"Free as a bird
It's the next best thing to be
Free as a bird "
Lennon & McCartney, The Beatles

Twilight lay quietly on the warm sandy shore at the edge of the river. She listened to the sounds of the water, the steady current endlessly moving, flowing, carrying leaves, grass, and twigs on some unknown journey. As she felt her coat drying in the warm sun, her thoughts began to turn inward.

Being is being. I am but a grain of rice in a field of millions of grains of rice. My spirit floats as a grain of rice on the river, without resistance or worry. I am only here, now, calm and at peace with all around me. I am a part of nature and nature is a part of me, we are one, in one loving family. I have found my true family and that is nature which accepts and loves me. I am at one with all the animals, the plants, the earth.

Twilight heard a noise close by and smiled, then slowly opened her eyes. Not a foot away on the sand in front of her face was a scorpion.

“AHHHHH!!!” she screamed and jumped up into a sitting position, pushing frantically backwards in the sand, digging in with her rear hooves and scooting away on her rump. She sat panting and shaking in fear. The scorpion, unconcerned, turned and skittered away. She stared at it, terrified it might change its mind, but it continued on its way. As she lifted her hoof to her chest, in preparation to perform the calming motion, she saw how it trembled.

Oh, who am I kidding? I’m not one with nature! She looked down and sighed.

I’m just one.

Standing up, she gave her wings a quick, strong pump, thrusting herself into the sky and leaving the ground far below. As she ascended, she looked out to the horizon. It was a vague white line that gradually faded to a deep blue. Down below the earth fell farther and farther away..

Banking off to the right she went into a dive, building up speed before pulling back and going into a climb. As she did so she turned her attention to her wings. at what they were doing, suddenly recalling the day she had been transformed into an Alicorn and how it felt the first time she stretched them out. She thought about her first clumsy attempts at flying. The nerve endings were still developing so she was unaware during those first flights how much stress she was putting her new additions through. The deep aches she felt as she lay in bed that night caused her to re-consider their advantages. But then she discovered something...

A couple of days after Twilight had been transformed into an alicorn, Rainbow Dash introduced the young princess to something amazing that had a subtle but profound effect. Twilight Sparkle was not a pony given to swearing. There were certain words that were simply not permitted in the Night Velvet household and while Twilight had developed a knowledge of them through overheard conversations at the academy, she had only muttered "darn it" once or twice and then gasped at herself for having lost control.

Rainbow Dash, on the other hoof, was fluent not only with most of those words, but was intimately familiar with the all the erogenous nerve bundles spread throughout pony wings, (especially her own...) During the time in question, Dash had approached Twilight (while the new princess was giving one of her frequent lectures on the importance of something or other) and gone straight for ground zero, tracing a nerve line across the back of the wing toward the body and then up the crease where the wing was attached to her side. This single stroke instantly brought Twilight to the edge of an orgasm - something else with which the young princess was hardly familiar.

In that moment Twilight Sparkle learned three things: 1.Pony wings are for more than just flying 2. Sometimes there is only one word to speak in a situation, even if it is a forbidden word, and 3. There really were such things as wing boners. (There was a fourth - she just might be in love with Rainbow Dash - but that faded with the desire.)

"Fuh-fuh-fuh-fuck!!!!" Twilight moaned. "Uhhhnngg" she sighed as her hind legs trembled then buckled, causing her to land on her rump. Her head arched back in ecstasy her mouth opening in ecstatic silence as her wings suddenly spread out and became erect, shimmering brightly.

Rainbow Dash turned red in an effort not to laugh and the remaining four stared at Twilight utterly thunderstruck. Upon landing back on her fore hooves, the now panting Twilight, smiled weakly and proceeded to pass out, tipping slowly over.

In their past couple of weeks together, Applejack had wanted to see if she could learn how to bring Twilight to orgasm just by caressing her wings, but Twilight had found the intimate passion she craved with Applejack was to be felt only when the two of them lay together, caressing and tasting each other, wordlessly moving from position to position, pleasing one another and sharing the intimacy of the intertwined sighs, giggles and little gasps as their passions rose and finally, looking into each others eyes bright with excitement, amid kisses and little cries of pleasure, they joined in an inevitably powerful orgasm, followed again and again by more until sated and spent, they lay in each others arms, safe and happy, and drifted off to sleep. As a result, they never got around to exploring with Twilight’s wings.

It was the first time she’d thought about sex and Applejack since that night. She kept her thoughts as far from what happened as she could and focused on preparing for this journey. She had let the gaping emotional wound form a protective covering, though she knew it was fragile.

Now she needed strength and so poked a little of the scar, terrified of being unable to stop herself from tearing it off completely. The brief remembrance that she allowed herself of what happened that last early morning extinguished all desire. She used the pain of the recollection to strengthen her resolve to do what she’d come out here to do. She pushed the thoughts quickly away.

Well I guess it’s time...No it is time. This is so scary but I need to get on with my life and let’s face it, this is the only way.. I know myself and I know that if I don’t, I’ll just end up living my life somewhere between what I was and nothing at all. It would be gray misery.

I need to kill Twilight Sparkle.

On this last flight over the desert, Twilight looked at the land, at the beauty and the death trying to let her mind empty. She began to climb again, higher and higher, spending all her focus on pumping her wings, fast and hard, clearing her mind. It became harder as the air got thinner and the temperature dropped.

“This is where you get strong, Twi…” Rainbow Dash had told her. “High up here - where the air is thin and cold and you have to pump like mad.”

It had not been the Rainbow Dash that anypony on the ground knew. During their conversation the young pegasi’s usual cocksure attitude had fallen away, revealing a young pony who was both sad and serious. It had been several moths earlier as the two of them flew high over Ponyville. Dash had asked Twilight to come flying with her under the pretense of seeing how Twilight was doing with her complex flying skill assignments Dash had given her.

Dash was usually playful, slipping beneath her and flipping over on her back then tickling Twilight’s belly. While it made Twilight laugh, it made Rainbow laugh even harder. Sometimes Dash would tug her tail or tickle her sensitive underhoof.

Today Dash made Twilight go through the practice routine that Dash had choreographed for her. Twilight performed it flawlessly and Dash smiled and double hoof-bumped her. Despite Rainbow’s smile, Twilight sensed something was wrong. Hovering across from her, Dash looked away into the distance.

“What’s the matter Rainbow? “

The pegasi looked down and sighed. “Well, see Twi, there was this time in my life when things were not exactly what I would call good. Something happened that upset me and so I began to spend a lot of time up here. It takes a lot of wing power to stay up here and there isn’t much air, so you really have to work, it helped me relieve the stress…”

“Can we drop to a lower altitude?” Twilight asked “That workout really wore me out.” She fully expected a smart-flank reply, so it surprised her when Dash said simply,

“Oh, sorry. Yeah, sure.”

“What happened Rainbow?” Twilight asked, flying up to her friend, Dash was deeply touched by the amount of concern in her friend's voice. “You know can tell me, I won’t tell anypony else.”

“Yeah I know. I-I guess I’m just not ready to talk about it…” she looked away. “I don’t know if I’ll ever be.”

Several weeks later Dash had gone to Manehattan for that weekend. Rarity had told Twilight that Dash was going to meet a secret admirer, but when Dash returned and Twilight asked her about it, Rainbow blew it off, saying it had been Soarin, but he had to leave so she just hung out and did some sightseeing. Twilight could see that Dash had changed a lot over that weekend and that the story was a lie, but she knew better than to press her about it.

These thoughts of Dash had distracted Twilight, but she’d kept beating her wings. Now the desert was far below and the blue of the atmosphere at this altitude was pure and deep.. Twilight suddenly felt very small. What was an Alicorn princess against all of this? All these creatures living across this land. Somewhere far behind her was the hamlet of Ponyville, sitting beneath the hills and orchards of the Apple Family Farm, around which Ponyville had been founded. Ahead was a mystery, strange places and strange creatures.

Twilight pumped her wings madly for as long as she could, trying to take it all in one last time so that she could always remember what it was like to fly. She felt emotions overwhelmed her as she thought about just how much she had come to love flying, a chance to be alone in the beautiful solitude.

Suddenly she turned and dove straight down, first pumping like mad then tucking her wings tightly beside her like a falcon. It was then that the absolute unfairness of it all hit her, re-igniting the dark thoughts that had emerged that awful morning. Thoughts that made her test the truths about Alicorn immortality. She opened her tucked wings enough to give another quick short burst. The acceleration released adrenaline into her bloodstream and so she did it again, this time harder and faster. As she picked up speed, she felt deep, powerful anger rise within her. The fury she’d suppressed exploded and she drove herself faster now, imagining herself slamming hard into the ground, determined to kill herself, suddenly full of hate for everypony, even Applejack. And then, as she realized just how much she hated the farm pony, a rage filled her so deep it almost blinded her. She would teach her all about pain, make her hurt as much as she hurt. Make her cry as Twilight had. Then she saw Applejack’s face, saw her curled up somewhere, in utter pain, crying. and she realized how stupid she was being, how selfish, how absurd and how fiercely she loved Applejack, no matter what had happened.

She was at the edge of control and strained to ease out her wings just a tiny bit to create drag. She was terrified the wind would catch her wings and blow them quickly back, tearing tendons and ligaments before snapping them off at the socket. But Rainbow had trained her well. Her wings had become very strong and now, little by little she began to slow herself down. She thought it was working but it seemed as though the ground was rising to meet her at an alarming speed. She felt her strength beginning to fail as her whole body strained to regain control. With one last burst of energy, she pulled back hard. The little flecks of darkness began to creep in from her peripheral vision then suddenly she leveled out to horizontal flight. At this speed, with her wings open just a little, she came in low and very fast, shooting over the land, the ground beneath her just a blur. Utterly ecstatic that she was alive she was unable to keep from smiling. Off in the distance ahead she saw a long shallow lake and in a moment had crossed the shoreline and was over water. She dropped to where she was just a foot or so above it. The low pressure beneath her pulled a rooster tail of water ripping up just behind her snapping tail as she shot over the lake. She pulled back up at the end of the lake and headed straight up.

I’m going to try it!!

She let her momentum carry her straight up. She slowed and then just before reaching a stall, closed her eyes and with a smile, tilted her head back. The change in her center of gravity caused her to fall backward. If not done correctly, the maneuver would leave you spinning out of control and recovery would be extremely difficult. But it was perfect. She went into a straight, slow, dive and pulled herself out gracefully with a laugh. Heading back toward the now perfectly flat lake she found herself unable to stop the laughter, but then suddenly a powerful unbidden rush of emotion hit her and she burst into tears.

The lake’s surface was as still as glass and as she slowly glided over it she saw in its reflection a young alicorn looking back at her. She was lavender with dark hair the colors of the sky just after the sun had set. She wore her hair in bangs and her tail was cut straight. She had eyes the color of the horizon just before the light left the sky. There were streaks of color in her mane and tail and she looked at them, reflected in the surface of the water.

Twilight Sparkle loved that pony with all her heart and soul. It was a love that had grown stronger in the past few weeks with the help of Applejack. She took one long final look and said goodbye. The pain was indescribable.

Drawing in a sharp breath, determined not to succumb to her emotions, Twilight banked around 180 degrees. Ahead, just beyond the lake she saw the long flat strip of land, her last runway, and lined it up. When landing near mountain tops at extremely high altitudes where the air was thin, you couldn’t just hover and land, you had to find a long stretch of flat land then come in fast, galloping as fast as you could. If you messed up, the crash could do some serious damage. Dash had taken her to some mountains so she could try it. It had taken a lot of practice, but Twilight had finally mastered it to the point where she’d turned it into almost an art form. Dash had loved watching how she did it. As it was to be her very last landing, Twilight wanted to end it on a high note. She could see the waves of heat rising off the ground along its length as she did so. It looked as though the air was melting.

Unconsciously her legs started galloping in the air as fast as they could move in preparation for landing. Several small rabbits, owls and foxes looked up, transfixed at the sight of a beautiful young alicorn speeding not 10 feet over the desert floor with such natural grace that all their chittering sounds, all their motion stopped . They looked at her sweet young noble face and could not understand why the tears fell from the corner of her eyes, why her chin trembled or know the reason for pitiful sound that came from her. They only knew it was the sound of a young heart breaking.

The tips of her hooves brushed the earth. skimming the desert floor. She wept as her hooves, galloping madly, hit the ground, kicking up dust. She left her wings open, gliding just at ground level as she galloped like the wind. She watched the land, speeding just under her and pulled her hooves up slightly, her heart aching for just another moment aloft. Straining, stretching, she reached out with her wing tips as far as she could, her wings trembling with the effort, and she cried harder. Finally, unable to hold on anymore she let her full weight come down on her madly galloping hooves. As she did, she cried out in anguish, bursting into tears and slowly came to a run, then a canter, then a walk, and finally a stop. She stood there, head down, panting hard and collapsed on the desert floor, sobbing, knowing she would never take to the sky again..

_______________________

Walking back up the narrow trail that led to the cave she welcomed the calm that inevitably followed the raw outpouring of emotion At the top of the path she stepped up onto the back of the large flat stone outcropping and walked to its edge. Looking out over the desert she drew a deep if slightly shaky breath, and wiped a stray tear from her cheek before turning back and walking into the cave

Once in the tent, she reached over and pulled her saddle bag closer. Opening it, she began poking among the contents, searching for something. Finally she pulled out a small blue velvet box. She opened it slowly. Two little necklaces, their delicate chains intertwined but not tangled, lay within. From each hung a tiny charm, a golden apple that came to a point like a heart. They were identical save that one had a small emerald in the one leaf that grew from the apple’s stem, the other a deep purple sapphire. Twilight closed her eyes and inhaled deeply, determined to remain calm. Then standing and stepping out of the tent with the small box, she walked over to the side of the cave near the wall.

Her eyes closed in deep concentration she slowly exhaled then drew a slow, measured breath.

As she prepared herself, her heart began to beat strong and hard and she gritted her teeth, unable to keep herself from breaking a key discipline when using magic. Suddenly she burst into a fit of laughter and had to stop. She’d recalled an incident from the Canterlot academy…

She could never stop herself from gritting her teeth or squinting when concentrating on a powerful spell though it was considered very bad form and her professors would often chide her for it. One even went so far as to bring her before the Princess for punishment. Twilight was still very young and the professor, suddenly having a student 3 years younger than the rest of his class, took umbrage at having to “foal sit.” On that particular day, Celestia was in no mood for the interruption.

“What is the meaning of this?” she demanded.

“It’s Twilight Sparkle your highness” he said, his voice full of annoyance. “She cannot perform a power spell without either squinting or gritting her teeth. Sometimes she’s been seen doing both.”

The princess looked sternly at Twilight.

“Show me!” she snapped.

Twilight, on the verge of tears, trembled visibly.

“I said show me.” the Princess repeated, obviously restraining her rage.

Twilight, now shaking so uncontrollably that she had to sit, squinted hard and gritted her teeth,

“Professor, is this the behavior of which you speak?” Celestia asked.

“It is that very behavior your highness.”

“And tell me,” she continued, her face suddenly softening and her voice changing to one typically used when addressing tiny foals or puppies. “Is that not just the cootest wittow face you ever saw?” and with that reached over and touched Twilight's cheek.

Twilight’s eyes opened wide in amazement and as she looked up at the adoring face her mentor, a tear spilled from her eye. Celestia leaned closer to her, her countenance radiating benevolence. “Would you mind doing that again my most faithful student?” she asked. Twilight reached up with her little hoof and wiped her nose with the back of her hoof. A handkerchief materialized and and was carefully applied, wiping the little mare’s nose.

“That better?” The princess had asked. A little nod and a tiny smile answered her. Then Twilight happily obeyed, putting everything she had into it. “Ohhhhh!!” squealed the princess, “That is SO ADORABLE!!!” “As if I you couldn’t get any cuter!”

Utterly dumbstruck, the Professor could only gape in astonishment. Finally, regaining his composure, he spoke "With all due respect your highness, her relationship with you notwithstanding, if Ms. Sparkle expects to graduate, certain skills must be mastered."

With a raised eyebrow Celestia slowly turned her attention toward him.

“And what, professor, is Miss. Sparkles average in your class?”

"Off the top of my head, well, I don't think..."

Celestia continued to look at him, her expression unchanged.

“94 your highness”

“Ahhhh, 91.” Celestia said sagely

The professor, well aware of the game the Princess was playing, sighed and closed his eyes.

“No, your highness, it’s 94”

“OHHHH? Ninety four? And tell me, what is the next highest average in that class?”

“84”

Twilight turned to him and scrunching up her face, stuck out her tongue. He glared back in response.

“And teeth gritting and squinting each count for how many points each?”

“That's not the issue your highness. The point is that the energy used to, uh, make that expression, draws energy and focus from the spell and interrupt one’s ability to concentrate. It’s a discipline taught to all first year students. ”

“94 did you say?”

The Professor sighed, “Yes, your highness…”

“Well it’s clear that Miss Sparkle is utterly lacking in her ability to control her face. You may return to your class Professor. I will deal with Ms. Sparkle.”

As soon as the professor had teleported back to the classroom, Celestia spoke to her, sternly but not unkindly, and admonished her to try harder. “But before you do - let me see that face again!” the princess said with a smile.

The two of them spent the next fifteen minutes making silly faces at each other,

Twilight smiled at the memory and wiped a tear from her eye. She regained her composure and once again began to concentrate. From within her horn a light began to glow, it was a shade of deep lavender, rich and soft. Gradually it intensified, as Twilight gathered her life force, controlling and forcing the negative and positive charges into alignment. The strain began to show on her face as the strength of the power continued to rise. The drops of sweat that dripped from her forehead, fell and landed in the dust of the cave’s floor.

Suddenly, bursting from the tip of her horn, a sharp beam of bright light shot straight down into the floor of the cave, cutting deep into the stone. Tiny bits of stone shot up as she cut, filling the air with clouds of dust. Twilight created a second spell to charge those particles, magnetizing them so that they clung together in the air and settled to the cave floor. It took a tremendous amount of effort but when she was done a small rectangular hold three inches wide, four inches long and six inches deep had been dug.

She stood panting for a moment, bathed in sweat. She walked out to the cave opening and let the breeze lift her perspiration from her coat, cooling her. After several moments she turned back and using the same cutting spell, marked several key places in the cave with little cuts in the stone. The moment she was done, Twilight collapsed on the cave floor in utter exhaustion. Her peripheral vision became fuzzy right before darkness overtook her..

Still dazed, she woke up on the cave floor several minutes later. After several deep breaths, she sat up and got her bearings. There on the floor of the cave beside her was the little box. She opened it and looked at the necklace. Amidst the dirt and dust of the cave, it looked pure and sweet and precious. She recalled the morning she’d removed it from around Applejack’s neck. It seemed like another lifetime.

Slowly the necklace floated up in front of her. She brought it to her lips and gently kissed it. Then using her magic to clean a part of the floor, she lay the necklace softly there. She then closed her eyes and recited the ancient spell. It was from the book of magic that Celestia kept in the locked room of the Canterlot library. For the last time, she shape shifted. Her wings shrunk until they were no more and her coat took on a gray tone. With some deft changes to the design of her cutie mark, she changed it to a compass rose, not unlike Daring Do’s. Finally she was back to being a unicorn, resembling little of who she had once been. The only physical features she was unable to change, that nopony could change, for there was no magic that could change them, were her eyes and her voice. All attempts to change these last two features over the millennia had ended disastrously with the subjects blinded and or mute.

Now she prepared for the spell. She closed her eyes and went into a deep trance, much like the one she’d gone into the last time she and Applejack had made love. Sensing every molecule in her body, every proton and electron, every point in her aura, she aligned their positive and negative charges. She isolated her power, all her magical ability, separating it. She bowed her head and closed her eyes. A thin, pure shaft of light emanated from her horn to the tiny emerald in the apple. Twilight felt her magic weaken as she transferred more and more of it to the emerald. Then it stopped.

Twilight continued to breath deeply and regularly and slowly brought herself out of the trance. Opening her eyes she looked carefully at the emerald and could see the tiny star shaped light of her cutie mark glowing within. She tried some simple levitation spells. No problem. She started a fire with no difficulty. All the simple spells she tried, worked fine.

Then she tried to shape shift. Summoning all her strength, all her concentration, she tried performing the spell but it was utterly useless. It was both a matter of power and a matter of complexity. Using her levitation spell she lifted the necklace up and placed it tenderly in the case next to the other one and gently closed the lid. She placed the case in the little vault she’d cut into the floor of the cave and with the stone dust left from her earlier work she used a spell and mixed magical potion that made it into a mortar She did not fill the vault with her mixture, but rather sealed over the top with a three inch layer and smoothed it until it was impossible to tell that the rock floor had ever been disturbed.

It was early afternoon by the time she’d gotten everything packed up and stowed in her saddle bag. She lifted it and lowered it onto her back then strapped on her bedroll. With a last look around the cave she decided it was time to go. From the rock outcropping she stirred up a small dust devil, lifting dust and debris and scattering it all over the cave’s interior. When she finished, the inside of the cave looked as though nopony had entered it for years.

On the trail leading down from the mouth of the cave, a fly buzzed by Twilight’s ear, she flicked it involuntarily. The fly dodged the flick but didn’t take the hint.

First sign of life I’ve seen since that scorpion, kinda strange. Part of the reason I came to the desert was solitude, but right now even that fly is welcome company. Of all the friends I’ve ever made, he has to be the smallest, she thought with a smile.

The trail leading down to the desert floor was steep and she carefully navigated around the small rocks that jutted up from the packed earth.

Journey - definition: the act of traveling from one place to another. I think it should include from one life to another or one pony to another, sounds like something Zecora or Golden Spike might say. Was he aware of all I was going through? Looking back on everything I wonder if I left clues. At least he seemed to understand. All I know is that he came along at just the right time. The ideas I was having were beginning to scare me. Life is too special, too precious to give up on. There was something so amazing about him though, even the staff of the train seemed to have some of it. Were they also aware of what was going on with me?

Plants were more prevalent as were animals now and just as she stopped to get a drink from her canteen, she saw a little brown lizard four or five yards away from her, scurry under a barrel cactus.

“And what are you running from little guy?” she called to him and was surprised when the little guy turned around and peered back at her from under the cactus. Birds, as if in answer to her question, swooped down near the cactus, clearly looking for lunch. “And... I think I have a pretty good idea who you’re running from” she said, smirking. Rocks were plentiful and Twilight saw an opportunity to draw the birds away. “And... I think I can help you” she giggled. “Things are not always what they seem...” There were a number of rocks she saw that would serve the purpose. Was a sound spell needed here or a motion spell…or both? Sand would be quiet so a sound spell applied to both would do the trick. “And now…” she said, casting a spell to a flat area of sand that was on the other side of her from the lizard. Hills in the sand not more than an inch high appeared around a stone like sound waves. “And finally…” Rings of sand rose from the tiny hills and spun then fell, creating a motion and sound that the birds instantly dove on.

As they descended and dug around the area, Twilight looked back in the direction of her little friend. Two or three dozen lizards like him shot out of hiding spots under plants and cacti and rocks and things, and made for their holes that led to underground burrows. But not him. He looked out from under the barrel cactus and stared at her. She stared back at him. He cocked his head. She did the same and let out a little giggle. She approached the cactus slowly so as not to scare him. He didn’t seem scared..

“Hi,” she said.

He blinked.

“I’m Lily Applelove, wait, no...” What has my cutie mark got to do with Lilies or Apples? She turned around to look at her cutie mark. Compass Rose? I can work with Rose. What am I doing? I’m just going from town to town, no definite destination… Just ramblin…

“Ramblin Rose, my name is Rambling Rose, little guy. You were almost breakfast for the birds. I’ll bet you and your friends were out licking the dew off the plants earlier and the birds got between you and your homes. Well I’m happy I was able to help you all.” Then Twilight suddenly scowled. “Wait, why didn’t you run with the rest of your friends?”

He looked back and blinked.

“Well the birds are still figuring out what’s what over there. Why don’t you make a break for home.?”

He didn’t move.

“I’m sorry, but I can’t stay here all day, I need to be on my way, and I can’t just leave you here to be a late lunch for the birds to fight over... How about if I count down and you show me how fast you can run. Ready, set. GO!”

He blinked

“Look! I have to get going. What, you want me to carry you?”

To her surprise he stepped out from under the cactus.

“Oh. Sorry.” She walked up to where he was and reached out to pick him up. Suddenly he jumped on her foreleg and shot up her arm, jumping into her mane.

“AHHH!!! What the-?! You little…!! Whooooeeeeoahhh!” She danced around, reaching into her mane as he looked out, trying to extract him. “What are you doing?! You come out of my mane RIGHT NOW! Stop this nonsense!” she exclaimed.

He poked his head out of her mane and she went to grab him but he popped back in. “Damn it! Why are you being like this?! I thought we were friends! Look I really have to get going, so unless you want to go with me…” Suddenly there was a little chirp in her ear. She blinked widely in surprise. “Wait- are you saying that you want to go with me?” She heard another chirp and felt him up on top of her head. Her bangs were curled forward over her forehead like Maud Pie’s and she rolled her eyes upward at them. Suddenly his head popped out from her bangs and he curled himself around so he could look at her upside down.

“Are you sure about this? I’m not the best company right now.” she said to his upside down face. He blinked.

“Hmmm, well I suppose...” she said. “Anyway, you remind me of Gummy back in Ponyville. He’s a great little alligator, just not as talkative as you.” She reached up to her forehead and he jumped on her hoof. He turned around and looked into her face.

“If we’re going to be travelling companions, then I guess we need to be honest with each other, right?” He blinked back at her. “So I need to tell you something, but if you ever tell another soul, they’ll take away all my magic forever and banish me.” He didn’t blink. “The truth is I’m an alicorn princess and my name is Twilight Sparkle. Do you have a name?”

He didn’t say a word.

“Well you do now. You like dew? Your name is Dewey.”

Dewey looked back at her.

Twilight lifted him and he jumped into her mane. He settled into her bangs and peered out, looking around at the scenery.

“Well Dewey, here we go…”

Twilight made the rest of her way down the narrow dusty path. Small boulders on either side made it tricky but it soon levelled out and met up with a path running east/west along the sloping foothills of the mountains to her left..

Her journey took her northwest across the long flat pan of scrub and brush known as the Scrubweed Desert. Far off ahead she could see open prairie just visible in the north and beyond that was the Badlands. She’d done some reading about them and was interested in doing some excavations. Her letter hadn’t been a complete lie. An expedition was up there somewhere doing archeological research, through the Badlands were big and she had no idea where in them the party was.

The cave that Twilight had camped in was in the foothills of the Wraith Mountain Range behind her. As she walked along she began, wishing she hadn't left so early in the day. The merciless sun made the walking seemed endless. After several hours she stopped and rested. She found a shady spot behind a large scrubweed and sat. She removed her saddlebag and placed it next to her then took a back hoof into her fore hooves and massaged the soft skin underneath. Dewey popped his head out from under the flap and looked at her.

“Oh Dewey, my poor woofies, they’re killing me,” Twilight closed her eyes and moaned. “...ohhhh that feels good. Actually, to be precise, it’s not really my hooves that hurt, it’s my underhooves. My Mom calls them my woofies. She said that I used to say that because when I was little I couldn’t say hoof’s, so I called them woofies. Do you see this hard ridge here? - it extends around the perimeter. See it? It’s kind of shaped like a pointy capital ‘D’. It’s made of keratin. That’s the part we walk on, the part that touches the ground and makes that clop sound.. Now around the outside of that, hidden by our coats, there is a lip of skin that is tucked up and and sits against the side of the hoof. We can extend it down like this and slip it over the bottom of the hard part.” Twilight brushed the dust off the hoof before showing how it worked. “See? now the whole, hard part is hidden. Next there is the understep which is In the middle of the hoof - its the part that I was rubbing. It’s kind of pink and is very sensitive and tender, unless you do a lot of walking without horseshoes, then it can get kind of calloused. As you can see mine is, or was anyway, very pink and soft. Now they’re dry and cracked and they hurt. Ohhhh, that’s good.” she moaned. She leaned over and whispered “I’m very ticklish there.”

As she sat rubbing, she noticed the different small cacti that grew in and around the stones .They were about the size of a small melon or a very large apple and much flatter.

”I don’t exactly recognize those Dewey, however I am kind of an expert on many kinds of plants. Based on my knowledge I know they’re a cactus, but they don’t look like any I’ve seen before. I can conject with a high degree of confidence, however, that they’re certainly succulents. They contain water and though succulents can be kind of bitter, some are not much more so than dandelions, which I love. I wonder how these taste. The flowers that are sprouting from them are so cute, and the plants themselves look like little buttons. Lucky you’re with an expert - another pony not so educated might not know that there is a plant here with a nice drink in it, though it may be a bit gooey. Time to confirm my hypothesis. I should probably take some notes on this.”

Twilight reached into her bag and took out a quill and a pad.

Observations on and impressions of succulents found in the desert north of the Wraith Mountains….

Twilight proceeded to describe the outer skin, color, texture, size, etc. All the facts that she deemed pertinent.

“Let’s see how this tastes.” Using her magic, Twilight went to pull the plant out of the ground, but saw that it was connected to a large fat taproot. “Hmm, it would be a shame to kill this. I think I can just cut it off at ground level, that should allow the root to grow again.” A purple field once again surrounded the top and then it twisted slightly and separated from the root. The top of the root was white and fleshy and not much smaller than the plant itself.

Twilight held the object in the air in front of her and rotated it slowly. She made several more notes about it. The she lifted it to her lips.

“Well Dewey, now the taste test.”

Tentatively she took a tiny bite. She raised an eyebrow as she chewed slowly and thoughtfully. Then she smiled. “Oh Dewey, this is delicious! It is kind of an intense bitter, but I do love lots of hops when I have my oats. These are really good,” and with that she took several more bites, and in no time, it was gone.

“Well that was delicious, maybe I’ll have another later. But first I think I’ll get back to my woofies,” she said and rubbed some more.

“Hmmm, I’m feeling kinda weird. My stomach feels like it’s not too happy, maybe it’s gas.” Twilight began to try to open her throat. “Rainbow Dash, one of my best friends, showed me how to make myself burp. I think I need to do that now.” Twilight tucked her chin then craned it outwards, not unlike a giraffe. Suddenly she let out a huge belch. “Oh! Excuse me Dewey! That was really weird.” She looked up and blinked, then looked around. She stopped rubbing and froze. Then her eyes rolled up in her head and ever so slowly she began to tip over. “Hey Dewster? Am I falling? It feels like I’m falling, but verrrrry slowwwwly…” And with that she tipped the rest of the way over and passed out.

_________________________________

“Hey, hey Rosie! Get up! It’s dance time!”

Twilight opened one eye. The world was on its side. Either that or she was. It was, in fact, she. She was still in the cross legged position, only over on her side. Dewey was standing in front of her wearing a little straw hat and carrying a little cane. He was dressed in a little but very natty red and white striped jacket.

“Dewey?! Is that you?”

“Hooooooooooooooo...yes.”

“I didn’t know you could talk.” Twilight said, still on her side.

“Neither did I.”

“Where are we?”

“Here”

“Where is that?”

“I have no idea where that is. I do know we are here. If you wanted to go to that, you’re on your own, though I don’t recommend it”

“What’s going on?”

“I’m going on.” the lizard answered. “AND, one-two-three-FAH!.”

Suddenly a powerful backbeat started up, coming from everywhere and the straw hat, jacket and cane were replaced by sunglasses and a black jacket. Dewey held a mic and strutted around the desert floor in front of her. She remained on her side. Dewey whipped around and pointed at her and sang:

“HERE she come now say

pony pony,

Out for fun get it done,

Come on pony

Crazy little princess make you feel alright now

Mag-ic pony feel alright now

Feel alright now,

Yeah, (yeah),

Yeah, (yeah)...”

“What the hay?! What is going on?!”

Suddenly the music stopped and Dewey was gone. Twilight sat up and looked around. No sign of the little guy.

“Hey down there! Look up here!”

Twilight looked up and there he was again, but he was floating in the air. He looked like both an alligator and a lizard.

“What are you now? Why do you keep changing?”

“What do I look like to you.”

“An alligator, no, wait, a lizard.”

“Then I’m an alligator lizard in the air.”

“Are you a balloon? Wait, stop changing colors...”

Rings of rainbow colors were passing over his skin.

“Wow…” Twilight said dreamily, ”What did happening? What doing was I doing? I don’t even remember last princess. The ramble mouth prinskess of the hoofises. That’s right! I was feeling my hoofsies.”

Twilight pulled her back leg in again and began to massage the soft underhoof. She looked down at her hoof and she could see colors surrounding it, pulsing.

“Oh Dewey, this is amazing.” She looked up but he was gone again. She looked over at her saddle bag and he was looking out at her from under the flap.

“Oh I’m so sorry. Did they take your wings too? They took mine. I don’t care.” She was staring at her hoof again as she massaged it. “It’s like really super duper sensitive. Wait a minute - I was think those were normal cactuses thingies, were not so thingy - they were affecting my thinker I think.“

Twilight looked up at the sun.

“I have to go, we have to go NOW!”

She put the saddlebag back on and made sure Dewey was in there. Then she started running as fast as she could.

“We have to get out from under the sun Dewey, we have to get to where the sun won’t bother us...”

But as she ran, the ground began to shift and things started to shoot up in front of her. She dodged left and right and managed to avoid them. She continued to gallop as fast as she could, the ground flying beneath her as she ran. She looked to her right and saw a pink bathtub floating there, keeping up with her which was amazing, considering it was full of water. It was even more amazing due to the fact that Pinkie Pie was in it and taking a bath. She had a brush at the end of a long stick and was scrubbing her back. Before Twilight could react, it was gone. Then suddenly the chief of the buffalo tribe was in front of her charging straight at her.

“AHHHH!!” She screamed just before he would have slammed into her, but he passed through her and vanished. She kept running for as long as she could then finally came to a halt and collapsed on the desert floor. There was more grass around and more plants. She lay there panting hard on the ground,

“What am I doing Dewey? Where am I going? I don’t even know who I am. What’s my name? Rose? Twilight? Lilly? I don’t know. Do I even have a name? I’m not Twilight anymore, so who am I?”

There was a large stone, two feet across and a foot high in front of her. A face appeared on it.

“Who do you think you are?”

“I don’t know”

“Then why are you here? You need to be at the library, if you expect to find out the truth about who you are. The library has all the answers. All the answers are in the books.”

“Oh, is that what this is all about? Some lesson I’m supposed to learn about who I am and that I can’t find that out with my face buried in a book? Well you missed that one. I already figured that out!”

“So why are you still asking the question?”

“Because I still don’t know.”

“So who are you then?” A new but familiar voice asked. Rainbow Dash hovered in the air off to Twilight’s right.

“Rainbow! What are you… wait, you’re not really here.”

“Yeah, well I may not be, but either are you. There’s just some pony I don’t even know who killed one of my best friends!”

“Whyever did you do it? You hateful thing! Why?!” cried out Rarity, who stood under Dash, looking at Twilight with pure hatred. Her eyes were wet.

“I-I…” stammered Twilight.

“I’LL TELL YOU WHY!!” shouted Spike, who stood next to Rarity. “Because SHE was the one that did those things with Applejack. Twilight NEVER would have done things with her friend, so SHE had to kill her!”

“No, that’s not true!” said Twilight,

“Oh, how could you! What kind of awful MONSTER are you?” cried Fluttershy, suddenly on Twilight’s left. Twilight’s head turned quickly to look at her. “You make me sick, whoever you are!”

Behind Fluttershy was Pinkie Pie. She held the large stick with the brush on the end and walked toward Twilight.

“You are going to pay for what you did to our friend. You are a sick, twisted, murderer!”

Twilight began to back up in fear as the ponies slowly moved toward her menacingly.

“...sick...cruel...murderer...hate…” words came at her, each like a barbed hook stabbed into her heart. Twilight began to cry as she backed up.

“No, no, I loved her too, you don’t understand!” she sobbed.

Then they stopped. They were looking at something behind her. She turned around to find herself standing at the edge of an open grave. She screamed and looked away.

Lying in the bottom of the grave was the dead body of Applejack. As she turned, Twilight came face to face with Princess Celestia. Her expression one of contempt and disgust. She didn’t speak, just turned away.

“Princess NO!!!” Twilight squeezed her eyes tight and screamed. When she opened them the sky was on fire. Great flames and black smoke roiled from the horizon and filled the sky over her. The ground began to shake violently and break apart.

She looked around for her friends. They hovered above her, carrying the body of Applejack. Tears streamed down Twilight’s face as she cried, begging them to forgive her, telling them how sorry she was, how much she loved them. The ground began to split apart, hot redness glowing from the open chasms. She tried to keep her balance as the ground trembled mightily. The five of them looked down on her, expressionless. Twilight felt herself slipping toward the edge of the piece of ground upon which she stood as it tilted suddenly back. She felt herself slipping over, grabbing the edge just before she fell. She could feel the flames beneath her, licking her back hooves. She looked up at her friends. “Please, PLEASE!!!” She begged. Then each of their mouths curled into horrible smiles, their eyes filled with perverse pleasure. The ground shook and Twilight fell screaming into the abyss.

Author's Note

I am SO SORRY that it took me this long to get this done. If it's any consolation, the next chapter is finished as well. I was going to make it all one long chapter, but I decided to split it up into two. I've been swamped at work and I just got back from a vacation. Drove like 3,000 miles...

Anyway I'm headed home from work now and I'll have one last look at the next chapter and publish it tonight or tomorrow morning... (Just over 5K words)

If you’re familiar with the song “Tomorrow Never Knows” the song after which this series is named, by The Beatles, you may know that the opening lines are from the Tibetan Book of the Dead. “Turn off your mind relax and float downstream, It is not dying, it is not dying.”

I swear to each and every one of you, I did NOT consciously plan that Twilight would float down that stream. I wish I was that smart. I was falling asleep the other night after publishing and suddenly I realized what I had done. It is a major turning point, as you’ve seen, but it just sort of happened.

Oh, let me know if you caught the hidden message. (Hint: it begins right after the third break.
"On the trail leading down from the mouth of the cave, a fly buzzed by Twilight’s ear, she flicked it involuntarily. The fly dodged the flick but didn’t take the hint.

First..."

It ends at the paragraph starting "As they descended..."

If you'd like to get straight to it the easy hint is below...

~~String the first word of each sentence together. If they don't sound familiar, copy them into Google...~~