A Lifetime of Dreams: Eden’s Nest

Just like that.

Everything she knew.

Everything she was and done.

Totally.

Becoming….

Obsolete.

Everything was over.

Everything that I was.

Everything that I will ever be.

We will be.

We will be together… right?

You and me… you and me.

A Lifetime of Dreams

01: Becoming a New World

The feeling of becoming something new, something that was outside of the whole world.

Ideas came a little hard for her right now.

It was probably the situation that she had been brought into; after all, seeing your world become nothing but a white existence was more than enough to send more centered mares like Applejack into a state of catatonia and shock.

Thankfully Twilight was not a mere mare. Sure, she had many short comings, her own over the top seriousness about her studies and everything academic was an aspect of her life that brought Spike almost to madness, or the usage of quick and fast sarcastic jabs.

But she had one advantage, her quick thinking, her ability to get out of situations due to her comprehension of history, magic and science, just like Nightmare Moon and the other adventures they have been through, that’s why she wasn’t in shock or scared.

Okay, that was a lie; she WAS scared, but she had more important things on her mind, just like what happened to Spike and the rest of her friends.

Probably they had survived just like she did, inside the same transparent cube that she found herself within in the middle of pure whiteness, a place where only silence reigned.

“Hello?... anypony?” Twilight asked once again, letting her voice echo in the vast emptiness, her hopes dwindling more and more as minutes, or maybe they were hours, passed; this has becoming more and more terrifying “please… anypony! Applejack! Rarity… Pinkie Pie?” Twilight said one last time feeling the weight of loneliness and anxiety falling upon her.

“Quit it” a sharp voice reverberated inside her confined space sending flying due to the shock and surprise, in a second she found herself with her back on the transparent wall of the cube feeling her heart as if it were trying to escape through her thorax cavity, her mane sticking to her forehead at the side of her horn due to the humidity and heat that had increased with time in the confined space.

Right there, in the middle of nowhere inside the sanctum against the emptiness was sitting a peculiar kind of creature, it had long legs that he had crossed while sitting in the… floor, maybe? Those were encased in a fabric that wasn't known to her, not that she was an expert in that certain aspect of daily life unlike her good friend Rarity, his long thin arms ended in hands that were interconnected as if the creature was… praying? No… he wasn't praying, the elbows were resting on his legs and his head’s weight was directly on the hands as if he were resting.

With that observation out of the way she put her attention on the creature’s face. Smooth skin, dark mane, small ears that were probably less mobile than that of a pony or a diamond dog, but it was the creature’s eyes that practically sucked her in; dark brown, almost midnight black eyes that were piercing through her surrounded by the biggest set of bags she have seen on someone as if he haven’t slept in days, it only made it seem even more surreal.

“Ex… excuse me?”

“You heard it… quit it… you are the most annoying hallucination I have ever had, so if you are going to be a nuisance at least be a quiet hallucination” It.. ‘He’ said; the voice was a clear giveaway… probably.

“Hallu… I am definitely not a hallucination”

“Then if you are not a hallucination something is either wrong with me or you, the fun thing would be in your case, maybe I’m a product of your mind after you went completely bonkers, now doesn't that give you a nice and warm feeling inside?” the creature said with a feral grin on his face that made all of Twilight’s fur stand on an end, it just gave her the creeps, for some reason she felt as if she was in the presence of a dangerous creature.

“Well, if you go with that then you don’t exist since you are NOT scientifically possible, but something is definitely going on because in front of me everything disappeared so this is either an hallucination or a bad dream as you suggested or…”

“Or everything around us disappeared and was erased… that sounds crazy, but well… crazy seems to come for me whether I want to or not” the young… creature exclaimed closing his eyes and letting himself fall backwards clearly recognizing that it was indeed not something that was created on his deluded mind… for once.

“Yes, well, Sherlock Hooves said that “Once you eliminate the impossible, what remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth” so seeing that I can breath and that this is in no way a massive hallucination… we are indeed floating in a transparent cube after the destruction of reality, why are you looking at me?” It had totally ruined the effect of determination and solemnness after watching the creature raise his head to look at her with a perplexed look.

“Sherlock Hooves… seriously… Sherlock Hooves?”

“What? Wait… you have read the books too?”

“You gotta be kidding me… you seriously gotta be kidding me” the creature quickly stood up while his face contorted into shock and confusion.

“You are starting to make me feel a little uncomfortable with the way you are looking at me right now”

“You think I’M making you uncomfortable? I AM TALKING WITH A FUCKING PURPLE UNICORN THAT JUST MADE A FUCKING HORSE PUN OF SHERLOCK HOLMES! Do you have any idea how many years I would spend in the mad house if this is real? Nobody will fucking believe me!”

“Well, I’m not exactly in the best position myself, I just saw my world disappear and now I’m trapped in a cube with a madman!” Twilight said not clearly thinking on her answer and the strength of it and the words she had said finally registered, her ears lowered alongside her eyes knowing that what she had said had been a step too far “I… I’m sorry”

“Don’t be, you are not that far away from the truth” his immediate answer made her look finding him now with one of his hands against the invisible wall as if checking for something “is not the first, not the last” he said without any inflecting, as if it was nothing out of the ordinary, twilight didn't know what made her feel sad, that he had been said that before or that he was probably immune to it.

“Still, what I said was wrong, so forgive me, I don’t want my post-apocalyptic survivor to be mad at me” she said eliciting a small smile from her companion as if sensing that it was a joke.

“Meh, you could have chosen better companions, maybe Ron Perlman: War, War never changes” he said clearly doing some cultural reference but it went over Twilight’s head, seeing that the creature shrugged his shoulders clearly expecting that answer “but still, a fucking purple unicorn, the only way to find one of you would be in the little girl’s toy aisle in the market, something is incredibly fucked up in this situation” as much as she was clearly enjoying the cultural and life revelations from the creature the words that he was choosing made her feel as if Spike was once again scratching the blackboard but it was clearly something he was used to, maybe in his civilization that was the norm.

“I find myself in the same situation, I don’t even know where to begin with the question, I mean, never in all my books I have seen something like… well, you, being referenced or described, this is incredible I need to document this, where is my quill and parchment?... oh, right… it disappeared… alongside the library… and Ponyville… and Spike” she said feeling the whole weight of what had happened to everypony that she had ever met, soon she felt the sting on her eyes that announced the heavy flow of tears appearing, her own hooves were starting to shake, the loneliness was starting to set.

But just before the full torrent could be expelled she felt a presence at her side and a weight on her back, looking at her side through the fogginess of tears she saw the creature sitting at her side with one hand on her, clearly he was feeling extremely awkward by the way his eyes shifted everywhere except on her, but it had helped, if she was alive maybe she could do something, after all, wasn't she the student of Princess Celestia?

“Thank you”

“Purple, don’t mention it, like, seriously, don’t mention it to anyone” clearly she was alright and quickly stood up and walked away much to the amusement of Twilight who lightly chuckled “so, have any idea of what this is all about?” He said waving his hand around their location.

“I have some, but is just a hypothesis, we are probably in a place between worlds, the white expanse that separates the dimensions known as the Void by some authors, others like to call it The Nexus but is just  ideas, no pony I have ever read about has done that before, not even Starswirl the Bearded”

“The Nexus, how ominous, so basically what you are saying is that we are trapped outside of our universes or whatever remains of them after that white wall simply erases everything, but I have another question, did you hear anything peculiar before getting trapped in this square?”

“Anything peculiar? Now that you mention it… there was this sound, it was unlike anything I heard, it wasn't something I could replicate but I don’t think I could forget it” scratching her chin with one hoof Twilight could bring to her mind the distinctive sound, it sounded so mechanical and disturbing.

“And that’s the problem” the voice of her companion brought her out of her thoughts in an instant due to the seriousness of it.

“You know about that sound?”

“Is the same one I heard, but like you, in my word that is not something you heard outside of a show, it isn't real no matter how many stupid fanboys wet their beds thinking about it, but then again, I’m talking with a purple unicorn so anything can happen at this point” he said shrugging his shoulders as if accepting that fact.

“You seem to have taken all of this pretty well” the inquisitive unicorn said while studying the other creature much more, it was not just because it was a new scientific discovery but because by using her brain on that objective she won’t go insane about the loss of her friends and family.

“I am mentally unbalanced so I tend to accept most situations faster; besides, I’ll enter in shock later on once I’m capable of filtering all of what happened” but before any of them could say anything else the sanctity of their place was broken by a tremor under their feet… hooves… something.

It was a moment, but both noticed it by the look they threw at each other.

“Do you know if anyone can survive in the Nexus?”

“Nopony knows, after all, it is just a theory, one that we obviously confirmed but… I don’t know, we can either start floating around the nexus forever, fall into another reality or…”

“Or? Purple… you better finish that sentence”

“Or we will disappear… as our worlds apparently did, everything that we are will disappear alongside our dimension, as if we never existed”

“… It sucks…” he could only say before the square shook with even more vigor before breaking apart.

Of course, it was a very small fall for them.

Opening her eyes expecting to see the white expense of The Nexus all around her or at least the Green Hills of the Afterlife the only thing her eyes saw was… Golden Oaks Library… her kitchen to be precise.

Looking downwards she saw her buttered toast and cup of tea, both still expelling her warmth into the air, she was sitting on her chair in her kitchen as if all of what had happened had been nothing but a hallucination brought to her obviously from the meager amount of sleep her body and brain had suffered in the last few days.

Looking down at her breakfast she could feel tears starting to gather at the corner of her eyes, if it had been a dream that she had then she was grateful, more than grateful after the nightmarish illusion. Quickly biting into her toast made her smile as the flavor gleefully spread through her mouth and tongue and after a quick gulp of her tea she could only say “there is definitely no place as home”

The End

Wait… you truly believe THAT is the end? Oh my poor lost humans, this is nothing but the beginning of her suffering. THAT I can promise you.

“Well Purple, unless I was also pulled into whatever world you call home and you are the owner of this then you are definitely not at home” the voice send a chill through her spine, it made the magic grip she had on the teacup evaporate, thankfully the cup was close to the plate and no damage had befallen it, but Twilight quickly galloped into the main room of the library, her eyes meeting the dark ones of her companion inside the cube.

“But… you… here… how can it be?”

“Oh, that’s not interesting at all Purple, check it out” he said pointing with one digit at eh center of the room, finding that instead of the usual central table with the horse head sculpture now was a bizarre contraption, a huge column of what appeared to be crystal mounted on top of a weird hexagonal shaped console full of knobs and buttons.

And the size, by Celestia, the size of her library now, it was easily twice the size of Golden Oaks Library, the amount of books alone made her mouth salivate, it didn't matter if they were copies of her other books but beyond that her companion wasn't even smiling or making a jive out of her face, that made alarms go off inside her head.

“Do… do you know what it is?” she said pointing with a hoof to the center of the room.

“Yes… and THAT is scary… it shouldn't exist… you shouldn't exist but I find you strangely cute and adorable so I find you tolerable” he said making Twilight huff at the combination of backhand compliment and dismiss as a fantasy “but this… this isn't possible… it is the console of a TARDIS”

“A what? TARDIS? What is that?” warily watching at the central piece in the floor he quickly took seat upon a pillow thrown in the wooden floor, it was seriously freaking him out.

“TARDIS… is an acronym for… time and relative… dimension in space I think… is a time machine… no, time AND space machine, it disappears in time and appears at another age and another place” the gasp of the purple unicorn quickly made him look at her direction, watching the stars appear on her incredibly huge eyes.

“You have such an amazing technology?!”

“Of course not! It is just stupid fiction! Nothing more than a story someone created to entertain! That thing shouldn't even exist!” he said jumping into his feet clearly getting more annoyed but after a second he took a deep breath with his closed seeing the surprised face of Twilight, but she understood quickly that his nerves were quickly reaching a boiling point and her question didn't help so with that in mind she decided to change her route.

“So you say that this is purely fictional, just as I was… maybe it had something to do with all this”

“So what? Miraculously a TARDIS appeared out of thin air and saved both of us before our worlds disappeared?”

“Well, it is a theory, we both heard the sound it seems and we are dealing with something that is probably outside of our own worlds so who can say? Is it that much of a stress that something like this… TARDIS you said? Could have saved us”

“Yeah, when you put it like that is the only damn thing that is making sense, as much as sense can be found in all this… but what about that stupid square? What’s your explanation oh great Professor Unicorn?” she glared at him at his words but she quickly recovered.

“Well, remember what I said about the Nexus? Because the pony who wrote about the theory said that there could be a safe way to transverse to it, one needed enough raw magic power and the specific harmonization and magic equation, something that no one knew where to even start from, but theoretically one could create a safe space where you could break through the veil, basically the barrier between the universe and the Nexus and observe it without any side effect and quickly return to the universe or probably use it as transport to reach other worlds… what? Is something in my face?”

“No… just… you really went into Professor Mode in there, damn, probably gotta be calling you teacher from now on… always had a thing for teachers… maybe because of the attires or the whole idea about a woman in her position trying to seduce her young pupils, I don’t know… sorry, I tend to ramble” he said with a sheepish grin while Twilight’s face started to become a little heated quickly understanding his talk.

“Don’t… don’t worry, I have a friend to tends to ramble just like you, sometimes she is even worst” before she could dabble on her memories of her pink friend what came next made her pause.

“So, is she psychopathic too?”

“Too?” Twilight asked as a parrot at the question out of nowhere, but a quick look into her memories she remembered clearly how he called himself mentally unbalanced, trying not to think about that any time sooner she decided to answer “eh… well, I know she is not exactly sane… or normal, but I’m not sure… although… the way Pinkie reacted when she thought we didn't want to be her friends anymore…”

“And that’s another question, what’s your name? I mean, unless you like me calling you Purple all the time”

“Well, that’s a question I can answer, my name is Twilight Sparkle”

Twilight.

*snort*

Twilight… Sparkle.

“hehe… HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! YOU ARE CALLED TWILIGHT… AND SPARKLE… OH MY GOD…. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!”

“What’ What is wrong with my name?!” She reacted quickly jumping onto him in defense of her name after he threw himself to the ground to laugh harder.

“Oh god… I believe there is not enough time to tell you how horrible are the books called twilight, but let’s just say they have a gay fucking vampire that sparkles in the sun instead of burning”

“A vampire that sparkles on sunlight? Okay… that does sound dumb” Twilight answered back ruminating about the plot, something told her that the whole explanation will make her cringe at the coincidence in her name “so, you know my name, what is yours?”

“Well, I…” before he could utter another word the console started to beep and move making the whole library tremble and shook “oh goodness, the thing just activated?!”

“If what you say is true I believe it is about to move to another location!” she said sliding all over the floor, thankfully the books seemed to stay in their places alongside the shelves and the floor.

“Yeah, but where?!” the trembling continued after a couple of seconds until it stopped alongside a loud ‘ding’ coming out of the machine signifying their arrival “it stopped”

“I think that was obvious”

“Uuhh, the pony has some fangs” she could practically taste the stupid grin from the tone of voice, but Twilight was more interested at what was beyond the door of her house’s replica, praying to the Royal Sisters and gripping the handle with her magic she quickly opened it up, but instead of finding the cheery atmosphere of Ponyville there was only a metallic and advanced set of automatic doors in front of her.

“I… maybe I was expecting too much”

“Elevator doors”

“What?”

“Those are elevator doors; see the buttons at the side? You press to call for one, then the doors open” he said stretching his hand about to push the button before quickly looking at her as if asking for permission, nodding he pushed the button waiting both of them for something.

“Guess we can only go forward”

“Unless you know how to drive this thing, yes, we can only see where we are”

“We are in this together, right?”

“Oh Sparkle… if you knew me you would ask for someone else to accompany you” he said just as the clean and utilitarian white of the elevator opened up in front of them “you know, I’m starting to hate white” at his side twilight could give him an affirmative. Until now she saw white and thought about Princess Celestia, but now… she wondered about what she will experience after meeting her teacher once more “any theory?” he said as both waited inside the elevator for the next area of wherever they were.

“Beyond being in another dimension? Probably we return to our own but probably the future”

“As good as anything I’ll say… well, that didn't take long” he said with a calm smile as they both felt the elevator stop at a new floor. The doors opened up to show a cold corridor with all the lights off.

“Ah, maybe we arrived at night?” before he could refute what she had said Twilight took one step before a sudden movement made them jump back.

There, being upside down at the entrance of the elevator was a pony suspended, his face showing the rictus of death and agony, one of his ears ripped off and his eyes vacant, most of his coat that had once been lightly green seemed to have been bathed in red, probably his own blood.

At his side twilight was returning her breakfast into the floor of the elevator, for his part he simply took notice of the silence in the corridor and what awaited them beyond it.

“So… a friend of yours?”