Book two of "Who We Become".
Being a princess means always worrying what everypony thinks about you. So when Twilight overhears a private conversation, she has to come to terms with how she feels about herself, love, and a certain somepony, all whil...
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The sky glowed orange, despite no trace of the sun being visible. The flowers along the river grew taller than any pony, with light shining through their translucent petals, creating patches of green and yellow in the water. Usually, no matter how bizarre it may be, a dream will still feel real to the dreamer. Twilight knew she was dreaming, but unless somepony had drugged her, she wasn't sure where the dream was coming from.
She was riding along the river in a simple wooden boat, being pulled by the current towards a hill. Among the immense flowers it was the only thing that actually stood out. She hoped from a higher vantage point that she'd be able to figure out where to go. 'Although, if this is just a dream, I suppose it doesn't matter,' she rationalized. Still, she was curious to see more, dream or not.
As she drew closer to it, the stems of the flowers became thicker and darker, while the petals became smaller and lost their prismatic nature, becoming consistently green. Eventually they started bearing fruit, and Twilight realized they had changed seamlessly into trees, which continued to grow up the hill. As she reached the shore and made her way up the hill, the trees grew sparser until there was only one left at the top. Underneath it lay a pony.
"Tangerine?" Luna offered casually, as if their meeting here wasn't strange in the slightest.
"Luna? What's going on?" Twilight asked.
"I have been waiting for you. You could have just flown, you know." Luna picked a tangerine and levitated it to Twilight. She didn't see the point in eating in a dream, but accepted it nonetheless.
"But why are you here? I'm happy to see you, but this isn't really a nightmare, even if it is a little weird." Twilight peeled the fruit and took a bite. "Sweet Celestia that's good!"
"Naturally. I made it." Twilight looked at her, about to ask what she meant, then took another bite of the tangerine instead. Luna's explanation could wait, considering the fruit would be gone when she woke up. Luna chuckled. "You are not dreaming, Twilight. I am. I brought you from a dreamless slumber into my dream."
"You can do that?" Twilight asked, juice leaking out of her mouth.
"I can, but usually do not. Until recently, my dreams were unsafe for other ponies. Now that they are not it may occasionally be a convenient means of communication, although it is not without downsides. For example, despite it being night at current, I am asleep."
"But don't you have important things to do at night?" Twilight asked.
"Many, every night," Luna said, shaking her head. "Which is why we shall not mention this particular meeting with Tia." She gave Twilight a sideways glance and the younger alicorn nodded. "Good. And whether Tia would agree or not, I do consider this meeting important. I understand you met Stormy Skies a few weeks ago?"
"Yes," Twilight said. She set aside the tangerine, having lost all taste for the fruit. "Why didn't you tell me about him?" Fluttershy had told her that Luna had known about what happened for over a year, having seen it in a dream. Along with Rainbow Dash – whom Fluttershy had made promise to not tell anypony – that made her one of the only ponies to know about it.
