Twilight plopped onto her bed inside her royal bedroom, falling asleep almost instantly. Again. This time, downstairs, Spike had made a batch of nice, warm cookies, just for his snacking. Although he was most known for eating a large mine of diamonds and jewels, the purple dragon wasn't at all unfamiliar with sweets. He had intended for them to be for his caretaker, but then he realized that she wouldn't be in the mood for them. He grabbed a couple of the soft, chocolate chip-coated baked goodies and gobbled them down without a second to think. Upstairs, the Princess of Friendship was already asleep, her mouth open as a line of saliva started to appear onto her pillow. Her occasional snores, faint and cute. Blankets strewn over her shoulder, revealing no more than her head and her hooves. A couple of hours ticked away before a loud SLAM awoke the deep-sleeping Twilight. She was in the middle of a wondrous scene where nothing seemed out of place. When the noise was created, that wondrous world broke away in the mere second. She readied to scream at what she thought was Spike, but as she sat up and turned around, no words came out. No voice. No thought. No reaction. Just blankness. Blankness like the white space that surrounded her.

She awoke from a dream, only to be in another.

When the purple mare was able to calm herself down a little, she looked all around, gathering more and more questions. "What?" she finally said, getting up from her bed. The ground was still there, giving Twilight the feeling that there was only marble beneath her hooves. It was cold. She turned around to glance at the bed she came from, but it too was gone. Just white, empty space. It wasn't long before the emptiness began to fill with a wicked laughter. A laugh only Twilight could determine it as a crazed lunatic, ready to pounce as soon as the thing caught sight of somepony. Twilight shivered at the thought, only to be more frightened by another thought. I'm the only pony here. The alicorn princess tried her best to shake the scary thoughts from her head, but the laughter was gaining volume. Her heart pounded. Why? The purple mare stepped back into a cold, marble wall. Everything was cold. Soon enough, she instinctively shut her eyes, for a great, big wave of yellow light shone from the center of the room, enveloping her purple-furred body completely. Everything, even herself, was now a golden, monochromatic color.

As the light quickly appeared, it too quickly faded back to the blank, marble room. Twilight, now a shivering ball of violet fluff, peeked out. The only pony that was in the room now was her, but the only thing was a floating, yellow triangle. Black, shadowy arms and legs protruded from the base. Its lower half, a brick-like pattern, adorned with an equally shadowy bow tie. A top hat floated in unison with the entity. But the most predominant detail was its big, single eye that gave an empty glare. Twilight, being taught how to feel for magic, felt sick. This was no ordinary magic. It felt more twisted than even the darkest magic she had ever encountered. This magic was newer, stronger, and more unpredictable. The golden entity floated towards the princess, who in turn began to rise. The thing stuck out his hand, its body glowing as it said a syllable and fading back as quickly, "How's it goin', Twily? Name's Bill!"

Rarity had sneaked out of her own Carousel Boutique to go see her alicorn friend. She had been enduring insomnia for the last two nights, making her ever-so groggy and unfocused. She thought that Twilight could help her get over it, mostly by the use of a magic spell to lull her to her needed slumber. Rarity paced around a bit, thinking about which pony should help: either Twilight or Zecora. She shook her head and decided Twilight was the better choice. Zecora was a nice zebra, but she found her a little...messy. She had just taken a nice, warm bath over two hours ago, and she was not going to ruin her velvet-to-the-touch alabaster coat. She had reached Twilight's Castle, a crystal tree that resembles her old home that her purple friend once lived in-The Golden Oaks Library, a giant oak tree adorned with windows, curtains, and even a telescope. Now she resides in this magnificent crystal sculpture fit for a princess like Twilight.

She sat in front of the front door of the castle, reminiscing on the old memories that she had been in with Twilight and her old home. There was the time where she, Twilight, and Applejack had a slumber party, along with a tree branch that broke through the window. There was the time where she, along the rest, found out that they had a serious disease caused by the Poison Joke flowers (which was another reason why she didn't go to Zecora's). There was also the time where she had first met Twilight along with all her other friends-at a party Pinkie Pie had thrown. All those memories seemed to her as if it was yesterday. And yet, it had been years. The white mare sighed. She missed those days. Many times she had wished that she could go back in time and actually helped Twilight with defeating Tyrek, saving the library. Rarity knew that she wasn't the only one who missed those golden days. All of her friends wanted the same thing. Even Twilight.

Twilight, out of all ponies Rarity knew, wanted her old life the most. She thought it was weird when the alicorn had first told her in private. The white mare remembered that it was when Pinkie, Fluttershy, and a new friend, Saffron Masala, had just left. Twilight had sat down at the edge of her bed, a depressed look spread across her face. Rarity had stood back to have a little girl talk with only Twilight. But when she found  her purple friend looking like that, she had to comfort her, since Fluttershy wasn't around. She walked up to the bed, sat down beside her, and tried to cheer her up. "Is everything alright, darling?" she had asked. Twilight stared out the bedroom window and sighed, "Yeah. I-I'll be fine. Don't worry." Rarity kept on, "But deary, you look so sad. Was it us? Did we somehow-" "No, no. No, you guys didn't do anything wrong," Twilight reassured her, "But, I'm just...I'm okay." The alabaster mare wrapped a hoof around her friend's back, "It's alright, Twilight. Just tell me." What came next had caught her off guard at that moment.

As she gently rubbed her friend's back, Twilight's eyes flooded with tears. She started to hiccup. Then she cried. Softly at first, but then it grew louder. The alicorn finally collapsed onto Rarity's lap, turning into a ball of sobbing purple fur. Rarity tried the best she could to try and calm her down. "Shh. It's okay, darling. It's alright. You're okay, now. Shh," Rarity said soothingly, gently rubbing Twilight's back as she wailed. After five minutes of nothing but Rarity's gentle words and Twilight's tears and wails, she finally recollected herself. The purple mare rose from her friend's lap, trying her best to try and keep anymore tears from cascading down her face. "I'm...I...I'm s-sorry. I-I...I'm sorry," she hiccuped, wiping her eyes with her hooves, "I...I'm h...I'm home...I..." Rarity tried to soothe her, "Calm down, darling. It's okay." Twilight sputtered again, "I...I'm homesick. I-I miss m-m-my old home. I..I...I miss m-my old friends. M-my mom...d-dad...I..."

Rarity stroke her back again, "I understand. I understand completely. We all get homesick sometimes. It's just that, you know, sometimes we've just have to accept that life goes on. Change happens, darling. We just have to, in Rainbow's words, deal with it. Am I saying that you should forget the old days? No. What I'm saying is that we have to move on at some point. And like I said before, I understand. It's going to be alright, deary. It's okay." Twilight slowed down to only a couple of sniffles, calmed by her perfect choice of both words and understanding, "T-thank you, Rarity. I-I needed that. I...I just...I just want to be able to go back and live life like how I was able to when I was with them, you know? I just wish..." Twilight laid herself down, "...I just wish that, that I had my life back." She began to fall asleep as Rarity pulled her comforter over her. "I...wish..." Twilight fell asleep. The white mare smiled. She took a pillow from the head of the bed and placed it under her friend. Then she got up and turned off all of the lights, went back into Twilight's bedroom, and slept right next to her. That was last week.

"What do you want from me? What?" Twilight shouted, keeping her footing on the blank marble. "Whoa, just relax a bit, won't ya? I'm just tryin' to talk," Bill explained. He hovered near her, wrapping his arm around her neck, "Listen, Twily, I'm not what you think I am. I'm no monster that just so happened to drop by and ruin your night. I'm more of a business person, if you will. I've been here a long time." Twilight stepped back, shaking off his arm. "Listen, kid, I just wanna have a good relationship with ya. How's about you let me strike one up?" "Strike what up?" Twilight asked. Bill chuckled, floating higher, "Duh. A deal! How's about you let me strike a deal with ya?" The purple mare became confused at the idea. A deal? What could he possibly want? What could she possibly want? "In return for a little favor I can grant you your wish!" the yellow triangle announced. "What? What wish?" she asked him. Bill hovered down again, "Well, approximately 8 days, 16 hours, 45 minutes and 21 seconds ago you made a wish stating that you wanted to live life the way you wanted to. You want your old life back. Well I'm just the guy you can count on!" Bill's eye had faded to black and his pupil turned into a flash of green numbers as he said "count on". Fading back to normal, he spoke again. "So, do we-"

"NO!" Twilight shouted, using her own Canterlot Voice that she didn't even know she had. Bill Cipher himself was taken aback by surprise. "Whooaa there, pardner, you don't need to be that loud and clear." He floated towards her again, "Ok, so what do yo want? A new puppy? A new castle? How about a lifetime supply of ice cream? Or all three? Just name it and I can get it!" "How did you even know what I said?" Twilight questioned, a stern look spread across her face. "Eh. I'm a know-it-all!" Bill laughed. Twilight, now both scared and pestered, felt her heart pounding. She thought about what she really wanted, besides making him disappear. She knew that would never work. She thought for some time before she came up with her end of the deal. "Alright," she finally spoke, "I'll do your one request if you can give me what I want." Bill rubbed his hands together, "Alright! Now we're talkin'! And just what would this be?" The alicorn responded, "What I want is to have Equestia under harmony-where no other creature can harm any other!" She thought that that would drive him insane, causing him to forget it, leaving her, and other ponies, alone. "Heh. Okay. Done. Just find me a suitable puppet, and it's a DEAL!" Bill responded as he took her hoof in his blue-flaming hand and snapped his fingers, causing the room to flash to white, then just as quickly causing Twilight to wake up, completely shocked. Oh sweet Celestia...what just happened? she thought, never believing that she should go back to sleep. Again.