Rain fell upon the dead ground that wasn’t quite dead. Dim knew this place, he knew its geography, and not long after arriving, he found the place where Canterlot stood growing. Life was coming to this place, if the rain was any indicator. Rain was vital to this place’s existence, because the realm of dreams had to mirror the real world. Natural systems had to function and certain rules had to be followed.

Somehow, Dim knew this place, the rules of this place. Time was different here; it was, at best, a nebulous concept and while he was here in this place, Dim had all of the time in the world. He could study spells, magic, he could take all of the time he needed to study the very ebb and flow of magic. In this place he could cast ten thousand fireball spells until he had it just right. In a realm such as this one, Luna had honed her magic into absolute perfection, understanding every nuance, every subtle change.

A short distance away, a paper pony pronked, and upon seeing her, Dim hurried after her. She was both familiar and strange, comforting and disconcerting, and from her eyes inky tears flowed. They fell to the ground, staining it black, and Dim noticed that from the black puddles sprang more life. So entranced by what he saw, Dim ceased his pursuit to have a better look at a patch of wildflowers that had sprang up from an inky black puddle. They were vibrant, vivid, they were oversaturated with colour and as Dim watched, some of that colour seemed to dribble out and then spread into the ground around the puddle.

To satisfy his own curiousity, Dim stuck his hoof into the ink puddle. He stirred it around, watching the flow of the strange liquid that seemed both thick and thin at the same time. The ripples, the movements had a peculiar solidity to them, while still being fluid. It was a liquid of contradictions.

“What is this?” he asked as he lifted his hoof to study the strange liquid.

“Magic,” the paper pony replied and something about her tone was teasing. She stood about a dozen yards away, weeping tears of black ink that stained the soil around her hooves. “Raw magic, pure, free of taint, free of corruption.”

“You are seeding this place.” Dim studied the paper pony, trying to take in as much detail as possible. “How is this magic pure? I thought magic was corrupted.”

“More than you know,” the paper pony replied and there was something in her voice that was almost laughter. “The wellspring of magic itself was polluted. I have since fixed that. Now, if you will excuse me, I have a lot of work that I must be doing, and I have an appointment that I need to keep with a young colt that I made a promise to.”

As he stood there, feeling stupid, Dim realised that the inky substance was soaking into his hoof. He looked down at it and could feel eyes upon him as he studied the curious phenomenon. “This is a dream—”

“Of course it is, silly.”

“No, when I was in this place before, I had a measure of control. Now, I am dreaming of this place, and I am not actually here. At least, I don’t think I am. I am skeptical of everything going on.”

“You sound far more commanding when you don’t second guess yourself and you are confident about what you think is going on,” the paper pony replied. Reaching out a wing covered in messy parchment feathers, she wiped her inky eyes, smiled, and ink flowed through the spiral channel of her horn, staining it.

The dream realm began to change, turning liquid, and much like watching a painting in reverse, everything flowed out of existence until all that was left was paper, endless paper in all directions, a vast, featureless paper plane that stretched as far as the eye could see. Dim noticed that the ink on his hoof was gone, having been absorbed.

“Hey Dim, do you know what soul mates are?” the paper pony asked.

Even though he knew it was distraction, Dim was curious. “No. Tell me.”

“They are two stories that are so deeply entwined that, given enough time, they become one book. What was once two eventually becomes one. It’s pretty fascinating, Dim. I’ve seen some things… amazing things. But I’ve never seen two books so in love with one another that they became just one book before. It was pretty special the first time I observed it.”

Why was she telling him this? Eyes narrowing, Dim studied the paper alicorn, because she was the only thing to look at in this space. Sniffling a bit, the paper pony sneezed and the most amazing thing happened: wads of paper and ink shot out of her nose, formed into beautiful paper butterflies, and then off they flapped towards some vast, unknowable horizon.

“Excuse me,” the paper pony said, and her ears dipped in an apologetic gesture. “That just happens sometimes. Random acts of creation and all that. Once, I sneezed a tiny cosmos into existence. I’ve been watching it for a time and one of the sapient species that developed near a peculiar ternary cluster of stars has just began the neolithic era. It was great fun watching them as they crawled out of the sea. I was worried for them when they climbed up into the trees. I’m pretty confident that coming down out of the trees was a mistake though. I don’t like it, no sir.”

If there was a purpose to this bizarre dream, Dim had no way of knowing what it was. He was well beyond baffled and had passed into the lands of confusion. Perhaps he had eaten something that hadn’t quite agreed with him, or maybe he was dying of hypothermia and these were his final, chaotic moments as he succumbed.

Then again, the ink seemed to soak into his hoof, so perhaps there was a point to all of this. There was knowledge too, an understanding of how things worked. How things operated. Dim’s keen intellect told him that he was getting closer to the heart of the matter, but there was still too much that was unknown.

“This ink,” he said as he waved his hoof around, “this is dream symbolism for something else. You are… rewriting me. Altering my purpose. Ink is something you place into an empty vessel and I strive to be a worthy vessel. What is going on and what are you up to, I wonder?”

The paper pony’s demeanour seemed to change right before Dim’s eyes.

“A dangerous game is being played and even now, I struggle to arrange the pieces on the board. Even with some knowledge of future events, the future keeps changing. It alters itself, it corrects. It is like a stream that over time, erodes the land and changes course. A thief of cutie marks was introduced into the game by an unknown player and she introduced a bleak future. Right now, many strive to make corrections to the ripples in the flow of ink. With the chaos introduced into reality, many destinies have been awoken that should be slumbering, and there are sleepers who should be awake and aware. With the power of the ink, I make corrections. Not changes, not alterations, but corrections.”

“And am I to be corrected?”

“In another future, in another when, she stole your cutie mark and doomed that future, condemning all who lived there to desolation. The residual ripples have effects in this reality, but as the ripples travel outward from their point of origin, they grow weaker. They are strong here because we are close.”

After a moment, Dim nodded because he understood. At least, he felt that he had a pretty good grasp of what was being said. His extensive schooling gave him unique insight and comprehension of esoteric subjects just like this one. “And am I to understand that Grogar is exploiting these ripples somehow?”

“Catrina’s power is unimaginable. She seeks the Worldstone, an artifact that was made here in this reality, but it is no longer here. Star Swirl the Bearded hid it elsewhere, in another when for safe keeping. I must say, this conversation was unanticipated.” For a moment, the parchment alicorn seemed distracted, and she shook her head from side to side, causing her neck to wrinkle. “I must be slipping in my old age. It is nice to converse with another.”

Intrigued, Dim asked, “What would she do with this Worldstone?”

The paper pony shrugged. “This is something that I actually do not know. Star Swirl somehow managed to hide the very knowledge of what the Worldstone was or what it did. Many pages were left blank. He committed impressive magery. I can only assume that because Catrina desires it, that she must know or have some idea of what it does.”

“Catrina must be stopped.” Dim felt a pressing need to say more, but he wasn’t sure what. He liked having something meaningful to say when he made a statement.

“Continue upon the path that you are on with Blackbird. You cause your own ripple effects, Dim, as you have become a force of correction. I have the feeling that you will do much to thwart Catrina, Belladonna, and Dark Desire just by virtue of what you are and what you do. As you push towards the other side of the world, you strive ever-closer to a destiny of your own making. You are far, far away from home, Dim, and even further from Celestia and Luna’s influence and control. You are where you are needed most, rest assured. You have become the knight errant, journeying far beyond his country’s borders.”

“Why tell me this?” Dim asked.

“It feels nice to talk to another,” the paper pony replied. “I developed a sudden interest in friendship, I suppose.”

“I have trouble making friends,” Dim blurted out for reasons he could not explain. No pink compulsion was responsible, and the onus for this dreadful sin was entirely upon him.

“There is an understatement,” was the paper pony’s deadpan reply.

“I have a friend… just one friend, I think, and she is friends with another. I am not okay with this! I am not okay with this at all.” Dim, standing on a plane of paper that stretched out forever in all directions, now felt small and insecure. “What if she finds somepony else and likes them more than me? I’m an asshole…”

Again, the paper pony’s demeanour changed and she underwent a visible shift of some sort. Emotion could be read in her eyes, but Dim did not know what it was. Pity would be met with resentment, but try as he might, he could not read her face, even though she was made of paper and wept tears of ink. He should have been able to read her like a book and this was most unsettling.

“You go into an undiscovered country—”

“Do you mean on the other side of the world or do you mean friendship?”

The paper pony seemed thrown off by the interruption and after she took a moment to recover, she threw her head back and laughed. It was an odd sound, unsettling, because it sound very much like two ponies laughing, not one. Unable to understand what was so funny, distrustful of the duplicity of duality, Dim scowled, revealing his dimples, something he had a painful sense of awareness about now.

“Blackbird poses a significant weakness to me—”

It was Dim’s turn to be interrupted and the paper pony had some wicked crinkles on her face when she cut in, “Blackbird, who saved you from certain hypothermia?”

Shuffling on his hooves, Dim heard the paper underhoof make papery noises and he tried again. “She poses a significant weakness to me. The very idea of her being hurt unhinges me. And she can be hurt. She has been hurt. It is all my fault, too. I don’t know how to keep her safe.” Reaching up with his right hind hoof, Dim scratched just behind his ear and tried to think about what else to say.

The paper pony spoke with two distinct voices when she replied, “I too, have had my friends get hurt because of their association with me.” Her eyes narrowed and her inky eyelashes stood out in sharp contrast to the bone-white parchment of her face. This time, when she spoke, it was with one voice. “Before you go home, you will have many weaknesses, friends that you will hold dear. You will let them into your heart and you will suffer for having known them. You will know a special type of friendship that is forged in the fires of conflict and is made stronger by a shared sense of loss.”

“I do not want this,” Dim replied, and his voice was a bit whinier than he would have liked. “This weakness is abhorrent.”

“You do not have a choice, Dim. It has already begun to happen. Certain events have been set into motion. You have made friends, whether you realise it or not, and it isn’t just Blackbird. Already, the world changes because of the friendships you have forged. Such is the nature of friendship, it is the means to change the world.”

“Why come to me? Why tell me these things? What is it that you hope to accomplish?”

“I come to many with the hope to impart knowledge.” The paper pony’s unknowable expression intensified in some weird, unreadable way, and her ink-stained eyes had a mysterious gleam to them. “It is part of the corrective process. We all have our part. Me. You. Others. You go into darkness, just like so many others, and you will shine your light and you will inspire others to goodness—”

Dim laughed, a cynical, bitter sound filled with derision. It was the very essence of contempt and scorn. “Pfagh! Have you seen how fractured my morals are? Am I to be some bearer of Equestrian ideals? Am I to be some great and shining light of civilisation so that the disgusting primitives will somehow know a better way? I am the last pony you want if you wish to uphold some moral ideal. You have sent a cripple to do the job of the able-bodied.”

“You have a purpose, a destiny—”

“One that was corrupted—”

“But is being fixed. You can still stand against the rising darkness that threatens to consume everything. You can be a force of good, if you so chose!”

“Ich werde die Welt dann grau machen.”

Then turn the world grey, damn you!

Pausing to catch her breath for a moment, the paper pony shook her head and tried again. “Just do something! Look, I understand your reluctance. I too was hesitant about leaving my lovely library tower to go to Ponyville for some silly festival. I had a really bad attitude about it, and I was mouthy, and sullen, and I pouted, and I might have been a little insolent, and that is kind of what destiny does, Dim. It finds ponies just like us to do the worst jobs because the common pony would buckle or lie down and die under such strain.”

There was a logic to this that Dim could not deny and his lip curled back into a resentful sneer upon having this realisation. “I will do what must be done for Blackbird’s sake.”

“Well, that’s a start, Dim.” The paper pony’s lips crinkled as they puckered and she seemed every bit as cantankerous as the flesh and blood unicorn that she faced. “You approach great conflict and trouble, Dim. Alone, you will fail. There is help to be had though. Try to follow Blackbird’s lead. She is trusting, kind, honest, generous, warm, and funny—”

“Most of what you have listed are weaknesses. Weaknesses that I exploit in others.” Dim felt this helpful interjection was necessary, but the scowl on the face of the paper pony was giving him second thoughts. “I just thought that I should point that out. Sorry.”

“When next you dream, I am sentencing you to friendship kindergarten.”

“That seems a bit harsh—”

“But well deserved.” The paper pony sighed, which sounded like pages rustling together. “Now go wake up. Trouble approaches and you have work to do. You have a boatful of friends to save. Go and do what you do best.”

“There is trouble?”

“Yes, Dim, now wake up!”

Author's Notes:

We do not apologise for any confusion in this chapter.