/*NoPony:Catch22B*/
/*20121007*/
/*20121110 Terl*/

"Dear Princess Celestia, I have to really thank you for your understanding in letting me read the books you sent, as given the information within, they must have been created in the very heart of Tarterus itself. Over the past three days and nights, Pinkie and I have been working with Luna in the dreamrealms, to come to terms with this knowledge, to understand what forms it takes, what ways are available to counteract the effects, and what means are needed to create and hold open such ways against the continuing effects of Tarterus. Due to the start of winter snowstorm, Booster has not been seen here at the library, or anywhere else around Ponyville over the last three days, which would be worrying, except Applejack says she saw him around the barn before it snowed, so he has somewhere warm, quiet, food, and somepony to look in on him. I really need to talk to him face to face again, so that I can ensure that my practice in recovering from looking directly into his, sad, wondrous, empty, glorious, portals to the infinite realms beyond," "TWILIGHT!" "Sorry Spike, where was I?" Spike coughed, and smiled knowingly, "Getting lost in someponies eyes you havent seen for half a week Twi?" Twilight blinked, blushed, and turned her head away. "I really hope he realises we are all very good freinds of his, he has taught and helped us so much even in this short time. I just wish we could help him find his Somepony Very Special in return. Until then, where was I, oh yes, recovering from looking directly into his eyes, exploring the infinite realms beyond, can be made more reliable and easy to achieve, and hopefully expanded into lines of magic that would assist all ponykind in family, freindship and magic. Your faithful servant, Twilight Sparkle. When  you are done, you can send that straight away Spike, lets have breakfast?" Spike nodded, sealed the scroll, hit it with his blast of transport dragon breath, and toddled off to get the breakfast things.

Twilight carefully worked through her checklist as she ajusted the arrangement of pillows and towels for the next stage of her experiments, nodding to Spike as he placed a small tray of various items on one end of the table. "You are sure you will be ok on your own this time?" Spike nodded, "Sure Twi, Im the control remember, that which is not experimented on in order to have a base to compare against. Anyway, somepony has to be here to look after you guys that you can trust absolutely." Twilight nodded, then lifted her head, and smiled as her freinds came chattering exitedly through the library door. "Over here girls, Pinky and AJ, youre with me, Dash, Rarity, Fluttershy, take your places on the other side accross from the one you want to try this with, grab something first to keep your strength up. Fluttershy, are you really sure you want to do this today?" Fluttershy backed up a little, then nodded shyly, stepping forward again carefully. "Im so sorry, it wasnt because it was so dark in there, I was so upset because it was someone I cared for who had such emptyness." Fluttershy sniffled a little, then brought her head up to look directly at Twilight. "You said you had found a way to help cure it, then I want to learn also, to help him, and everypony else who ever suffers from this, this, nothingness." Twilight looks suprised, then smiled, "Ok Fluttershy, Ill take you in and show you around, since we have first experience. Dash? You prefer AJ or Pinkie." Dash floated in the air, pondering. "Weeell, Id really like to go with Pinkie, but you say this is really serious for now, and I really want to show off my latest pranks, so, sorry Pinkie, I think Ill have to go with AJ for this one, tell you all about it later?" Pinkie shook her head up and down rapidly, then stopped, and waited for her eyes to stop bouncing around. "Okily Dokily, Rarity, youre with me, and Spike will be stood right beside you to help." Rarity nodded at Pinkie, then turned and smiled at Spike. "Im sure my Spiky Wiky will be a big dragon and keep guard wont you." Spike blushed, and nodded rapidly, standing to one side as Rarity turned back to Pinkie, and carefully settled herself down on her own personally designed pillow. "Take care Rarity, Twi, gyz. If anything happens, or an hour goes by without any of you wanting anything, Im to use these to bring you back?" Twilight nodded at Spike, "Thats right Spike, the perfumes are listed in order for which pony to use. I dont think we will need them, but theres no harm in being double and triple sure. Now, Fluttershy, Dash, Rarity, look into your freinds eyes, and relax. Ill use my magic for now to help you accross." Twilight observed carefully as her freinds settled down, making the occasional suggestion for comfort, before turning her attention back to Fluttershy. "Now, Fluttershy? Look into my eyes, and no further for now, while I start to cast the spell. Everypony look at your freinds eyes, now look into their eyes, keep looking, carefully, look into, and into and close your eyes slowly, and look into, and now open your eyes slowly so you dont wake up."

"Oh My," "What the Hay." Twilight reached out and hugged Fluttershy tightly as her freinds newly arrived in the dreamrealms reacted as expected. Fluttershy tensed up once, then slumped, sniffling into Twlights mane. As the rest of their freinds came together for a full on group hug, Fluttershy ceased sniffling, smiling shyly at her freinds wanting to help, then "Oh" quietly as she lifted her head and looked round. "Um, Twilight? If you dont mind that is. Um, If its so dark here, why can we see each other so clearly?" Twilight extracted herself from the group, took a couple of steps away, then sat down to wait while everypony else arranged themselves into a circle with her. "That is a very good question Shy, and I believe we know the answer. Something to watch out for though, we dont know everything about the dream realms, in fact we know very little, except like the Everfree Forest and similar, we can safely assume there are places and being here that are very dangerous. The main reason we can see each other, even though it is otherwise totally dark, is because we believe that we should be able to see each other." Fluttershy lifted a hoof uncertainly, "Um, you mean, whatever we believe, becomes real? Um, like if I beleived that if I could see a ponies bones, like the hospital Xray machine, I could find where they hurt more quickly, and help them feel better more easily?" Twilight blinked in suprise, then smiled widely, "Very good Fluttershy, thats exactly what I meant. Not exactly in those words, but the definition is excellent. What made you think of it?" Fluttershy ducked her head back into her mane, then peeked out carefully. "Um, I was day dreaming about Rainbow Dash and the hospital, and I saw her wing all bones and no feathers, and could see where she had hurt it that time." Twilight nodded enthusiastically, "Thats exactly it Shy, thats exactly what we found out, you can dream all the bad things, and have a nightmare, or you can dream all the good things, and solve problems you cant do normally, because you can look at them in totally different ways." She was interupted by Pinkie Pie bouncing up and down, waving her hooves in the air, "Oh, oh, Twilight, shall I, can I, Pleeeease show them the Pinkie Pie Parade?" Twilight smiled at Pinkie, then pondered for a few moments. "Well, while I normally dont like showing off to excess, I do beleive Pinkie that this is an occasion for you to enjoy yourself at doing what you do best. Girls, watch this, its crazy  spectacular." 

Pinkie Pie "WHOO HOOO," backflipped and sumersaulted, poinged high into the air, floating there, her head growing larger and larger, then her body, becoming transparent like a giant Pinkie balloon. Pinkie then reared up, cupped her hooves to her muzzle, and blew, creating another Pinkie balloon, then they created two more. The four Pinkie balloons turned towards the freinds with their hooves to their muzzles, and their lips extended, forming trumpets. The trumpets blasted out a fanfare, getting louder, then melding together to form a single large horn as the fanfare reached it peak, the horn breaking on the final note. Out of the centre of the horn paraded Pinkie twirling a baton, followed by more Pinkies carrying tuba, trumpets, xylophones, french horns, and big drum, all formed out of parts of their own body, mouth, legs, hooves and such. Two of the trumpet Pinkies started striding out over each other in turn, swapping from large to small and back as they went, as the music proceeded wildly. A very large Pinkie swinging cowbells stepped on a small trumpet Pinkie, making the trumpet swell large and honk on the beat, until the small Pinkie got fed up and kicked the large Pinkie in the rear, upon which the large Pinkie turned into Three large Pinkies, these with trumpets for mouths. These then  blared a short tune at the small Pinkie, who grew larger and larger as the origional three shrank, then pulled out a set of giant cymbals, and clashed them together on the origional three trumpet Pinkies. From around the edge of the cymbal, multiple tiny trumpet Pinkies fell out, one getting caught in the bottom, and started to parade around in a circle, the last Pinkie eventually pulling free, landing on top of the circling Pinkies, staggering from the head of one to another at first, then striding out with ease. As the freinds watched in bemusement, the line of trumpet Pinkies marched out accross the floor in front of them, then started up the side of the frame, then along the top of the frame, growing larger again as they reached the farside and came down the other side of the frame, filling the view completely, swelling until they eventually burst. As everypony recovered from teh explosion, uncovering their eyes to the sound of a fanfare, they were faced with a Pinkie peering in through a window, which then opened and a line of Pinkies started marching in, as another window, and a second line of Pinkies started marching in there. "Look out, beware, Pinke Pie on parade. Hippity Hoppity" A transparent Pinkie balloon started floating over the marching Pinkies. "There here, and there, Pinkie Pies everywhere." The Pinkies suddenly started circling a bed that was floating upside down in the air, chests sticking out and proud "Look out, Look out," Yellow skeleton lines started to flash on the Pinkies. "Theyre walking around the bed," The Pinkies suddenly flipped upside down, as the bed flipped rightway up. "On their head, clippity cloppity," a Pinkie suddenly sat up in the bed and looked round eyes wide, as the Pinkies marched round and round, yellow bones flashing again. "Parade, invade," the marching Pinkies started to fade as the bed started to tumble and fade itself, "Pinkie Pies on parade." In the darkness, a white Pinkie head popped up from the bottom of the frame, another upside down one dropped from the top of the frame. "Whatll I do? Whatll I do? whatll I do to review?" the Pinkie heads zipped out of view. From out of either side of frame appeared a yellow and blue Pinkie head, carrying an umbrella in its mouth, a snake like body behind. "I can stands the sight of worms, and look at microscopic germs." The two snaky Pinkies passed by each other. "But technicolour Pinkiederms," Two large Pinkies, one blue with red verticle stripes, the other yellow with purple horizontal stripes, their noses the tails of the previous snake bodies walked head first into each other, merging into a single stretching 4 legged Pinkie made of squars and stripes and checks, "are really too much for me. Muahahahaa" the technicolour Pinkie proceeded to explode. In the distance, a purple Pinkie decorated with yellow spots started marching forward. "I am not the type to faint," the yellow spotted Pinkie jumped sidways, leaving a pale and dark blue diagonal stripled Pinkie marching, "when things are odd" the blue striped Pinkie jumped the other way, leaving a light blue and yellow verticle stripped Pinkie, "or things are quaint," the blue and yellow striped Pinkie jumped in front of the yellow spotted Pinkie, leaving a red and orange horizontal striped Pinkie, "but seeing things" the orange and red striped Pinkie jumped in front of the blue striped pinkie, leaving a pink Pinkie beind, "you know that aint," the pink Pinkie jumped directly forward, leaving just the outline of a Pinkie "will certainly give you an awful fright." Suddenly the whole frame was filled with multicoloured squiggles and the sound of gramaphone crackles. the squiggles clared after just a moment, leaving a Pinkie walking towards the freinds, in place, the ground rolling backwards beneath it, made up of nothing but multicoloured Pinkie heads, "What a sight, chase them away, chase them away," the main yellow Pinkie head looked at the other blue Pinkie head that was making up its shoulder, then leaned forwards, "Im afraid, need your aid," the two blue Pinkie shoulder heads also leaned forward, crowding out the yellow Pinkie head, "Pinkie Pie on parade." The Yellow head forced its way back between the blue Pinkie heads, smiling wider and wider, filling the frame, its eyes closing to slits. "Pinkie Pie. Pinkie Pie." The eyes turned into Pyramids, which started to distort and dance to the music, "Pinkie Pie." then froze in place. A Pinkie Pie came out from between the two Peyramids, on all 4s, its back moving humps up and down to the Egyptian theme, striding out on extra long legs, passing in front of another pyramid carved with a stylised representation of a Pinkie. As the humped Pinkie passed by, the Pyramid Pinkie softened and altered shape, turning its mouth into a snake flute, playing with front hooves. The hump Pinkie started to turn in suprise, but turned into a snake before it completed the motion, the snake swaying, then rearing up as if to strike, turning into a harem veil wearing Pinkie as it reached full height. The Pinkie belly dancer swung its hips wide to teh music, did a couple of belly bounces, then faded away leaving a ball. the ball swayed a little from side to side to the music, then rotated, opening up to display a green eye, which faded away into the blackness. The sound end of four yellow trumpet playing Pinkies then rose steadily into view from the ground, merging together to form a sheet with sewn strips, to the sound of a fanfare again, the two masks of the theatre in the middle. As the fanfare ended, the sheet split apart along the seams, and spread out of sight to the sides to leave a large Pinkie standing behind a small Pinkie, arms together, one leg in the air in a ballet pose. As full harp music started playing, the two Pinkies gracefully stepped first one way, then the other, then tippytoed, then faced each other, swirling round, stepping apart a little as the larger danced backwards. After a couple of steps, the larger Pinkie nosed the smaller, then reared back, stretching the nose of the smaller right out, whereupon the smaller pulled their head back and down, sweeping the larger Pinkie down, off their feet, past the smaller Pinkie, through an arc in the air, gently back down to the ground where they started, leaving them pirroutetting in a blur. Only a couple of moments pass before the spinning Pinking halt, leaning forward in pose, its nose still elongated down to the ground, forming a staircase. The smaller Pinkie approached on tiptoe, and danced up the steps of nose, paused on the larger Pinkies head, then danced up several more invisible steps, before changing to a graceful dive into the nonexistant floor beyond, through which it passed with a splash and ripples. As the ballet music continued playing, a Pinkie came paddling in from the side, its back legs sticking out in front in the shape of a canoe, its front hooves holding its mane to form a paddle, which on pausing, turned into a telescope as it lifted it to its eye. Behind it, out of the fluid, rose a water Pinkie, which struck an aluring pose and squirted water out of its mouth like a fountain, squirting the canoe Pinkie as it leans in for a better look. The fountain Pinkie then jumped up, and starts prancing away accross the surface, picking up speed until it switched to gliding along as if its hooves were ice scates. As it skated to and fro, the small Pinkie was rejoined by the large pinkie, which then skated in tandem, then seperated for individual styles. As the smaller Pinkie skated away, the larger Pinkie leaned back too far, slipped, and started to fall, getting caught by the smaller Pinkie just before it hit the ground. The two Poinkies then skated off into the distance and vanished. Moments later, the two skating Pinkies reappeared further up, on skies, and proceeded to slalom down the uneven slope towards the freinds, sliding sideways to a halt at the last moment, throwing up a curtain of snow over the freinds, obscuring everything. As the bulk of the snow cleared, two shaking snow Pinkies shivered to and fro under lightly falling snow to the sound of samba maracas, emerging blue with cold, but returning to red colour as the snow stopped falling and the snow Pinkie coats melted as the Samba continued. As they danced, the two hot Pinkies leaned towards each other, and as their noses touched, lightning appeared between them, dancing over their heads as they swung round each other, turning into a lighting rope in the larger pinkies hooves as the smaller Pinkie swung forward. The larger Pinkie then treated the lighting like a towel, drying off its rump as it danced to the samba, before swinging the lightning up in one hoof above its head, turning it from a rope into a full on lightning bolt, then throwing it in an arc onto the smaller Pinkies head. As the lighting bolt hit, there was a multicoloured flash that filled the area, and on claring, the area was filled with line after line of dancing Pinkie pairs, that danced upright, front hooves together, hips and rear swinging side to side to the samba beat as the light started to flick from colour to colour, the Pinkies flicking from colour to colour in opposite to the light. Suddenly, even as the music was playing, the pair of Pinkies jumped apart, turned into racing carriages, and started racing round and round. A train of Pinkie carrages raced accross the view, then a finish flag passed by, then more Pinkie racing carriages in random directions, then a high speed Pinkie boat pulling a Pinkie on water skies, then four pinkies seated with their hind legs forming a flying carpet, the train, boat and carpet all returned, then started racing to and fro, up and down, the light flickering as they moved faster and faster, until they all came together in the distance and exploded in a blast of light and dark blue with assorted pink blobs.  Multiple Pinkies fell from above, vanishing as they reached the floor, the ones in the distance slowing as they fell, until they ended up floating like balloons slowly merging into small pink clouds.

Twilight, Dash, AJ, Rarity and Fluttershy watched open mouthed at this increadible display of control, complexity, all out crazyness and shere Pinkamania. Pinkie Pie, sitting at the end, turned to Twilight, "You want popcorn Twilight? Personally I think the author was craazy to spend 3 hours transcribing it, but he said Id get some blueberry muffins if he finished it off. He did, so I get muffins." Pinkie reached behind her and pulled out a large bag of blueberry muffins, several jam donuts, and half a dozen chocolate cupcakes. "Cupcakes. I looove cupcakes."

Twilight facehoofed, and shook her head slowly, then stood up and walked a little forward, turning round to face her freinds. "Ok, after that, entertainment, I think we had better start with something important. Namely how to get out of the dreamrealm. Firstly, like we have done in coming here today, then working towards being able to do it yourself, next will be entering the dreamrealm yourself, when you need to. If we all work hard and successfully complete the training, Ill try and teach you something special that Pinkie discovered." She stepped forward until she was standing just in front of Fluttershy, who eeped as she saw Twilight close by. "Fluttershy, you had the greatest shock at first, so Im going to start with you. Apart from that, Spike will have a nice hot chocolate ready for you. Now, I want you to do like we did to get here, look into my face, look into my eyes, look into my eyes, slowly close your eyes, believe yourself back in the library, now slowly open your eyes." Fluttershy nodded hesitantly, then carefully followed instructions. As Twilight uttered the word believe, Fluttershy flickered out, then back, then out, then back. As she opened her eyes again, and looked round to see she was still in the dreamrealm, but with her best freinds, Fluttershy lowered her head in shame and turned away. "Im, I guess Im not very good at this. Im sorry Twilight." Twilight smiled gently, and lightly rested her front hoof on Fluttershys shoulder. "You did very well Fluttershy, we all saw you almost make it, on your very fisrt try as well. I have to confess, this time I didnt use my magic to assist you. You remember how I helped you here. You almost made it back all on your own. Would you like to try again, or would you prefer to see somepony else try this time instead?" FLuttershy started to shake her head slightly, only to gasp as Dash zipped round, and hovered in front of them. "Hey, I want to learn too, especially if my hot chocolate is getting cold." Twilight looked stearnly at Dash, "You could at least let Fluttershy say no first." Fluttershy coughed quietly, "Um, its ok Twilight, Id like to see Dash go first, then I know how to follow." Twilight sighed, and nodded slowly. "Ok then Dash, you," "Yea yea, look into your eyes, yada, yada, youd think I hadnt been listening you know." Dash flicked to and fro in the air irritatedly. Twilight glared at her. "Rainbow Dash, get down here Now girl, You have to relax for this to work." Dash sighed resignedly and lowered herself to the floor, then sat down, looking dejected. "Im sorry Twilight, Fluttershy, but this this is sloooow." Twilight nodded sagely, and stepped in front of Dash. "I know, and I promise things will get faster eventually. Just one thing to remember though Dash, in the dreamrealms, not only do things occur if you beleive them to occur, but things will occur depending on how you feel and what you do. A very important point in fact. It would be, as far as I can work out, horribly dangerous for you to attempt a Sonic Rainboom in the dreamrealms. Simply put, would You like one going off inside Your head, at full power?" Dash reared back, blanched, and held her hooves up in defeat. "Ok, Ok Twi, I get yer point, no mushing all my freinds brains just cos of going too fast. Now, can we please get on with it, I hear marshmallows floating." Twilight turned her head to glance back at Applejack, who was watching with an amused look on her face, who then winked, then flicked her muzzle upwards a little in a go on, show her, motion. Twilight tilted her head slightly, then smiled knowingly. "Ok Dash, relax, relax, and I mean it, settle down, relax, look into my eyes, look into my eyes, slowly close your eyes, you believe you are looking at a cup of hot chocolate with a marshmallow floating in it in the library, now slowly open your eyes." Dash started to nod quickly, then caught herself, and slumped, trying to relax, then as her eyes closed, she started to fade from sight causing a quiet gasp to escape from Fluttershys lips. Only a couple of moment passed before Dashsnapped back into full view, sitting up straight, looking round exitedly. "I did it, where that hot chocolate Spi, oh, Darn it." Dash shot straight up just above head height and flew round and round in tight circles for a few moments before landing on all fours on the ground with a thump. "Ok, ok, that leaves only Rarity, so if she cant do it, were stuck here while Spike goofs off?" Twilight shuck her head slowly. "Not at all Dash, you see, you and Fluttershy have no unicorn magic of your own to help you, so I wanted to make sure your belief and efforts were true. Rarity? Ill show you the spell I use to boost your effect, then we will pair off again and everyone try once more, That Ok?" Twilight looked round, and her freinds nodded one after the other. "OK then, everypony line up, Rainbow Dash, youre with me, Rarity, you take Fluttershy, Applejack and Pinkie Pie, you two are good to go with each other this time. Now, settle down girls, look into your partners faces, look into your partners eyes, look into their eyes, slowly close your eyes, believe you are in front of your partner, in the library, with Spike stood by with a tray of mugs of hot chocolate and marshmallow, believe you are in the library, believe, now, slowly open your eyes."

Fluttershy gasped, Rarity exclaimed "Oh my," Applejacks eyes opened wide, "What the hay?" Pinkie started sniggering, and Twilight blinked, then smiled then quickly slid into full on smug mode. Rainbow Dash just looked round, "Whoo Hoo, we did it," and dropped her head almost to the table top, pushing her muzzle into the cup of hot chocolate to extract the marshmallow floating there. "Oo ga gogy gack," she tried to get out round the soft lump filling her mouth, then snapped her head up to look round accusingly as all her freinds burst out laughing, at her race buddy Applejack who was now the next space over, then back at Twilight immediately in front of her, shook her head, and bent down to take another noisy slurp. Suddenly, it struck home, Dashs eyes bulged as she did a full on spit take, blasting the marshmallow into the cup, where it ricochetted out, hitting Twilight right between the eyes. "We moved, we switched places in the real world while we were in the dreamworld, and whats wrong with Spike?" Fluttershy was already hugging Spike tightly, who hadnt moved the whole time, an in fact was still stood there with the tray of cookies, his mouth open and eyes wide in disbelief. twilight shook her head then called for order, tapping her hoof on the table. "Hopefully if I explain, things will become clearer you you all, especially Spike here. Through a combination of the magic spell Rarity and I used to enhance our transition, an effect occured that I suspected might happen. Applejack and I were anchors because we had done this before, Rarity was an anchor because she was using magic. Pinkie Pie switched places because its what she does. In doing so, the magic reacted with the dreamrealms in order to impose what you believed to be in the dreamrealm, that is, which pony you were looking at, to be the same order here. Fluttershy was teleported from in front of me, to in front of Rarity, because Pinkie had moved from in front of Rarity to in front of Applejack, leaving a hole. In doing so, Pinkie Pie gave Dash a push out of her spot, and Dash got pulled into the space left by Fluttershy. Spike was suprised because there was no visible use of unicorn magic in the apparently teleportation of two pegasi and an earth pony. Isnt that right Spike?" Spike blinked, "Huh, I got the cookies right here Twilight. You know, Im sure you switched places when I wasnt looking. which wouldnt be too bad, but Im sure there wasnt a time I wasnt looking long enough for you to switch places. Oh, the hot chocolate. Be right back." 

Twilight smiled at her freinds as they sat and lay around chatting exitedly, her quill moving rapidly over the parchment from the influence of her horns magic. On one list she checked off certain items, on another she wrote down several more items, on yet another parchment she wrote notes, while glancing at a couple of books that Spike had brought her after handing out the cookies and hot chocolate. After a while, feeling satiated and freshned up, her freinds arranged themselves round the table again. "What next Twilight, you seem to have been awful busy workin something out," enquired Applejack.  Twilight nodded, then checked her list. "I think its important that we work on getting back out of the dreamrealms in two ways, firstly, because I hope we are believing in ourselves and freinds, we can pull ourselves out individually without magic. This is so we unicorns dont become dependant on it, given Discord took it away last time and means we will all be on an equal hoof. Secondly, the place where we ended in the dreamrealms, where we came back from, is a safe place that isnt quite in the dreamrealms themselves, but is an ajoining area we have been accessing through Boosters ability. I hope that since we have been going through enough ourselves, that we will have our own place to use, so again we are not dependant on another pony just in case. He can still be there to help if needed though. We can then head out into the rest of the dreamrealms, to practise exiting at various points, to end up here. Thats all Im going to suggest for now as it will take the rest of the day. Ready girls?" the freinds all nodded exitedly, and arranged themselves around the table. This time, Twilight ajusted each pony so they were looking at a small crystal sphere in the middle of the table, in which cold be made out the sillouette of a pony. "This time, Rarity and I will use our magic to help everypony accross, so that you can look into the crystal, at the image of everypony else and nopony in particular, in order to work on the next step in accessing the dreamrealms. Now, everypony, look at the crystal, find the eyes which you feel most comfortable looking into, look into those eyes, look into the crystal, slowly close your eyes, look into the crystal, now, slowly open your eyes."

Once again, the closeness and trust of her freinds allowed them to appear easily within the safe area of the dreamrealm next to Twilight. Looking round at them, Twilight nodded, then looked ather list. "Ok, now, I want everpony to try going back, one at a time, to get used to doing the transition on your own. Dont forget girls, you want to beleive you are looking into the crystal with the pony on the table in the library. Dash, you try first." Dash nodded rapidly, closed her eyes for a moment, then snapped then open, "Ta Dah. Hey, why am I still here?" "You gotta take it easy Dash. Think of how you change your style when fighting to throw your opponant off balance. Theyll never expect you to move slowly," Applejack pointed out. Dash blinked, hovering in the air, tapping her muzzle with one hoof, holding her foreleg with the other hoof in a thoughtful pose." You know how I really hate the idea AJ, but it has to be true coming from you. Ok then, Ill do it, Rainbow Dash never quit from anything, well, except that one time, Ill Do It." Dash closed her eyes slowly and settled to the floor. As her freinds watched silently, Dash squeezed her eyes shut, then relaxed, the screwed them up again, then jerked her head as in suprise, smiles wryly, relaxed fully, and faded from sight. Twilight wiped her brow with her forehoof and a phew, then looked round. "Ok girls, whos next? Pinkie?" Pinkie "whoo hoo", jumped up, punching the air, and vanished instantly. Twilight blinked in suprise, and checked her list. "I should have really expected that. Lets see, Rarity? I beleive this is a somewhat depressing place for you, so I think you should go next. Now, try not to use the spell I showed you, we want to do this to make is hard as possible for out opponants." Rarity nodded and quietly closed her eyes, "Certainly Twilight, this still seems to be a most dreary place, and that crystal ball is most intriguing. Ah, there it is." Rarity took a few moments to relax before she quietly dissapeared from view. Twilight ticked off another entry on her list. "Now, Flutteryshy? I believe this would be the best time, AJ and I can anchor you at this end, Rarity, Dash and Pinkie can anchor you the other. Are you sure you can picture the crystal ball cleanly?" Fluttershy nodded quietly, then stood in front of her remaining two freinds, closed her eyes and tried to relax, after a few moments, flicking her wings a couple times in apparent irritation, she smiled a little and faded from sight also. Twilight nodded in satisfaction, ticked off the list, and turned to Applejack. "AJ, I wanted to have you wait because you are the Element of Honesty,and as such I suspect you wouldnt have been able to go back the same way as everypony else." Applejack looked in puzzlement at Twilight, "Whys that Twilight?" Twilight ducked her head in embarrasment for a few moments, before lifting it to look her freind in the eyes. "Because I told everypony to believe they were looking into the crystal in the centre of the table. You wouldnt have been able to do that, because as soon as we came here, I got Spike to remove the crystal from the table. In order for you to go back AJ, you have to imagine, and remember, that there has been a crystal ball with the form of a pony inside. the reason I had to leave you till last for this, is that once you can remember or imagine the crystal in one place, you can remember, imagine it in others, and as we have already found out, using the dreamrealm as an intermediate step, We Element Bearers at least, all of us, can effectively teleport, even the Earth Ponies. Well, Pinkie Pie was effectively given, but so. Can you remember the crystal on the table? I hope we can move onto increasing our knowlege and abilities using these techniques." Applejack tilted her head while Twilight explained her rather convoluted and complex reasoning, then nodded. "Sure can hun, you stayed back so we could eye to eye back, just in case." Twilight nodded exitedly even as Applejack closed her eyes, muttered quietly to herself for a few moments, relaxed, and vanished. Twilight punched the air in success while nopony was around to see her, ticked off the list, then ticked the list complete entry, closed her eyes, and vanished. A small spark flared in the darkness, and silently drifted out towards the dreamrealms themselves.

In the library, chaos reigned. Dash was shaking her hoof at Rarity, both arguing loudly, who had backed into a corner to protect Spike behind her. Applejack comforted Fluttershy, while Pinkie Pie was bouncing and backflipping blowing noisemakers and throwing confetti. Twilight blinked in confusion for just a moment, before facehoofing, then moving in between Dash and Rarity to try and calm things down. Eventually, after setting off a powerful flash bang spell in the library cieling to get ponies attention, her freinds quietened down and returned to the table, Pinkie Pies eyes blinking out of a blackened circle that was her spell affected face. Twilight called for attention by rapping her hoof on the table top. "Girls, Girls, Im very sorry, but in order to be able to explore the dreamrealm safely we had to be sure that everypony could return no matter what, and you my freinds have most certainly done that, to my great pleasure. I think that we should have a short exploration beyond the start point next, to proove that getting back out can be done from anywhere, and from there, return directly home, to complete our access and escape training. First off, freshen up, relax, recover and enjoy Spikes hot chocolate. Thank you." Pinkies face fell at the news everypony was to go straight home, but perked up instantly at relax and hot chocolate. She turned round and pulled out a tray of steaming hot freshly baked muffins. "Muffins for everyone." 

After a while, the girls had sorted out their differences, the order of use in the bathroom, who was going to clean up what and why was there a ring in the tub, and Spike had cleaned up the mugs and plates. Twilight tapped her hoof on the table. "This will be the last thing for today girls. We are going to head into the local dreamrealm, head to each house in turn, and transition back there. Keep together, as the dreamrealms alter depending on each ponies viewpoint, and we want to keep the experience common to the group. Rarity? I think it would be best if you go first this time, try not to use your magic remember unless you really have to. Ready girls? Imagine the pony crystal is on the table, look at the pony, look into the pony, look into the ponys eyes, close your eyes, believe you are in the dreamrealms, now slowly open your eyes." As Twilight spoke the dreamrealm access litany, her freinds nodded, closed their eyes and one by one physically faded from the library, until only Twilight and Spike were left, and then only Spike as Twilight also faded with her last words, leaving only the echos of her eyes floating quietly in the air before vanishing also. Spike sighed heavily, and went to check the rest of the library. "I sure hope you know what you are doing Twilight." With a puff of green flame, he sent the latest message to Princess Celestia on it way.

In the dreamrealm, twilight loked round to make sure all her freinds were accounted for and following, then steadily headed up the slope out of the now well known starting point, towards the infinite expanse of the open dreamrealm. Chattering exitedly between themselves, the girls easily kept up with Twilight, then slowly became silent, spreading out to stand in a row side by side as Twilight reached the top of the slope, looked out, then up, then exclaimed. "Oh No." Overhead, the starlight images of memories past, were slowly but steadily, going out. Looking round the horizon, Twilight and the girls could still see certain well defined locations, Canterlot, Ponyville, Sweet Apple Acres, but almost all the rest of the visible structures were heavily or totally covered in snow, making them all but indistinguishable from the general landscape, which itself was slowly being filled in and softened by an ever thickening layer of snow, which seemed to fall out of the clear sky only a few feet above the surface. As mutterings of worry started an continued to get louder, everyponies attention was suddenly attracted by Pinkie, who had pulled out her binoculars and was scanning the far scene towards Canterlot. "Hey you guys, theres some lights an stuff and movement at the base of the mountain. Theres somepony working there on something big." Pinkie thrust the binoculars to AJ, and dissapeared. AJ barely had time to "What the Hay?" before Pinkie reappeared, waving wildly. "Come on, come on, you have got to see these guys, theyre HUGE," and dissapeared again. Twilight looked at her freinds as they crowded round, asking questions, except for Dash who flew straight up a short distance to try and get a better view, then zipped back down. "Hwy, I can see Pinkie there. How come we saw her this time?" Twilight raised her hooves to try and calm her freinds down. "This is another thing about the dreamrealm, Just like you can believe yourself here, and be so, especially now you are used to it, you can believe yourself to be at any point in the dreamrealm at any time. Think of it as similar to unicorn teleportation in the real world. Just be very careful when imagining things, because if you beleive what you are imagining in a nightmare, while here in the dreamrealm, the nightmare will become real, to everypony. Now, Look towards the lights there, close your eyes, beleive yourselves to be standing next to Pinkie at the edge of the lights, step forward with front hooves, step forward with back hoves, open your eyes, and here we are." And there they were, all lined up as at the top of the first rise. 

A massive jagged crack in the ground extended from just below them towards the nearby base of the mountain, semingly aimed directly for Canterlot perched high above. Halfway down the sides of the chasm, they saw a fluorescent green pegasus zipping to and fro from side to side between the massive hulking forms of two huge unicorns, who were using their magic to lift immense blocks of dreamworld stuff off a sled that was sat at the bottom of a hill at the filled in end of the chasm. The girls carefully made their way down the filled in slope towards the working ponies, splitting to pass either side of the strangely placed red sandstone hill, then the almost empty sled beyond, reaching the workers just as the last blocks were lifted into place, the pegasus doing a high speed pass, rotating to form a tornado behind him to seal the surface. As the green pegasus reached the end of his run, and turned round, he spotted the girls arranged at the back of the now empty sled, and zoomed back, hovering just in front of them. "Ayup missy, to whom am I to be addressing myself?" Twilight cleared her throat, and stepped forward. "We are very sorry to interupt your work, I am Twilight Sparkle, this is Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy. I hope the work is proceeding well. May I enquire what the work actually entails, and the reason for it?" The pegasus nodded as he took note of the various freinds, turning his attention back to Twilight as she finished. "Well miss, to be sure you got here just as we were going to break for assesment and reloading the sled, so if you would care to be covering your ears, we will be sounding the sirens and sending Red on his way." The pegasus waited barely while Twlight nodded, placed her hooves to her ears, and everypony else followed suit. "OI LISTEN UP, GEORDIE, MUSKIE, SOUND OFF." The parade ground sargent majors volume voice echod between the chasms walls for only a few moments, before being drowned out by the steadily rising howl of warning sirens emmited from the unicorns horns. As the howl faided away, Twilight removed her hooves from her ears, shook her head, then looked round, peering into the distance. "Your freind must be a distance away to need that much volume to call him." The pegasus blinked, then grinned, then started to laugh, then rolled in the air in hilarity. "To be sure lass, Red is right behind you, where hes always been. The warnings for everypony to beware he is about to move. Now, if you stand right there, where youll be safe for the moment, I see his eye opening." Twilight nodded, looked puzzled for a moment, then slowly turned round as if on a carousel, to look in horror at her mistake of assuming a hill was a hill, especially in the dreamrealms. Facing her, on the near side of the hill, at the far end of the sled, was a spider web cutie mark bigger than she could possibly span. The eye previously mentioned appeared on the other side of the hill, and rapidly became part of an immense head, which rose higher and higher as the hill started to unfold, legs pushing the gigantic body high into the air, until Red stood silently at his full titanic size. there was a pause of a few long monents, then a whining, howling sound started up as Reds front leg started moving, impacting with a ground shaking thud a few moments later. Then the rear leg, then front leg, then rear leg. As his fourth leg commenced moving, Red leaned forward into his harness, and slowly started dragging the sled away up the now clear slope. Within a few more moments, Red had dragged the immense sled right out of the chasm,over the edge, and headed off to the material supply depot.

"Excuse me there missies, you were asking about what we might be doing here?" The pegasus landed on the ground, and coughed into his hoof. Twilight blinked, closed her suprised open mouth, and turned back with a sheepish expression. As she did so, she caught sight of the rest of her freinds expressions pretty much matching her own. The shock of seeing a pony that large, and awe in watching him actually move. "We are sorry for any rudeness but," Twilight waved her hoof weakly in the general direction of the almost vanished Red. The pegasus grinned and nodded. "To be sure miss, twas my reaction the same when coming accross this fine crew the first time. I was looking for heavy workers when I found them logging in the Empyrean Forest, and when I put it to them that them tree fellers could get better pay working on construction, they jumped at the chance and decided to accept me as the forepony. This bit of repair work here is due to some breakages occuring through the realms recently. Theres always minor ones, but to be sure, this is the biggest Ive seen for many a centuary. Ah, Id like to talk more miss, but Reds about to start reversing the new sled load down the slope. I would be asking you please to move out of the works first so we can be sure theres no accidents there." The pegasus made shooing motions with his forehooves even as his lifted back into the air on his wings, red white and green lights appearing on his forelegs. Twilight nodded quickly, then started to head back up the slope. "Come on girls, weve taken up too much of these fine workers time already, and we dont want to be in the way of such a mooving mountain of a stallion." Fluttershy Eeped, and scrambled a little to keep up with her freinds, her wings flicking to boost her, where Dash zoomed up out of the chasm, and raised a forehoof to her eyes to observe Reds rapid return through his immense size. Pinkie bounced up the hill happily, making plants for the biggest party ever for the biggest pony ever, Twilight steering her freinds to the side away from the turning area, so they could watch the action previously missed.  Red steadily approached the works, dragging the sled piled with material even larger than himself, a hill dragging a mountain, turning round almost completely in the area provided at the top of the slope, then paused. After a few moments, a high pulsing whistle sounded, blown by the pegasus, and Red very slowly started backing the sled down the slope. Twilight watched in awe at the effort showed on Reds form, body quivering, steam blasting out of his muzzle as he reversed the sled in silence, watching the pegasus lights reflecting off a small pair of mirrors on his muzzle, stopping only when the two unicorns blew their horns in unison. With a final sigh and huff, Red settled down on the bottom of the ramp to rest for the next run. As Twilight as freinds moved to set off, the pegasus zoomed up to them. "And Ill be forgetting my manners miss. You were kind enough to give me your full names, so Ill give you ours before Im needed. Those two fine fellows dragging the blocks around are Big Muskie and Big Geordie. You can be calling me Da Navvi, and as for the walking mountain there, hes being called Red. Dwarf Red. oops, Ill be to heading off now. Hopefully you can visit again when we are doing something not so urgent." Da Navvi quickly shook each of the girls hooves in his, then zoomed in down to the newly filled in part of the chasm bottom to repeat his sealing tornado.

The girls headed back out accross the dreamrealm, firstly towards the partially obscured form of Fluttershys house. Standing together outside, Twilight turned to Fluttershy. "You have your animal freinds to see to Shy, so do you want to me to go first, to watch you through?" Fluttershy eeped, then nodded shyly, "I think because this is my first time, that would be very kind of you." Twilight smiled, nodded, closed her eyes, and faded from view. Fluttershy gulped, and looked round. "You can make it easy Shy, just like hot chocolate and marshmallow." Pinkie bounced up and down. Rarity shushed her. "Now Fluttershy dear, remember Twilights words. Close your eyes. Imagine the pony crystal on your front porch. Look into the crystal, look into the pony. Look into the ponies eyes. Beleive you are on your porch, now, open your eyes." Fluttershy opened her eyes to see Twilight speaking exactly the same words as Rarity. "You used magic Twilight," Fluttershy asked sadly. "Not at all Shy, the only magic I used was to make sure me and Rarity were speaking at the same time to give you something to hear. Now that you know what to listen for, you can remember it without us being here. Is there anything that needs to go into town while Im here?" Fluttershy shook her head, and headed into her house, waving goodbye to Twilight as Twilight concentrated and faded back into the dreamrealm. Applejack hummed as she looked round. "Youre doing the outliers first Twi, so you, Pinky and Rare can go together in town?" Twilight nodded, "Well, Dash can come with us or with you, whichever you prefer. Dash?" Dash floated in the air, her wings flapping slowly, her hoof to her chin in a thoughtful pose." Given I am the fastest flyer in all Equstria and only seconds from AJs to town, I think Ill go hang out with AJ. You OK with that?" Applejack nodded, "Sure thing RD, we can maybe think up some things to try next, and get some sleep, this dreaming while awake is hard work." Twilight turned to face the farm, then closed her eyes and stepped forward. Appearing next to the farms entrance, Twilight only had to wait for a few moments before her remaining freinds appeared next to her, getting more confident in the use of their abilities and discoveries. Applejack and Dash moved through the entrance to the farm together, turned and waved to Twilight, Pinkie and Rarity, closed their eyes, and quickly vanished from view back to the real world. 

Twilight turned to Pinkie and Rarity, looking questioningly. "Middle of town girls? I would like to check up on one last thing before heading back to the library, so if we part there, we will be lcose to home?" Pinkie bounced up and down happily, and Rarity nodded, before they all looked towards the centre of the dream Ponyville, closed their eyes, and stepped into the middle of town. Once again, the freinds seperated into the two to return, Rarity and Pinkie blinking out of the dreamrealm and back to the real world with ease. Twilight held her smile till they vanished, slumping in relief as Applejacks honesty wouldve seen through her concern immediately, then turned towards Canterlot, took two steps, and arrived on the balcony outside the Princesses quarters. Frowning to hereself, Twilight slowly moved towards the open door, and peered inside, waiting for her eyes to ajust to the lighting.  "Come in my dear Twilight, I fear there may be something wrong." Luna was curled up by the foot of the bed, on the floor, her forehoof gently resting on the nose of the curled up Booster there. Twilight moved round, and her eyes widened. The rest of Boosters head, body, legs, mane and tail were completely covered in thick ice. Even as she stepped forward to get a closer look, Twilight almost fell as the castle shook violently underneath her. Luna looked pensive. "The ground shakes are also getting worse, and I cannot tell whence their source or how to deal with such." Twilight recovered and moved next to Luna. "We passed by some ponies of immense size working to repair a huge fracture in the ground at the base of the mountain. Whatever is causing that fracture is likely causing the shaking and vice versa. I will arrange a search when I return to the real world, and hopefully find out from Booster himself what is happening. By your leave Princess?" Luna nodded quietly, "Go with speed Twilight Sparkle. If this form is a true representation of the real world, he may have only hours to live." The castle shook again violently. "And I fear the dream realm is affecting the real world, as Celestia has taken note of the shaking of the castle in the real world, and it it most troublesome." 

Twilight nodded determinadely, turned, and ran out of the room, jumping over the balcony, vanishing with a flash while still in mid air. Luna lowered her head to gaze worridly at Boosters steadily icing muzzle. "Now what have you done, oh destroyer of worlds."