Looking around from where I was, I found myself in the middle of an unstable and ever-shifting world. The landscape was filled with buildings from Earth and Equestria, and it was quite disorienting to see the two realities merge together. However that was of little concern to me, nor was the fact I was at the moment a human dressed in a long black overcoat and a nicely fitted suit. The sight in front of me made all other details insignificant.

Ahead of me stood Lauren Faust at her full height and glory in a large courtyard. She was maybe six and a half feet tall, including the horn. Finally, I got to meet my kidnapper face to face. Both of us stared at each other in silence at our meeting for the first time, but neither of us knew what to say. I had many questions that have yet to be answered, but which was I to start out with?

"So... what now? Is that what it's like to dream with two minds in one body?"

My question seemed to snap Lauren out of a confused daze, and I could see her working out how to answer my question. "(No, dreams work this way all the time in this world.)"

"Oh." This was going to be hard to get used to. This dream felt real and it looked detailed enough to be mistakenly called reality as well.

Lauren slowly made her way over to where I was standing with her head hung low, and a sad expression still on her face. Immediately I knew what it was about. "(I'm still very sorry about this...)"

Even though I was furious with my being in Equestria, I couldn't help but understand Lauren’s situation and take pity on her. She would do anything to see her daughter's again as I will do anything to see my sister again. I was all she had left and now I couldn't stop thinking about how she's getting along without me. Mya was only twelve at this point and I really hoped she could manage until I got back.

I bent down until I was eye level with her lowered head and I waited for her to turn her gaze upwards to me. When she eventually did look up from the ground, I delivered the much-needed comfort that I've been purposely withholding.

"Lauren, I want you to know I'm not mad at you for what you did. I am however frustrated that I can't be there for my little sister right now. But I've taken the time to think this through and I realized that I am willing to do anything to go back home. Just as you were willing to do anything to go back home yourself. I understand your viewpoint to a certain degree, and I forgive you."

Tears started to appear at the corners of the alicorn's eyes and her lips started to tremble. The obvious question was then asked. "(...Why?)"

"Because everyone needs a second chance." My smile seemed to remind her of our conversation with luna from earlier today. She forgave Luna for turning on her sister and trying to take over the world. That type of forgiveness was something that touched my heart.

Lauren started to choke on her sad whimpers and silent words fought to escape her lips. "(T-Th-Th-ank you.)"

"Your welcome."

Rising up and standing tall, I looked at changing the scenery. I wanted to change the mood somehow. Closing my eyes, I thought hard about a picture, the image of a beautiful beach. Once I opened them I saw that rather than the entire image I thought about, it was still mixed in with buildings and houses from the MLP universe.

"Hmm neat."

"(What, the random background change?)" Lauren questioned looking perplexed.

"No, the fact that both you and I have control of only half the dream." I demonstrated my point by thinking of some other backgrounds. The world's that I brought in switched at a rapid pace and the only things that stayed the same was the cottages and buildings from the My Little Pony universe.

"The part that's not changing is your half of the dream."

"(Oh, I guess that is quite interesting. Perhaps we should experiment and find out how the dreamscape works with two imaginations in one body.)" Lauren said wiping the tears out of her eyes.

"That's a good idea but, instead how about we have an imagination battle." A wide grin spread across my face at the idea. I may not bug her about forcing me here but I was still going to make sure she paid.

"(A what?)" She asked; her head tilting slightly.

"We can have a tournament to see who is more creative you or I. The winner of each night gets to make the decisions during the day," I explained, and I couldn't help but feel quite proud of my plan to get back at her. My passenger seemed to like the suggestion and her spirits quickly improved.

"(Challenge accepted! I have a millennium of experience on you, and I designed Equestria, what do you have?)" Faust gloated.

"I've been an anime nerd since I was thirteen so I've got about seven years of Japanese chaotic ideas stored up. I think it will be a pretty good match."

"(We shall see Alex, but not right now. Because we are going to be walking up soon)."

"How do you know that?"

“(The dreams here only seem to last fifteen minutes in this world. We have been here for ten minutes and five isn't nearly enough time for a battle.)"

"Fine," I grumbled. We spent the rest of the time making plans for our tournament. I suggested having discord as a judge but apparently, Lauren doesn't feel safe letting the entity of chaos fiddle with her mental state. Jump scares were against the rules because of one of us got frightened enough then the dream would end. The final rule was if your opponent used an idea then you couldn't use the same one against them. Then we ran out of time.

Upon waking, I instantly got the sense that I wasn't alone in the room. Even though my eyes were shut the presence in the room was unsettling as the figure, or figures waited. I shifted my ears around and even stopped breathing for a brief moment in order to hear any signs of hostility. Once a minute or two had passed I slowly opened my eyes and sat up. Three figures stood in front of me, one was the maid I met yesterday, the other two were Colgate and Lyra.

Lyra was the pony who stood out to me because it was terrifying. I had only been here one day and she had been able to locate the only human within this dimension. Their watchful gaze and silent presence slowly became more and more disturbing as time went on. So taking their silence as a hint, I figured I was the one who was supposed to address them. I was royalty now after all. "Hello, what's up?"

"Princess Celestia has requested we attend to you, and your personal care. I am Minuette, this is Lyra and she is Lillybreeze. We are happy to meet you, Miss..."

Unfortunately, I've never been much of a morning person so I wasn't completely sober in my thinking ability."Alex James Smith, nice to meet you."

Everypony seemed taken aback at my answer, and it wasn't until they tried to address my name with the title of princess did I realize my mistake.

"Oh shit!" I silently cursed.

"Actually, just call me Lauren, the other name I went by in some other dimension so it's irrelevant now." It kind of hurt realizing how true that statement was.

" Um.. anyway Celestia is waiting downstairs in the dining hall for you. Do you require any assistance before you leave? Perhaps one of us could brush your mane?"

"No, but thank you Lillybreeze."

"Your Highness, I'd strongly suggest you comb your mane before going downstairs. Your hair is all over the place." Minuette tried to support her point by levitating a hand mirror over to me so I could see my drastic bed head. Why do they even have had mirrors?

"Hmm... I kinda like it. It gives a fun look to my appearance. What about you girls? Don't you think I look dashing?!" I gave a dramatic pose with my last comment, hoping to get a few laughs, but instead, it looked like that couldn't tell if it was a joke.

"You're right it does look good messy." Minuette quickly commented. She looked back to her co-workers for support but they didn't answer. Her answer and enthusiasm were obviously forced making her last statement a lie. So to fix that I narrowed my eyes at Minuette with a glare of disapproval. She seemed to shrink under my gaze.

"Listen Minuette, I'm not the type of person who likes being lied to. Just a moment ago you were arguing against my messy look but now that I've stated my acceptance to my appearance you suddenly changed your mind. Stick to what you believe and don't try to tickle my ears with empty words. That goes for you too."

The mares all nodded their heads in unison and a tinge of fear. However, it really bugged me that Colgate was so quick to suck up to me. I've always hated it when people did so in the past, so I always had some form of that speech ready, just in case. Thankfully it just came in handy.

"Well then, I best be off." Hopping down from the bed I started to make my way to the dining hall. Once I left the room I heard a sigh of relief from some of the girls.

"Hmm, I guess the ponies in this world are quite scared of authority. I'll have to remember that in the future." I began thinking about using my intimidating position to troll the servants. Unfortunately, my train of thought was interrupted by a sudden act of karma. I forgot that I was on the second floor and fell down the stairs. It was a spiral staircase too, so my poor self-fell down like a rag doll hugging the far edge of the wall all the way down due to the law of centripetal force.

Once I reached the bottom of the stairs I laid limp on the floor wallowing in pain. I glanced up to see two guards ponies standing at the base of the stairs, they refused to acknowledge my situation or even look at me. Any person knows to help someone who had fallen down and got hurt, but these jerks didn't even bat an eye at my generally painful situation. Fifty-four stairs are quite painful when you have stupid wings and a horn!

Slowly pushing myself up I glanced at the guards; pushed his side a little and he fell over revealing the mandatory in Canterlot inscription. Stupid mannequins, I gave a quick snort and started walking. Coming across the dining hall doors, I took a deep breath and pushed the doors wide. Celestia was at the far end of the room sipping a cup of tea, and reading the paper. She glanced up from her reading and gave me a glad smile. "I was beginning to worry your being here was another dream."

"Sorry Tia, you're stuck with me." I shrugged.

"Glad to hear it. Mother, is there anything I can get you?"

"No thanks, I'm just here for conversation. How does your usual day go?" I started to make my way over to Celestia so I could hear her better, eventually sitting down beside her seat.

"Mother, please don't remind me of my duties they are hardly enjoyable enough while doing them."

"Okay then, make any new friends over the past years?'’

"A few, but I had become distant from others once I realized that the more ponies I get to know, the more I'll have to lose." Her mood saddened as she pondered the relationships she used to have.

"Well you got me Luna, Cadence, and Twilight now, so at least, you're not alone."

"Who told you about Twilight and Cadence?"

"Oh.. Um Luna did after you went to sleep." Oops...

Suddenly green fire came blazing through the window. I immediately ducked for cover, it's not every day you see a flame about the size of a football, go dancing around the room. It found its place in front of Celestia materializing into a letter. The white alicorn glanced my direction and started to laugh."Oh, mother don't worry it's only a piece of paper." Celestia teased shaking the letter around in her magical grip.

"I-it's not funny! That thing almost hit me!"

"Mother this spell can't hurt ponies even if it comes directly into contact with them."

I gave her an annoyed stare. “So.. what does it say?"

Dear Princess Celestia
Today I learned it's not good to jump to conclusions. You have to find out all the facts before saying somepony did something. If you don't, you could end up blaming somepony for something they never did. This could hurt their feelings. And it could make you feel really foolish. So from now on, I will make sure to always get all the facts.

From Pinkie Pie

"So.. is that a child writing you or something?" I knew who pinkie pie was obviously, but I wanted to make a point that had been nagging at me ever since my sister tied me to that desk chair and forced me to watch the entire series.

"What would make you think that Mom? Pinkie Pie is in her early twenties"

"It just seemed a bit like common knowledge for some-pony in their adult age," I stated as I stared straight with a deadpan expression.

At hearing that, Celestia gave me another one of her patented mischief grins. "Mother just because you have had the years to figure things out doesn't mean everypony else has had as much time to do so."

"Whatever.. so... what's on the schedule today?" I said trying to change the subject to something that's not my age.

"Hmm... let me think, breakfast, then court, then lunch, then court once more until eight [2:00 PM] then I finish the paperwork to record all the political details throughout the day." When I heard that, I must say that I was surprised. And here I thought that Sun Butt just sat on her royal behind all day.

"Wow, you do that every day?"

She chuckled. " No, I only have this schedule on Sundays. Usually, I try to find a way to attend parties, make public appearances and travel abroad to get out of that routine."

"I can see why."

A little bell rang beside Celestia's teacup signaling breakfast was over. "I have to get going, do you want to come along or continue to readjust?" After I had just found out more details about her job, I must say I wasn't exactly eager to take part in it.

Thinking of an excuse I said,"I think I'll stay here to practice my magic. It's been years since I've done so, I don't even think I remember how to do it." To my relief, she seemed satisfied with my answer. She got up and began walking to the doors.

"If you find you're having any trouble with magic just let me know and I'll teach you how. Or I could get you to learn from Twilight, although I don't know how she would react to the task of teaching you."
She said, and I couldn't help but warmly smile.

"Okay, thanks for the offer. I'll see what I can do first. See you later."

"The same to you mother." With that, Celestia walked out of the room to go to the royal court.

I had made my way up to the room that I woke up in the other day. The vivid memory of waking up as a pony and having my blood run cold made me grin. I had always been quiet and self-reserved back when I was home. But now I'm wandering around with someone else's body, I couldn't help but notice how rapidly I was becoming more open to joking around. It felt comfortable now for some reason.

"So how do I magic?" I said to myself looking at my reflection in the polished silver mirror. I had grabbed a book on the way up here that dealt with the subject. After all, I couldn't keep using Faust as a get out of jail free card all the time, could I?.

The basics of magic: page 1 the four areas
There are four key areas that need attention when conducting magic of any kind. Knowledge, love, visualization, and will. Knowledge helps the user to define what their goal is and how to achieve it. Love is the source of magic’s power, once you unify your heart with your horn then things are a case of will. Visualization and will go together as one, the controller must define a goal and visualize every step to achieve it.

I gave a pause from my reading, then I double checked what it said. "So what is saying is all I need to do is define a goal and will it to happen by love? If this is all that's required then magic will be easy." I shut the book and set it down on my bed.

Taking a few steps back, I started to imagine the book floating above the bed. I focused the emotions of my heart into the tip of my horn, and in a daydream-like state, I saw the book rise and spin around. Refocusing on reality, I found that that is exactly what was going on.

"So all that is really needed is the ability to visualize something happening?" I asked myself in surprise. But what I wasn't expecting was to get an answer, "Yes, that's about it." I turned; startled, to find princess Cadence in the doorway.

"...Hello." I said trying to be polite, but I couldn't shake the look of confusion on my face.

"Celestia told me I could find you here; It's very nice to meet you, Lauren. I've heard so much about you." Smiling, I made my way over to her. I was going to try to give a hoof shake but once I got in range, Cadence threw her hooves around my neck.

"Princesses don't shake hooves, Princesses gotta hug." Well, to say the least, I fell over laughing when I heard that quote. Cadence fell down with me. Now she was the one to have a confused look on her face. "Was it something I said?"

I sat there for a moment as I tried to get a hold of myself, but all that I was able to do was get it down to a few chuckles. "Sorry- sorry, that comment reminded me of a funny show I saw while I was away," I explained through my relentless snickering.

"Oh, okay." She smiled. Getting up, I did my best to dust myself off from the fuzz-covered floor. " Sorry about the dust, I really let this place go." We laughed a little bit more before calming down. I made my way back into the room beside the bed.

"So what are you working on?"

"I'm trying to figure out magic."

"What do you mean?"

"The other world I was in didn't have magic, plus I was a different species. So I kind of forgot over time. Although after looking through this book it seems.. simple."

"What have you learned so far?"

"I've just read the introduction, but I've already mastered levitation from it. I bet I could grab hold off all the dust in this room and put it in one spot!"

Cadence gave me a skeptical look, "Well, you could try, but I doubt it. It takes years to master such multitasking."

"Bet ya ten bits I can do it." I nudged her side as I began to imagine the dust moving off the floor.

Celestia had the unfortunate duties of day court. Each Nobel citizen demanding that their wants be satisfied like a rotten child demands of their parents. Currently, the headache she was dealing with was a noble pony by the name of Currency Driver. He was a banker who wanted the royal funds to go to a private pool within his home. To say the least, the selfish and ridiculous things ponies would come up with boggled her mind.

"So you see your highness, a pool within my residence would be a logical thing to do to care for my condition." That condition being he's too weak.

Rubbing her temples, Celestia began to wonder what other ludicrous things would arise within her court. Every day was torture dealing with these ponies who felt they deserved favor from royalty. At least, she knew nothing could be more ridiculous than that pony who claimed Celestia should seal Luna in the moon again for rejecting his request to tear down an orphanage for a recreation center.

Suddenly the doors to the throne room burst open and an off-white alicorn accompanied by a pink alicorn frantically ran in. "Auntie! We need your help! Where can we put this!" Cadence quickly said pointing to a faint red glow being held in Faust's telekinesis.

"What is it?"

The crimson maned alicorn suddenly spoke up. "It's a dust bomb." She seemed to be under a lot of strain.

"A what?" Celestia turned her head in confusion.

"Auntie that speck is all the dust from her room collected into one spot. If she lets go then it will explode!"

Hope fluttered in the co-rulers chest; perhaps this stupid matter could get her out of day court.

"I'm sorry Currency but our meeting will have to be postponed." This got a grumble out of the noble but he was too cowardly to openly protest against the princess.

"Your Highness, if I may so ask, who is that?" Currency stated pointing a hoof at the newest alicorn in Equestria.

"That, my little pony is my mother, Lauren Faust."

It took a couple seconds for the stallion to register what that meant and quickly he turned to Laurens direction. His eyes seemed to expand to unreal proportions and he slammed his face into the red carpet. He bowed so suddenly his head bounced on it a little bit and he became unconscious.

The pitiful sight of the noble who knocked himself out brought Laurens eyes to tears as she tried not to laugh. Cadence and Celestia quickly ran over in an attempt to calm the mare down before she lost her concentration. The mares laughter only grew as both princesses desperately tried to calm her down. Then Celestia tripped on Currency.

From the outside of the castle, the stain glass windows suddenly became black, and no light passed through for days.

I hope you enjoyed what I was able to do with this chapter. Still fighting with my tablet, so if you notice any misspelled words that I missed please let me know in the comments section. Have a great day.. or night