleanin up. Wont we Dash." Applejack looked pointedly at Dash, who looked sheepish while placing a hoof behind her head. "Sure, Im not needed on weather duty today." Dash started to move off, only to get hit by a rapidly traveling scroll that erupted from a very suprised Spikes dragon fire burst. "What the hay?" Applejack tried to grab the scroll, but Twilights magic got there first, pulling it back towards Spike, unrolling and holding it up for him to read. Spike coughed as usual, then stared at the parchment. "Uh Oh. Twilight? you better read this" Twilight stared at Spike, then at the parchment, then slowly turned it round. "Twilight Sparkle. What hath though done to Celestia. She sits there as if stone. What is this Catch 22 thou claimest of import? Princess Luna." Applejack and Dash took a few moments to notice Twilights shocked look, before hurrying back next to her side, where they also could read the message. "What is it hun? whats wrong? Princess Celestia? Oh no." Applejack and Dash looked in horror at each other, but just as they were about to speak again, Spike opened his mouth, and belched forth a new message containing burst of green dragon fire. Twilight quickly unrolled it and held it up.
"My Dear Twilight Sparkle, and all My Little Ponies. I can only apologise for my unfortunate reaction to your previous message. Booster wears spectacles, because without them he sees beyond reality and as such affects it directly. Anypony else looking at Booster without his spectacles also affect reality, including themselves. Little Ponies cannot handle such powers unless specially trained, and supported by many freinds. Please, treat Booster with great care, for with great power, comes great responsibility. Twilight Sparkle. The books you seek will be with you later today. Catch 22 is a great power, it can help you see the world in new ways, or it can be a weapon that can destroy all you love, as I am so sorry to have displayed. I will take the remainder of the day to rest, leaving the running of Equestria to Princess Luna for the time being. Yours in hope, Princess Celestia."
Spike looked at Twilight, who looked back, then at the rest of her freinds, including Fluttershy who had managed to recover to the point of sniffling and sobbing occasionally. "Just saying about Boosters eyes is enough to affect Celestia, through a message? What kind of power are we talking about? Thats even worse than Discord. At least just saying his name doenst make you turn to stone, Twilight, TWILIGHT? Oh no, not again."
It took a while, some bickering, some cookies and a couple of muffins, but eventually the library was back to relatively normal, books on the various shelves insted of all over the floor, Twilight helping various ponies with enquiries about such things as recipie books. Rarity took Fluttershy back to Flutteshys home, to let her recover and look after her animal responsibilities. Dash zipped off in order to catch up with the weather teams. "Weve had a big order of snow for Equestria for the next coupla days Twi, Better get your supplies in, and expect things to be quiet for a while." she left. Spike eventually shooed Twilight out of the library door. "Its OK Twilight, I can look after the library while you and Applejack go an get supplies for both. Things should be quiet enough the rest of teh day. You have to check on Pinkie Pie as well, I wonder why she hasnt come back yet." Twilight nodded as she eventually went out the door just behind Applejack, then she stopped dead in her tracks. "Pinkie Pie. If she has been infected." she set off at a full out gallop towards Sugar Cube corner, site of all of Pinkies in town paries, Applrjack, to her own suprise, barely managing to keep up with Twilight. A few moments later, Twilight burst through the door of Sugar Cube Corner, called an apology to Mrs Cake as she raced by and up the stairs to Pinkies Party room. Applejack folowed slightly more carefully, and peered into the room around Twilights body, which she seemed to be trying to fill the doorway with. "Oh no. Pikie. What in Celestias name has happened to you." Pinkamenia slowly turned round towards Twilight and Applejack, her pink hair hanging lifelessly straight down, her eyes wide and staring, "Well, helloooooo Miss Darkle, Mr Turnip told me allll about You." Twilight looked down at Applejack in horror, who returned the expression doubled, then both of them jumped on Pinkie, rolling her into the corner, coming up into a tight hug, tears in their eyes. "Pinkie, whatever we done to yah, we are sorry, and we promise yah we will never do it again," Applejack snuffled into Pinkies mane, while Twilight sobbed into Pinkie neck the other side. "Please Pinkie, we are your freinds, and will always be so." She held tight for a few more moments, before a curl of hair eased up to tickle the end of her nose, making her sneeze violently, blowing Applejacks hat clean accross the room. Pinkie Pie giggled, then giggled more, then laughed, before ending up rolling around on the floor holding her middle as her mane and tail recoiled into their normal hyperpuffy forms. "Oh Twilight, the look on your face as you snezed, your eyes are still swirly, and AJ at your hat flying, everythings oakily dokily. I heard Twilight mention about sad face and remembered bad time when Discord gave everyone sad face and was copying it so that if we ever had to deal with Mr SadFaceDiscord again Id already know which party would be best to throw to turn Mr Sad Face upside down. All I needed was my freinds, and here you are." Pinkie Pie flipped back onto all fours, then reached out and hauled Twilight and AJ in close and tight to return the hugs. Twilight blinked the tears out her eyes, then smiled at Pinkie and Applejack. "Im very glad to see that you did it because you wanted to learn how to deal with it, instead of having it forced on you. We were going getting supplies as Dash said her weather team was bringing in a few days of heavy snow to get Winter settled in properly. You want to come with us? I hope to have some books later today from Canterlot that hopefully can explain and help us with this current problm." Pinie Pie nodded rapidly, then bounced around the room, rearanging supplies. "Im done. Lets not forget the sugar for Mrs Cake." The three close freinds laughed, and headed out the store in a far better mood than they had entered.
"Im sorry Spike, Princess Lunas orders. Nopony other than Twilight Sparkle is to even touch these books, never mind read them. They are from Prncess Celestias private library, and are so restricted, she hasnt let even Princess Luna read them. Something about being too upsetting for her." The unusual number of six Royal Guard pegasi kept an alert all points watch around the Royal Carriage and its small pile of wrapped, bound, locked and sealed books in the middle. Spike nodded sadly, "Thats ok, Im just worried about them being caught outside, but they are protected enough, and its not supposed to snow till tonight. Oh, hey, theres Twilight now, and AJ, and Pinkie. Hi Twilight, the books have arrived." Twilight smiled, and nodded at Spike, opening the library door with her magic to allow Pinkie and Applejack inside to where it was warm. "Thank you very much Spike, go get some cocoa, Ill sort out here with the Sargent." Spike nodded, caught hold of Twilights saddlebags full of supplies, and headed inside, closing the door behind him. Twilight turned her attention to the Royal Guard. "Thank you and your squad for bringing the books so quickly, Sargent, although I find the, security, rather excessive." the Sargent nodded, and moved round to the rear of the carriage with Twilight, keeping on her outside. "Well Twilight, I appened to be in the throne room taking todays order list from my superior officer, Shining Armor, yer brother, when Celestia literally turned as grey and still as stone on reading a message. Sure, she recovered quickly enough, at least her colour returned, but she quickly gave her apologies and transfered to Luna before she, well, she didnt exactly walk out, I recognise all sorts of movement. I think she was holding herself up with her magic, and that barely. Luna fired off the fastest message Ive ever seen anyone send, then turned on the rest of us almost like she was going to go Nightmare Moon. Word quickly got around that Celestia was ill with a tummy bug or something, one of those that lasts a day or so, and that Luna was annoyed because she wasnt going to get he hoped for daytime sleep.this really cut down on the number of ponies wanting to ask for petitions and such. Shining Armor went up to the princesses rooms jsut afterwards to see to Celestias needs, was up there a while, and when he came back he was as tired looking as at the wedding. After that, well, this squad here are the ones he selected, we were put into a seperate guest barracks away from the rest of the Guards, except for only those who were in the throne room at that time, we waited until the books were ready, loaded them up under Shining Armors supervision, and Lunas seal, and flew straight here." the Sargent paused as Twilight read the first scroll on the top, written by Luna according to the seal, then the second, written by Celestia. "Ill tell you something miss, what weve seen while dealing with those books really creeps me out. I know you are Celestias personal student, and a really powerful magic user, but those are books miss, books contain words and ideas, and in battle, the wrong word at the wrong time can cause more destruction than all the weapons put together. but, you being a librarian would know about that, wouldnt you." Twilight prepared to lift the entire block, and turned to face the Sargent directly. "I know a little about it Sargent, thank you, but you bring home the import that it actually affects ponies directly, not just in some story way. Im sorry for keeping you here in the cold so long, and would like to offer refreshments and so on, but the message here says youve been given explicit orders when, where and how to return. I hope I can learn from the books you have deleivered how to recognise, diagnose, treat and counteract this sudden illness. Please inform Shining Armor that Im surrounded by good freinds, and have already started working on the problem, and that I hope to see him and Cadance soon. Now, you had better go Sargent, and may Celstia go with you." Twilight stated, as she lifted the books up easily with ther magic, swung them towards the door, which opened, and floated them through. The Sargent nodded, but waited until both Twilight and the books were inside the library. "Celestia be with us all miss. Right you orrible lot, two, two, two and back to Canterlot on the Double." the Guards instantly rearanged themselves around the now empty carriage, lifted into the air, turned, and accelerated towards Canterlot at full speed. Twilight watched the carriage clear Ponyville, then closed the door behind her.
Pinkie Pie bounced up and down exitedly, that is, normally, "What we going to do tonight Brain?" Twilight facehoofed, and slowly dragged it down before wryly smiling at Pinkie. "Same thing we do every night Pinkie. Try to take over the world." At Applejacks confusion, Twilight added, "With Love, Happiness and Freindship." Applejack blinked, then shrugged. "If you say so sugah, now, whats so darn special about these here books." Twilight looked at Applejack for a moment, then shook her head to dislodge an idea. "These books are not special in that they are magical, or are made out of rare and expensive materials. What is special about these books, is the writing, the ideas within them. Ideas that if used at exactly the right time, are powerful enough to take down even somepony as powerful as Celestia. We will need everyponies help eventually, but for now, I want to be able to call on you, Applejack, bearer of the Element of Honesty, and you Pinkie Pie, bearer of the Element of Laughter, for help. You two hold the most direct opposite of what these books contain, lies and despair. They are the written word equivalent, at the very least, of Discord himself." Applejacks eyes grew wide as she glanced between Twilight and the still sealed collection, while Pinkie Pie bounced over to the pile, and prodded it wih her hoof. "Silly, words cant do anythin," at this point, Pinkies hoof touched one of the books in the pile, and she was flung clear accross the library, flying not just over Spikes head, but also the large pile of chocolate cookes he had on a large plate held ovr his head. "I made coo" Spike paused in midword, and turned carefully to see where Pinkie was spreadeagle upside down across the front of an entire stack of books. "Owie Wowie, you were right Twilight, Pinkie Sense says those words have bite like Parasprite." Pinkie flipped off the wall, sumersaulted, reached over, and picked off a chocolate cookie, "Thank you Spike. Are you coming along for the ride?" Spike nodded and walked with Pinkie back to the table, putting the tray of cookies down. "In a way, Celestias letter said that I should stay around when Twilight reads the books, so I can, what did she say? bring her back when she is lost in herself." Twilight nodded quietly, as in the meantime she had extracted a slim book of definitions from the pile, and was looking at certain entries.
Catch 22. Two or more situations, behaviours, orders etc which are mutually contradictory, destructive and lead to a progressively worsening situation. The only way to win, is not to play. See No Win situation, Cornpegasi Mareu, et al.
Twilight put the book down, and looked at the titles on the rest of the books in the pile. Things like, Double bind conflicts in the young, Parenting, a guide, Psychological stress in veteran guards, and such like caught her eye. Sighing, she turned to her freinds. "Just for now, I would like to try a quick experiment, not so much to give me a guide to what we will possibly be dealing with, although that will help, but to try and see if we can help me with the problem of, of.. ohhh." Twilights eyes crossed and she wavered for a moment, until Applejack shaking her brought her back to her senses. "Thank you AJ, thats what I mean. I think I can solve this, if Pinkie Pie? You look into My eyes, and see if you can follow whats going on. AJ, Id like you to keep an eye on both of us, call out if you feel uncomfortable. I know I can absolutely trust your call. Spike, you keep AJ and Pinkie company, cocoa, cookies, you know the rest." Sure thing Twi," Spike called, alredy arriving with more supplies, towels and similar. "Um, Twi? You better make yourself comfortable. You were out for over an hour the first time, and you can easily get a bad ache if you are not careful." Twilight nodded, and made herself comfortable, kneeling down by the table, placing her head on one of Spikes folded towels. Pinkie knelt down on the other side of the table, hooked several cookies into her mouth with her tongue, chewed, swallowed, and nodded. "What do you want me to do Twi?" Twilight settled her breathing, relaxed, and looked straight into Pinkies eyes. "just look into my eyes Pinkie, the same way I looked into Boo." Twilight blinked, and looked round. It was dark. totally, completely, utterly dark. As she stood still, waiting for her eyes to adapt, Pinkie came bouncing in around her. "Its awfully dark in here Twi, do you think I should put the lights on?" Twilight shook her head, then made her horn glow a little, enough to illuminate the ground close by. It was some strange dark hard flat material, harder than dirt, softer than stone, that seemed to slope slightly from behind, forwards. "There seems to be a hill here Pinkie, if we climb it, we might get a better view of where we are." "Okily dokily lokily." Pinkie bounded up ahead, smaller and smaller, higher and higher, until she came to a stop, and sat down, waiting for Twilight to catch up. Pinkie kept looking straight ahead even as Twilight sat by her, her eyes wide. "Owie, Wowie. If this is whats inside Boosters head, no wonder hes so quiet, he cant ever find anything." Twilight tilted her head in question, then turned it to look at what had caught Pinkies attantion, her eyes widening also. Ahead and above lay an arch of pale ilumination, made up of uncountable images, ones recognisable as Twilight and freinds in various poses, smiling, laughing, sad, facefull of chocolate cake, other images of other ponies, buildings, locations. Many other images were abstract, swirls, sparkles, dots. Images of Celestia and Luna appeared even more regularly, some of them strangely looking far younger that Twilight knew they had ever been. she shook her head as Pinkie nudged her, pointing lower down and ahead. "Hey, Twilight, he has the whole of Equestria mapped out in here, Do you think we should go see if we can talk to Luna, shes always up at night." Twilight dragged her eyes away from the sky arch of memories, and gazed out accross Equestria, dimly lit, fuzzy round the edges, only occasional buildings and other shapes even partially defined, Canterlot easily visible however on the horizon. She looked back to Pinkie, "It will take too long walking to get there Pinkie, and I dont beleive I can teleport safely in here." Pinkie nodded and jumped up, grabbing Twilights front leg and hauling her up alongside. "Its really allright, Twi. Hold on tight and close your eyes, Im going to try something I like to do in my dreams, it should work here." Twilight reluctantly closed her eyes, then snapped them back open as she felt herself streeetch and snap back into shape. They were already at the main gate of Canterlot. "How, where, what." Twilight looked round in confusion. Pinkie giggled and bounced around happily. "Its a dream world silly. You can do absolutely anything at all you want to. Look, Luna is up on the balcony on top of that tower. Do you want to try it?" Twilight shook her head slowly. "I think Ill will leave it to you for now Pinkie, maybe tomorrow?" She held out her foreleg and closed her eyes again, this time trying to remember what the feelings were as they stepped.
"Twilight Sparkle, Pinkie Pie. What in Equestria art thou doing here, in the dream world?" Lunas accurate, even realistic voice caused Twilight to open her eyes, and look round. There, standing on the balcony by the telescope, was Princess Luna, accurate in every detail, who gazed back at Twilight for several moments, then smirked. "Thou didst not realise that while thine eyes are thy gateway to thine soul, if thou knowest the way, thou canst also enter the realm of dreams? Thou chosest wisely for thy guide, in Pinkie Pie. But what of thy portal?" Twilight shook her head to try to recover her thoughts, and bit her lip, looking back up at the ever more real Luna. "Early this morning, I found out I had accidentally locked Booster in the library overnight, Due to an accident, I knocked his spectacles away, breaking at least one lens, then when I went to look into his eyes to check, I." Twilight paused, until Luna nudged her. "Go on dear," Twilight looked confused. "Every time since then, until now, whenever Ive even though about looking into his eyes, Ive lost time. The occurances during the day, with my freinds close by, theyve mentioned Ive frozen, as if Ive been suddenly thrown mentally somewhere very far away. Im afraid thats what I beleive happened with Celestia, when I sent the first message. It caught her out, making her think of something of great sadness in her past that she had no choice in carrying out. Im hoping that with the help of my freinds, Pinkie here to keep an eye on me, Applejack to tell me whats really going on, Ill be able to learn how to recover, and block this from affecting me any more." Luna nodded lightly, then motioned to the bedchamber. "Celeste says she recovered enough to finish off the day, letting me get a short sleep before mine nighttime duties, which is why you find me here, Celeste not, and Booster just there." Luna motioned to a curled up pony on the rug at the foot of the bed. "Even though this is the dream world, he is here only by our sufference, and for our own, personal, reasons. Without his spectacles, he sees so little, that the most attracitve mare in the greatest finary, can stand right in front of him demanding attention, and he will feel nothing at all. Without his spectacles, he can see such detail in reality itself, that he can watch what Pinkie Pie is doing at any time, and will be doing next." Twilight blinked at that, "But nopony knows what Pinkie, Oh." Luna nodded softly. "If he can tell what Pinkie is going to do next, just think how far ahead he can see what less, random, ponies are going to do, or even think. He fully, truely, understands our powers, without having the ability to handle them himself, whilst having the problems of having to purchase a single apple from a seller, in a single town, on a single world." Luna turned back to Twilight. "You are welcome here in the dream world, Twilight Sparkle, and could do well to teach your freinds the skills they might very well need in the future. Also, you can teach me what you learn about what cause Celestes so unfortunate reaction. We all learn, and grow, and in doing so, live." Luna turned towards the balcony door, letting Twilight and Pinkie head out first. "You had better return to the real world for the time being, you should rest tonight, handling travel in the dream world can be most stressfull. We wish you success in your research." Luna waved as Pinkie took hold of Twilights foreleg and stepped back towards the point where they first saw the dreamland Canterlot. Twilight this time strained to apply what Pinkie had said about the dream world reality being what you wished, and managed to observe Luna just long enough to see her step back into the bedroom, gaze down at the sleeping pony there, before lowering her head, and gently touch his forehead. "As above, So below." She snapped her attention back to Pinkie as she set off back down the back of the hill, into the darkness, towards the place where everythng started. "Twi? Think you got it? you looked into his eyes in order to get into the dreamwolrd, so now you want to look out of your own eyes in order to get out of the dreamworld. Close your eyes,then close your eyes, then think hard about looking out through your eyes, then open them. you go first." Pinkie stopped, and turned round to look into Twilights face. "Ill be right behind you, or in front of you, which is where I was when we started so I should be here when we finish because otherwise Id be behind you and youd have an awful crick in your neck after looking back so much, so close your eyes Twi, then close your eyes." Twilight blinked, smiled, then closed her eyes, waited a few moments, then Felt her eyes closing again. Waiting a few more moments, she rolled her eyes to try and look straight, then carefully cracked her lids apart, her eyes tearing up slightly as the brightness of the library broke through around Pnkies widely smiling face. "Yaay, she did it. Welcome back Twilight." "Sure yall ok hun?" Applejack enquired, offering a cup of hot cocoa with a marshmallow floating in it. Twilight nodded slowly, and held her hoof up. "Im pretty sure I have it, but I want to check. Keep an eye on me, I want to try it again myself, while it it still fresh and clear in my mind." Twilight sat back, then breathed deeply. "I looked deep into his eyes, his eyes, the darkness." she opened her eyes, and looked round. Everything was utterly black. Nodding to herself, Twilight closed her eyes again, then waited. Again her eyes closed, and agains she waited, then moved her eyes, and opened them. Looking round at her freinds, she enquired as to the duration, "A couple of minutes hun, but you did come back all on your own." Applejack pushed the cocoa forward, which Twilight greatfully accepted and carefully sipped. Pinkie Pie backflipped round the library. "Whoo Hoo, Twilight learnt some new techniques to help ponykind and can pull herself back the dreamworld. I feel a party coming on."
Twilight held up her hooves. "Hold on to that one Pinkie, I need to do more research work and training before I can say anything truely useful about what we have done today. It was a very useful start though, thank you. Now, you need to get these supplies back to the Cakes and the farm before the snow hits tonight. Would you like me to come with you to help?" Pinkie and Applejack were already collecting their things, slipping saddlebags on full of shopping. "You get some sleep Twi, its going to be a busy day tomorrow." Pinkie bounced even with the load, and Applejack nodded. "Yall rest up now Twilight, youre more tired than you think. Ill walk with Pinkie ta Sugarcube corner, Ill make tha farm easy. there aint so many chores once the paths are cleared, so Ill be back round in the afternoon. Night Twilight, Spike, you see she goes to bed right soon now." Pinkie poinged out the door, followd by Applejack, who close it behind her with her tail. Spike looked solidly at Twilight. "You heard Applejack, Twi. Get ready for bed, this time Im tucking You in." Twilight nodded at Spike, helped tidy up, then got ready, and settled into bed. Spike tucked her in carefully, then started to shuffle off to his cot, before turning back. "Um, Twilight?" "Yes Spike?" "Um, theres something Ive been thinking about all day, I think it might work, what with everything else. Um, may I try?" "Sigh, what is it Spike." Spike stood there for a few moments, holding his hand tightly, chewing his bottom lip, then bent over Twilight, and gently kissed her on the forehead. "Good night Twilight." Twilights eyes opened wide, and an "oh" managed to escape her suprised mouth, before the cloak of dark night swept over her, taking her into a deep, dreamless, refreshing sleep.
