"Are you ready?"
Twilight gripped her forearms nervously. "I should be ready," she muttered. She had done the research (She wished Equestria has something like Erowid. So much knowledge!), practiced inhaling and holding in smoke, and read up on what to expect. Plus, she had been through literally dozens of psychedelic magical experiences--purifying ancient artifacts, alicorn power transfers, toyetic dimensional portals, you name it. How crazy could ten minutes of DMT be?
Rainbow Dash put a hand on Twilight's shoulder. "Dude, Twilight, I know you're nervous, but I promise you you're not going to have a bad time. You're going to have a weird time, and all the egghead research in the world isn't going to prepare you for this. You just gotta do it. You'll be fine."
Tree Hugger chimed in. "Yeah, dude, you're really freaking yourself out. You just gotta let your inhibitions go and experience. Rainbow's right. You'll be fine. Trust me."
Twilight looked around at her human friends. She, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Sunset Shimmer, and Tree Hugger were gathered together in Rainbow's room. Rarity and Applejack had politely declined the invitation. Pinkie's response was: "Oh my gosh, that would be super duper funsies! But, trust me girls, If there's DMT, I will smoke it, and Pinkie on DMT is..." Then her eyes got huge and shivers wracked her body, and she bolted down the hallway. Fluttershy took that as a no. "Sci-Twi" was paranoid of getting arrested and ruining her academic career. So it was just the five of them.
Twilight did the little exhale/arm-sweep thing Cadance had taught her, and looked up with renewed confidence. "Yeah, I'm ready. Let's do this."
When she first visited this foreign world several years ago, Twilight never would have expected it to be a gateway to drug culture, yet here she was. Mind you, she never would have expected Fluttershy to be into it either, but then when one hangs out with Tree Hugger that much, consumption of psychedelics is kind of inevitable. But hey, if it helped Fluttershy come out of her shell, good for her. She wasn't going to judge.
Tree Hugger handed her the small water bong. "Okay, remember, whatever you do, don't--"
"I know, I know," Twilight interrupted. "Don't cough into the bong. You've told me three times."
Fluttershy spoke up. "Don't worry. I've been having her practice with marajuana. She's a good sucker now."
Several of the girls giggled, and Rainbow mimed blowjob motions. She was lucky Applejack wasn't there to slap her.
Tree Hugger continued. "Yeah, I know you know, it's just like, I'm still major bummed about Super Trampoline fucking it up last week."
This caught Twilight's attention. "Wait, your world has a Super Trampoline too?"
"Yeah, man. First hit and he coughs and floods the whole thing*. Total buzzkill."
"Huh. Some things are universal." She looked down at the contraption in her hands, then back up again, desperate to delay her plunge. Her eyes landed on Sunset Shimmer, who hadn't spoken in some time. She was sprawled on a beanbag chair with bloodshot eyes and a goofy grin.
"Sunset, you're the only other pony here. You have anything you want to say?"
Sunset tried to sit up, but ended up just sinking deeper into the amorphous furniture. "Twilight, I am sooo stoned right now. I'm just here to watch you lose your shit. Now stop stalling!"
Twilight glared at her. "Wow, thanks for the moral support. I'll be sure to tell Celestia you're still a bitch."
Her friends gasped. "Twilight, that wasn't very nice!" Fluttershy scolded.
Sunset called off their attacks though. "No, she's right. I'm a huge bitch!" She laughed. "Now smoke your fucking drugs, Twi!"
Twilight rolled her eyes and smiled. "Whatever you say, Bacon hair." She then turned her attention to the bong and steeled herself. No more stalling. "Alright, so I just breath in?"
Rainbow pulled out her lighter. "It will work better with this." Twilight watched as her friend heated up the bulb holding the mysterious substance. "Okay Twi, All you. Go nuts."
This was it. Twilight steadied her breathing, then held the leadpipe to her lips. Her friends all watched enraptured. "Here goes nothing."
She took a hit.
The smoke was immediate and unpleasant. She stifled a cough and continued to inhale, letting the plasticine vapors explore her lungs.
"Okay, now hold it as long as you comfortably can," Fluttershy instructed.
Twilight managed about ten seconds before releasing the fumes and finally coughing. "W-water!" she croaked.
Fluttershy handed her an open bottle. "Okay, but, um. you should really take another hit for the full effect.
Twilight greedily scarfed down a few gulps. "Ugh, my throat fucking hurts."
"Less talking; more smoking!" Rainbow urged.
Twilight resolutely held the bong back up to her mouth and breathed in again. The acrid smoke still stung as it traversed her throat, but not quite as badly this time. Again she held the accumulated chemicals in her lungs, then breathed out, this time in a more controlled fashion. "Okay, wow. This is weird."
Tree Hugger insistently pushed the bong back towards her face. "Yo, you gotta take the final hit, girl. Trust me, it's worth it.
Twilight complied and repeated the process a third time. After letting out her breath, she hurriedly handed the bong back to Tree Hugger. "Okay, I'm definitely feeling it. Oh my stars, this... wow!" She quickly took another swig of water to quell the burning sensation before she was too far gone.
Then
My world explodes.
"Wow."
"Wow."
"Wow."
These last cogniscent words echo through my mind. My friends fade from existance and instead I see dancing light. Patterns, colors, shapes, all weave through it, materializing into substance before just as quickly fading back to background chaos. This happens all around me, even beyond my vision. Reality as I understand it has melted away, and the truth now lies coruscating before my eyes.
I look down, and my hands too are attached to these flashes of everythingness. I control them like a puppet, but the writhing lights grab the strings and pull me towards them. I am not scared, for I am given the gift of understanding, and I understand this is as it is to be. I fall towards everything, and as I do, reality grows new treats.
Angels spawn up through the floor. The angels are babies though. In human folklore, they would be identified as gnomes. They gnaw at me, but not physically and not mentally. Rather, they gnaw at my existance, dancing about between bites, and eating at my very being until I am nothing. I am strangely okay with this. I know, even or perhaps especially in this altered state, that this is the fate of all, to be eaten away at until the end, but as I feel my body and my being dissolve, I am not sad. Rather, what is left of my consciousness embraces this nibbling, this melting away, and the creatures sing praises of the life I lived. They sing of magic and friendship in beautiful tongues I long to hear more of, but cannot, for I am told it is not yet my time. I must wait for some truths to be revealed, such is the way things are.
With a whooshing noise, as of wind through a canyon, the head angel floats towards the center of my awareness. It has a thousand arms and they all reach out at once. I no longer exist, but they caress my echo, my shadow of existance, and it is all a lot. Then the angel speaks.
“Twilight, the voice drizzles like honeydew, “you are witnessing what is and must be.” At least, that's what I try to hear, but the voice is singing in seven part harmony in octaves that don't exist, and I'm a mere pony in a human body trying process it. “Fear not, for you have your friends, even unto nothingness. You have brightened so many lives, my little pony.” These are not exactly the words used, but I hear sounds no creature speaks and I understand them as if plain Equish. All will end, and all will begin again. All turns, all turns, all turns. One day I will have my last adventure with my friends. I am shown this, but I am not scared, I am at peace.
I understand, for I am nothingness, like the mare without friends I once was. But this time, the nothingness is okay, good even. With a final hug from its arms, The angels fade away, for it is their time to leave.
I am nothing, I am unreal, and I am okay.
I am okay. Okay The word booms in even intervals like a clock to set the world to, and I feel warmth in the suggestion that my nonexistance will be bearable. I ponder my nothingness as the universe of colors and sounds melts away, and I find myself falling.
I fall through a thousand lifetimes in a few minutes. I fall through all that has been and all that will be, and find myself in the body of ten thousand Twilight Sparkles, all with their own hopes and dreams. We all are united in this one temporary fusion, and we all are filled with love and camaraderie. I am all of them while being none of them, and I am so very happy, as they slowly depart one by one back to their own worlds. I feel as I fall through reality (Which has turned a swirling colbalt blue) these other Twilights peeling off like slices of potatoes, as I am whittled down to the one single amazing individual I am.
My falling turns to floating turns to drifting, and I and bask in the lovely embrass of beingness as I feel my true body return. Burnt toast fills my nose, and static my ears, and my eyes cycle through black and white patterns that slowly blend into the reality of my friends staring at me.
I have hands again with which to rub my eyes. I am back.
Rainbow is grinning, her voice still a bit distant. “Welcome back, Twilight. You have a good time?”
How do I describe what I’ve just experienced? Am I even capable of it? I settle for a simple explanation.
“Wow.”
Author's Note
*True story, unfortunately.
