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Chapters

A Saucerful of Secrets
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Ummagumma
Atom Heart Mother
Meddle
The Piper at the Gates of Dawn

A Saucerful of Secrets

Twilight woke with a start, and looked around the room she was in. It wasn't a room per say, It was more a dark chamber, slightly resembling a basement. She was suspended in a thick liquid, just like when she was absorbed by the book. A sudden sensation of dryness shook Twilight slightly, making her shudder from head to hoof. It was a strange sensation, almost like someone blow-dried you in a few milliseconds. Twilight tried using her magic, but failed once again. There was no purpose to it, a shell of some sort surrounded the place she was in (If you could even call it a place) preventing Twilight from using any sort of teleportation to try and get home. Maybe it was just that a completely different set of physical and natural laws existed in this world, and that ordinary rules do not apply. After all, liquids behave like gel, you can move by thinking and there is little to no gravity, but you can still tell what’s up and what’s down.

That’s all she could dot down in her head about the mysterious place she was in before the floor beneath her feet disappeared once again. A strong white light illuminated the room she was in. It would appear that it was quite sizable, but something pinned Twilight in place, making it appear as if she was stuck in a closet. What was even more surprising is that the walls were painted with a lot of colourful patterns and shapes, some resembling microscopic beings while others represented galaxies. It almost seemed like the organisms were moving, dancing their own mysterious dance. There was a shape in the middle of the room that she couldn’t make out from her vantage point.

Twilight was still hovering in mid air. The blazing light from the floor had dropped in intensity, bathing the room in a thin orange glow. Until now she had no courage to walk forward, but her back was starting to stiffen. She moved her left hoof uneasily and found out that it made vapour trails in the surrounding substance, but Twilight herself didn’t budge. Doing the same with her right hoof didn’t result in movement either. Finally, she remembered what happened earlier. You move by using your mind. She simply thought of an abstract concept like “up”, and indeed she did move upwards, floating to the ceiling.

Using her thoughts, she manoeuvred herself closer and closer to what appeared to be a chesterfield sofa in the middle of the room. Lights suddenly turned on in the room, making it glow purple now. Actually, there wasn’t really a definable colour, since the spectrum seemed to fluctuate at will. As a simple experiment, Twilight moved her hoof to the left. The room was suddenly bright red. When she swayed her hoof to the right, it changed colour again, this time to a lighter blue. Soon, she swayed both her hooves in a rhythmic manner, producing some of the finest colours she had ever seen! It was like a massive dance of groovy lights that occurred without any music, because no music was necessary. Twilight had her fun, and now she was worn out. Floating like a leaf on the summer breeze, she descended upon the sofa and fell asleep almost instantly.

***

Twilight was softly woken by a deep bass sound originating from an unknown location. It was a slow sound, like a big fan spinning. Her eyes opened like two very slow venetian blinds, revealing her glassy eyes. Suddenly, she jumped. It wasn’t the same room anymore, and it wasn’t the same chesterfield sofa anymore. This sofa wasn’t as psychedelically coloured as the last, and most certainly not as comfortable as the last one. It was mad of a heavy metallic substance that Twilight couldn’t identify. As a matter of fact the whole room was the same dull drab colour, a corptorate grey. But there was one thing different. In front of twilight stood a window that showed outer space. It was the biggest window she’s ever seen, around forty or fifty times taller than her and at least a mile long. The scene before her eyes was unlike anything anypony ever saw. There were two suns above a small planet that appeared to house the structure Twilight was in. The surface of the planet was completely empty and perfectly flat, allowing for a clear view into space. The same substance replaced air here as well, and she was able to make Vapour trails. Twilight tried to manipulate the lights using her hooves like last time, but to no avail. The deep bass sound transformed into a small tune and an alien voice began singing some downright bizarre lyrics:

Far, far, far, far a-way, way
People heard him say, say
I will find a way, way
There will come a day, day
Something will be done

Then at last the mighty ship,
Descending on a point of flame
Made contact with the human race at Mildenhall

Suddenly a ship appeared just behind the planet, rising from the horizon, barely leaving enough room for the two suns to shine trough. A sign fell from the sky out of nowhere that read (Mildenhall, NO, REALLY) in neon red lettering. The ship descended just under a sudden burst of fire. A man in a spacesuit ran up to it and watched a hatch open, followed by a loud whirring noise. The ship itself looked much like a cigar, just silver and perfectly oval, with no doors or windows. A bright colourful light shone through the hatch, and two visitors greeted the man. He waved back, seemingly completely unbothered by the fact that he was being watched by a pony and that he was in outer space without a spacesuit. One of the two visitors handed him a big tube that had a lot of pipes. The man took out a lighter and lit something underneath. He put this mouth on top of the glass tube and took a deep breath. Then he exhaled and a thick smoke covered him momentarily. One of the visitors pointed towards the ship and the man walked forward. With a loud squeak the ship disappeared, leaving only the glass pipe in its place. The ship reappeared only momentarily to retrieve the glass pipe. Then it was gone for good. A few more songs came and went, all with vivid dramatisations, including one that reminded Twilight of her brother. The planet surface was clear again.

A distant hum was to be heard and all of the sudden, a man walked into the middle of the planet’s surface. He pulled out a small sign that said “Corporal Clegg” on it and had a giant arrow pointing to the man. The voice started singing:

Corporal Clegg had a wooden leg
He won it in the war In nineteen forty four.

Corporal Clegg had a medal too
In orange, red, and blue
He found it in the zoo.

Twilight couldn’t help but giggle. A few more people joined Clegg and started doing a silly dance in a circle with him. It was too much for Twilight. She laughed so hard that tears started streaming down her face. The people turned into confetti and disappeared into the cosmic nothingness. As much as she would hate to admit it, Twilight was sort of enjoying this, despite the lack of her friends. Suddenly, a ray of sunlight hit her face, and then another one. Twilight wiped the tears off her face and looked up. The two suns that illuminated the planet were swirling around each other very quickly, drawing themselves together. With each spin a bass sound sounded in the background. The very deep hums became faster and faster.

Twilight observed something that nopony has ever seen nor will anypony ever see it again. It was the massive collision of two suns, rapidly spinning into each other. The horizon was on fire and the music was getting extremely intense. Suddenly it died down and turned into a drum section, and at the same rime the newly formed star drew material from its surroundings towards its core. A new solar system was about to be born, within the viewing planet’s own solar system. In an instant the whole sky was alight again, filled with a fire ball. Glass shattered and walls melted as the massive fireball breached the inside of the room. Twilight’s body was being torn apart, she was being vaporized. Her fur disappeared and then the rest of her body as well. She was nothing but energy now, sucked into the vortex made by the dying star. Then everything simply faded to black, and she was nothing.

There was no Twilight anymore. She was time, she was space, she was everything and nothing, all at once. It was an amazing feeling, she felt all the atoms of her body fly trough the void, trough the universe, passing suns and nebulas and planets and whole solar systems. She was as free as the wind, as happy as the sun’s rays and as content as the first morning dew on a blade of grass. This was what the meaning of life was. It was to be free; it was to be you, even if you’re not you anymore. At this point She began to feel light-headed (Which is sort of paradoxical, because she had no head to speak of anymore) and slowly drifted away, into a dreamless sleep. Twilight Sparkle was one with the universe, and she loved every second of it...

Twilight woke up slowly this time, as if it was an ordinary morning. The first thing she noticed is that her hair was in her eyes. Hair! Eyes! Hooves! She had no idea when she got her body back or how, the only thing she knew was that having one is a very good sensation if you think about it. If you were to ask her, she wouldn’t tell you that she felt as if someone disassembled and reassembled her, instead she would tell you that she had one hell of a night’s sleep. Oddly, she could recall what being a mass of atoms felt like too. Well, there’s one thing you don’t think about every day, she told herself.

She shook her head and looked around, still somewhat shaken. The first thing she noticed was that it was unnaturally warm, almost hot. Soon she found out why. It was a desert, a very empty one. Thankfully it was a beautiful day, even though she had no idea if it really was day per pony definition. After her recent adventures (She had no idea how recent, or if the concept of time even mattered anymore) she learned to ask herself all sorts of strange questions. Do I really exist? How many moons does this place have? Can you manipulate the colours or any other physical properties? By now she had a checklist, since she had quite a lot of fun determining all those things. Twilight was a scientist after all, and finding out how stuff works was one of her passions.

Putting one of her hooves forward, she took her first step in this foreign place, and soon found out that the sand felt divine, very silky. Looking up, she realized that the planet had several smaller ones orbiting around it, and three of them were visible during day. She wanted to investigate closer, but the warm silkiness under her hooves drew her attention away.

For a while she just trotted around, taking in the sensation. She flopped and bounced around and had a lot of fun in general. Suddenly she rolled down a dune. When twilight arrived at the bottom after a rather abrupt descent, she wore a less amused look. Blowing the hair out of her eyes with a loud snort, she trotted forward, aiming to figure out where he was.
Right ahead of her stood a long silver strip of light. She couldn’t tell if it was a road or a body of water. Twilight decided to investigate. Slowly, cautiously she trotted forward, just in case something decided to sneak up on her like that pesky dune. After a few steps, she realized that she stood on something soft, almost feathery.

Looking down, Twilight found out that she was standing in the middle of a meadow. It was an almost unearthly beautiful meadow, full of flowers and puddles. But for some reason, there was nothing except plants all around, not even a butterfly. It was still the greenest, most beautiful meadow she had ever set hoof in. A bird could be heard somewhere, what surprised her, since she didn’t see anything alive anywhere in the meadow. It was almost ghostly. Music started playing, out of nowhere:

Lazing in the haze of midday,
Laughing in the grasses and the graze.
Yellow bird, you are not lonely
In singing and in flying on,
In laughing and in leaving.

Willow weeping in the water,
Waving to the river daughters,
Swaying in the ripples and the reeds.
On a trip to Cirrus Minor,
Saw a crater in the sun
A thousand miles of moonlight later.

It was so absolutely beautiful that Twilight’s mouth turned into a smile instinctively. It’s like she could see all the stars and galaxies. The sheer feeling of being in that meadow and hearing the music made her feel so happy that when she finally collected herself, she realized she had tears running down her cheeks. She had to go on, towards the streak of light.

Soon, she arrived at the bank of what turned out to be a river. It was very long and extremely shiny. It was an opaque liquid, flowing freely and steadily. Twilight was thirsty already, from all the walking, so she decided to take a sip.

It was a sweet liquid, similar to nectar. Suddenly her hoof became purple. Out of the blue, the sky turned green, and it was night...and then day again, and then night again. Twilight walked forward and as soon as she took her first step, a heavy electric guitar chord echoed out of nowhere. And then another one and another until Twilight was making music by simply bouncing around. The colours were shifting all the time, and with every bounce they turned more vivid. The day-night cycle grew erratic, the sun rising in the west, then going down and rising in the south. The moons were bouncing off each other. Twilight felt something on her back, something feathery. She had wings! Immediately she took off doing all sorts of crazy loops and jumps and spins. Now he knew why Rainbow liked to fly. It was a sensation unlike any other, that feeling of absolute freedom. As she trashed her wings, she made more music. A very vivid voice began to sing:

Oh, my tears wept like a child.
How her golden hair was blowing wild.
Then she spread her wings to fly,
For to fly.
Soaring high above the breezes,
Going always where she pleases.
She will make it to the islands in the sun.

I will follow in her shadow
As I watch her from my window.
One day I will catch her eye.

Suddenly, tiredness overcame Twilight, and she could flap no more. Her wings fell tired and she tumbled towards the ground in a corkscrew motion. The meadow seemed to open up and take her into itself. She fell into a liquid, and started sinking. Her hooves desperately gasped for air and her hooves kicked, but to no avail. Twilight’s body relaxed and she started sinking. It was too little too late...

Twilight’s mind flickered in and out of consciousness, images flashing trough her head, surreal images. Images of Ponyville hundreds and hundreds of years after Twilight left. There was nothing but rubble. She felt nothing. Emptiness. Void. Nothing at all. It was a total and mass numbness of all her senses. There was nothing in her mind, nothing at all. She felt just like the atoms, but far sadder.

As she sank trough the dark fluid, a voice began singing in her own mind, even though it seemed distant and secluded:

The path you tread is narrow
And the drop is shear and very high
The ravens all are watching
From a vantage point nearby
Apprehension creeping
Like a tube-train up your spine
Will the tightrope reach the end
Will the final couplet rhyme

And it's high time
Cymbaline
It's high time
Cymbaline

She finally touched the bottom of the liquid, all alone. She couldn’t take it anymore, not in this place. She wanted to go to the next one. There was only one thought in her mind, It felt like a cold knife stuck in an empty drawer, just sitting there. It was almost a whisper, a plea of the desperate. It was too much.. It was a sentence. One. Sentence.

Please wake me

Ummagumma

Twilight felt her whole body shake, as she woke up once more. Her eyelids rose slowly. She was on a metallic floor somewhere. The first thing that dawned on her is how startlingly cold it felt. It was almost like Ponyville in the middle of winter. She cleared her head and stood up. She was alive; even though she was absolutely convinced she died of drowning some time ago. The puddle of water on the floor seemed to confirm that suspicion. She immediately noticed is her distinct lack of wings, even though the image of flight was still vividly embedded within her mind.

It was still dark all around her and no sounds were heard, just a faint ticking behind her and an occasional metallic clang. The room she was in was filled with a number of lengthy appendages, tubes and wires that all led towards the door. It seemed like they were there to simply show her the way, and served no practical use. Some of them even glowed in such a way that their streams of light flowed in a specific direction. After she absorbed her surroundings, it was time to press on.

Soon, she realized that the aforementioned wires were simply floating wherever she went, hanging off the walls at awkward and somewhat impossible angles whenever she passed them. Natural magnetism maybe, attraction to organics or was it her horn? Nothing in her book fit. She had not time to concern herself with that; the room was getting claustrophobic and Twilight started to feel uneasy. Then she noticed the door was now glowing at a very hoof-shaped spot.

Twilight approached the door and touched it ever so slightly, depressing something behind the light. The door slid open, revealing a very large room, similar to an orchestra hall, entirely empty. The ceiling was made out of pure blackness, almost a void. There was simply nothing there, spare a few pieces of rubble scattered around it. As Twilight trotted in, she realized that the room was in fact a gazebo of sorts surrounded by high walls made of some form of transparent glass. She was mesmerized by the dome that towered above the place. It was fantastically black, almost like a total lack of...of EVERYTHING. She was transfixed by it, just wanting to stare at it forever, never moving.

She didn’t know if it was day or night, and in the end it didn’t matter. One sun was slowly rising at the other side of the room, while the other sun set behind her. At the same time two moons rose and sank on the sides of the room, creating a cross right above the void. She didn’t know how many suns this planet had and how they worked. Maybe the day night continuum simply never existed, and it was a perpetual state of day? The more she went on trough these adventures, the more grew her interest in astronomical properties of the different places, and her curiosity for physics.

Trotting slowly over the meadow, Twilight noticed that the transparent material that lined the hall looked out onto what appeared to be a sea. Endless fields of blue extended for miles and miles ahead. There seemed to be nothing except this place, but then again, maybe this was all just a show and Twilight was nothing but a viewer. She couldn’t wait to find out more about this place, and its purpose. With every question, three more arose, and none of them had an answer. This frustrated Twilight, and she simply stopped. All around her there appeared to be relics of a past world, a civilization long forgotten, swept away by time into the drawer of memories. A voice began from somewhere, singing in a very content way:

In the lazy water meadow
I lay me down
All around me golden sunflakes
Settle on the ground
Basking in the sunshine
Of a by-gone afternoon,
Bringing sounds of yesterday
Into this city room

Hear the lark and harken
To the barking of the dog fox
Gone to ground
See the splashing
Of the kingfisher flashing to the water
And a river of green is sliding
Unseen beneath the trees
Laughing as it passes
Through the endless summer
Making for the sea

It was all very natural and fitted into her surroundings perfectly, even the voice was natural. It sounded like a stream of water, like a gust of wind, completely blending in with the surroundings.

Stones were buried in the ground about knee-high, their tips protruding like spearheads. There seemed to be some form of writing on it, and Twilight couldn’t decipher it. By the time she was half way across the chamber, birdsong started coming from somewhere, and the pitch-black canopy above cleared, to reveal a huge oval planet hovering right above it. It was simply astonishing to see such a clear alignment of planets, and over such a precise spot. A slow and steady tune started playing, increasing somewhat steadily. All the planets aligned and something happened. Slow music started playing out of nowhere, increasing with every passing moment. The ground shook. A whisper emanated from the sky:

Careful with that axe, Eugene

The tune climaxed with a blood chilling scream that slowly devolved into several smaller ones. The entire structure of the building shook. It was shattering to pieces. The glass broke; the dome cracked and fell to the ground, all around Twilight. She herself was unharmed, but it was all falling apart. The debris smashing into the sea outside created a horrible roar, as the building disintegrated towards the sea. The music went on, like it was driven by a mad man, so full of life and energy.

That energy broke the old and exposed the new. It made room for changes, and it made room for time to do its job.
The tremors stopped, and Twilight was now all alone, on the platform that once held the gazebo in place. Air was now gushing all around her, and waves crashed against the rubble. Eventually they will erode the structure, erasing any mention of it in time. Life went on, and the universe continued, blissfully unaware that it had just eliminated the developmental pinnacle of some smaller civilization. It didn’t matter, in the long run.

Twilight realized that, at that precise moment. It’s like the crash of the first wave triggered something inside, something amazing that made her view things differently now, from a bigger point of view. And that song, that single line was enough. It’s meaning simple and unique to all. If it meant something to you, it doesn’t mean the same thing to me and vice versa. To Twilight specifically, it told her that she had complete control over her life, that no princess could tell her what to think or feel and that those few cubic centimetres under her horn belonged to herself. She was always obedient to the Princess, never questioning her, never investigating the validity of her tasks. It was time, it was time that someone asked themselves if she really knew what was best for ponykind. But Twilight had to be careful with this new knowledge, this axe of hers. The seed of doubt was planted, and Twilight was a new pony. She followed the wires, and began her descent.

The wire was leading her to the bump in the middle of the platform that automatically opened for her as she stepped in. She was ready. She had learned all she needed in this place, and it was time to go. She lowered herself into the liquid and allowed it to fully encase her. It all made sense, but at the same time not all of it. There was much to be learned, and much to be seen.

The canopy closed and Twilight was submerged underneath a blanket of dark. It was comfortable. She was completely at rest. There was nothing to fight, nothing to worry about and nothing to think about right now. Just warmth and safety, combined with the song of time itself.

She flew

Atom Heart Mother

Twilight felt her whole body ache as she regained consciousness, her head spinning like the wheels on the Ponyville express. A soft breeze was blowing over her back, rustling her fur. It was warm, sunny and dry. It was time once again, time to go on.

She opened her eyes. Twilight was on the edge of a cliff, beneath a tree. It took her a while to get up, for the shade that the tree provided was simply too good to pass up on. The only problem was that her throat ached for water. She felt like she was sitting in the sun for hours. In dire need of a drink she perked her ears, listening out for telltale signs of flowing water. Splashing could be heard, indicating a spring nearby. Amazing, this place seemed to have everything.

Twilight darted her eyes from one side to the other, looking for the source of the water. Something glistened in the corner of her eye, like a piece of jewellery that someone left behind. She walked towards it. Drops of water ran down a rocky surface, leaving a black spider web behind. She licked the few drops off and felt instantly refreshed. But still, she needed more.
A drop of water splashed onto Twilight’s head. She looked around in annoyance, as if someone played a prank on her. Another drop hit her, this one smack in the snout. More drops started coming down in. It was obviously above her, and increasing in size. She looked up and saw a small hole in the rock, water dripping from it.

Twilight let it flow into her mouth, cooling her off. She never experienced refreshment on such a scale. It was like being covered in ice after sitting in an oven for a good hour. She just stood there for a while, taking the sensation in. Alas, it was time to move on. With that thought of hers, some music began, seemingly out of nowhere. She was already used to ghostly music, especially if it was this good.

Twilight glanced around one last time. She noticed that beneath her stood the entrance to a cave, simply labelled by a red arrow over it. Since she saw no other way forward, Twilight began her descent into the darkness.
The moment she stepped in, the music became louder, engulfing the entire cavern. As Twilight stepped in fully, it grew in depth. Sounds of an orchestra emanated from a distance, unseen by her. The cavern walls were still tough, and the music seemed to be in her head.

No light was visible anywhere in the cave. The blackness was complete when the entrance behind her shut off, barring any sort of light from entering. She wasn’t afraid though. Slowly she became used to these places, almost certain that she wouldn’t get hurt.

As soon as he lifted her hoof, the cave walls lit up. Hundreds, maybe even thousands of green and orange glowing gems covered the ceiling and the walls. It was like a waterfall of light, draping everything in a vague green tint. Twilight noticed that the path beneath her hooves was made of solid stone, perfectly formed out of a single block. This wasn’t made by a being Twilight could comprehend.

She trotted trough the cavern, surrounded by the lights. Stone formations of all sizes greeted Twilight as she went on, some waking surprising memories inside her. She remembered her father an her mother, her friends and her life before she came to this place. It almost seemed like ghosts of her past occasionally appeared within the cavern.
The ceiling grew higher and higher, until she felt like she was in a concert hall, surrounded by high stone pillars, going all the way to the top. In front of her hundreds of gems embedded into the floor and walls lit up. It was astonishing. The floors and walls were covered in small rock protrusions around a metre long, sticking out like needles. On top of each of them stood a gem, slowly pulsing orange.

She couldn’t see her hooves anymore. It was like she was hovering, gliding across the ground. Music seemed to disappear, blend in with the walls and stone. The pillars of stone surrounding her suddenly grew, encapsulating her. It was a forest of stone and gems, proportionally growing as she descended further. It was almost like her body was acting on its own, separated from Twilight. She had a feeling that even if she decided to stop, she couldn’t.

A humongous rock riddled with diamonds stood in front of her, spreading out over the entire cavern. It glowed bright orange. Twilight approached it and was immediately drawn to it. She had to touch it, to feel it, to be part of it. It radiated heat, pulsing and heating up more and more. It was quiet, so quiet that Twilight could hear her heart beat.
Twilight extended her hoof and it connected with the surface of the diamond. Almost instantly, the diamond was vaporized, turned to a fine dust, still glowing and reflecting light. In that instant, all sound disappeared. Just the deafening silence remained. In the rock that once housed the diamond now stood a passageway, pitch black with no gemstones. A soft trail of air glided across Twilights fur. It was like she was being beckoned, drawn forward, lured almost.

Drawing a deep breath, Twilight stepped through the newly formed gateway. Again, the entrance behind her closed. Her mind grew loud, the sounds of a choir becoming more and more present. She walked on, each trot of her hoof echoing like an explosion, a hundred orchestras now burning inside her chest. She felt like her mind was being compressed, like she was growing smaller. The path narrowed, only to reveal a crack in the stone.
Twilight could smell air trough the crack and see the faint light of the moon. Placing one of her hooves carefully outside, she determined that it was safe. The music stopped abruptly, and gave way to silence. She walked out slowly, almost cautiously. It was the middle of the night, but brighter, because the moon was around three times its ordinary size. It was a planetary body of its own.

She turned around and faced what appeared to be a cliff, looking over something. As soon as he approached its edge Twilight’s jaw dropped immediately. The stars hung lowly over two cliffs, separated by a valley that was twice as large as anything that existed in Equestria. A mighty river flowed through the valley, extending into the distance as far as Twilight could see. It was all positively alive, touched by small waves of wind that eroded the landscape through the centuries. Rocks tumbled down the cliff, roaring waterfalls fed the river in the valley and the moon shone brightly upon this ancient land. It was almost like a dream. Twilight never imagined that something this harmonious could exist.

Everything was like a big symphony, a glorious cacophony of waterfalls, wind and rocks. Total chaos that somehow made more sense than anything, chaos that can only be communicated through all the six senses. The wind in her mane, the smell of the flowers filling her nostrils, the feeling of the rocks beneath her hooves. She could feel it all. Cradled by the wind, protected by the valley she felt like she was absolutely safe, like nothing could get to her.

She stood on the edge of time itself, nothing mattered anymore. It was all so balanced, right on the edge of light and darkness. This was the world that could never fall apart, the place where everything was permanent. There was no pain, no sorrow, only beauty, eternal beauty resting upon the shoulders of the universe itself. Trillions of stars extended overhead, as they were trying to give thanks to this place by playing a symphony of light. It was all natural now, the only sounds being the leaves, the wind and the rock.

No matter how many wars ponykind fought, no matter what happens to Equestria, this place will remain, only restricted by the existence of physical laws themselves. This was the embodiment of knowledge, of time and of the very meaning of life. A soft voice began singing, the melody dancing in the wind and carried trough the valley, echoing off the cliffs:

If I were to sleep, I could dream.
If I were afraid, I could hide.
If I go insane, please don't put
Your wires in my brain.

If I were the moon, I'd be cool.
If I were a rule, I would bend.

Twilight just sat down. She wanted to stay. She wanted to know. She wanted to learn everything the wind could teach her, everything the starts could teach her. She never wanted to leave. Books were her love, her passion but this place; it was like a book in itself.

Her eyelids grew heavy. She wanted to stay awake, but her body had other plans. She sat down and fell asleep almost instantly to a lullaby sang by the stars and the moon.

Twilight dreamt of flight once again that night. She flew to the stars and back in a paper boat without a bottom, folded across a crease in time. At her journey’s end she sat on the moon and looked down onto the planet, listening out for the songs of life, learning and teaching, giving and taking.

And that night she would meet all the ponies she never knew, she would meet all the ponies she wanted to know. Her mind was a book waiting to be written, the language on its pages understandable only to a select few. It would become one part of that giant cosmic library, the library where every being’s soul resides after death. There was no god, no higher power, for in that place all was equal, on the same ground.

Pure energy encapsulated here body as she hovered in the very fabric of existence itself. This was it. This was the ultimate experience, being everything and nothing at all. Soon she began sinking into the blackness of time, into the memories that surrounded her, gently caressing her. This was like the experience of being energy, just a hundred times more passionate, with knowledge now added into it. She knew everything there ever was to know but alas, she knew nothing. For all that knowledge was a mere speck in comparison with everything else.

She sank further and further into the blackness that surrounded the moon, like quicksand. Taken in, her soul was opened, exposed to the light. Who was she to say she knew the reasons why? Pony science didn’t come near deciphering the secrets of the universe. Only in this vast place, suspended in reality itself could she see that her life was fleeting, that ponykind was fleeting and that it all collapsed to dust.

Twilight was a mere atom on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam. She was unbelievably small, almost infinitely so. But it still was her note in that massive symphony of time, her note that made it all one. If we remove even one note, the whole symphony falls apart. It was all important, every pony was important, every bird, every flower, every tree and every life form no matter how small.

Slowly her fur disappeared in a less violent way then before. Before she was surprised, now she was ready. She was ready
to move on once again, like a star in its final cosmic cycle. She would disappear from this world; her only remains the small part of her being she left here, the small part of us we leave everywhere we go.

Her physical existence now gone, Twilight’s mind started disappearing, absorbed by the massive darkness, by the fabric of time itself. She faded away, slowly, being knit into it. Her light still glowed faintly, now a star suspended in the ether. For no matter what happens to us, we remain, in small details, but we still remain.

She would wake soon tough, a new entity in a new place, looking the same but different on the inside. She broke on through to the other side.

And it was glorious.

Meddle

Twilight's eyes opened up slowly, and she was blinded almost instantly. Above her stood the sky, grey with clouds floating over it, the colour rusted iron. Beneath her hooves, solid rock surrounded by an assortment of reeds, some growing well over a metre high. She stood up and looked around. In front of her stretched an ocean, blending in with the horizon at one point, extending into infinity. She stood atop a boulder towering at least a hundred metres off the shore below.

The sea that crashed onto the rolling sand beneath seemed to be a dull, black colour, not the ordinary blue of the ocean. Even though she had seen the ocean only once, Twilight knew what its colour was. She remembered all of it so vividly, the image suddenly becoming clearer in her mind. It was huge, massive, and identical to this one, except its colour. Maybe it wasn't even water. She wanted to descend to the beaches below and see.

A gust of wind hit her, mussing her mane up. She had to turn her head away from the ocean and look behind her. Nothing but rocks, extremely high and barren, a few lonely shrubs sticking out of it. It was cold, almost icy. She shuddered and decided to check out the routes that lead away from her current position. There was only one, leading into the centre of the island. She had found herself in this situation a number of times before, so she simply decided to follow the path. The rocks were steep and uncomfortable, stinging her hooves as she walked over them.

Suddenly, a very large bird flew overhead and Twilight looked up. It was an albatross, gliding on the winds that battered the island. It circled over something that Twilight didn’t see earlier. It circled over a huge tree. She could recognize that tree anywhere. It was her library. But here, in this forsaken place? She started to increase her pace. As she walked, a sound similar to a very low ping could be heard, emanating from a hidden place and rolling over the hills. Slowly it turned into a tune, a single lonely voice singing. The music blended in with the surroundings perfectly. She could hear the lyrics, almost coinciding with the crashes of the waves:

Overhead the albatross hangs motionless upon the air
And deep beneath the rolling waves in labyrinths of coral caves
The echo of a distant tide
Comes willowing across the sand
And everything is green and submarine
And no one showed us to the land
And no one knows the where's or why's
But something stirs and something tries
And starts to climb towards the light

As she descended into the rear of the island, she saw several abandoned fishing boats, slowly getting absorbed by a black substance. It was the same colour as the sea surrounding the boats. One of them broke loose and crashed into the liquid surrounding it. All that remained from it was a single piece of wood, partially covered in stone. The moment Twilight touched the wooden debris it flaked off, its remains dancing in the wind, carried towards the centre of the island. In her mind she could hear whispers, memories. She recoiled. This place whole place was filled with the whispers, some of them fluttering in the wind, others swept ashore by the rolling waves. It was no ocean; it was a sea of memories. The voice sung a few more verses:

Strangers passing in the street
By chance two separate glances meet
And I am you and what I see is me
And do I take you by the hand
And lead you through the land
And help me understand the best I can
And no one calls us to move on
And no one forces down our eyes
And no one speaks
And no one tries
And no one flies around the sun

A soft whisper spoke to her; it held her, caressing her. It was inviting her to follow it. It was almost like this soft murmur of voices whispering in her ears knew the whole island. She wanted to see more then this little bay with the fishing boats, she wanted to stand at its shores but primarily she wanted to listen. She wanted to know what the memories could teach her. It seemed logical to followthe whisper.

Twilight walked slowly towards the tree that looked like her library. With every trot of her hoof, she kicked up a bit of dust, and every particle of it was filled with thoughts, feelings and opinions. Soon, the cloud followed her, telling her the most beautiful words she had ever heard. This was something only rivalled by the written word. Only the written word could transfer this amount of emotions, this huge pallet of souls. She could hear the grumpy ones, the happy ones, the cynical ones; she could hear every being in the universe. Some voices were arguing, others were laughing. She was approaching the tree and the voices grew louder, almost like they were trying to her out of going any further. The searing cold of her surroundings became more intense, more tangible. The music descended into a number of shrill sounds, followed by a few deep ones. It was very eerie, but none the less she wanted to see what became of her library.

Finally she reached the front door of the library. It was obviously worn down and old, filled with holes and dusty. She attempted to open it, but the moment her hoof connected with the door it crumbled to dust. Again, the dust fluttered away, leaving only traces of voices behind. She could make out her voice and Spike’s, but not very well. Twilight closed her eyes and listened again. She heard Spike thanking her on his birthday. A stab of loneliness hit her, making her surroundings even colder. She could see her breath. The sounds surrounding her became colder and colder, increasing in volume. A few beats that sounded like a heart echoed every now and then.

She opened her eyes and looked forward. Behind the door, stood her library, just as she had left it, filled with books. Due to the age, it was all covered in cobwebs and trash. The wall below Twilight’s bedroom was missing, now opening to the sea. A few cans of beans were strewn around the floor, lying at odd angles, surrounded by a number of ripped out book pages. Another gust of wind hit the library, blowing several book pages towards the sea. Inside, a strange high-pitched noise was echoing that sounded like Seagulls. She stepped in, treading softly. If everything was made of memories and was extremely fragile, there was no telling what would happen if a sudden wave crashed into the library.

The books on the shelves were the ones she used to own, including a few she’s never seen before. Most of them were scientific books and a few self-help books including one titled “How to cope with loss”. Was it possible? She feared what might occur in the future. Something had happened and she knew it. Her eyes darted around frantically, looking for clues. The first thing she thought of was her diary, whatever happened was sure to be written in there. It was on her bed, under her pillow where she usually left it. The bed was too old to lie on so she sat on the floor and opened it. There was nothing in it, the majority of the pages blank, the rest filled with nonsensical scribbles and parts of verses. On the very last page stood a single sentence, written in what appeared to be blood. She could make out only faint words because of the age. It began with one followed by cut and little and at its end something that looked like pieces. The rest of the page was covered in dried blood.

It sent shivers down Twilight’s spine. Why would she write something like that down in blood? What happened to her? Did she go crazy? The book suddenly solidified and turned into the dust of memories. There was nothing left for her to do here. She had seen a small glimpse of the future. Was this the future where she never came back home? The more questions she asked herself, the colder it became. The sun appeared from behind the clouds, basking the remains of her beloved library in a reddish glow. She trotted back down the stairs and looked towards the sea. It was setting on the horizon, slowly giving way to an ever increasing darkness. The stars fell into the wall of fire that surrounded the setting sun. A voice began singing, lonely, just like the birds flying into the setting sun.

Cloudless every day you fall
Upon my waking eyes
Inviting and inciting me to rise
And through the window in the wall
Comes streaming in on sunlight wings
A million bright ambassadors of morning
And no one sings me lullabies
And no one makes me close my eyes
So I tore the windows wide
And call to you across the sky.

Finally the music faded completely, leaving Twilight alone in the sunset, the wind being her only companion. Soon a few guitar chords started echoing through the darkness, coinciding with the wind. The music grew in intensity. Twilight felt a sudden burning in her mind.

The winds battering the island grew stronger, tearing the library to pieces. It all quickly dissipated into dust, filling Twilight’s ears with voices. All around her hundreds of voices, maybe even thousands, spoke in unison. It was deafening, and soon the entire surroundings were filled with screams and shouts. All of the sudden a single sentence fluttered in the wind, spoken by a deep ominous voce. It was terrifying, chilling Twilight to her very bones:

ONE OF THESE DAYS I’M GOING TO CUT YOU INTO LITTLE PIECES

Twilight’s head spun, she wanted to run and run. She sprinted out of the library into the night. Running across the beach she heard the voices catching up with her. A distant laugh could be heard, coming from the same voice that threatened Twilight. She wanted to get as far away from this godforsaken place as possible.

The crashing of the waves grew, and Twilight found herself trapped. In front of her nothing but a giant stone wall, extending a few hundred metres up. Behind her that awful laugh, shouting obscenities and expletives at her, approaching faster and faster. Finally to her right stood the sea, trashing violently but at the same time radiating some strange form of safety.

Her survival instincts kicked in and she decided to throw herself into the sea and try to swim away. She sprinted towards it, making sure she jumped far enough. She hit the surface, slowly sinking. Something pulled her, and she began trashing with her hooves. It was impossible to swim upwards, the depths pulling her in. Images spun in front of her mind as she began losing consciousness. Her mind finally flickered, and she blacked out completely, with the voice still shouting at her...

The Piper at the Gates of Dawn

Twilight flipped trough the book at a manic pace. Beads of sweat ran down her face as she looked over page after page. Finally, she threw the book across the room. It hit a bookshelf, spilling even more books over the already messy floor. Twilight was in panic because she had to submit her weekly report to princess Celestia today, and she had nothing! She slowly trotted over to the books on the floor, and started picking trough them tiredly. She sank to the floor with a loud flop, and buried her head in her hooves. She hated to throw books, but right now she could just punch somepony or something. She noticed something out of place, a book that wasn’t hers. It was strange; she returned all her library books to Canterlot’s library months ago! This wasn’t normal for Twilight, since she had all her books catalogued, just in case. The book before her appeared to be bound with something thick and black. It didn’t feel like leather to Twilight, as a matter of fact, it felt almost liquid. On it, there were several glowing spots. Twilight reached for her magnifying glass. It hovered lowly above the binding. She couldn’t believe it! The little glowing dots were galaxies and stars! It was almost like looking into the universe itself. It was clear that the surface of the book was made from a liquid, which seemingly deified physics by staying on the book, no matter how Twilight turned it. She opened the book carefully. It was also full of the mysterious liquid, and full of stars as well. Twilight lowered the book to the ground carefully. She put her hoof on one of the pages. It sank into the book. Twilight recoiled. She didn’t expect that from any object, especially from a book. She sank her hooves deeper into the pages. Soon the liquid pulled her in. She fell trough the pages and into blackness. With Twilight gone, the library was now quiet...

***

Twilight’s head spun, as she slowly rose to her hooves. It was dark, too dark. She tried using magic to illuminate her surroundings, but to no avail. There seemingly was no gravity, but she could tell what was up and what was down. An apple floated by her head. It would appear that Twilight wasn’t the only one picked up by the book. A faint noise was coming from an unknown distance. Suddenly, she heard music playing from the background. Strange, alien music, that was none the less beautiful, Twilight was drawn to move forward. She found out she could move by simply thinking. She stopped, since the walls prevented her from going any further. There was no air and no gravity, just darkness. Suddenly the floor beneath her opened up, and she began to fall trough a tunnel that was filled with colourful glass. There were square prisms everywhere, which looked like the eyes of a parasprite. Someone started singing strange alien lyrics. The voice was almost hypnotic:

Lime and limpid green
a second scene,
A fight between the blue
you once knew.
Floating down the sound resounds
Around the icy waters underground
Jupiter and Saturn
Oberon Miranda and Titania
Neptune Titan
Stars can frighten

Twilight felt mesmerised by the music, almost hypnotised. She fell and fell and fell. More and more songs played, all with different lyrics, some of which made sense and others didn’t. It felt magical, almost imagined. A thought floated into twilight’s head. Maybe she died, and this was Pony Hell...or Heaven, depends if you like the music. It was warmish; almost room temperature, like a sunny day on the beach. Suddenly she halted in mid-air. A strange contraption, the likes she’s never seen before appeared in front of her. It looked like a golden box with various gears and springs. It ground and cringed and released steam. Suddenly, an appendage rose from the box. It held a book. The book floated towards Twilight’s face. Suddenly the pages started turning until a picture of a Gnome appeared in their blur. It would appear that the book had an infinite amount of pages. The song behind her changed, and with that the light in the prisms changed as well. The vertical tunnel was now filled with an orange glow. Someone started singing again, but this time more playfully:

I want to tell you a story
'Bout a little man if I can.
A gnome named Grimble Gromble.
And little gnomes stay in their homes,
Eating, sleeping, drinking their wine.

He wore a scarlet tunic,
A blue-green hood, it looked quite good.
He had a big adventure
Amidst the grass, fresh air at last.
Wining, dining, biding his time...

Twilight found herself grinning with happiness for some reason. She felt great. She felt happy about the fact that the small man called Grimble Gromble led such a happy existence. She was happy that she was in this thing, as if it had shown her the happiness that life could be. She felt...alive. Suddenly she burst out laughing, rolling and tumbling around in zero G. The lenses made a colourful blur It was amazing, just like that. Twilight felt like hugging the golden box, out of sheer euphoria. The gnome waived at her and Twilight waived back. Then, as abrubtly as he had arrived, the gnome left. Suddenly a strange contraption appeared in front of her. It was made of metal with a small leather shell shape just above the two wheels. It would appear to be a seat, but twilight couldn’t figure out what sort of being could sit there. It seemed uncomfortable. She looked at a small bulge on the two handles above the first wheel. She pushed a small piece of black and it made a sound. Once again, Twilight recoiled. It was completely foreign to her. Music was coming from an invisible place, and the lyrics went like this:

I've got a bike.
You can ride it if you like.
It's got a basket, a bell that rings,
and things to make it look good.
I'd give it to you if I could, but I borrowed it.

You're the kind of girl that fits in with my world.
I'll give you anything, everything, if you want things.

Twlight wondered what the word “Bike” meant, since no such thing existed in Equestria. But, then again, this wasn’t Equestrian; this could have been anything at all or nothing at all. It didn’t matter. Twilight was very happy at that particular moment, almost content with herself. The music stopped suddenly, and gravity reappeared. She floated to the floor as if she was on a cloud. Her hooves touched the floor. Well, “floor” was not an adequate description. It was a clear liquid that was suspended over a rainbow. Somehow Twilight tought of Rainbow Dash, and suddenly felt a stab of loneliness. Even though she was her only for a few hours, she already missed her friends. Her time for thought was cut short. Her hooves began sinking trough the liquid floor, slowly, as if she was passing through a thick gel. She felt the same, watery sensation. It was very sleep-inducing. Slowly Twilight’s mind drifted away and she was encased in blackness once more, as alone as before...

***

Little did she know, her adventure was only starting