Mitternacht

A loud, powerful noise, like that of a lightning striking the ground. Four times it was heard clear through the air, and three more times the four sounds repeated themselves.

Twilight opened her eyes. She looked around, but it was dark and she couldn't make out any shape. Suddenly a flash illuminated the world around her clear as day. It only lasted for a couple of seconds, but it was enough for her to realize she was entirely somewhere else than before. She saw a series of tall arching structures of a lavander shade, their surface irregular like that of a rock, their shape mostly similar to that of a curved pipe. Some where too small for her to pass under, while others were close to small mountains in height. She used her horn to cast light around her, but before she could move any further she saw the ground in front of her being swiped by a tremendous wave force, strong enough she could see the air compressing on itself as it passed.

After a few seconds the light flashed again, and then another wave struck. She took mental note of the time passing between each flash and wave, and noticed a repeating pattern. She waited for the next wave, then made a run for the nearest cover, and repeated this until she reached the base of a big enough arch where she could rest without the risk of being blown away.

She took out her map and looked at it. It showed an intricate series of purple lines around a white lighting bolt shaped symbol in the middle. Near the edge of the purple maze of lines she could see a pulsating red dot that she identified as being her position. Beyond the border of the lavander structures was a black zone. She picked up her compass and opened it. It was pointing to the outside, away from the source of the waves. She looked back at the map. She wanted to leave that place, but that symbol in the center fascinated her. She wanted to see what was creating the waves, even if it might have been dangerous to get closer. She looked back at the compass and noticed it had changed direction.

It was now pointing to a structure to her left, close to the center than she was. She put the map back in her saddlebags and started to follow the compass to one stucture after the other, careful not to be hit by the waves. As she got closer and closer to the center she realized the waves moved faster while near it, and slowed down the further they went. Not only that, but they were also stronger the more she neared the center. This made it harder for her to proced, to the point that she thought it would eventually be impossible to reach the next cover, but before she could be near enough to see what was in the center she found herself at the entrance of a tunnel.

She entered it, still following the compass, and walked deep down inside the earth. Once she reached the end of the descent she arrived inside a complex series of tunnels. They were large enough for a pony to comfortably walk through them, and in some places it looked like ther had been inscriptions on the walls, though they were unintelligible now. Twilight would have surely been lost were it not for the compass guiding her, as the tunnels stretched in all direction and, judging by some holes she noticed on the upper parts of them, they seemed to continue even inside the stuctures she had seen outside.

Finally she started to ascend again through the tunnels, and emerged inside what looked like a giant sphere made of glass. As she entered, a lightning struck the top of the sphere. The entirety of the stucture started to glow, and then stopped as the energy was redirected outside in the form of one of the waves.

Twilight put the compass back in her saddlebags and looked around inside the structure. The space inside it was empty, save for a white stone pedestal in the center of the area. She walked closer to it and started to inspect it. It didn't seem to have any distinctive features, its surface barren and cold to the touch. After trying to move the stone or see if it had any hidden mechanisms, she decided to interact with it with her magic instead.

As soon as her magic aura came in contact with the altar, signs started to lit up on it. She tried to stop in order to inspect it, but found she was unable to cut off the flow of magic from her horn. The signs kept growing of a brighter and brighter shade of light blue, and Twilight's eyes started to glow as she felt her mind being sucked away from her body. She did not lose cosciousness. Instead, Twilight was now feeling as if the surface of the glass sphere was her body. She could feel every part of it, and see and hear everything around it.

Then, the lightning struck again. She felt an enormous amount of energy running through her new body. Then, as the energy was discharged again in the form of a wave, she felt herself moving with it. She felt herself being stretched in every direction as the wave moved further from the sphere. She could still feel every part of the surface of the wave as it moved along in its path, growing bigger and bigger as time went on. She crossed the maze of purple stuctures, but she did not stop there. Further and further the wave kept going, her mind becoming thinner as it was stretched across an ever growing surface. She crossed valleys and mountains, and bottomless abisses where no light had ever been, and from cold skies to colder empty spaces she still kept going, till her mind was flooded with far too much information, until she reached the edge of the universe.

Then, as suddenly as it had started, everything stopped, and her mind came crushing back inside her old body, making her collapse from exhaustion.