In an average house lived a woman with her parents. She had just turned twenty-two and finished some basic university studies. She had already gotten a job and decided to live at her parents' house until the arrangements for her apartment were complete. This woman was Layda Hitcher. She was your average carrot-top girl with standard looks and average love-stories throughout her life. Her parents...she had no troubles with them. Her family was like everything else. Love problems here, good parties there, the usual.

She was a single child, not knowing the possibilities of brothers and sisters. No one ever said "joys" of that situation. As she had heard from her friends, having brothers and sisters was quite annoying. However, this would have spiced up her life quite a bit. Layda Hatcher wasn't exactly "happy", but she was far from negative or sad. She was simply bored with her life. And travelling somewhere with her salary wasn't the best thing she could afford. Truly, the only thing keeping her out of a dull, gray world was a single season that only appeared once a year. That season was autumn. Where others saw the season as death, or the eventual arrival of the bitter coldness, Layda saw it as the birth of colors and the future of the plants, which would give the same amount of colors in springtime.

The woman would also frequently look into poetry. While most found it absurd, she appreciated most of the good sides to poetry. However, even she found that some were wierd. However, today, the parents were out, taking care of their own jobs while their daughter waited. The reason for her allowed waiting in the house is that she worked hard most of her life and university was no exception. That, and she was extremely polite and helpful around the house...and she was a better cook than her mother. Something Layda's dad liked to taunt her mother about.

This was another typical day. Get up, go to the bathroom, eat, watch T.V. , something...something...night...boring. Layda may have been one of the rather atypical people in the world, but she was tired of it. The day was cold and cloudy, and she preferred warm and sunny days, despite her adoration of autumn. She went into her room which was devoid of anything but a desk for her to work on, a comfortable bed, and little night-table where the lamp was. In the ceiling was a small window. Layda never understood why it was there in the first place. How was she ever supposed to reach something so high without a ladder? It mattered not, however, as she stared blatantly at the clear night sky from under her. Contemplating the stars as she sunk within the empty abyss of her tiny room.

"*sigh* I'm really bored. I just want to have an adventure. A SMALL adventure. Nothing more, nothing less...although, if it becomes a big adventure...*shrug* I won't be complaining...I'm talking to myself again. Hm. Whatever. Atleast the parents aren't here, so I can yap to myself ALLLLLLL I want! Pfff. Atleast the night sky will help me get some sleep. Who knows what marvels lie beyond and/or on them? Maybe those shows like Star trek or Star map or whatever those thousands of shows starting with "Star" are true? Who knows. I'd just like to have a good little adventure to spice my life up a bit. So much grey and green. Ugh. I HATE green.

It's always everywhere! During summer, during spring, even winter! If only I could see someplace that ISN'T drowned in green. Some new things to see...and I'm repeating my thoughts out loud again, in hopes that they will eventually come true. Durrr, have a magical space cake 'n waaagh to happy land! *SUPER SIGH* Time to sleep."

After her insane amount of bizarre gesturing and talking to herself, Layda fell asleep while whisking around her sheets. She just couldn't find a proper way to sleep, so Layda tired herself out. Needless to say, she was a hard sleeper.

Just a few minutes after her sudden snooze, something moved on the ceiling window. Looking closely, one would think that the night sky was trying to get away, but this was actually a small fabric of some sorts. As it slithered through the openings of the ceiling window, it fell down, nearly flopping hard against the floor, but it held itself aloft with extreme struggle. One could certainly hear cursing coming from it if they listened closely. It was obviously as tired as it was beautiful. It seemed like a colorful display of blue and purple, and the sparkling in it could have you dream of the cosmos for days-on-end.

Yet, this thing seemed in a hurry, and it had a right to be, as it seemed to be desintegrating gradually, albeit at an extremely slow pace. It finally flopped on the bed covers. This fabric seemed to be just a flicker away from death, and it could barely even move at all, let alone lament about how close it had gotten, and how far away its objective truly was. Yet, a stroke of luck happened. The woman in the bed turned around and let her left arm flop out of the covers. With the last bit of its strength, the tiny little fabric touched her hand. Almost immediately, the starry thing spread throughout the arm of Layda. The woman's arm almost immediately took the color and decoration of this fabric, only to slowly fade away and take back its original color. The woman started to squirm a bit, but quickly calmed down.

It was a beautiful scene! It was actually a comfortably warm autumn and the amount of colored leaves flying everywhere was beautiful. This place was an open forest, and it showed! The trees were as tall as they were powerful, and they seemed to let go of infinite numbers of orange, yellow, brown, red, and sometimes, even purple. The skies were bright and clean, yet some silvery-white clouds still passed overhead. Of course, they would cast small amounts of shadow whenever they passed in front of the sun, but that was just enough to give the best feeling one could ever have.

A feeling of comfort and satisfaction filled Layda as well as she decided to lie down in the ankle-high grass. The soft tickling of the what were supposed to be blades had her giggle a bit. This was her inner world, and noone else could reach it besides her. It was where she went when she needed some thinking time. It was the place she went when she wanted to have some fun. It was the place she needed when she wanted color. If truly was her own heaven, and she was sure that this is what her place in that after-life would look like.

However, breaking her from her smiles were the sounds of tree branches cracking under footsteps. She moaned while grabbing her head in annoyance and lazily sat up.

"Who's there? Lemme guess, you're here to turn this wonderful little dream into a nightmare? Yawn. Try something new. This is my dream world, and I control everything here."

A rather auspicious voice came from behind one of the trees:

"Do not worry. I am not here to do anything to this beautiful place." it said.

"Really? Then why dontcha get out here into the open where ah can see ya."

What looked like a horse or some sort of pony came out of from behind a tree. To Layda, this creature looked beautiful. Its coat was a magnificent dark blue and those wierd azure things she wore gave even better style and color to this creature. Its eyes were turquoise colored, something rare, but better yet, they were pretty much reptilian. Even more stunning was the apparent existence of both horns and wings. Layda couldn't help but stand up and get closer to this creature in aww. She even "pet" it. Much to her surprise, this creature was truly there, and she could really feel the silkiness of the coat.

"Wow. Who are you?"

"Me? My name is Ni-uhh..." the creature clenched her teeth and looked worringly from side to side in nervousness, then came up with a name "Cosmos Lune."

This name seemed farfetch'd, but Layda went with it, knowing that this was all just a dream, and continued to marvel in the feeling that this creature procured her.

"Well, my name is Layda Hitcher."

"Pleased to meet you. I would like it if you stopped touching me. That feeling is becoming irritating."

"Oops. Sorry." Layda said, laughing nervously. She retracted her arms as if they were just burnt, and walked to face this horse-thing directly. "So...what are you exactly?"

"I belong to a race of ponies, but more specifically, I'm an alicorn."

"Alicorn?"

"Yes. We are the ponies who inherit both wings and horns. We also have great magical powers." Cosmos said proudly with a hoof to the chest.

"Magic? Could you do some for me?"

"No."

"Than what's the point of you being here?" Layda complained with an irritated look.

"I'm too tired and weakened to do anything but one specific spell."

"Which is?"

"I overheard you talking about wanting to go on an adventure?"

The woman's eyes started to sparkle as she realized the possibility. This may have just been a dream, but she might as well use up everything.

"Yes."

"What if I told you that there is a world that you could go to where I once lived? How would you like to go there?"

"Would I? I'd love to! Are there dragons?"

"Yes there are. Heaps of them." Cosmos nodded with a smile

"I prefer to cut straight to the chase. Are there tons of mythological creatures there?"

"Yes! So, do you accept my proposal?"

"Of course! What's the catch?"

"You must take on my shape once you decide to go into my old world."

"If I do so, will I ever see you again?"

"Don't you fret. I'll be within your inner world, and I'll talk to you when the need arises. You can still talk to me too. Just enter this place."

"Okay!"

Layda jumped onto Cosmos and hugged her tightly. The alicorn looked at the human that was about her height, if only a few centimeters smaller. She blinked several times in confusion and stared at this creature before it faded away as it woke up, leaving behind her interior world.

"One more thing before you go! Stand in the moonlight."

The woman woke up in the night, slightly satisfied with her dream, only to see that everything was, like usual, just that. She was still in her room, and she decided that she needed a little leg stretching to go back to sleep. She had fatigue on her face, coupled with annoyance and irritation. The woman let her hand slide on her face just before she yawned loudly.

"Hm? The full moon is out." Layda stayed away from the light and stared at the moon, which had now taken a color similar to the "pony" in her dream "She did tell me to step in the light. Pff. Like it'll work. Hop!" Layda stayed in place in irritation as she noticed nothing happening "Pff. I knew it. Just a...my... my heart...agh! It's...beating too fast!"

Indeed. Hitcher's heart started to beat four times the normal rythm. Any normal creature's heart would have blown up by now, but she seemed to stay alive, and the pain was unbearable. Clutching her chest and trying to claw her way to the beating pain-tumor, Layda clenched her teeth as she felt her bones starting to rearrange themselves as well. She fell on her kness in unsustainable pains as her body began to distort and change in shape and size.

Her legs and back started to bend, her face started to push forward, and this all happened in the musical symphony of cracking, snaping, and grunts of pain. She even felt her hair changing composition, and taking on an otherworldly shape. Even the growth of the horn and wings pained her incredibly. Once the body was finished, she felt her eyes twist like if someone threw ten darts right into her pupils. She clenched her eye sockets in fury and screaming, until she felt her heart stop with a sudden "thump".

This is when she started to drag herself towards the door that would lead her out of her room and to the phone, but by the time she stretched her arm towards the white exit, she passed out. Just as everything seemed lost, Layda's heart started to beat again, and her body stood upright with no difficulty at all, although the occasional cracking kept occurring.

"Ha! This is perfect. I may not be able to hold this body for long, but it will be enough to create and open the portal. I would also need those armor pieces for proper style."

"Cosmos" took the sheets from the woman's bed and reshaped their entirety into the armors and "hoof-shoes" that only royalty wore. She looked exactly like she did in the dream, but she suddenly flinched as another crack tore through the newly transformed body.

"Ugh! Quickly!"

Her horn started to glow with the swirling of galaxies overhead, and quite quickly, a purple portal surrounded by a black line formed itself. It wouldn't last long, and the new body made another extremely loud snapping noise, causing the creature to almost fall over and pass out. Yet she held firm on her shaking and, with one last feat of strength, she tossed herself through the portal which dissappeared in whirring and popping.