"It's real."

Those two words echoed around in my head.

It's real

It's real

It's real

No, not it. She's real. This map confirms it. Sort of. I know for a fact that my power is real and this map is real. The fact that it's filled with horse puns when Chrysalis herself was a horse pun leads me to believe it is all real. But it is hard to rationalize that something like her exists. This leads me to wonder: how did Chrysalis get into my dreams, or I into hers?

"Mr. Ross, care to rejoin the class in the lesson? You will never become a calculus ninja by staring at a map."

At this, I snap back to reality to notice Doc Stock standing over me and the class whispering behind my back. "Sorry, it's not every day that you get stuff dropped on you out of thin air, you know," I sheepishly replied.

"Perfectly understandable, but we have a lot to cover before your finals."

"Yes, sir," I said, rolling up the map and sticking it in my backpack. The rest of class passed without incident.

Catherine ran up to where I was sitting at lunch. Grabbing the seat next to me, she demanded, "tell me! What happened to you earlier? They're saying you got bombarded with junk that appeared over your head." My excited girlfriend of two years grabbed my hands and eagerly awaited my response.

"It's true," I said, showing her my still stained shoes, "a map, pen, quill, and glass inkwell all got together and decided to ambush me. Hehehe. My pants and shoes are the only casualties."

"Oh my god! That's so weird! Where did that junk come from, anyway?"

"I think I might know, but I'm not positive. Perhaps a magic alien bug queen decided that was the perfect time for some revenge for who-knows-what, hehehe. It doesn't really matter, anyway."

"You're silly. I love you, Will bear."

"I love you, too, Catherine."

My school day ended with free cook in my culinary arts class. Cooking was a passion of mine, and if I ever became really serious in my relationship with Catherine, I would need the skill. She can't cook anything. In fact, I'd never let her in a kitchen for fear of her poisoning the water supply.

My burgers sizzled on the grill, bacon frying, and onions sautéing in a pan. I sent my group mates to grab the spices and cheese I needed to make the ultimate bacon cheeseburger. The aroma filled the air, mixing with the creations of the other groups. Studying food: it's the perfect way to end the day.

I couldn't tell if it was a trick of the light, but my hands looked slightly green...

"Ahhh... Enough of that. Time for bed," I yawned. Switching off my computer for the night, I trudged upstairs to my room. I briefly wondered if I would dream about Queen Chrysalis again.

First and foremost, I had to apologize to her for my rude behavior towards her last night. Then I wanted to confirm my theory about the objects that were disappearing into and appearing out of thin air. I stopped suddenly. The first thing I sent was my spilled breakfast. When she sent the ink, it landed on the floor next to me and the map landed on my head. What became of my food? I might have to make another apology.

I do hope that I can get on her good side. It wold be great to be friends with a queen.

As I had hoped, the dream came again. This time, the setting was a boat in the middle of a sea as smooth as glass and almost as blue as the sky. Chrysalis appeared a few seconds into the dream.

"Soooo... I'm sorry," I said. It's better just to get an apology done quickly. Like ripping a bandaid off, it hurts and then it's done. "I shouldn't have been so rude to you last night. It was wrong of me."

It seemed like my apology caught her off guard, for Chrysalis stood still with her jaw hitting the floor. She quickly composed herself, and snorted. "Very well. Now, are you ready to admit that you are just a construct of my mind?"

"Actually, about that," I started, "I think I know what is going on here. We are sharing the same dream. Despite how impossible that sounds, It's the only explanation I can come up with that fits."

"And what makes you say that?"

"Milk, cereal, a magnet, two pens, a quill, inkwell, and a map of Equestria labeled 'changeling invasion plan' make me say that," came my answer. Judging from her face, I say I hit it right on the money.

"YOU! You where the one who woke me up with that mess! It took me forever to get that out of my mane!" she spat. I winced. She continued, "and then, you took MY PLANS away from me!"

"I'm terribly sorry about that. It was a complete accident. Your map is in my backpack, so I will return it in the morning. I must correct you on something, though. My 'power' to send things to you only works one way. I can't bring anything from you to me. You must have sent that stuff to me yourself. What were you doing the moment your stuff vanished?" I inquired.

Chrysalis didn't respond at first. Her mask of primal rage slowly melted into one of confusion as she thought about my question. Her answer finally came in the form of, "I... I... stomped my hooves together. I think."

"Makes sense. I snapped my fingers, and whatever I was focusing on was sent to you. When you wake up tomorrow, try to send something else to me. We'll see what happens," I concluded. Maybe this power is more useful than I thought.

Unlike other times, where the dream just ended, this ending was a slow fade out. As my consciousness returned without the aid of an alarm, I said fare well and returned to the waking world.

Chrysalis sat in her study, thinking about the dream she had just awoken from. "I wonder... Maybe there's something to what that... William... said," she pondered. Her horn lit up with green magic and a new quill and paper drifted over to her. The quill dipped itself in the new ink and began to write on the paper. When she was satisfied, her magic rolled up the scroll. Chrysalis reared up and clapped her hooves while looking at the scroll. Flash. The scroll was gone. She wondered whether he would get it or not.

Chrysalis's test message appeared early Saturday morning. I was busy doing very important activities on the internet, namely watching videos on Youtube of Catherine playing with her new kitten. There was a flash and a scroll appeared on my laptop keyboard. I was thankful that Chrysalis hadn't decided to drop a brick on me. Unrolling the scroll, I read the fine cursive script:

'William,

I am testing the idea you proposed last night. If you receive this message, please respond as soon as possible.

Her Majesty, Queen Chrysalis of the Changelings.'

After reading her message, I scrawled on it in my chicken-scratch handwriting, 'message received. Have a great day. - William,' and stuck it in the photo copier. After the machine finishes, I grabbed the replica and sent it with a snap. I wanted to keep the original to show Nick and Catherine.

Although, I have to wonder, how did Chrysalis have better handwriting then me if she didn't have hands? And why did she use quill and ink instead of a pen?

Grabbing a sheet of paper from the copier, I wrote out those questions to her. Then, after fishing her map out of my backpack, I sent both papers with a snap.

Chrysalis was pleasantly surprised by the quick appearance of a sheet of unusually white paper. Looking at it, she noticed that her original message had been flawlessly copied on the new paper, along with a new message.

"Have a nice day," she mouthed, "it's been a long time since anyone has said that to the real me." A small, fanged grin cracked upon her face.

There was another flash, and two more papers appeared on her desk. The first was the map she had accidentally sent, and the second was another of those very white sheets. Reading the first question, she chuckled and wrote 'magic,' but the second gave her pause. "What's a pen?" she asked the empty room. 'Was that what the objects he sent were? And how would I write with one?' was quickly written out with the stroke of her quill. The letter vanished a moment later.

Author's Notes:

So, chapter 2 is out! Yay!

Can anyone guess what will happen next?
Oh, FYI this chapter is set early season 2, just after the re-statue-ification of Discord.

Somewhere, a dictionary is sitting next to a chicken, crying.

(Edited 12/21/2013)