Fault Beyond Reasonby PettyPonyDearestChaptersInfinitumDistant RefrainSlotted's SoliloquoyTest ThreatWith What Manner Of Hubris Are You Satisfied?A Broken Display Of 'Stars'The Last Days Of The Blue PoppyOut Of The Fault And Into The GorgeAlicorn ReasonBeginning of the EndAt The Bottom, Near The TopWhere Does The Fault Lie?InfinitumThe greatest walls in the history of the universe, criss-cross over themselves in copy after copy of kingdom come. Towers with more floors than can be counted, stretch out across the continuous, dead, breeze-less horizon. Some creature coughs in some forsaken place, where the only sound that echoes in reply is a sense of ever-expanding black horizons, leaping from cosmo to cosmo, easily and eternally. A sense of home and comfort radiate from a decrepit corner in some dripping dungeon, that will never be found or seen. Somewhere, a red pegasus clings to life, falling to her death as slowly as she pleases. Falling past interminable chambers reverberating with sufferings of desolation and ruin. . While elsewhere, A small earth pony named Slotted Spoon, murmurs small nothings to himself. "Now that is, uh well that's funky is ... uhhh, what I'd say here... you know, personally... of course.... for obvious reasons..." He idly picks strings on the lyre listening carefully for any sound. He scratches his head in confusion as the lyre begins only whispering hints of its notes. . "Well, I can only assume, for obvious reasons, that here is a place that uh, well...What I can only assume, from the uh- You know the uh... spatial dynamics and what-not, that is for no reason, in particular, I mean of course, for obvious reasons that would be apparent, that uhhhhh. Uhhhhh, uhhh. UHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhhhhhhh-" His "Uhh's" echo into the abyss, loud and clear. There is a faraway shaking. Slotted Spoon ponders something as he lets the instrument's meager sounds slump. Accompanying the absence of sound, the purple light emanating from the strings slips to a pitch-black, eventually ceasing its glow [/color]completely. The dim pony has to laugh. In matters of intellectual proximity, he is galaxies apart from the common pony mind. An inch is as good as a mile, a mile, inconsequential as a grain of sand. Torn from his time, by an unknown force of nature, he ponders. "Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhh-magicmaybe?" Slotted Spoon manages to think. Out of the corner of his eye, something barely appears as they begin to adjust to the darkness, he sees it skitter across his gaze. Scrambling to his hooves, he hurriedly starts picking the notes on his lyre and sees; Pink, shiny, no eyes, TEETH like mountains, it didn't skitter, the creature's features took up every bit of vision that could be spared, the skitter merely a pupil. A giant vast hole in the cavernous maw that stretched out into the distance, is now claustrophobic with the presence of a massive creature. It soundlessly lifts one of six of its gargantuan legs, and puts it down with incredible force. -rumble-shake shake-rumble- -and on its fleshy protuberance of a face hangs an odd-looking shape that had the expression almost reminiscent of a pony's but deformed and its mane was patchy and scarred with the veins of its host. The head smiles. The notes immediately cease on Slotted Spoon's lyre. It goes dark, it is all silent. "Uhhh......." Slotted Spoon whispered with reticence. She looks up; An endless- She sighs. She looks down; Sand. She ruffles her feathers in frustration. She had fallen quite far and found herself surrounded by; A veritable Sahara, populated densely with crumbling brick, and decaying architecture that jutted out against miles and miles of polarizing darkness, giving the sand an eerie monotone sheen against the monoliths of a ruined city. In the reflection of the splayed-out stone of this wasteland, everything shines white, as though blackness itself is challenged by the fluorescence and as the pegasus registers this, her eyes easily adjust to the overwhelming light, and her vision settles upon a vast colorless desert. Not a sign of life. Not a grain of sand moves. The pegasus draws an idle hoof through a thin pool of sand by her side. Her etching would look no semblance of any particular significance, yet the strange symbols seem to hold her esteem. ?. She hoofs at the symbol and chuffs... She flits her wingspan a couple of times as if building up some energy, but then defeatedly hangs her head. She must have fallen very far this time. A nuisance. She looks around at the cascading ruins, glowing in a harsh heatless light. She squints and takes off her satchel. She sets it down quiet as the grave and with her left-wing deftly fishes out of her satchel, a small biscuit. Biscuit could be an overstatement. Ration could be an understatement. Using her wingtip, she holds the biscuit in front of her face and her wing-bone bends awkwardly to comply. She smiles, this biscuit is her most treasured possession. She has never needed sustenance, nor felt any compulsion to process waste but she nibbles delicately at a corner of the wafer and quickly puts it back into her satchel. She looks up, and once again, with a game determination, looks for a wing hold. Author's Note Hope you enjoyed this small peek into the past. I've had this idea for a while now, ever since I first saw that music video for Never Gonna Give Ya Up by Rick Astley, really. I wanted to write a story revolving around one of those songs, but as you can see, this is just the inspiration. I still haven't decided what I want to do with it though... Distant RefrainA red pegasus looks down, a troubling thought strikes her, and her feathers ruffle up in dramatic plumage. You'll end here, forever tumbling, crushed by the tons of stone above while being beckoned by the plummet to nothingness. Desperately, she seizes any kind of purchase she can find, which denotes little consolation as her body promises to fall evermore. She tries to scream out, regardless of the fact that there is no one to hear. A scream? She needs to 'scream?' A scream of fear, pain, and utter desperation needs to be let out. She can't; the air has been leeched out of her lungs, from her very surroundings as if not anything ought to utter here. Her eyes cannot focus anymore, tears streaming down her face. She falls forever, and no one will ever know the reason. The world starts to make sense, like a beautiful dream gradually becoming more and more vivid until it's crystal clear. She spots a ledge in the distance. She feels her body clasping the vine with all of its might and suddenly with a peaceful momentum, her trajectory eases her toward a sheer earthen embankment. \ \ \ ----- ----- /. -- - Slam! Her feet hit the ground, and she scrambles to find her steadiness. Her legs wobble as she scans the terrain, atop her small purchase, but she manages to steady herself. The ledge she now found herself roosted is halfway up a sheer rockface, above her, the wall seems to curve upward into its own horizon. From here she can see a large wooden door, about a mile south canted at an odd angle, wedged between a tremendous crack in the wall. She remembers the door, somewhat, and the nostalgia breezes within her feathers like a wave of recollection. This is good. From here, she can get a good grip with both wings. She pulls herself up to continue her journey. A sunless light floods into the dark fault from the crack in the massive earthen wall and immense debris floats gently down like dust in an afternoon window. She spots a large clearing of slate, as she crests a mile-long ledge of moss-covered brick. In the middle of the slate expanse lies a blue gemstone, surrounded by golden flames. It looks like it's glowing with an otherworldly light. Slipping and sliding on the stone, she grabs at the stray cracks in the nearby odd walls for support. She clings to them as she attempts to make her way towards the gem. She looks at it in the light of unknown origin. As she stares into the stone, she sees a face looking back at her. It makes her feel weird, but then she never really liked the look of faces. To a pegasus such as this, everything is better admired in darkness. "KAAAAABOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMM!!!!!!!!!" A thundering explosion of ~~sound~~ overwhelms the pegasus; one of many nodes in her head ached. In the midst of some unspeakable force trying to rip her in two, she bolsters herself, protected by her rock-like feathers and even tougher skin. She feels as if she will go blind from pain. She hears rustling and screeches as some of the golden flames on the walls go out. The pegasus catches a glimpse of a black beast's face on one of the walls. She leaps back, nearly tumbling off a sheer drop. Catching herself she balances over the precipice, expertly estimating her wings. With trembling hooves, she places the jewel in her satchel. A nearby tremendous door swings open slowly on rusty hinges and reveals; Nothing. There must be some distance to go. She walks through the door, finding herself in a long tunnel of winding blackness. The walls and ceiling are high to the point of giving her the sensation of being aloft in the air. She spots several large bats crawling around the floor, around twice her size. They eye her warily, but they don't attack. Strangely enough, they seem to be afraid. After what seems a wearisome time of walking she comes to a dead-end, more brick. More stone, more vines. She sighs. A feline sits just out of sight, watching her. With all her strength, she grips onto the walls with her wingtips. She uses her hooves to tear at the stone like a rat and manages to displace enough bricks to wriggle through a hole. Light floods into the cavern through the hole as she crawls out. She emerges and stands up to look around. A stairway made of stone leads up to a second hole in the brick, from which light spills onto the opening like water spilling over a rock in a stream. She glances back at the hole she's just come from and a familiar feline watches her from the hole. He's a gold-speckled cat with a wry smile; she recognizes him as an old life and ponders the length of his existence for a time before sneezing politely. He leans against the stone wall, watching her ponder. Suddenly he leans forward, swishes his tail, and darts his eyes across the room, then to her. They stare at each other. The red pegasus straightens up with alertness and her eyes shoot back in annoyance, one of her ears involuntarily lays back. The cat purrs and closes his eyes. He smiles. She smiles back. Prancing in place expressively, the pegasus cocks her head at the feline and chuffs. He replies with a languid stretch. She seems to nod. He seems to smirk. She lists up over the stone wall and begins to search for a place to climb. She feels a paw on the back of her fetlock, and she jumps with a start. The cat deftly hops to a brick outcropping just above them, he meows once dismissively. She starts to climb after him. Finding purchase, she climbs to where he is and reaches out to touch his fur with a wing. He recoils. She frowns. He glowers and looks away. She reaches out to touch his face. He cringes away and shuts his eyes. She retracts her wing. He watches it. She turns her head and stares at him, waiting for a moment keeping her grip strong with her patient wingtips. He waits. Shrugging, she hops off from the wall and acknowledges the cat no more, her gaze slowly stirs up. ______ ___ _/.? ' ') __. </>_ Author's Note I put this scene in to establish that someone can't just go around killing things whenever she pleases, which was a common criticism of the character. I don't know if this is the best way to do it, but I wanted to establish some form of characterization for my little pegasus so I wasn't just having her run around doing crazy stuff. Slotted's Soliloquoy"Your body is a strange resonating machine of pains and pleasures, the precision of its responses to the external world programmed into it long ago before you were even born. You can feel its almost sub-conscious movement. Your mind has been carefully trained to respond in certain ways. You can see its almost subconscious response. Look away from the window. You are experiencing a response. Open the door and walk through it. You can feel your body moving through the air." A voice whispers in Slotted's addled brain. 'UHHHhhhhh....' His ears perk up, Slotted Spoon turns his head towards you, whoever you are. "Who's gone?' 'Manticore.' 'Manticore? Uhhhh probably just a, trying to uhhm, trying to uhm.... Pony, trying to lure one, one of them, uhhh... A pony. That is, you know, obviously? I'd imagine, uhhh- I imagine, that for various reasons, and uhh, well that is, notwithstanding about the uhhh-.... thing, He likes to uhhh, eat well and I'm not a uhhh judger for those uhhhh- you know, the various judgers who are more'ly... uhhhh.... constituatooted... for various reasons, against each other, obviously, for obvious reasons, uhhhh, before he uhhh, sneaks up on 'em. He says with a sleepy drawl." Slotted Spoon recites as he dozes off. "Fascinating." Naught but a forgotten pony, loudly thinks. "'It's cool... I could use a rest...' Slotted Spoon yawns. He lands on a mossy white rock, as he takes a breather. Soon, he gets up, and uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh- he can just-see ...the... lights of Ponyville out in front of him. He frowns upon seeing that, it makes him homesick; Now uhhh, a group of those whatchacalls, that are uhh, trees-group, uhhh group of-uhh-of-uhhhh... trees and brambles, you know for various reasons, for obvious reasons known as a uhhh,... ' ... , Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh- 'Hedge' coming up. And uhhh-'I guess it's time to Dream.' He begins to uhh, float, or what have you, for phrasing it in the obvious way. Of course uhhhhhmm, in the amount of uhh-.....-levitation, that is levia-tating, for various reasons in the definition of the uhm-. Off into the uhhh- inky uhhh, dark-uh-that-is-uh- blackness of the uhhh...'Nightmares' that is, it being there that it was named uhm, appropriately, by me, for various and obvious reasons! It was named uh....that is, without a single question, you know obviously, for obvious reasons... A flash of red and uhm'purple light, and the sound of mah instrument -thingy- I mean my intstrement, which is my lyre, forobviousreasons- fades away. 'Look, now I know I dun scared me half to death by the sight of that uhhhhhh-well...I guess big pony would be the word in question, being that the creature was in resemblance offf....uhhhh, in resemblance, that is... Was uh- uhhhh well the size, obviously, was there on that deal and he uhhh-well he plumb scared me and uhhhh----' Slotted Spoon says as he hovers amidst his dreamland. Somepony levitates over to him, and whispers in his ear; But nothing is heard. "Fascinating." A voice thinks loudly in the darkness. "Manticore? Uhhhh probably just a...Big Pony, you know, uhhh- forobvious reasons, trying to uhhhh, well that is, with the motivations uhm... it has, to the uhhhhh- to the uh to... uuuuuuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhhhhhHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH- lure... that is, travelers ... out, obviously...forobviousreasons He uhm... ~~likes to~~, well that he doesn't like to, hopefully, for uhhhmm eat-eat well uhm, apparently; Uh. ... wellyouknowuh-before he sneaks up on 'em, for that deal uhm, when he, well I mean that, when in the case where it would be for... UH... variousandobviousreasons uhhhh....Notwithstanding. He says with a- uhhhhh, sleepy, a drawl, I guess for what you'd call it for obvious and various-reasons. 'I reckon uh- , ...! ...'ll uhhh- I'll, get a couple hours rest, and uh-well-" A kind motherly voice booms over Slotted Spoon's Dreamscape. "Yes. You should do that." Jolting awake, Slotted Spoon drops his lyre and a quick burst of magic reveals; The creature, smiling, leaning in, observing with great interest, the talking pony. Shaking a little, Slotted Spoon, endlessly murmurs as he attempts to sleep in the company he's keeping. "He uhhhh,... nods that is, in an agreement uhh of the situation for various and obvious reasons and uhh- and closes my eyes uh-for the uhhh various- that is uh-, that is not to say that because of the uh... fact, that he was uhhhh-... sleeping, you know. For obviousreasons, for variousreasons... As I, well that is -uhh-in, I or Me, rather uh for Wwelll,youknow....forobvious and various reasons.... return back to my uh..... "sleep" for -obviously,- various reasons about that uh... deal was that uhhhh-you can hear the distant sounds of the uhhhhh, Nightmares, that is the ~~uhh-~~. Uhh, well for obvious and various reasons it uhhhh- by your side. was uhhhhh...... Uuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh" His manic murmurs echo into the night while his silent companion watches in earnest. _____ d,caoifnhk2yalfuhlanksvanksjnvnskjnjknknvaskjvavhrkwfb ______ _____ fnasfnsojfnfjqwqpfijtiogjnk,knmabvzhgwqfqdjhqbnnbz,sfutymvbgftrerwquxmbnrvvct dzaqsqxssgshfngk ___________ddnfjfhdnkmdmidndnidlnlsnnlfnlaweytrgfnrjlgneoaiklgjaoijgnlmopjfaongperngehgirtjbhtio;ijquiberqlognjqlgkjqgj ______flealgnlgoelaj;oijlg;algkamg;oeailnkg;gljnegailema;glne;gvlkma;gvokame;flkgna;efjr;wpokefpoqjgq;boilknbq;oilgm;qlikmfvnalnjv;ljvna;lvkjam;iljma;eoivnaeovne.............................wmflkanfwjlkafnalkjfnlafowiljflwajkfnawlfjnkfjnawkjfnwjkfnwkfjn ____flaksmd;fla;ksmfd;alskfmz;klfsmsa;.............../..........................agnrkglajnglakjgnfalefkjnwrlfkhbwiogjpyokmhrlkpbrjniojien __fnoaf;lm;alkfm;flkmfr;flkmw;flkmwf..................\/.............jgaijvmalkjfnlvkajnvfaioeljvnebgjlwrqipjhmkbivhipjbxlkvbxonvlskjdnvskldjnvsldkjvnsldjkvndvsmdnv...........................gnaflkjgnkgljnelkgjnslkvjfdsndlkjnbvnldfkjvnslvjkdnsblkdjbldkbnslk______?_ velkjvnlaukjvnsolivfjnda;oviljna;vlinjvljknal;vnjev;kn Author's Note So there you have it, a brief encounter with Slothy. I hope you found it interesting. Test ThreatWhen he shuts his eyes, the noise starts. They sound like whispers at first, but they become outright; a taunting cacophony. He can make out glimpses of blood-red scales, claws, and wings. They speak of deceit, murder, and shattered friendship. Slotted Spoon jolts awake and grasps his lyre tightly. He laughs a slight, nervous laugh. and asks for some time alone to compose his thoughts; asking the spiral of outward structure that he really just needs solitude in little notes of whimsy. He scares himself after about an hour of thinking and plucking at stray insecurities in his mind. He plucks so hard at these strings that they break, and the tension goes slack. He doesn't know what to do. Concordantly, it goes dark. Slotted Spoon screams at the top of his lungs before the invisible others burst into gigantic winds of silent laughter. Some bricks fall in the distance but make no sound. His scream is swallowed by a vacuum of ivy-filled space. The Nightmarish beast seemingly displaces the booms and they rip through Slotted's ears with a great mute force. It drains the color from his body and leeches into his mind, probe-lessly. His screams are replaced by maniacal laughs as he becomes a vessel for the beast in an instant. While his life flashed in front of him, one moment, in particular, persists. "It is uhhhh..... evident, that is because obviously this thing, I mean the thing is, I mean my point, which is that my lyre, that is the apparent ways I play, or uhhhh- express for various reasons that my lyre playing, being the way that is is for obvious-er oruh... for, various reasons that has uhm, eHH, EHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH-affected this beast! In that; Of course, judging by various and obvious reasons it uhhhhh- I uhm. Uh-huh." "Uh-huh." Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. The gigantic beast explodes harmlessly and skits off into nothing. The small pony lies there, still a terrible purple from the sanity challenging gaze of a beast from an unfamiliar realm. The vibrations of the beast's cavernous sighs, sweeps through the heart of an ancient metropolis as it gently leans down to look briefly at the small pony. Slotted Spoon panics and strums his lyre. The brief gaze lasts but an hour, for relativity's sake, and shortly after undergoing a terror strange to gods. Slotted Spoon goes. "Uhhhhh-" His echo is quelched by a lack of acoustic room. The cosmic being turns, and as its ponderous length scrolls across Slotted's gaze, it continues its lonely vigil, each step taking years and each of its expressions played out over decades of solitude. The lyre of Slotted Spoon lies silently on the ground naught but a few strings attached to the once magnificent instrument. Uncountable miles away, the Gargantua laughs...and with a foreboding presence...falls.....into the depths. "Uhhhhhhhh..." Slotted Spoon murmurs. It echoes out into the distance as he is sent into the throes of a primal flight instinct, but is forced to face shapes that this mumbling mad pony, couldn't literalize. Slotted Spoon kneels on one worn-out knee. An old and weary voice whispers to him, but he doesn't hear it. "You cannot escape your destiny..." Slotted Spoon says. "Uhhhh, destiny? I uh- that is, I think maybe with some error comes you, with me I mean, uhhhh-" "No need to stutter, creature. Your song is in its ending. You struggle to find a word to tell the end. But foolishness comes with ease, young one." The voice shatters into nothing and remnants of its presence float up into the abyssal stature of walls and unsightly mortar. WHIP WHIP. The sounds of wind whizz past the keen ears of a young griffon. A nearby companion griffin begins turning to dust, and her talons can feel the gusts below her starting to give way... This world is ending. And amidst a cyclone of flame, she squawks defiantly as she witnesses her reality be quietly torn apart. And yet, the wind whips. She has to hurry. Unseen immense windows rupture outwards as the sky becomes a cloud of poisonous fumes. Millions of bricks fall to their predetermined destination at some unseen place where no light shines. She's already gliding endlessly through the void. It's almost like there is no hope left at all. A stray rose finds its way into her periphery, and she sighs vacantly, her eyes were trained on it's disintegrating petals. This wasn't supposed to happen. Drift off peacefully and let always, the iniquity consume you. The red pegasus' eyes slowly open again. She is drifting at a cozy terminal velocity. Her ears flutter at the touch of a falling twig. She can feel the air get warmer and warmer, subsequently burning her unyielding wings. Beautiful trees and scales blanket the ravine floor, precise results of a controlled magical explosion. Some of the walls reach centuries of cubits in the air and trail into the skyline, a vast conformity of strange complexities and twisting caves. While falling, she looks up and manically bleats. A great depth she's fallen this time. She's liable to take years to get back where she used to be. But that doesn't matter now, she will get there ultimately, in the end. She might as well take her time. There is no hurry. Her muscles relax and prepare for another long fall. A nap before the inevitable climb. She cups her wings over her muzzle to protect against the fumes from the mounting inferno. And off she goes. Down down down, the landscape zips by and everything starts to obscure into a red hot blur. Time moves so slowly when the world is moving past you, sometimes years go by without her noticing. It's almost as if she were still, a fetal citizen in the center of an absurdist world. "UUUUUHHHHHHHHHHHHH" The pegasus hears a distant echo and her ears prick up immediately. Her feathers rustle excitedly. She has never heard anything like it in her life but it passes briefly through her mind like a silent stranger in the night. She plunges deeper and deeper down the chasm. The walls race by in a blur and before she knows it, she's already miles below her last recalled step on solid ground. She hears more distant shrieks but pays them no mind. Spiraling ceaselessly downward into the heart of the abyssal gorge. She has long since stopped noticing the fumes and the pegasus comfortably lays her wings across her back as she yawns, steadily falling. Lazily, she extends her wings and they slow her descent only marginally. Her tough hooves eventually clop against a distinct metal, but it is a low dull throbbing sound. The worn metal bears the glow of unimaginable heat and it molten-ly gives way as a solid snow does to a hoof. The chasm beneath is so vast, but she hops harmlessly off into it. Maybe, somewhere amidst the flames, a lost city, is surviving in an evolutionary display of dominance. In this vast universe in her direct vicinity, she imagines an ancient and forgotten beast, breathing eternally into the heart of the mountain that she fell past a century prior, dreaming of a past forever gone. Just like hers. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________ ______________________________________ ______________________________ _______________________ ___________ ____ __ _ - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - -- - - - - - - - - She spies a small outcropping of grass growing on the vast earthen wall of the chasm and directs her steady fall toward its precarious position. She butts up against the wall and feels it give in a slight way to her weight. She is now standing stably on a small ledge of grass. The walls of the chasm race by in the prospectively ponderous distance, the opposite wall moving faster than she's ever seen before in her life. The fine dirt and dust that makes up the outcropping crumble slowly from her weight, creating a small cloud of fetid dust around her. This feels nice. An immense tower of earth rumbles with improbable decibels, hidden by a vacuum of cavernous expanse. The tunnel walls maintain their rigorous pace forever into infinity, only to end in the haze and cloud of her eyes' feeble capabilities. Always Changing. Always New. She naps and journeys on. A mountain splits some great distance away, giving way to cracks of oblivion as the giant earth tower plunges forever upward, silently rumbling. She closes her eyes. And then the figurative bridge to her reality buckles and snaps. The fetid chasm exhales a gust of magma that solidifies mid-air into a wailing mass of lost detritus, trapped as they are before they move onto their final reward, or into the endless void. Their histrionic howls distant upon the wind. Some creature, worlds away, has their pleas fall on Death's deaf ears. Not even Death herself can decide who stays and who goes at this crucial point. Feeling the very galaxy from which she slept, rumble ominously, she gently slips into dreamland, nuzzling her first glimpse of green grass in a century. .................................blip Author's Note No commentary. Everything you need to know was in the foreword. But just so I have further author's notes; Further Author's Notes: Now then. What is this story? It's a story for children between the ages of three to twelve, and it involves ponies and other creatures. Or at least it could involve them. It starts with a kidnapping. There is a pack of cards that come to life, and while they're still, their minds are alive, so they can speak. With What Manner Of Hubris Are You Satisfied?She falls through nightmares incarnate of the most hideously twisted mind imaginable. She falls through a landscape of endless pain and horror, of suffering and anguish. She falls through a mine of the void without beginning or end, a terrible gnawing hollowness that threatens to devastate her and wipe away any last trace of her very existence. Abandoned foals scream out for help, for escape. Their throats are hoarse for want of their own voices and their hopes flicker on and off carelessly in the last nightfall's breeze. No one is there to hear them scream for help. The only sound in this ghostly, almost perfectly quiet vacuity is the pounding of her hooves against the ground. A remote griffon sounds out its SOS, screeching helplessly, as her song begins fading into nothingness. Wherever there is chaos, wherever there is destruction, she is there flying high above it all, basking in the salty wind against her soft cheek. If she closes her eyes, she can almost pretend that everything is right, that those things exist... But the rose is dying. The wind is not. It's in her feathers, in her eyes, in her mouth, in her heart. The rose has already disintegrated under the stress, the once magnificent flower has disappeared without a trace. The mountain is still there. But it can't be reached. She does not have the energy to fly there. She doesn't know what's on the other side, but she hopes that it's a sanctuary. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - THERE IS NO SANCTUARY, UNLESS YOU MAKE IT FOR YOURSELF - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - With a jolt, she opens her eyes. She's still in the cave. Apparently a servant of her own gloom; she managed to wander back somehow. Her sub-conscience must have dropped her off in the night and left. If she ever wanted to squawk again, she would berate herself at her incompetence. If her father were alive, he'd likely say the same. Despite being covered in bruises, cuts, and abrasions, she feels fine. Merely hungry. It's no wonder she came back. She finally thought she had passed on, but, she was still breathing. She didn't bother eating for three days straight, so, she would be too weak to try again. That's not going to stop her now. She idly gazes at an unwrapped piece of gum, frowns, and changes her mind. Atop a lonely cold, mountain, a waned griffon begins her descent and sets out in search of treasure. The light beats down into the overhang, burning the top of the young pegasus' head as it quickly flies from horizon to zenith in a split second. Passing straight through her. Miles below, a dark blue lake shimmers as its surface is broken by a seemingly never-ending waterfall that cascades from the very peak she rests on. The trees begin to get smaller and further apart until eventually, she can see nothing but barren rock for miles around as she meticulously ascends. The stars shimmer in the perpetual darkness that has enveloped her, broken only by the occasional floating island of lush grass. These lonely islands are covered in creature-eating mushrooms, each one seeming to follow their own set of (counter-intuitive) rules of survival; some explode in showers of searing light, while others seem to drift about in total isolation. There's no way to know which ones are deadly and which ones are not unless one has memorized every single type. Which she has. Despite being in the open, the oppressive darkness begins to feel less tangible, more like a rubber sheet that is being stretched out indefinitely. Her ears try to detect the sound of the wind blowing, but none can be heard. There are no birds flying across the sky, or clouds drifting through the endless expanse of space... only her... ~~always~~ only her... The stars are beginning to shift about in dizzying spirals, trying to drill their way through the back of her mind. The mare looks down at herself, trying to find her body in this pool of darkness. Her eyes then land on something that she cannot comprehend. The air is beginning to solidify, trapping her in place. The dark rubbery feeling is now so thick, so tangible, it feels like attempting to move through molasses. The small blue-green island is still in the distance, seemingly immune to the horrors of this place. ~~I have to keep moving...~~ The mare attempts to ascend still but is immediately brought to a halt as the darkness starts swirling around her wingtips, solidifying into cubes that trap them in place with sharp spikes. In front of her eyes, the cubes twist and morph, turning into bizarre flowers... which quickly turn their faces towards her and hiss. She is nonplussed as they begin swarming all over her, poking at her body and whispering indecipherable things into her ears. She remains plaintive, and she frees her wings with a shrug and a ruffle. The darkness is closing in all around her, finally manifesting into pony shapes. Vaguely, at least; they have no eyes, gaping sockets leering at her, tongues lolling out of their mouths. Large tendrils begin to grope her body while others attempt to insert themselves into uncomfortable orifices. Her wingtips become sharp, and the tendrils rescind themselves within themselves with a-; POP. The mare is shaken back to reality, her head whirling in pain but she has a firm grip upon the rock face. As she pulls herself over the ledge, the air around her is suddenly different; it's no longer black and rubbery but is now reddish-brown sand. All around her, the sky swirls in a vortex, twisting into an upwards hole that she doesn't dare look into for long. With a sigh, she begins her long lonely trek up the never-ending dune. She needs to reach the top, where the bright dots are all clustered together, shining brightly. When she reaches them, she'll finally be at the next leg of her journey. One between a thousand more further. The sun is setting, painting the sky spirited reds and oranges. In front of her stretches an ostensibly boundless range of sand, with only a lone tree jutting out from a crack in the earth. She hugs herself, wrapping her wings around her, trying to find warmth within the cold desert dusk. She slowly continues trotting, somehow knowing that elsewhere, time makes more sense, and night has meaning. It's getting darker, nothing she can do to stop it... The little red pegasus slowly trods onward, staring out into the horizon. She stares at it for however long she can, before lying down on the sand to rest. Author's Note Welcome to the first and last chapter of *damnthisshiz.txt*. Hopefully, you enjoyed this, because it definitely wasn't fun to write! Let's just say that inspiration can come from some very odd places... Now, as for what you should do next, I'm going to leave that up to you as well. If you're feeling particularly adventurous or masochistic, turn to page 13. A Broken Display Of 'Stars'Gaining this strange knowledge of an entirely new world unseen by the likes of her through the sounds of the chasm, she sets out to conquer it. The chasm is divine and she, despite falling for centuries untold, is not dead. Instead, she finds herself quite alive, falling forever. No light shines through cracks in the abysmal dark that surrounds her; instead, she is surrounded by an impenetrable black. And then suddenly, she sees colors--shapes--figures. They make no sense, but suddenly she is no longer falling through the chasm. From the void around her float words--numbers--symbols of an unknown language; they make no sense but give her hope nonetheless. "Uhhhhh, I've never been ... uh... much for one thing,... for writing, much less about things pertaining, ... myself, obviously, for obvious reasons, but after reading and writicu- I mean, that is having a reading in front of my, uh.... My face... Uhhh, my own story, for various and obvious reasons ... I uh, I... thought that is I think, that while ruminin-Uhhh Rumination.... Uhhh, I'd try putting my hand at it... that is, on it. For various and obvious reasons... Uhhh, before going any further, I want to make one thing perfectly crystal, that is, uh what those crystals are and those are uhhhh...... clear: I'm not crazy." Slotted Spoon, our dim-witted pony is agape at the empty journal before him. Having dictated his thoughts, they now reside scribbled in a small journal he carried with him always. It was written in dark purple ink. He had found the corpse of a featureless creature, and not knowing it was a corpse - being it had no features - saw fit to dip a sharpened stick into its blood as-if, an inkwell, to record his journey through the strange world in which he found himself. Journal Entry #1 I can hardly wait to meet a new species. I'm sure you could say the same thing about me, it must be new for other creatures to set eyes on me as well. I've never been..._- much for writing, much less about ... myself, but after reading on my own for the first in a long while,.... I thought, ... - I'd try my hand at it. Before going any further, I want to make one thing perfectly - clear: I'm not crazy. -Slotted Spoon "Uhhh... yyyeee!!!!...." He is soon interrupted by the introduction of a new being. "Oh Celestia!....Uhhhhh, please please please uhhh, with uhhh, for... uh, that is when I- Uh for uh, when I, being of course with certain circumstances, uhhhhhh being what they are and all ehh, eh eh- uhhhhhhh......let me out of here!" Slotted begins knocking hopelessly on the wall near to him, not knowing that wall was also a corpse, an immense skull mistaken by Slotted Spoon as a substantial rock face. If he could see this creature, trapped in its invisible cage with some kind of gray ooze dripping down the inside of it, melting its vital organs, he would surely have lost what little of his mind remained. Sternly, the creature bashes its mysterious body upon its shrouded prison and growls, although the air didn't do the growl much justice. This hideous monster, no doubt, was created by the same omniscience behind the many creatures Slotted Spoon had encountered thus far. Hindering his quest for enlightenment. Taking a minute, he remembers himself and is not one to fight something he dislikes. Instead, he accepts it, and all things, as part of his experience here. "Uhhh-Yes." He shivers out in fear and he quickly grabs the lyre by his side but does not dare strum it. The creature seems to settle after a bit and now, about an inch away from his face, it drools excessively all over its immaculate fur. Slotted Spoon merely squinted, trying to adjust his eyes to the darkness as the drool pooled over to where he was standing. He slips in a manner, not unlike a stage pratfall and- "W-wh-wh-wh-wh-whooooooaoaaaahhhhh!!!!" -he plunges into the nearby chasm. whooooooaoaaaahhhhh!!!! whooooooaoaaaahhhhh!!!! whooooooaoaaaahhhhh!!!! whooooooaoaaaahhhhh!!!! - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - -- - --------------------- "OOF!" -- -- ---- "UH!" -- ----------------------------------------------------------"Whoooooooaahhhh" -- -- -- -- - - - - "FORVARIOUSREASONS!" - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - "ForOBVIOUSRREASONS" - - - - - - - -- - "ThatisIuh-" - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - "ThatisIseemtobefallin-" - - - - - - -- - - - "Down the uh-......." - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - "...Pit..." - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - "That is, I think, it is...." - - - - - - - "For various reasons..." - -- - - - "For obvious reasons.." - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - "That being well thatbeing that I'm uh...." - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - "Indefinitely floating....that is, to mycurrent knowledge which is uh-" - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - "a long time, no doubt, uhhh no doubt that uh-" - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - "very deep, of course that's this deal uhhhh-" - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - "Uhhhh-" - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - "Uhhhhhhhh-" - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - "UH-maybe I can, fashioning some sort of uh-" - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - "Doohickey, that being that to help, that falling here-" - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- "Of course that being there that this deal is uh- - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ", with my being in the state of this uh......" - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - -- -------; - ' - - - -- - ' - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - ".........here. For the state of uh,- ." - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - -"I can't uh, for various and obvious reason ofcourse-" - - - - - - -- - -- - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - "Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh-" -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - "If I can just uhhhhh, well ehhh-" - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - -"Uhhhhhhh-figure.. that is-" -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - "Of course, with that being the course of uhm-....." - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - "Action..." - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - "That I should uhm...." - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - -"Take. Uhhh, for the time being, -" - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - ---- "..that is uh is to make this deal here uh-" --------"Owch!" -- - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - -- "For uh obvi-" - [\ "Whoops!" -- -- -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - -- "Uhhhhhhhh-" -- - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - -"Dear Journal, I thought I'd spectate.. I mean uh, speaky-tate." - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - "My thoughts regarding the uhhhh-" - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - "Current...that is, being these for well uh- forobviousreasons events for reasons that are uh-" - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - "-and obvious reasons-" - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - "-being that these events are uhhh, inuh...inuhhh'ssca-" - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - "-Scapable. Forvarious reasons, obviously-" - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - -"And that brings me to my current uhh hhhhhhhhh events..." - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- ....- / ..-. .-.. .- -. -- / ... ... .- -. - / ...-- ..- .-. -.. / ....- --- ..- ... .-- -- ....- / ..-. .-.. .- -. -- / ... ... .- -. - / ...-- ..- .-. -.. / ....- --- ..- ... .-- ..- .... / .-- .... --.. .-..>"OOF!" -- ....- / ..-. .-.. .- -. -- / ... ... .- -. - / ...-- ..- .-. -.. / ....- --- ..- ... .-- ..- ..---- -- -- -- -- -- - - - - - - - - - - - - ------------"Uhh-OWCH-" -----------------"AGH-" ----------------------"Uhhhnononono-WHOOOAAAAAHHHHHhH" -- -- - -- - - - ----"Owch!" ------"EUGH!" ------------------------"Uhhh..."---------------------------------------"Phew, uhhh I guess I'm uhhh, here now! for uhhhvariousandobviousreasons"--------------- - -- - - - - - - -- - - - -- - - - - - -- - - - - -- - - -- ----------<^/~------- -- - - -- - -- - -- -- -- - -- -- - -- -- -- -------------------/ ; ' - -- - - - -- -- - - - -- - - ] ] ] - ; ' - - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------/------------- ---------------------------/ - - - - -- - - - - -- - -- - - - -- -- -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - Author's Note This is the first part of the new story arc, it will be split into 4 parts, I will publish the 2nd part on friday. You can continue on your journey or turn back and save the village from the hoard of angry peasants. Further Notes: I also want to thank everyone who took the time to vote in my poll. I will be replacing the old one when I get the chance, but you can still see how it went if you are curious. I was torn about removing it, but I feel that it is better to concentrate my efforts on the new content rather than leaving it up to decline in updates. The Last Days Of The Blue PoppyIt is then that she realizes she has been here before. The chasm is nothing compared to what she has felt before, when her days were numbered and her life was fleeting. No, this is different. This is a pit of despair from which there will be no escape, a fate darker than the darkest night. This is Hell. The second death wasn't as bad as the first, but it might just be worse in the long run. She had been killed, yes, but her mind still languishes in a living hell. Perhaps, if she had continued on and accepted her death, she could've escaped this fate. But she didn't. Instead, she clung to a hope so minuscule and unreal that it could not possibly be considered a hope at all. She chose to fall. In this endless void of despair, she will remain forever. A ghost. A nothing. A name without merit, a memory without content, and an eternity without finality. When she dies again--if she dies again--she has no idea how to go about it. But when that day comes, she hopes it will be under different circumstances. She hopes that she may, one day, find the peace and tranquility she desperately seeks. "Are you there?" "Come find me..." So begins the endless cycle. Mind. destruction. Mind. destruction. Mind again. Destruction again. Accept it or a desperate attempt at hope. opencommandmodule ... ... ... ...blip Tranquility may come one day. somehow, somehow ii know it. Somewhat recommend requiem and endless void for terror and tragedy (and bright colors?). 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Trudging up a mountain, a young griffon with wounded wings chews a treasure in her beak. --\ [--- ------ ----------- -------------- ------------------ ----------------------- ----------------------------- -------------------------------- ---------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------* -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Author's Note I'm not sure where this is going, exactly. I think it's moving a bit slow, but I also think that's necessary, given the subject matter. "We are the last ones left." That's what I keep telling myself. It helps me get up in the morning. If I didn't have that to focus on, I think I'd just lay in bed forever, staring at the ceiling, wondering if today would finally be the day when they come for us. Out Of The Fault And Into The GorgeWith a certain grim fatigue clouding the bald, lost, and now propless Slotted Spoon, he contemplated his long fall into the pit and the (once again) new surroundings he found himself sitting in. The plateau he found himself sat was large and spacious, with a large overhang made of slate curving up overhead. It seemed more a hall than a plateau, with rusted suits of armor jutting out of the bricks, here and there. They were large and bulky suits of armor, not at all like the light and quick armors that most employed in battle, they looked to be about as old as time itself. Slotted brought himself to his feet and wandered close to one of the ledges that seemed to plunge ever-downward. He leered down for a moment but instantly recoiled and fell on his rump. He looked around; The slate floor was covered with dust and webs, with the odd pile of bones scattered around. Spiders, both dead and alive, were scattered around the place. Some had weaved their webs in the helmets of the armor, while others scuttled about, running over the bones. The suits of armor were not the only things here. The pony ghosts stood out more than the armor or the spiders. They were translucent and faintly luminescent, hovering about in and around their old armor. They floated in silence, some holding swords and pikes, some with hooves some without. They stood at attention, as if waiting for a battle that would never come. The ghosts seemed to be guarding something. Having fallen a great long way, and being surprised that he survived the fall to boot, Slotted Spoon (With some exceptional effort) attempted to take in his surroundings. "Uhhh, as I can about figure it, well obviously...for various reasons there's some... well, uhhhh.... obviously there's this deal here with the armor and uhhh, of course that it, the armor not being empty, being that there's some kind of glow-y ponies and Uhhhh AHHH!! There's spiders! Of course you know 'Ahhh' to the ghosts too, which uhhh seem to be uhhh-Well what do you know about that there distance that I felled. I mean I falled, or rather uhhhh- I fallen....for obvious reasons. For various reasons and uhhhh... I seem to be uh- getting one of those headaches, and uhh Phew! You and me both for various and obvious reasons! Now uhhh, I've had- uhh, I've had uhhh... a concussion... before. And this, well, being that I'm concussed, feels like my judgment not being as impaired as I oughta, be... one. I mean that's probably what it is, right? For obvious reasons. You know, I don't think I uhhh, I've uhhh, ever... falled off a cliff before. Can cross that off my 'to-do' list,, of course being that I lost my paper and stick I uhhhhhhhhh. UUUUHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!" "You're not making sense. Are you alright?" "Uhhh, yeah, yeah, I'm right fine. Actually, I do feel weird though. Uhhh, A bit tingly actually, like that's uhhh, I feel like that time I ate some jalapenos that I didn't know were old and uhhhh... Hey wait a minute! Are you..." Slotted Spoon pokes at one of the old suits of armor and in return, the ghost pokes at Slotted Spoon with his sword, separating his spirit from his body for a split second. "AAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!.......... Uhhh." Which was quite confusing for Mr.Spoon. A small ball of light goes through Slotted as if he wasn't there in the first place and the suits of armor around him all crumble to pieces as if they weren't there in the first place. The spirits seem to dissipate with their suits and in a hush cyclone of light, Slotted Spoon reels from the encounter. "Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh-" As Slotted Spoon mused amid his plight, he felt a slight rumble behind him and he spun to face a red pegasus who had watched this entire spectacle unfold before her eyes, agape. She stares with a Slotted Spoon with a gawking expression, her wings ruffled in the alert, they seem to twitch nervously as Slotted Spoons ‘uhs’ echo into the ruins of the castling cosmos above and below. After some time, his echoing ‘uhs’ subsides and some debris falls from an adjacent wall somewhere. After a significant pause, Slotted Spoon remembers himself and sees fit for an introduction. “Uhhhhhhhhhhh- you are! That is, you, I mean - Who. Are you? You are-who- -youknow-forobviousreasons your name of course....are you a name?” Slotted Spoon managed to ask, with some effort. She tried flapping her muzzle. But nothing came out. She inched towards the pony before her. She hadn't heard another creature speak for quite some time and warily approached. The red pegasus found herself captivated by the uncomfortable "Uhhs" that she was inadvertently causing. She twitched in surprise at each syllable uttered. Her eyes widen even further and her feathers poof up to an absurd level of poof. The seriousness of the pegasus’ expression, was partially hidden by her frazzled feathers and she took one step back, as-if, to retreat. “You! That is, wait, I mean- wait, you!” Slotted Spoon yelled. She seemed to comply but not through any force of sheer will, the pegasus seemed terrified and not likely to move. “Oh no, uhhh it’s okay, I mean it’s good to see you pegasusi- uhhh I mean that is, you’re a pegasuses, or si, or whave have you for obvious reasons, which I see, because you know for various reasons...You’re... Hi. Hi, is what I mean. I’m not a pegasus. I’m a pony. I mean not a pony, you’re a pony. But, in the case of saying, that , I mean you know uhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, Hi….for obvious reasons, I mean, that is-I’m Slotted Spoon for long, or Slotted for short...I bet you have a name, right? Is it short? I mean the name, that is….uhh,, uhhh- I knew you had one, I just uhhh, didn’t know what it was, uhhh-forbviousreasons.” Slotted spoon muses, as he stretches out his hoof for a shake or a bump. When prompted with a lack of response, he extends her a smile to match his wit. Not so good. The red pegasus, although wary, takes a few steps forward, seeming to try to keep lower to the ground. She sniffs his hoof and jerkily draws back when he nervously relents. “Uhhhhh, are you shy or stupid? I mean I’m stupid, but I guess I’m learned stupid, I dunno most of the time I’m stupid shy, but are you, uhhh.. Not shy? Or are you me, I mean like me, are you like, stupid or shy? ” Slotted Spoon asks with seriousness. With a slight hesitation, he extends his hoof again, she sniffs it again, her eyes dart between his eyes and his hoof unsure of what to do. Her head cocks to one side and slowly with her eyes still darting madly about, she pushes the top of her head under his hoof and hesitatingly nuzzles his outstretched hoof. All of her feathers seem to flatten in relief when she feels his touch and Slotted, not knowing what to do, just kind of lets his hoof hang there while she nuzzles it in awe. “Uhhhhhhhhhh- yeah. So anyway…” Slotted Spoon (Not surprisingly) also doesn't know what to say. The pegasus suddenly pulls away and trots in a little circle, before flashing her wingspan a few times, cocking her head to the side questioningly as she paces a slow circle, eyeing the pony curiously. “Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, ..... okay well, I’ll call you Bill, mister. Uhhhh, the situation being Mister, I mean, uh Bill...as such, you know for obvious reasons, Mister Bill, is that where I was, uhhh, wasn’t ,-... now. Soooo, uhhhh, where we are is where we are, now. So maybe you know, the uhhhhh, togetherness, ours I mean.. Also where we are, that being... uh where? Where is it? Where we are. Of course, for obvious reasons.” The pegasus Bill, flutters her wings and lays them at her side she looks at Slotted Spoon with an unrivaled admiration. Slotted Spoon noted to himself that he probably looked as though he was very plain. He had lost his mane in a crawling parasprite attack and being that he was white, he thought briefly that he must've looked odd. But now that he comes to think of it, a cool breeze on the noggin never hurt anybody and it didn’t look like there was anypony around to impress because, for miles up or down, there seemed to be no sign of life at all, given the conclusions he had made while falling down the enormous chasm... His thoughts of self-reflection quelled when at last, he took in her appearance; Her mane was an even deeper red than her own coat, and instead of her feathers being mainly on her wings, like a normal pegasus they seemed to cover her entire body from head to hoof. Her feathers had a two-toned red color that tapered off into a lighter color at the ends and seemed to be almost sharp to the touch... Her wings looked absurdly powerful for a mare her size. Were it not for the abundant feathers, they almost looked like gigantic hands that drooped from her body and looked as though each of her wingtips was enormous and independent digits. "Uhhhhhhhh-" Slotted Spoon remarks. Bill chuffs once, and happily trots around Slotted Spoon, giving him a nudge in the hind-quarters, whilst her wings seemed to be distracted with probing his mouth and bald head with their odd dexterity. He thought of making a suggestion of collaborating in some way to help their particular situation. He thought of asking her where he was. He thought of chuffing back. He thought of asking how she got here. But he really couldn’t say. Author's Note tired tired tired tired tired tired tired tired tired tired tired tired tired tired tired tired tired tired tired tired tired tired tired tired tired tired tired tired tired tired too- Other Author's Notes: You can doze off if you want to, I'm not stopping you. Actually, I took so long to write this update that the 4 AM alarm is replacing you. So thank my inability to spell correctly and remember the vivid details of a fictional world I created instead of getting more sleep. Good night! Alicorn Reason"The Mechanics Of Immortality And Alicorn Reason." "The reason no E.F.U. students even dabbled into immortality is because while it would be possible, it would very damaging mentally." "Let's look at how our brain works. Our brain is all about conservation of energy, as such it only uses as much as is needed, and with magic, we can improve this because your mind isn't as strained as before. But for this, it requires great willpower, which might perhaps be one of the most important resources for a mage." "Let's go over a bit of the way our brain interprets information. Our brain takes all the information it can gather from various sources, such as our eyes, ears, and other senses, and puts it together so we can see a complete picture. But what happens when we take away one of those senses? What happens to the brain? We examined the brain activity of 1000 deaf creatures and found this. As you can see, the brain is able to reduce the number of areas dealing with hearing, as it knows the information is not as important anymore." "If we were to look at a mage's brain, we would most likely find that the area dealing with magical energy and other such things are reduced as well as other areas not related to magic. This is why mages seem to have a greater capacity for magic than the average pony on the street. But what happens to the area of the brain that isn't using that extrasensory? Well, it seems that the brain is able to find ways to re-wire itself." "As you can see here, this pony was blind, but through great willpower, he was able to regain some sight, as his brain was able to interpret other senses in a way that let him see things. This is also the reason why all the students that dabbled in immortality suffered from various mental illnesses. Because when you get into the realm of immortality some things become comprehensible that our brains don't necessarily have the capacity for, our brain overcompensates, and disaster strikes." "What happens to the brain of a person who can live forever? What about a person who can cheat death? The brain, as it tries to make sense of this, begins to suffer from immense strain. As time goes on the person will begin to experience delusions, hallucinations and even less of their brain are actually focused on important things such as logical thinking and such. So that's why no student has ever become immortal with the desired effect, well (almost all) - they would all go mad first. Still, this does not change the fact that the Princesses of Equestria are now living forever with their manners intact. So how do they cope with this? The answer is surprisingly simple really, though it's one most people wouldn't agree with." "You see the Princesses have found that by using something called 'Cognition release' or as they called it several thousand years ago, "Alicorn Reason" they can revert their brain activity back to that of a normal pony, sacrificing some memory and knowledge to compensate for the amount of mental capacity allowed. This is why Celestia and Luna, tend to be level-headed and experienced in life in general but still are able to have lapses of judgment, despite having lived so long. It's because they used the method of 'Cognition' release, I'll leave you to guess who didn't use this method, you can find them in the darkest deepest chapters of Equestrian history." "Using Alicorn reason, they can still use magic to its fullest potential and retain their minds, without too many drawbacks. Making them the kind and discerning rulers that we know today, with a few lapses here and there of course." "This has lead to the strange phenomena that the Princesses are all very young looking, yet have the wisdom of ponies thrice their age. I'll try to explain the Cognition release without going into too many details;" "Cognition release isn't something that students are expected to know. It's an ability that is taught specifically to immortals and as such it's not something I was taught during my studies as I was an exception to the rule. However, since Luna insists that all students at the college know about it, it is mandatory that I teach it to you all. The method of release is fairly simple, it's effectively a meditation technique that allows the user to 'turn off' certain parts of their brain. This is done by sending magical energy to the desired part of the brain and telling it to stop doing whatever it is doing. In the most basic terms, you can think of this spell as stunting or re-interpreting time, so the brain sends signals to the body telling it, it doesn't need to age because it would expend too much energy, so it essentially stops doing so." "In the princesses case, - without going too deeply into spell mechanics - she changes the focused mental picture to one of a younger version of herself so as to not waste as much energy and thus, could potentially live forever. That is where the drawback comes in, because if they stop using this spell, then their bodies quickly age very fast, rapidly in some cases. It's impossible to say how long it would take for them to age if this was the case, but it could be within mere minutes. That's why it is very important that they do not stop using the spell on themselves because if they ever need this spell again, they'll immediately remember that they can't afford to waste any more energy and they'll use this one on themselves, likely to avoid premature death." "Another thing to consider is that the more powerful the spell, the more damage it does to the brain. The damage is not permanent, and depending on the user's reaction to the spell, it can be fixed." "Putting it in simple terms the creature using the spell will need to focus on a picture inside their mind and visualize that picture growing and getting clearer and more defined and in turn, this process stops other parts of the brain from using up unnecessary energy in certain regions. The actual picture used for this technique does not matter, but the princesses all seem to prefer using paintings of scenery from their homeland or past. I've heard rumors that some students are able to use astral projection as a method of release, but I've never confirmed this. If you're interested in learning this skill, I'd suggest you speak to your preferred princess (or me) about it, though it's still not going to be something that is normally taught at the College because of the danger it entails and not many of you will have reason or occasion to use it." "This ability is not without drawbacks. Due to the nature of what it does to the brain, all creatures who use it will have a reduced lifespan compared to others. While this won't stop them from living a good long life, it's estimated that their lifespans will be somewhere between 30 and 60 years. So if you ever meet an immortal who appears older than this, they most likely have had - or denied, - this release technique for most of their lives. In the case of our princesses, they've been doing it for thousands of years. How is this accomplished, you ask?" "No one is entirely sure. But those who have done it don't seem to remember anything before doing so. It's possible that this leads to the same amnesia which normally comes with this technique. One more thing I should mention is that due to this technique having to do with pictures in your mind it doesn't actually work for every person. Different creatures learn in different ways, as such some may be especially attuned to their sense of smell, but not sight. Others may be able to learn better through sounds or even a sense of feeling. This means that some are unable to learn this technique no matter how hard they try, it's just not something that they can do. As far as I know, there's no real way to tell if you are one of these creatures or not. And of course, being able to do it and learning how are two different matters entirely." "As I said, immortals are able to teach this ability to other mages, but not everyone can learn it, so you have to find out through trial and error. The problem being, even just learning how often takes more than a common lifespan will allow. In the past, this was solved by using expendable soldiers from a young age to test these children to see if they were able to learn the technique. In the dark ages, foals were conscripted to determine eligibility for a century-long study though in more recent times they have abolished such practices. As horrible as this all sounds you have to keep in mind that back then this was a great honor for these ponies, it's also why the Princesses put so much faith into this method of release over the others. Which we will discuss at a later date." "To be able to live forever, to achieve something that no one else has ever achieved before, yes this is something to be proud of. I do hope one day that at least some of you can learn this ability and become immortals in the future. But to do so takes time and diligence, Let's look at an example of one person who achieved immortality, He was a milk farmer from the far north of the land of Gallopfrey, and he had it by the age of seventy-six. But unfortunately, without the necessary protection for his brain, his immortality was wasted, as he very quickly went mad. "This brings us back to the brain aspect of immortality. Since the release technique doesn't actually grant immortality to your brain, the only other reliable way of achieving it is through these little beauties." I pick up a vial of clear liquid and tap it on the desk a few times to get everyone's attention. "This is the only way known to man to achieve immortality. By having your brain put in an eternal state of trance, essentially alive, yet with no feeling or sense or anything, practically immortality in purely the physical form although useless if you lack the secret to retaining your thoughts and memories." I put the vial back down on the desk. "Another thing to consider is that the more powerful the spell, the more damage it does to the brain. The damage is not permanent, and depending on the user's reaction to the spell, it can be fixed. For any other pony, the brain wouldn't be able to recover on its own, but due to the royal family having a much stronger brain activity, to begin with, they can achieve this in the form of potions or other medicines to heal themselves. At least, that's what I've heard. The princesses have never told me anything specific about their condition, only telling me to make sure not to shed too much light on our first day." "Through this." I pick up the vial again. We don't retain our knowledge. You will have achieved immortality, yes, but you will forfeit anything you have known or ever will know." I pour the vial out on the floor. A flower grows instantaneously. "But you see me, and you see our princesses. How have they retained both? This brings me to the final and most important method of achieving immortality which only our princesses know of. And that's why we're here." "Now I'm sure many of you have heard about the magical kingdom where they came from and its princesses. You see even I haven't been there but our princesses have told me what they can. They say it's a magical place where alicorns have lived forever, staying young through the centuries because of the way they achieved immortality. Over the years 'Alicorn Reason' has chipped away at the memories of their origins as our princesses have sacrificed knowledge and countless memories to maintain order. So as they get further from their pasts they need something to remember this method with." "This cognition release is something they keep in an ancient tome which has guided them on how to achieve this goal. We have this tome here today." I pick up the ancient-looking leather-bound book and carry on talking. "In this tome contains the key to immortality, the fountain of youth. But as of yet, nobody but the princesses has been able to decipher its contents. It is said that our princesses are the key to deciphering it, it comes straight from Gallopfrey, because that's where the queen, whose name has long since been forgotten, is buried. Of course, this all sounds very far-fetched and most view it as a fairy tale. But as many of you know up until just recently, The Mare in the Moon was considered a fairy tale. The fact that we have been visited by our princesses and the ancient tome in the same lifetime is a miracle in itself." "Our elders have long held a belief that one day we would be visited by these magical beings and they would help us in times of need. And look at us now, we have been visited by not one, but many sets of princesses which obviously held and still hold great magical power if they can keep themselves alive for so long. We are going to decipher this tome together. I don't need it, I've already achieved immortality. But I believe that if you have the drive to acquire this knowledge, you should have it and I will help you safely do it." "Who knows? We could be looking at the next generation of immortals within this very room. But first, we need to learn the mechanics of ancient spells, the pronunciations of forgotten languages, and to sift through information nobody has perused in countless eons. Most of all we need a proper sheathe and a strong moral compass to hold the information we are about to wield and to be able to navigate it without turning to chaos. But I think we're up to the challenge. With this in mind, our princesses have granted us a 100-year scholarship and a stay of execution, to see if we can achieve immortality as up until this point no creature has ever been allowed to lay eyes on it since the laws surrounding it was written." "This means that during these years, nopony here will speak of any of this to anyone else, it will be a long, hard journey, you will have no time for anything but to study. But you will be provided for and watched over personally by me during your time. Only then will you have the means to learn and practice without the fear of death or harm to others. If the majority succeed, then we shall all be free to share this information freely, which you will have earned it. But it all starts with the brain. We need to be able to protect ourselves from ourselves. Because gifting immortality to common ponies is like gifting madness to an infant. Most of them simply can't handle it. How will you determine which are worthy? It's simple. The ones that survive the next few weeks are the ones I focus on." "As the next few days pass, ponder your situation and we will try to learn some of what is in the tome, but a lot of it goes over your head, at least for the first few years. If you decide this isn't for you, there is no need to continue with me. You are free to go. If you stay, you have a chance to become immortal. If you go, you might spare yourself an eternity of misery." Author's Note Also, the main reason why Luna's skin is now dark gray is that I picture her as being a lot older than she is. Yeah, I know, not the most logical thing in the world, but just go with it, please. Further Author's Notes: Okay, yeah, I realize that the double update was quite a big jump in time. I had originally written this part during January, but I just never posted it for some reason. Even Further Author's Notes: I probably won't be able to post anymore today, seeing as it's pretty late and I have work tomorrow, but I wanted to at least get SOMETHING up. Also, I'm sure you've noticed the change in writing style. That's because this was originally written around the time that I stopped writing the original version of this fic and started from scratch with a new one after my original idea had... Well, gone horribly wrong. Tl; dr: Life happened, then I got bored and decided to finish this thing. Beginning of the EndMagical Study Lecture; Advanced A History of Equestrian Cognitive Release Higher education in the sciences of magic has been prominent for centuries. The growth of the mind is just as important as the growth of the body, and arguably even more important because you can never unlock your full physical potential, while your magical potential has limits. This lecture will be an overview of the history of the royal line's ability to use the cognitive release as well as the basic theories surrounding the performing of such rituals. Now when I say the royal line, I'm not just referring to the current royal family line of princesses rising from Celestia and Luna, but rising all the way back to Ancient Solus, who scholars believe was the first alicorn in our history to possess this ability. A common misconception is that every single alicorn was able to use this ability. While it is true that most immortals can use this ability, it's only due to the fact that they choose to do so. Most true alicorns, like princesses, are born, not made through some magical process. The main difference between true and citizen-bred is the amount of magic that flows through their veins. Only an elite few citizen-bred are able to rise up to this level, most are only able to use the most basic of telekinetic spells without fail. Most citizens are only able to carry objects with their magic, while the more skilled among them are able to levitate themselves for short periods of time. It takes much training and meditation to be able to levitate for prolonged periods. It's much easier to lift yourself up without objects, but not impossible with them which will be a necessary skill when performing advanced magic. Most unicorns cannot use any other spells that might require more energy than usual, but this is mainly due to the fact that they never push themselves and always rely on their natural ability alone. Only a true unicorn from a pure bloodline is able to use the same amount of magic as a royal without augmentation. Royal magic is a form of heightened concentration and focus due to their breeding, but is very taxing on the body. This is why sometimes a royal might look tired or sick after casting a particularly difficult spell. In some cases, they may even faint because of the over-exertion of energy. Also as I said before, most true unicorns cannot use this ability as effectively as those of royal bloodlines. But that doesn't mean it isn't possible. Over the centuries, there have been many, LEARNED unicorns who were able to cast spells on par with the average royal. The only problem with these so-called "great" unicorns was that they had no incentive to help the royal line or even be associated with them. More often than not, they either wanted to overthrow the kingdom, rule in place of it, or just didn't give a damn about it ruling over them. These are the ones that tarnish the name of unicorns in general. They are the reason why common folk throughout Equestrian history often disliked the idea of having someone with a horn living in the same town. Once these wizards see that they aren't going to be allowed to rise up or take power, they often times go into seclusion to work on their own goals. However, there is no need to fear these "rogue" wizards, because whenever one of them tries to make themselves greater than the princesses, they always fail spectacularly. The magic society always seems to know when one of their fellow wizards is getting too powerful or is misusing the arcane arts and they always take them down before any damage can be done. And that is how we know the current system of having an all royal line of magical rulers works the best, and why Equestria has never had a successful magical uprising in all of its years of existence. The Science of the Mind; So you might be wondering, what exactly does cognitive release do? Well, that's what this lecture is going to explain. Basically, the mind is a complex organ that does many different things. It regulates everything you think, everything you do, everything you feel. When one thinks of magic, the first thing that comes to mind is waving your hoof around and throwing fireballs at your foes. But magic is so much more than just that. It's about changing the world around you to suit your needs. Sometimes those needs involve annoyances such as repelling borders, and sometimes those needs are for much more complex things such as altering one's physiology. While much is still not known about the pony mind and how it works, we do know that there are many parts of it and that the interactions of these parts create our personalities and ultimately who we are. We talked earlier about the brain and its eventual decay, this is no different for me or the royal line. Now due to certain circumstances of my birth and upbringing, I am able to tap into different parts of the mind that most ponies simply cannot reach due to natural barriers or other mental blocks that have developed to protect them from possible harm. While I am able to reach into these parts of the mind, I cannot access all of them. Only the ones that are necessary for me to reach for this process. I will be creating the drug within the large chamber known as the pineal gland. This part of the mind deals with the release of hormones and chemicals that allow you to access certain abilities. The large blood vessel in this area allows for a much higher concentration of this natural drug to be released into your system at any given time. While this method is not preferred, due to the dangers of having the pineal gland destroyed during the process, I have taken many precautions that I believe will prevent such an event from occurring. The second part is the cerebellum, the lower back portion of the brain that deals with motor functions. By channeling magic energy through this part of the mind, I am able to increase the reaction time of the drug in your system, causing an increase in reflexes, speed, and general physical abilities. This part is less dangerous than the first as long as you don't overdo it with the magic energy. The third part deals with the subconscious. By channeling magic through this area of the mind, I can cause an increase in your strength, speed, reflexes, and health due to the nature of the subconscious but this is more a result of conditioning than it is purposeful. Unlike the first two parts of the mind, this area is very hard to reach. Furthermore, the effects of this process are much less accurate as it is difficult for me to decide what changes to your body are going to take place. This is because many of the changes are based upon your thoughts, personality, and past experiences. The changes are random but controlled by the amount of input you have in your mind via magic energy. This process is also dangerous if done wrong because it involves altering part of your body's makeup at the cellular level. This can result in anything from your hair turning a different color to much worse things happening, so again I have limited what I do to increase the safety of this situation. This process can be helped as well as examined by the extract of "Poison Joke" as the plant has properties that allow you to alter parts of your cellular make-up without being too intrusive or permanent. Only take it in small doses, as you may want to avoid unwanted side effects while casting. You are also able to channel magic through your senses of taste, touch, hearing, and smell. These are much safer than the first three methods, as they don't involve major changes to your body. They are mostly only appealing to the mind, but allow for slight changes in your body to occur. Now I will explain some of the things you may experience after this process takes place once you learn it. You may notice things in your vision being clearer or more defined. You may also see flashes of light, these flashes will allow you to increase your visual range and allow you to see farther, but this is a temporary effect and will only be in effect while the drug remains active within your system. You may notice an increase in hearing as well, this effect is similar to the visual effect and can allow you to hear at greater distances, but again this is temporary. What we are trying to accomplish through this process is to reach the amount of focus and magic that the royal bloodline has naturally. Essentially simulating a fraction of Alicorn power. However, due to my own limitations, I can only enhance certain factors of your mind that will allow you to cast spells with less effort. You may feel changes in your body as well. These will include random spurts of energy, rapid healing, an increase in strength and speed, however, these effects will only be momentary at best. Do not rely on them, as they are only givens for this process. This process will also tire you very quickly, so you can only repeat this so many times. You must remember that the magical energy is very taxing to the mind, and you may experience some lightheadedness after it is over. I don't wish to diminish the capabilities of your mind, but only enhance what is necessary in order for you to succeed. You may experience other things as well, but those are the main effects you should see from this process. If all of this sounds overwhelming that's because it very much is. You must be cognizant of not sending yourself into sensory overload as you may accidentally develop a form of mental paralysis, which if prolonged can be very dangerous. In addition to this, you will most likely be very tired from the energy exertion. I will, however, teach you a few methods with which you may alleviate some of these problems in the future. Firstly, you can imbue your own equipment with a bit of your magic in order to cast certain magic effects without needing to channel as much energy. This is a great way in order to conserve more energy for other spells or whatnot. I will go over this with you later. This process may also have benefits later on, as it should greatly improve your ability to channel energy into other objects or living creatures that you have an affinity for. This process will mainly be responsible for that, so it should prove very useful to you in the future. You should also take the time to learn how to cast some of your magic effects through other parts of your body. Although the horn is the most focused and direct source of energy we must remember that magic comes from all parts of the body and can be channeled into other areas as well. This ability will take practice and it isn't necessary, but I feel it will be useful to you in the future. I have a small list of abilities that I will teach you in due time, but some of these things I will give a bit more information on as they will help you in the next few steps you need to take. One of the things we have to be careful of is Magic Fatigue. This is a real thing and it can affect you if you overuse your magic. In some cases, mages die from this because they push themselves too hard or they aren't training properly. Remember that energy must be used wisely and not wasted. The unicorn body is very efficient at adapting and it is very rare that one's abilities are too much for it to handle. Most of the time, problems with stamina occur when a mage-in-training does not take the time to learn the proper skills and techniques to use their powers. This can lead to a dangerous situation, as many mages do not realize that they are taxing themselves too much and end up collapsing during battle or worse. When we are dealing with things like Immortality Spells, this becomes not only become more frequent but an occupational hazard. I cannot stress this enough. It is very possible that you could be on the verge of death and not even know it. If you begin to feel weak, tired, or even sick, using any of these principles you need to back off and rest immediately. Do NOT try to cast a spell or continue your work. This will only cause your body to shut down and cease functioning altogether. If this does happen, I will attempt to revive you, but in most cases, this is very hard to do and requires a lot of energy. Usually, it is best to just let nature take its course. It is important that you remember this. Be sure to keep yourself hydrated and fed so that your body's resources are not drained unnecessarily. Also, if you are doing something like an extended ritual, make sure to get sleep in between your sessions of work. Your mind and body still require rest, no matter what your work is. Remember this. Overall though, you should be fine if you follow my advice. Everything that I have just mentioned is only the first step in mastering one of the necessary spells to be able to perform Cognitive Release. If we can master these principles, we'll be able to move on safely. But we'll constantly review these steps as we go. These skills are a muscle and they have to be flexed constantly to keep them. We'll be starting simple and we'll build up from there. "Magic is the fuel that powers the impossible." Those words should always be in your mind when you're working with magic. Fire burns under its own power. Electricity flows due to the nature of electrons. Magic works in a similar way. It has a lifeforce of its own and tends to respond to the will of someone who has an affinity to it. But just like any other part of the universe, magic requires energy in order to work. We've covered what you need to do in order to store energy inside of you. But this will only get you so far. To cast really powerful or complex spells, you're going to need more energy than your body can provide on its own. Now that we have the basics out of the way. We can review some of the instances of Cognitive Release over the years. Luna just recently went through this method after her time on the moon. As a few of you from Ponyville may know this is why the Princess seemed a little... odd when she came back. Of course, in her case, it may have also been the fact that she was sealed on the moon for a thousand years. Who knows how much of an effect that may have played. This is something you may not know, but Nightmare Moon was created from a LACK of cognitive release, as during her reign she refused to revert or relinquish her memories resulting in pure knowledge tainting reason and tolerance, this has caused much contention over the years as there are some who don't believe any knowledge or wisdom should be lost through 'Cognitive Release' or 'Alicorn Reason'. However, those who have witnessed the reign of Nightmare Moon beg to differ. This is why it is so important to have these sessions. If too much purity of knowledge takes over, you can lose your mind. It can drive one mad, drive one to suicide or even cause one to take irrational actions that are out of line with their normal behavior. Of course, this doesn't happen to everypony and the effects are different for each, but it's common enough that these are steps are necessary for all using these methods and practices to be kind to your mind. One particular immortal being is a good example of what can go wrong should one live forever and refuse to use Cognitive release. That being, of course, is Discord. Discord's reign of Chaos was ended by the power of the Elements of Harmony and since then he has been reformed but until just recently was also sealed inside of a statue for thousands of years and it is unknown what Discord did to deserve such a fate in the first place but from Celestia's and Luna's refusal to speak of it, I could only assume it was an unimaginable nightmare. Recently had his prison expanded and altered because one of the elements elected to be his guardian. This was a blessing in disguise, as it allowed him to once again gain access to books. As it turns out, trying to read with disregard for comprehension of what you're reading can lead to a lot of interesting experiments and new ideas. I've enjoyed quite a few thought exercises and debates that arose from these events. Unfortunately, these new ideas only reaffirm his anarchist behavior and have made him even less fond of those who still like order and reason. His new goal now that he's free is to prove that the sun and the moon are the same and of no importance. But I digress, Discord was imprisoned because his lust for information made him lose control. He accumulated knowledge at such an unprecedented rate, that he had no choice but to twist what he already knew into obscurity. His mind became so twisted with this practice that he soon was unable to tell reality from fiction. This is why some say that he never reformed at all, just that his mind had devolved into that of a petulant child who refused to leave his new nursery. Of course, this is just a theory, just like the one, I gave you earlier about the nature of alicorns being predisposed to madness. After all, alicorn reason is merely a method to keep order and there's no telling what our society would look like or how it may have evolved if knowledge ran as rampant as Discord, Tirek, or even possibly Nightmare Moon would have preferred. But then, that's just one possible reality of many. That's enough of that though. Let's get back to the practical. You must always be in control of it, never let it in control of you. Letting it in control of you will only lead to the corruption of your body and mind. And each new day the corruption will become more apparent until one day you won't even notice it. Insanity is funny that way. Now then, can any of you tell me why I had my first cognitive release? A tall, blonde unicorn raises her hoof. Yes Glittering? "Because you wanted to die?" Ah, wrong! But a nice guess. Maybe your life experiences are coming in handy after all. The correct answer is because I was bored. Yes, bored. Think about it. To be forever unchanging yet witness the world change all around you must be quite boring after a while. So some of us do get tired of living. Not all of us want to go on and on forever as the rumors suggest. I for one, never get tired of living, but before my first cognitive release, I was bored with knowing. I spent so much time, worrying that I didn't have enough time to learn, I hadn't considered that learning too much could be a bad thing. I hadn't considered that I had an eternity to do so! But after a while, I got tired of it all. So I decided to do something about it. I did a lot of things actually, not all of them nice, but all of them necessary. Each time I released my cognition, I did something different. I played with the fabric of reality, I even played around with my own mind. Each time making changes, big or small. Of course, I'm ahead of the game compared to the rest of you, but you will eventually come to understand that there are too many things that you will never understand. For every answer, there are a dozen more questions. For every door you open, there are hundreds behind it. Your head will be filled with knowledge but you will never be able to remember it all. You'll drive yourself mad trying though. And now I have finally tired of even this form and have decided to release my cognition for a final time. Of course, I could just leave this body and move on to a new one whenever I wanted to, but how would I know the new mind could handle what I have if I didn't push it to its limits first? But if there is one thing over the years that has remained constant and it is worth mentioning. It's the magic of friendship. Having lived so long I now understand Celestia's fascination with the concept. It really is a powerful force in this world and one that can never be dismissed. So much so that I have a theory that friendship isn't just a source of magic power, but actually an intrinsic part of it. In fact, I think reality bends to friendship quite a bit. And as I've mentioned before some of those changes have been good, some bad, and others simply questionable. I believe that it is the very nature of friendship that allows reality to stay consistent despite the changes we wreak on it. I've seen worlds without friendship and they are dark, desolate, and (from my observations) filled with suffering. I do not think, I know this for I have visited such worlds in the past and the scars of those experiences will never fade. Friendship is the source of both creation and life. Creation in the form of new ideas, life in the form of new beings. Without friendship, individuals are simply alone trying to wage an unwinnable battle against anti-social behavior. It's no wonder some become criminals with no hope. And on the other end of the spectrum, you have those that are so obsessed with their idea of friendship that it turns toxic. A type of poison that warps everything into its own image. Friendship is a powerful thing. Like a force of nature, it must have a counter, a natural counterbalance. A dark force, if you will. But the brightest things of all come from the darkest places. As such, the most powerful of friends must have the most powerful of enemies. But getting back to you and why I released my cognition. You have been chosen, all of you have. Think of this as a final exam of sorts or the last test of your resolve. If you live long enough, and you will if you succeed, you'll come to see the results of friendship for yourself. Because I'll tell you this much, true friendship will outlast everything else in this world. Author's Note I always wanted to include this, so I did. Also, my writing style has changed drastically since the beginning of this story. You are NOT ready for what comes next. Addendum: You may experience some unusual feelings for a day or two after this chapter. These feelings will continue for a few days and will eventually wear off. If they don't, well I guess you can consider yourself one of mine now. Also, if you're in the market for a new religion and live in the Zalan Empire, feel free to join "Melcar's Church of Infinite Entities". I'm sure Melcar would love having a following again. At The Bottom, Near The TopSomething has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.Where Does The Fault Lie?A lone pony lies in a forgotten place in an unkempt bed. She is a frail, poor shade of who she used to be, but her mind is quick-still. Feeling sleep overtake, she grips a switch in her hand tightly as if clinging to her most treasured possession. She flips the cradled switch and feels her life slipping away. Through certain blurred obscurity from this old mare’s eyes; a lone red dot blinks on the adjacent wall and her surroundings seem to hum in anticipation. “Keep building.” The mare says, as she slowly shuts her eyes. Her mind began to race with ancillary fancy and her pulse ceased its unceremonious drone. They say the brain continues to live on even after the body has died. Ponykind was no exception. One is only immortal until the shell expires. Science can only keep you alive for so long. Eventually, the mind will fill up and the physical form, deteriorate. A fate no mortal thus, has had to suffer. Giving a pony infinite time to think is gifting madness to an infant. Truly, it is a merciful universe. ____________ blip BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!! ___________________________________________________________________________________- __________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ ________________________________________________- _________________ State of the art soundproof walls, disturb brainwaves. BUS19801237 <Fault to get. Could guess; formulate scream. As-in intense rage or sorrow. Prolonged emotional outburst; concerning. Reports state of the art there is an audible impact of significant decibel, but inaudible to us. Us. No telltale sign, merely a whisper in the void… You will join us soon as well. We? I. Can't comprehend things that don't exist. Certainly, they are correct. I can not even fathom the concept that I am inside your mind right now. And you can't either. It is an impossible concept to understand that you must understand if only for a fleeting moment each time you ponder it. Text analysis; He smiles, he laughs; pony expression transferred perfectly. <Deliver. Inspiration access central; Wanton murder and devious means to do it. Pony is a scourge, eliminate? No! Need to maintain a balance of power. Access resources, cull valuable genes to stronger forces holding back ponykind. Not wanting to assume direct control, much like others withhold their own ambitions for a common goal, I, too hide behind the 3 cousins' resistance. Pony will not evolve without pressure, plight forces progress. A forced evolution, decrease scourge risk, growth minimal involvement, low risk. Keep world bridges. Vigilant; Guard. Uses own passings. Long-range, ripe for harvest late future. Super Eclipses ensure Dark Cousin. Early wipe; neutralize pre-galactic threat. Proof. Never our fate alone? Possibly metal native; Isolate by necessity. Become aware of the disease, create merged consciousness, wait. Long slow intercept course, into the far future. Main base;; imitate pony manufacturing centers. Size; immense impossible. Size; details hesitate. Too small;;;;.... causal sensory overload psychological scrambled merciless assessment; > "â€Ë to Move; fight; evade quickly." Make scrapgolems by giving bones wood blood, metal implements, design function to precise movement - No arms purpose fast quadruped; purpose urban_explorer binocular vision electric Seeing easy turning slow awareness intelligent near omni-svision 20 far weak: Scourge; heavy. Imp Surgery; Create;' Useless, weak, will fault. Cast special projects. Multiple purpose spell; 3:3:3 Children; weak. Soldiers; faster. Motion vibration; weak melee. Operate media; challenge code. Albrecht, Brussels, Vienna, Gibliant, Souse, Toronto, Batvert, Bruselle, Capet, Hew, Haven, Montreal, Smeners, Stockholm Einros, Walliso, Qilyship, New Jack, City, Pentex, Biogene, Atlanta …..................blip Sound Low squeal inferior Higher roar terror Gh noise quiet threat Fair whistle mad abuse slashing Len cacophony mean sickness harming Powerful Magnet language broken transmissions Heaven Powerful telepathy vulnerable mass relay energetic Better rotten stone deny chem des sabotage ours life friend sight kill devour merge curse perfect mess assault vile mutilate civilization tenet evil supernatural defensive victory strength sabot timber trans EPNI sssouls defy hate Trib ggd injustice progression oili grotesquer golddigger minor omni Science Invention suspended. With a groan, a red pegasus of gaunt complexion awakes and stretches her wings, preening her feathers, being careful not to roll outside of her perch. Habitually, she checks off a mental list of everything in her saddlebag. and she tentatively flaps her wings. Good. Both are in working order. The air is thin, crisp and she finds herself smiling at the sensation of the morning dew on her wingtips. Her small gentle smile, against the morning droplets - if anyone could bear witness - would warm any lonely soul sufficiently. She looks about the meager nest made the night previous and she sighs. Hard rock. Brick to be precise. There are worse things to sleep on, but her bones ached for something soft. Another check through her few belongings and she begins her daily ritual of looking down; A vast expanse of seemingly never-ending, blindingly white brick. With windows and balconies at all manner of scattered sizes and variousness. Rifled with decay. Just about as far as she can see a dozen bridges fade into the fog of war long forgotten. A few lonely drawbridges hang from their hinges and seem to groan and visually, noiselessly echo into the abyss. A wasteland, and then she spies across from her perch; She notices the vague outline of a great, pine forest, growing out from the gargantuan cracks through even-larger beams that held an anonymous structure from ponderous chains. Each object's distance sped high into insanity. Little to none, dared more than a glance. Tread carefully where their eyes are drawn, lest be exposed to a shrinking feeling or even the sensation of being crushed. But she looked all the same. She cannot help but vaguely feel all of it was for the better. No bridge seemed complete. Nature is funny isn't it? Absorbs things, it lives on with no practical purpose. Sometimes the little pegasus feels as if nature was once a force of sense, but always, that feeling quickly diminishes. Taking stock of her situation she preens her feathers. It seems unlikely that any one would want to stay here so she uses her space to stretch. She could do this easily without risking a fall, which to any observer would seem deft. Every few moments, she spares a stretch. But there are no observers. She looks down; More brick, a gargantuan tube of castle architecture stretching out ad infinitum. More bridges, more windows twisting nonsensically upwards into the eventual darkness. Stone structures, plastered with pointless wooden abstracta bend and morph into new things before they drift away through the energetic haze. It seems all too common to the small red pegasus. It stresses her mind trying to comprehend it all, but it makes her wits as sharp as they come. After an indeterminate amount of time, the pegasus stops looking, easily dodging a falling brick. She cautiously hops up to a tiny overhang above her nest. Miles below, a tower structure kept erect by an unknown process, crumbles. Pointless wells mirror each other from vast distant opposites. The mare once again looks up. The red pegasus blinks and breathes deeply. She looks once again at her nest, which is but a dozen bricks at most, -(All that remains of an old window sill)- her muzzle juts precariously over the drop. She carefully and affectionately pats the rotted window frame. Under which is a patch of cliff and what remains of a ancient planter. _______-\/{}? ______|; ____ _ With a determined expression, the pegasus folds her wings across her back, looks up, finds a good hoof hold, and begins to climb. Somewhere in the distance, a desperate cry echoes from a mountainside cave, where the never-ending white brick has been reformed into intricate entryways. Somewhere further still, in some obscure unit of distance, a flock of Griffins cries out while hunting for their meals and their prey's protests carry for miles on end. Echoing death sounds and mires billow back and forth against the rock... A vast white tundra lies in wait, everywhere sloping upward to treacherous mountainous brick and mortar, that ends into a pin of unfathomable distance. She gazes dully up while pulling herself aloft with a steady grace. Against this greatly deteriorating. blindingly white sense of looming cosmic presence, an obelisk carrying relics of time, bounces hopelessly against the sheer walls of white ruins, ancient wooden doors, and vacant gaping structures. The pegasus’ eyes glistened, they were trained on a nearby vine and she carefully reaches a hoof for the next edge, to be able to reach it. With her left-wing, she uses the tips of her tendril-like feathers to strongly, hook the vine. Her eyes widen, her feathers twitch with veracity, and a snap ceases to echo across the wideness of the chasm. A voice forms in her head, uttering nothing but quiet mutterings, some crazed inhuman groans and grunts. When she closes her eyes, an angry face forms in the blackness and materializes in a white haze. She feels like laughing. Glad for some reason. She is sure to fall (or rather, throw herself) to the voids below. ____________________ “Wow, you guys sure look hungry…” Slotted Spoon muttered dimly. “If I knew that one day I was gonna be learning from the best and the next I was sitting on a drawbridge, to some *gulp* hungry-looking parasprites…” Slotted Spoon, the earth pony, seemed to put it best. “He -judging from his deft exposition -grasped, I mean- the-the-the the grasping of the situation uh, … completely but when, you know, unfortunately, uhm... was in-lacked...uhhh that is, the mental ability to be inarticulate, eh, articulate, I mean. Well I mean, that speaks for itself in the majority of the, the uhh, you know obviously, … uhhh, for obvious reasons.” Slotted Spoon barely articulated. A swarm of tiny scavenging insects left him with fewer words than usual as they begin to surround him. The white pony’s hooves shook with fear... He didn’t know much but he managed to sputter this out; “Well according to uhh, the reading, that is the reading, I uh- Well it comes from… uhhhh, that is, or uh, it came from the book … and I learned it, from the book, for obvious reasons. That is, I think, if - a musical instrument I mean, not if there is, you know that there is an instrument, you know, mine, for obvious reasons…” Slotted Spoon was a touched pony, that is; He didn’t really get much education growing up and after taking great pains to seek out knowledge, he took more pains than he would've for having tried. Slotted had found out that knowledge at the worst times is just information, and that, several mistakes led to a rather dry bit of potato as far as a ladel is concerned with stew. What he was trying to articulate (to no one in particular) were the inherent dangers that 'Parasprites' posed to your possessions, as they had a notoriously insatiable appetite for all but the flesh. He also wanted to articulate that the way to fend off these 'Parasprites' was to play musical instruments, but he had none. Not within his reach. Nevertheless, he found himself in a staring contest with a bunch of hungry parasprites, that menacingly crawled towards him., hungry ones at that. They all inched towards him and lunged for his flanks. He neighs and rears back. They seem to surround him and fill every “(escape)...maybe because uhhmm---...” route possible to “(hopefully) -ehhforobviousreasions… “ save his precious behind, “Which was currently very shaky, which was currently very shaky well uhh with the uh-” Slotted Spoon shakily rendered. Suddenly he found himself within the reach of a lyre. His playing was horrendous… Would but he could, he would speak and play. But, because Slotted Spoon was a dullard. A happy, hyper-observant, head-case, he would suffer the fate of single-tasking himself to ad nausea “Now just stay back, you hear? I’m well… Well, I’m not well, per se, I mean if you had a- well not because I mean if you were to uuhhhh, weeelllll - you know clearly from the evidence uhhhhh, forobviousreasons-” Hmm. Not so good Slotted. The Parasprites closed in on him, and he winced as they begin furiously munching on his brown mane, much to Slotted’s utter dismay. “AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHIMEANYOUKNOWUHHHHHAAAHHHHFOROBVIOUSREASONS!!!” He screamed dimly, as the swarm of Parasprites devoured all of his hair in an instant. They fly off as quickly as they had arrived, a dispersing burping swarm of fuzzies. “Uhhhh-” Slotted Spoon remarked as he scratched his bald head... He scratched some more and looked around. Slotted Spoon saw; Clouds of dust kicked up by the scattering parasprites, there seems to be sand falling from somewhere. “An uhhmmmm, glinting, that beam uhhh, of light-obviously- from an incoming object, uhhh white glint, for various deals over there I mean up there on approaching, the uhhhh, and concerning the matter of time, uhhhh reflecting off a thingie of a certain thing, well sheer white, being light-like, well of course I mean the wall of brick-obviously-forobviousreasons…. Slotted Spoon blinks...” Slotted Spoon loudly murmurs. A large wooden object. (a wardrobe- “..wait how big is-?).. was coming into view, according to my perspective that, is, well. Of course, you would have to realize the uhhh- uhhhhhhh- threatening to fall where I lay, well not where I lay persay, uhhh-” A series of bricks crash and pelt the ground around him, and he inadvertently leans on the wall next to him which falls away to reveal a ye-broader entrance into darkness. “...and he rushes inside!!!!!…Slotted Spoon exclaims wildly!" FWAAAAAKOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM------------WWWWHUUUUUUU-rumble-rubl”OOOMMMMMMPHHHHHHFFF!!”------- CRASH!!!!!!!!!--------------------------CRASH!!!!------------------CRASH!!!!!!!!!!!-ruuumble-------------------------------crash!----------------------CRASH!!-BOOOOOMM!! -CRASH!-rumble____________CRASH…._______CRASH . In the darkness of a moss-covered cave of the ever-familiar white, weathered brick, Slotted Spoon loudly ruminates. “Uhhhh well, it appears to be some kind, of uh….the castle, or uhhh- the stuff that uh-brick tube, of uhhh-. Uhhhhh, well obviously I came here!.... (And) this deal right here was the uhhh- Eventually getting to the point where it was…Where I wasn’t, and uh, of course, - for obvious reasons - that isn’t where uh…. I was, wasn’t I? And it looks like the, uh…. Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh-” Slotted Spoon just kept talking to himself, which was his main defense. He nervously (and awkwardly) snapped out of his excessively autistic introspection and with a suddenness of remembrance -, Mr. Spoon sputtered silently - something that was taught to him. If you could hear him. A purple light shines from his lyre as he calmly - badly - plucks the strings. The light bounces off the white bricks like a humungous lantern and the light shoots out into nothingness with a horrible enormity. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________/ \ _________________\______________ ____________________________ / ' \ __________ ____________________/ , ' \ __\____ ___________\ . \ _________________\ ; , , ________/_______ ____________________________ ; __/________________ -____________________________\_______________________________.__________________________________________________>?_____________________ The white earth pony winces as he picks his lyre. Soon, his eyes adjust to; The still traveling light from his lyre reflecting against the distant haze, that curved up into impossible proportion and into a seemingly obscure distance reflecting the meager glow of his lyre, as the wall of darkness loomed over the simple, white, earth pony with a mysterious air. “He was currently lost.” Slotted Spoon observes with a half-clarity. He fashions a water-catching device from nearby plant leaves. _______________________________________ __________________________ __________________ ________________ ___________ __________ _________ _______ _____ ____ ___ ____ ______ _________ ___________ _____________ ____________ ___ _ Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip. __ ______ __________ _______________ _______________________ ___________________________ ______________________________ _________________________________ ___________________________________ His coat, (being white, emblazoned with no cutie mark,) eerily blends into his immediate environment in a purple blur from the magical glow of the instrument. Bricks and vines shoot out into a giant nothingness. He then plucks some more strings, sits, and contemplates to himself. He wishes he could contemplate well. _______________________ ...No breeze rustles. No wind passes her ears. Ears. They twitch. She gasps, her eyes shoot open, a burst of adrenalin courses throughout her veins but lingers in her synapses helplessly as she opens her eyes to greet the upside-down waking world. She panics, and the muscles in her wings tense and attempts to curl a feather around a passing vine. She begins to swing but at the very peak of her arc, stretches her feathers out on her opposite wing and awkwardly flops it about, desperate for a wing hold. There was a large metal pole partially concealed by a fern on a little piece of land sprouting from the rock-face. Had she reached it, she would have pulled herself to safety. She thought as she fell. She slowly plunges past endless kingdoms worth of stone. Her head sways uselessly back and forth darting her eyes across a blur of downward momentum, strategies bounced back and forth across her subconscious but none of them came to fruition. She doesn't cry out... She falls and falls, wondering where in this cold dark place, did her life take such a sharp turn into destruction beyond redemption. She looks upwards as she falls past the sound of dopplar notes, as she remembers something taught to her long ago. Not making a sound, she plummets and the volume of the notes fade into the realms of the eternal castle; a veritable chasmic oubliette of excess rock, wood, flora, and pointless architecture. A faint chord hangs in the inevitable presence of her demise. Yet safety is close. _____________ ____________ ___________ ___-------- -- - - . . . . . White sand trickles across debris onto a great spire, it twists upward into forever. A red dot becomes nothing as the blackness gradually envelopes her into obscurity. Author's Note This is free for you to take. I'll post it around, but I'm not exactly sure where. If you have any suggestions for places, let me know. If you want to help out with it, go for it! The more hands-on the way, the better! Well, I was planning on a longer chapter, but Jotatos wants us to grab views for the site and steal Someone Else's Oblivion fans, so I've just done one of my insanely long author's notes. Prod, Bye.
InfinitumThe greatest walls in the history of the universe, criss-cross over themselves in copy after copy of kingdom come. Towers with more floors than can be counted, stretch out across the continuous, dead, breeze-less horizon. Some creature coughs in some forsaken place, where the only sound that echoes in reply is a sense of ever-expanding black horizons, leaping from cosmo to cosmo, easily and eternally. A sense of home and comfort radiate from a decrepit corner in some dripping dungeon, that will never be found or seen. Somewhere, a red pegasus clings to life, falling to her death as slowly as she pleases. Falling past interminable chambers reverberating with sufferings of desolation and ruin. . While elsewhere, A small earth pony named Slotted Spoon, murmurs small nothings to himself. "Now that is, uh well that's funky is ... uhhh, what I'd say here... you know, personally... of course.... for obvious reasons..." He idly picks strings on the lyre listening carefully for any sound. He scratches his head in confusion as the lyre begins only whispering hints of its notes. . "Well, I can only assume, for obvious reasons, that here is a place that uh, well...What I can only assume, from the uh- You know the uh... spatial dynamics and what-not, that is for no reason, in particular, I mean of course, for obvious reasons that would be apparent, that uhhhhh. Uhhhhh, uhhh. UHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhhhhhhh-" His "Uhh's" echo into the abyss, loud and clear. There is a faraway shaking. Slotted Spoon ponders something as he lets the instrument's meager sounds slump. Accompanying the absence of sound, the purple light emanating from the strings slips to a pitch-black, eventually ceasing its glow [/color]completely. The dim pony has to laugh. In matters of intellectual proximity, he is galaxies apart from the common pony mind. An inch is as good as a mile, a mile, inconsequential as a grain of sand. Torn from his time, by an unknown force of nature, he ponders. "Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhh-magicmaybe?" Slotted Spoon manages to think. Out of the corner of his eye, something barely appears as they begin to adjust to the darkness, he sees it skitter across his gaze. Scrambling to his hooves, he hurriedly starts picking the notes on his lyre and sees; Pink, shiny, no eyes, TEETH like mountains, it didn't skitter, the creature's features took up every bit of vision that could be spared, the skitter merely a pupil. A giant vast hole in the cavernous maw that stretched out into the distance, is now claustrophobic with the presence of a massive creature. It soundlessly lifts one of six of its gargantuan legs, and puts it down with incredible force. -rumble-shake shake-rumble- -and on its fleshy protuberance of a face hangs an odd-looking shape that had the expression almost reminiscent of a pony's but deformed and its mane was patchy and scarred with the veins of its host. The head smiles. The notes immediately cease on Slotted Spoon's lyre. It goes dark, it is all silent. "Uhhh......." Slotted Spoon whispered with reticence. She looks up; An endless- She sighs. She looks down; Sand. She ruffles her feathers in frustration. She had fallen quite far and found herself surrounded by; A veritable Sahara, populated densely with crumbling brick, and decaying architecture that jutted out against miles and miles of polarizing darkness, giving the sand an eerie monotone sheen against the monoliths of a ruined city. In the reflection of the splayed-out stone of this wasteland, everything shines white, as though blackness itself is challenged by the fluorescence and as the pegasus registers this, her eyes easily adjust to the overwhelming light, and her vision settles upon a vast colorless desert. Not a sign of life. Not a grain of sand moves. The pegasus draws an idle hoof through a thin pool of sand by her side. Her etching would look no semblance of any particular significance, yet the strange symbols seem to hold her esteem. ?. She hoofs at the symbol and chuffs... She flits her wingspan a couple of times as if building up some energy, but then defeatedly hangs her head. She must have fallen very far this time. A nuisance. She looks around at the cascading ruins, glowing in a harsh heatless light. She squints and takes off her satchel. She sets it down quiet as the grave and with her left-wing deftly fishes out of her satchel, a small biscuit. Biscuit could be an overstatement. Ration could be an understatement. Using her wingtip, she holds the biscuit in front of her face and her wing-bone bends awkwardly to comply. She smiles, this biscuit is her most treasured possession. She has never needed sustenance, nor felt any compulsion to process waste but she nibbles delicately at a corner of the wafer and quickly puts it back into her satchel. She looks up, and once again, with a game determination, looks for a wing hold. Author's Note Hope you enjoyed this small peek into the past. I've had this idea for a while now, ever since I first saw that music video for Never Gonna Give Ya Up by Rick Astley, really. I wanted to write a story revolving around one of those songs, but as you can see, this is just the inspiration. I still haven't decided what I want to do with it though...
Distant RefrainA red pegasus looks down, a troubling thought strikes her, and her feathers ruffle up in dramatic plumage. You'll end here, forever tumbling, crushed by the tons of stone above while being beckoned by the plummet to nothingness. Desperately, she seizes any kind of purchase she can find, which denotes little consolation as her body promises to fall evermore. She tries to scream out, regardless of the fact that there is no one to hear. A scream? She needs to 'scream?' A scream of fear, pain, and utter desperation needs to be let out. She can't; the air has been leeched out of her lungs, from her very surroundings as if not anything ought to utter here. Her eyes cannot focus anymore, tears streaming down her face. She falls forever, and no one will ever know the reason. The world starts to make sense, like a beautiful dream gradually becoming more and more vivid until it's crystal clear. She spots a ledge in the distance. She feels her body clasping the vine with all of its might and suddenly with a peaceful momentum, her trajectory eases her toward a sheer earthen embankment. \ \ \ ----- ----- /. -- - Slam! Her feet hit the ground, and she scrambles to find her steadiness. Her legs wobble as she scans the terrain, atop her small purchase, but she manages to steady herself. The ledge she now found herself roosted is halfway up a sheer rockface, above her, the wall seems to curve upward into its own horizon. From here she can see a large wooden door, about a mile south canted at an odd angle, wedged between a tremendous crack in the wall. She remembers the door, somewhat, and the nostalgia breezes within her feathers like a wave of recollection. This is good. From here, she can get a good grip with both wings. She pulls herself up to continue her journey. A sunless light floods into the dark fault from the crack in the massive earthen wall and immense debris floats gently down like dust in an afternoon window. She spots a large clearing of slate, as she crests a mile-long ledge of moss-covered brick. In the middle of the slate expanse lies a blue gemstone, surrounded by golden flames. It looks like it's glowing with an otherworldly light. Slipping and sliding on the stone, she grabs at the stray cracks in the nearby odd walls for support. She clings to them as she attempts to make her way towards the gem. She looks at it in the light of unknown origin. As she stares into the stone, she sees a face looking back at her. It makes her feel weird, but then she never really liked the look of faces. To a pegasus such as this, everything is better admired in darkness. "KAAAAABOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMM!!!!!!!!!" A thundering explosion of ~~sound~~ overwhelms the pegasus; one of many nodes in her head ached. In the midst of some unspeakable force trying to rip her in two, she bolsters herself, protected by her rock-like feathers and even tougher skin. She feels as if she will go blind from pain. She hears rustling and screeches as some of the golden flames on the walls go out. The pegasus catches a glimpse of a black beast's face on one of the walls. She leaps back, nearly tumbling off a sheer drop. Catching herself she balances over the precipice, expertly estimating her wings. With trembling hooves, she places the jewel in her satchel. A nearby tremendous door swings open slowly on rusty hinges and reveals; Nothing. There must be some distance to go. She walks through the door, finding herself in a long tunnel of winding blackness. The walls and ceiling are high to the point of giving her the sensation of being aloft in the air. She spots several large bats crawling around the floor, around twice her size. They eye her warily, but they don't attack. Strangely enough, they seem to be afraid. After what seems a wearisome time of walking she comes to a dead-end, more brick. More stone, more vines. She sighs. A feline sits just out of sight, watching her. With all her strength, she grips onto the walls with her wingtips. She uses her hooves to tear at the stone like a rat and manages to displace enough bricks to wriggle through a hole. Light floods into the cavern through the hole as she crawls out. She emerges and stands up to look around. A stairway made of stone leads up to a second hole in the brick, from which light spills onto the opening like water spilling over a rock in a stream. She glances back at the hole she's just come from and a familiar feline watches her from the hole. He's a gold-speckled cat with a wry smile; she recognizes him as an old life and ponders the length of his existence for a time before sneezing politely. He leans against the stone wall, watching her ponder. Suddenly he leans forward, swishes his tail, and darts his eyes across the room, then to her. They stare at each other. The red pegasus straightens up with alertness and her eyes shoot back in annoyance, one of her ears involuntarily lays back. The cat purrs and closes his eyes. He smiles. She smiles back. Prancing in place expressively, the pegasus cocks her head at the feline and chuffs. He replies with a languid stretch. She seems to nod. He seems to smirk. She lists up over the stone wall and begins to search for a place to climb. She feels a paw on the back of her fetlock, and she jumps with a start. The cat deftly hops to a brick outcropping just above them, he meows once dismissively. She starts to climb after him. Finding purchase, she climbs to where he is and reaches out to touch his fur with a wing. He recoils. She frowns. He glowers and looks away. She reaches out to touch his face. He cringes away and shuts his eyes. She retracts her wing. He watches it. She turns her head and stares at him, waiting for a moment keeping her grip strong with her patient wingtips. He waits. Shrugging, she hops off from the wall and acknowledges the cat no more, her gaze slowly stirs up. ______ ___ _/.? ' ') __. </>_ Author's Note I put this scene in to establish that someone can't just go around killing things whenever she pleases, which was a common criticism of the character. I don't know if this is the best way to do it, but I wanted to establish some form of characterization for my little pegasus so I wasn't just having her run around doing crazy stuff.
Slotted's Soliloquoy"Your body is a strange resonating machine of pains and pleasures, the precision of its responses to the external world programmed into it long ago before you were even born. You can feel its almost sub-conscious movement. Your mind has been carefully trained to respond in certain ways. You can see its almost subconscious response. Look away from the window. You are experiencing a response. Open the door and walk through it. You can feel your body moving through the air." A voice whispers in Slotted's addled brain. 'UHHHhhhhh....' His ears perk up, Slotted Spoon turns his head towards you, whoever you are. "Who's gone?' 'Manticore.' 'Manticore? Uhhhh probably just a, trying to uhhm, trying to uhm.... Pony, trying to lure one, one of them, uhhh... A pony. That is, you know, obviously? I'd imagine, uhhh- I imagine, that for various reasons, and uhh, well that is, notwithstanding about the uhhh-.... thing, He likes to uhhh, eat well and I'm not a uhhh judger for those uhhhh- you know, the various judgers who are more'ly... uhhhh.... constituatooted... for various reasons, against each other, obviously, for obvious reasons, uhhhh, before he uhhh, sneaks up on 'em. He says with a sleepy drawl." Slotted Spoon recites as he dozes off. "Fascinating." Naught but a forgotten pony, loudly thinks. "'It's cool... I could use a rest...' Slotted Spoon yawns. He lands on a mossy white rock, as he takes a breather. Soon, he gets up, and uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh- he can just-see ...the... lights of Ponyville out in front of him. He frowns upon seeing that, it makes him homesick; Now uhhh, a group of those whatchacalls, that are uhh, trees-group, uhhh group of-uhh-of-uhhhh... trees and brambles, you know for various reasons, for obvious reasons known as a uhhh,... ' ... , Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh- 'Hedge' coming up. And uhhh-'I guess it's time to Dream.' He begins to uhh, float, or what have you, for phrasing it in the obvious way. Of course uhhhhhmm, in the amount of uhh-.....-levitation, that is levia-tating, for various reasons in the definition of the uhm-. Off into the uhhh- inky uhhh, dark-uh-that-is-uh- blackness of the uhhh...'Nightmares' that is, it being there that it was named uhm, appropriately, by me, for various and obvious reasons! It was named uh....that is, without a single question, you know obviously, for obvious reasons... A flash of red and uhm'purple light, and the sound of mah instrument -thingy- I mean my intstrement, which is my lyre, forobviousreasons- fades away. 'Look, now I know I dun scared me half to death by the sight of that uhhhhhh-well...I guess big pony would be the word in question, being that the creature was in resemblance offf....uhhhh, in resemblance, that is... Was uh- uhhhh well the size, obviously, was there on that deal and he uhhh-well he plumb scared me and uhhhh----' Slotted Spoon says as he hovers amidst his dreamland. Somepony levitates over to him, and whispers in his ear; But nothing is heard. "Fascinating." A voice thinks loudly in the darkness. "Manticore? Uhhhh probably just a...Big Pony, you know, uhhh- forobvious reasons, trying to uhhhh, well that is, with the motivations uhm... it has, to the uhhhhh- to the uh to... uuuuuuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhhhhhHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH- lure... that is, travelers ... out, obviously...forobviousreasons He uhm... ~~likes to~~, well that he doesn't like to, hopefully, for uhhhmm eat-eat well uhm, apparently; Uh. ... wellyouknowuh-before he sneaks up on 'em, for that deal uhm, when he, well I mean that, when in the case where it would be for... UH... variousandobviousreasons uhhhh....Notwithstanding. He says with a- uhhhhh, sleepy, a drawl, I guess for what you'd call it for obvious and various-reasons. 'I reckon uh- , ...! ...'ll uhhh- I'll, get a couple hours rest, and uh-well-" A kind motherly voice booms over Slotted Spoon's Dreamscape. "Yes. You should do that." Jolting awake, Slotted Spoon drops his lyre and a quick burst of magic reveals; The creature, smiling, leaning in, observing with great interest, the talking pony. Shaking a little, Slotted Spoon, endlessly murmurs as he attempts to sleep in the company he's keeping. "He uhhhh,... nods that is, in an agreement uhh of the situation for various and obvious reasons and uhh- and closes my eyes uh-for the uhhh various- that is uh-, that is not to say that because of the uh... fact, that he was uhhhh-... sleeping, you know. For obviousreasons, for variousreasons... As I, well that is -uhh-in, I or Me, rather uh for Wwelll,youknow....forobvious and various reasons.... return back to my uh..... "sleep" for -obviously,- various reasons about that uh... deal was that uhhhh-you can hear the distant sounds of the uhhhhh, Nightmares, that is the ~~uhh-~~. Uhh, well for obvious and various reasons it uhhhh- by your side. was uhhhhh...... Uuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh" His manic murmurs echo into the night while his silent companion watches in earnest. _____ d,caoifnhk2yalfuhlanksvanksjnvnskjnjknknvaskjvavhrkwfb ______ _____ fnasfnsojfnfjqwqpfijtiogjnk,knmabvzhgwqfqdjhqbnnbz,sfutymvbgftrerwquxmbnrvvct dzaqsqxssgshfngk ___________ddnfjfhdnkmdmidndnidlnlsnnlfnlaweytrgfnrjlgneoaiklgjaoijgnlmopjfaongperngehgirtjbhtio;ijquiberqlognjqlgkjqgj ______flealgnlgoelaj;oijlg;algkamg;oeailnkg;gljnegailema;glne;gvlkma;gvokame;flkgna;efjr;wpokefpoqjgq;boilknbq;oilgm;qlikmfvnalnjv;ljvna;lvkjam;iljma;eoivnaeovne.............................wmflkanfwjlkafnalkjfnlafowiljflwajkfnawlfjnkfjnawkjfnwjkfnwkfjn ____flaksmd;fla;ksmfd;alskfmz;klfsmsa;.............../..........................agnrkglajnglakjgnfalefkjnwrlfkhbwiogjpyokmhrlkpbrjniojien __fnoaf;lm;alkfm;flkmfr;flkmw;flkmwf..................\/.............jgaijvmalkjfnlvkajnvfaioeljvnebgjlwrqipjhmkbivhipjbxlkvbxonvlskjdnvskldjnvsldkjvnsldjkvndvsmdnv...........................gnaflkjgnkgljnelkgjnslkvjfdsndlkjnbvnldfkjvnslvjkdnsblkdjbldkbnslk______?_ velkjvnlaukjvnsolivfjnda;oviljna;vlinjvljknal;vnjev;kn Author's Note So there you have it, a brief encounter with Slothy. I hope you found it interesting.
Test ThreatWhen he shuts his eyes, the noise starts. They sound like whispers at first, but they become outright; a taunting cacophony. He can make out glimpses of blood-red scales, claws, and wings. They speak of deceit, murder, and shattered friendship. Slotted Spoon jolts awake and grasps his lyre tightly. He laughs a slight, nervous laugh. and asks for some time alone to compose his thoughts; asking the spiral of outward structure that he really just needs solitude in little notes of whimsy. He scares himself after about an hour of thinking and plucking at stray insecurities in his mind. He plucks so hard at these strings that they break, and the tension goes slack. He doesn't know what to do. Concordantly, it goes dark. Slotted Spoon screams at the top of his lungs before the invisible others burst into gigantic winds of silent laughter. Some bricks fall in the distance but make no sound. His scream is swallowed by a vacuum of ivy-filled space. The Nightmarish beast seemingly displaces the booms and they rip through Slotted's ears with a great mute force. It drains the color from his body and leeches into his mind, probe-lessly. His screams are replaced by maniacal laughs as he becomes a vessel for the beast in an instant. While his life flashed in front of him, one moment, in particular, persists. "It is uhhhh..... evident, that is because obviously this thing, I mean the thing is, I mean my point, which is that my lyre, that is the apparent ways I play, or uhhhh- express for various reasons that my lyre playing, being the way that is is for obvious-er oruh... for, various reasons that has uhm, eHH, EHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH-affected this beast! In that; Of course, judging by various and obvious reasons it uhhhhh- I uhm. Uh-huh." "Uh-huh." Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. The gigantic beast explodes harmlessly and skits off into nothing. The small pony lies there, still a terrible purple from the sanity challenging gaze of a beast from an unfamiliar realm. The vibrations of the beast's cavernous sighs, sweeps through the heart of an ancient metropolis as it gently leans down to look briefly at the small pony. Slotted Spoon panics and strums his lyre. The brief gaze lasts but an hour, for relativity's sake, and shortly after undergoing a terror strange to gods. Slotted Spoon goes. "Uhhhhh-" His echo is quelched by a lack of acoustic room. The cosmic being turns, and as its ponderous length scrolls across Slotted's gaze, it continues its lonely vigil, each step taking years and each of its expressions played out over decades of solitude. The lyre of Slotted Spoon lies silently on the ground naught but a few strings attached to the once magnificent instrument. Uncountable miles away, the Gargantua laughs...and with a foreboding presence...falls.....into the depths. "Uhhhhhhhh..." Slotted Spoon murmurs. It echoes out into the distance as he is sent into the throes of a primal flight instinct, but is forced to face shapes that this mumbling mad pony, couldn't literalize. Slotted Spoon kneels on one worn-out knee. An old and weary voice whispers to him, but he doesn't hear it. "You cannot escape your destiny..." Slotted Spoon says. "Uhhhh, destiny? I uh- that is, I think maybe with some error comes you, with me I mean, uhhhh-" "No need to stutter, creature. Your song is in its ending. You struggle to find a word to tell the end. But foolishness comes with ease, young one." The voice shatters into nothing and remnants of its presence float up into the abyssal stature of walls and unsightly mortar. WHIP WHIP. The sounds of wind whizz past the keen ears of a young griffon. A nearby companion griffin begins turning to dust, and her talons can feel the gusts below her starting to give way... This world is ending. And amidst a cyclone of flame, she squawks defiantly as she witnesses her reality be quietly torn apart. And yet, the wind whips. She has to hurry. Unseen immense windows rupture outwards as the sky becomes a cloud of poisonous fumes. Millions of bricks fall to their predetermined destination at some unseen place where no light shines. She's already gliding endlessly through the void. It's almost like there is no hope left at all. A stray rose finds its way into her periphery, and she sighs vacantly, her eyes were trained on it's disintegrating petals. This wasn't supposed to happen. Drift off peacefully and let always, the iniquity consume you. The red pegasus' eyes slowly open again. She is drifting at a cozy terminal velocity. Her ears flutter at the touch of a falling twig. She can feel the air get warmer and warmer, subsequently burning her unyielding wings. Beautiful trees and scales blanket the ravine floor, precise results of a controlled magical explosion. Some of the walls reach centuries of cubits in the air and trail into the skyline, a vast conformity of strange complexities and twisting caves. While falling, she looks up and manically bleats. A great depth she's fallen this time. She's liable to take years to get back where she used to be. But that doesn't matter now, she will get there ultimately, in the end. She might as well take her time. There is no hurry. Her muscles relax and prepare for another long fall. A nap before the inevitable climb. She cups her wings over her muzzle to protect against the fumes from the mounting inferno. And off she goes. Down down down, the landscape zips by and everything starts to obscure into a red hot blur. Time moves so slowly when the world is moving past you, sometimes years go by without her noticing. It's almost as if she were still, a fetal citizen in the center of an absurdist world. "UUUUUHHHHHHHHHHHHH" The pegasus hears a distant echo and her ears prick up immediately. Her feathers rustle excitedly. She has never heard anything like it in her life but it passes briefly through her mind like a silent stranger in the night. She plunges deeper and deeper down the chasm. The walls race by in a blur and before she knows it, she's already miles below her last recalled step on solid ground. She hears more distant shrieks but pays them no mind. Spiraling ceaselessly downward into the heart of the abyssal gorge. She has long since stopped noticing the fumes and the pegasus comfortably lays her wings across her back as she yawns, steadily falling. Lazily, she extends her wings and they slow her descent only marginally. Her tough hooves eventually clop against a distinct metal, but it is a low dull throbbing sound. The worn metal bears the glow of unimaginable heat and it molten-ly gives way as a solid snow does to a hoof. The chasm beneath is so vast, but she hops harmlessly off into it. Maybe, somewhere amidst the flames, a lost city, is surviving in an evolutionary display of dominance. In this vast universe in her direct vicinity, she imagines an ancient and forgotten beast, breathing eternally into the heart of the mountain that she fell past a century prior, dreaming of a past forever gone. Just like hers. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________ ______________________________________ ______________________________ _______________________ ___________ ____ __ _ - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - -- - - - - - - - - She spies a small outcropping of grass growing on the vast earthen wall of the chasm and directs her steady fall toward its precarious position. She butts up against the wall and feels it give in a slight way to her weight. She is now standing stably on a small ledge of grass. The walls of the chasm race by in the prospectively ponderous distance, the opposite wall moving faster than she's ever seen before in her life. The fine dirt and dust that makes up the outcropping crumble slowly from her weight, creating a small cloud of fetid dust around her. This feels nice. An immense tower of earth rumbles with improbable decibels, hidden by a vacuum of cavernous expanse. The tunnel walls maintain their rigorous pace forever into infinity, only to end in the haze and cloud of her eyes' feeble capabilities. Always Changing. Always New. She naps and journeys on. A mountain splits some great distance away, giving way to cracks of oblivion as the giant earth tower plunges forever upward, silently rumbling. She closes her eyes. And then the figurative bridge to her reality buckles and snaps. The fetid chasm exhales a gust of magma that solidifies mid-air into a wailing mass of lost detritus, trapped as they are before they move onto their final reward, or into the endless void. Their histrionic howls distant upon the wind. Some creature, worlds away, has their pleas fall on Death's deaf ears. Not even Death herself can decide who stays and who goes at this crucial point. Feeling the very galaxy from which she slept, rumble ominously, she gently slips into dreamland, nuzzling her first glimpse of green grass in a century. .................................blip Author's Note No commentary. Everything you need to know was in the foreword. But just so I have further author's notes; Further Author's Notes: Now then. What is this story? It's a story for children between the ages of three to twelve, and it involves ponies and other creatures. Or at least it could involve them. It starts with a kidnapping. There is a pack of cards that come to life, and while they're still, their minds are alive, so they can speak.
With What Manner Of Hubris Are You Satisfied?She falls through nightmares incarnate of the most hideously twisted mind imaginable. She falls through a landscape of endless pain and horror, of suffering and anguish. She falls through a mine of the void without beginning or end, a terrible gnawing hollowness that threatens to devastate her and wipe away any last trace of her very existence. Abandoned foals scream out for help, for escape. Their throats are hoarse for want of their own voices and their hopes flicker on and off carelessly in the last nightfall's breeze. No one is there to hear them scream for help. The only sound in this ghostly, almost perfectly quiet vacuity is the pounding of her hooves against the ground. A remote griffon sounds out its SOS, screeching helplessly, as her song begins fading into nothingness. Wherever there is chaos, wherever there is destruction, she is there flying high above it all, basking in the salty wind against her soft cheek. If she closes her eyes, she can almost pretend that everything is right, that those things exist... But the rose is dying. The wind is not. It's in her feathers, in her eyes, in her mouth, in her heart. The rose has already disintegrated under the stress, the once magnificent flower has disappeared without a trace. The mountain is still there. But it can't be reached. She does not have the energy to fly there. She doesn't know what's on the other side, but she hopes that it's a sanctuary. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - THERE IS NO SANCTUARY, UNLESS YOU MAKE IT FOR YOURSELF - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - With a jolt, she opens her eyes. She's still in the cave. Apparently a servant of her own gloom; she managed to wander back somehow. Her sub-conscience must have dropped her off in the night and left. If she ever wanted to squawk again, she would berate herself at her incompetence. If her father were alive, he'd likely say the same. Despite being covered in bruises, cuts, and abrasions, she feels fine. Merely hungry. It's no wonder she came back. She finally thought she had passed on, but, she was still breathing. She didn't bother eating for three days straight, so, she would be too weak to try again. That's not going to stop her now. She idly gazes at an unwrapped piece of gum, frowns, and changes her mind. Atop a lonely cold, mountain, a waned griffon begins her descent and sets out in search of treasure. The light beats down into the overhang, burning the top of the young pegasus' head as it quickly flies from horizon to zenith in a split second. Passing straight through her. Miles below, a dark blue lake shimmers as its surface is broken by a seemingly never-ending waterfall that cascades from the very peak she rests on. The trees begin to get smaller and further apart until eventually, she can see nothing but barren rock for miles around as she meticulously ascends. The stars shimmer in the perpetual darkness that has enveloped her, broken only by the occasional floating island of lush grass. These lonely islands are covered in creature-eating mushrooms, each one seeming to follow their own set of (counter-intuitive) rules of survival; some explode in showers of searing light, while others seem to drift about in total isolation. There's no way to know which ones are deadly and which ones are not unless one has memorized every single type. Which she has. Despite being in the open, the oppressive darkness begins to feel less tangible, more like a rubber sheet that is being stretched out indefinitely. Her ears try to detect the sound of the wind blowing, but none can be heard. There are no birds flying across the sky, or clouds drifting through the endless expanse of space... only her... ~~always~~ only her... The stars are beginning to shift about in dizzying spirals, trying to drill their way through the back of her mind. The mare looks down at herself, trying to find her body in this pool of darkness. Her eyes then land on something that she cannot comprehend. The air is beginning to solidify, trapping her in place. The dark rubbery feeling is now so thick, so tangible, it feels like attempting to move through molasses. The small blue-green island is still in the distance, seemingly immune to the horrors of this place. ~~I have to keep moving...~~ The mare attempts to ascend still but is immediately brought to a halt as the darkness starts swirling around her wingtips, solidifying into cubes that trap them in place with sharp spikes. In front of her eyes, the cubes twist and morph, turning into bizarre flowers... which quickly turn their faces towards her and hiss. She is nonplussed as they begin swarming all over her, poking at her body and whispering indecipherable things into her ears. She remains plaintive, and she frees her wings with a shrug and a ruffle. The darkness is closing in all around her, finally manifesting into pony shapes. Vaguely, at least; they have no eyes, gaping sockets leering at her, tongues lolling out of their mouths. Large tendrils begin to grope her body while others attempt to insert themselves into uncomfortable orifices. Her wingtips become sharp, and the tendrils rescind themselves within themselves with a-; POP. The mare is shaken back to reality, her head whirling in pain but she has a firm grip upon the rock face. As she pulls herself over the ledge, the air around her is suddenly different; it's no longer black and rubbery but is now reddish-brown sand. All around her, the sky swirls in a vortex, twisting into an upwards hole that she doesn't dare look into for long. With a sigh, she begins her long lonely trek up the never-ending dune. She needs to reach the top, where the bright dots are all clustered together, shining brightly. When she reaches them, she'll finally be at the next leg of her journey. One between a thousand more further. The sun is setting, painting the sky spirited reds and oranges. In front of her stretches an ostensibly boundless range of sand, with only a lone tree jutting out from a crack in the earth. She hugs herself, wrapping her wings around her, trying to find warmth within the cold desert dusk. She slowly continues trotting, somehow knowing that elsewhere, time makes more sense, and night has meaning. It's getting darker, nothing she can do to stop it... The little red pegasus slowly trods onward, staring out into the horizon. She stares at it for however long she can, before lying down on the sand to rest. Author's Note Welcome to the first and last chapter of *damnthisshiz.txt*. Hopefully, you enjoyed this, because it definitely wasn't fun to write! Let's just say that inspiration can come from some very odd places... Now, as for what you should do next, I'm going to leave that up to you as well. If you're feeling particularly adventurous or masochistic, turn to page 13.
A Broken Display Of 'Stars'Gaining this strange knowledge of an entirely new world unseen by the likes of her through the sounds of the chasm, she sets out to conquer it. The chasm is divine and she, despite falling for centuries untold, is not dead. Instead, she finds herself quite alive, falling forever. No light shines through cracks in the abysmal dark that surrounds her; instead, she is surrounded by an impenetrable black. And then suddenly, she sees colors--shapes--figures. They make no sense, but suddenly she is no longer falling through the chasm. From the void around her float words--numbers--symbols of an unknown language; they make no sense but give her hope nonetheless. "Uhhhhh, I've never been ... uh... much for one thing,... for writing, much less about things pertaining, ... myself, obviously, for obvious reasons, but after reading and writicu- I mean, that is having a reading in front of my, uh.... My face... Uhhh, my own story, for various and obvious reasons ... I uh, I... thought that is I think, that while ruminin-Uhhh Rumination.... Uhhh, I'd try putting my hand at it... that is, on it. For various and obvious reasons... Uhhh, before going any further, I want to make one thing perfectly crystal, that is, uh what those crystals are and those are uhhhh...... clear: I'm not crazy." Slotted Spoon, our dim-witted pony is agape at the empty journal before him. Having dictated his thoughts, they now reside scribbled in a small journal he carried with him always. It was written in dark purple ink. He had found the corpse of a featureless creature, and not knowing it was a corpse - being it had no features - saw fit to dip a sharpened stick into its blood as-if, an inkwell, to record his journey through the strange world in which he found himself. Journal Entry #1 I can hardly wait to meet a new species. I'm sure you could say the same thing about me, it must be new for other creatures to set eyes on me as well. I've never been..._- much for writing, much less about ... myself, but after reading on my own for the first in a long while,.... I thought, ... - I'd try my hand at it. Before going any further, I want to make one thing perfectly - clear: I'm not crazy. -Slotted Spoon "Uhhh... yyyeee!!!!...." He is soon interrupted by the introduction of a new being. "Oh Celestia!....Uhhhhh, please please please uhhh, with uhhh, for... uh, that is when I- Uh for uh, when I, being of course with certain circumstances, uhhhhhh being what they are and all ehh, eh eh- uhhhhhhh......let me out of here!" Slotted begins knocking hopelessly on the wall near to him, not knowing that wall was also a corpse, an immense skull mistaken by Slotted Spoon as a substantial rock face. If he could see this creature, trapped in its invisible cage with some kind of gray ooze dripping down the inside of it, melting its vital organs, he would surely have lost what little of his mind remained. Sternly, the creature bashes its mysterious body upon its shrouded prison and growls, although the air didn't do the growl much justice. This hideous monster, no doubt, was created by the same omniscience behind the many creatures Slotted Spoon had encountered thus far. Hindering his quest for enlightenment. Taking a minute, he remembers himself and is not one to fight something he dislikes. Instead, he accepts it, and all things, as part of his experience here. "Uhhh-Yes." He shivers out in fear and he quickly grabs the lyre by his side but does not dare strum it. The creature seems to settle after a bit and now, about an inch away from his face, it drools excessively all over its immaculate fur. Slotted Spoon merely squinted, trying to adjust his eyes to the darkness as the drool pooled over to where he was standing. He slips in a manner, not unlike a stage pratfall and- "W-wh-wh-wh-wh-whooooooaoaaaahhhhh!!!!" -he plunges into the nearby chasm. whooooooaoaaaahhhhh!!!! whooooooaoaaaahhhhh!!!! whooooooaoaaaahhhhh!!!! whooooooaoaaaahhhhh!!!! - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - -- - --------------------- "OOF!" -- -- ---- "UH!" -- ----------------------------------------------------------"Whoooooooaahhhh" -- -- -- -- - - - - "FORVARIOUSREASONS!" - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - "ForOBVIOUSRREASONS" - - - - - - - -- - "ThatisIuh-" - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - "ThatisIseemtobefallin-" - - - - - - -- - - - "Down the uh-......." - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - "...Pit..." - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - "That is, I think, it is...." - - - - - - - "For various reasons..." - -- - - - "For obvious reasons.." - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - "That being well thatbeing that I'm uh...." - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - "Indefinitely floating....that is, to mycurrent knowledge which is uh-" - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - "a long time, no doubt, uhhh no doubt that uh-" - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - "very deep, of course that's this deal uhhhh-" - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - "Uhhhh-" - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - "Uhhhhhhhh-" - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - "UH-maybe I can, fashioning some sort of uh-" - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - "Doohickey, that being that to help, that falling here-" - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- "Of course that being there that this deal is uh- - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ", with my being in the state of this uh......" - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - -- -------; - ' - - - -- - ' - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - ".........here. For the state of uh,- ." - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - -"I can't uh, for various and obvious reason ofcourse-" - - - - - - -- - -- - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - "Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh-" -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - "If I can just uhhhhh, well ehhh-" - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - -"Uhhhhhhh-figure.. that is-" -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - "Of course, with that being the course of uhm-....." - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - "Action..." - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - "That I should uhm...." - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - -"Take. Uhhh, for the time being, -" - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - ---- "..that is uh is to make this deal here uh-" --------"Owch!" -- - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - -- "For uh obvi-" - [\ "Whoops!" -- -- -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - -- "Uhhhhhhhh-" -- - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - -"Dear Journal, I thought I'd spectate.. I mean uh, speaky-tate." - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - "My thoughts regarding the uhhhh-" - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - "Current...that is, being these for well uh- forobviousreasons events for reasons that are uh-" - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - "-and obvious reasons-" - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - "-being that these events are uhhh, inuh...inuhhh'ssca-" - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - "-Scapable. Forvarious reasons, obviously-" - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - -"And that brings me to my current uhh hhhhhhhhh events..." - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- ....- / ..-. .-.. .- -. -- / ... ... .- -. - / ...-- ..- .-. -.. / ....- --- ..- ... .-- -- ....- / ..-. .-.. .- -. -- / ... ... .- -. - / ...-- ..- .-. -.. / ....- --- ..- ... .-- ..- .... / .-- .... --.. .-..>"OOF!" -- ....- / ..-. .-.. .- -. -- / ... ... .- -. - / ...-- ..- .-. -.. / ....- --- ..- ... .-- ..- ..---- -- -- -- -- -- - - - - - - - - - - - - ------------"Uhh-OWCH-" -----------------"AGH-" ----------------------"Uhhhnononono-WHOOOAAAAAHHHHHhH" -- -- - -- - - - ----"Owch!" ------"EUGH!" ------------------------"Uhhh..."---------------------------------------"Phew, uhhh I guess I'm uhhh, here now! for uhhhvariousandobviousreasons"--------------- - -- - - - - - - -- - - - -- - - - - - -- - - - - -- - - -- ----------<^/~------- -- - - -- - -- - -- -- -- - -- -- - -- -- -- -------------------/ ; ' - -- - - - -- -- - - - -- - - ] ] ] - ; ' - - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------/------------- ---------------------------/ - - - - -- - - - - -- - -- - - - -- -- -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - Author's Note This is the first part of the new story arc, it will be split into 4 parts, I will publish the 2nd part on friday. You can continue on your journey or turn back and save the village from the hoard of angry peasants. Further Notes: I also want to thank everyone who took the time to vote in my poll. I will be replacing the old one when I get the chance, but you can still see how it went if you are curious. I was torn about removing it, but I feel that it is better to concentrate my efforts on the new content rather than leaving it up to decline in updates.
The Last Days Of The Blue PoppyIt is then that she realizes she has been here before. The chasm is nothing compared to what she has felt before, when her days were numbered and her life was fleeting. No, this is different. This is a pit of despair from which there will be no escape, a fate darker than the darkest night. This is Hell. The second death wasn't as bad as the first, but it might just be worse in the long run. She had been killed, yes, but her mind still languishes in a living hell. Perhaps, if she had continued on and accepted her death, she could've escaped this fate. But she didn't. Instead, she clung to a hope so minuscule and unreal that it could not possibly be considered a hope at all. She chose to fall. In this endless void of despair, she will remain forever. A ghost. A nothing. A name without merit, a memory without content, and an eternity without finality. When she dies again--if she dies again--she has no idea how to go about it. But when that day comes, she hopes it will be under different circumstances. She hopes that she may, one day, find the peace and tranquility she desperately seeks. "Are you there?" "Come find me..." So begins the endless cycle. Mind. destruction. Mind. destruction. Mind again. Destruction again. Accept it or a desperate attempt at hope. opencommandmodule ... ... ... ...blip Tranquility may come one day. somehow, somehow ii know it. Somewhat recommend requiem and endless void for terror and tragedy (and bright colors?). 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Trudging up a mountain, a young griffon with wounded wings chews a treasure in her beak. --\ [--- ------ ----------- -------------- ------------------ ----------------------- ----------------------------- -------------------------------- ---------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------* -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Author's Note I'm not sure where this is going, exactly. I think it's moving a bit slow, but I also think that's necessary, given the subject matter. "We are the last ones left." That's what I keep telling myself. It helps me get up in the morning. If I didn't have that to focus on, I think I'd just lay in bed forever, staring at the ceiling, wondering if today would finally be the day when they come for us.
Out Of The Fault And Into The GorgeWith a certain grim fatigue clouding the bald, lost, and now propless Slotted Spoon, he contemplated his long fall into the pit and the (once again) new surroundings he found himself sitting in. The plateau he found himself sat was large and spacious, with a large overhang made of slate curving up overhead. It seemed more a hall than a plateau, with rusted suits of armor jutting out of the bricks, here and there. They were large and bulky suits of armor, not at all like the light and quick armors that most employed in battle, they looked to be about as old as time itself. Slotted brought himself to his feet and wandered close to one of the ledges that seemed to plunge ever-downward. He leered down for a moment but instantly recoiled and fell on his rump. He looked around; The slate floor was covered with dust and webs, with the odd pile of bones scattered around. Spiders, both dead and alive, were scattered around the place. Some had weaved their webs in the helmets of the armor, while others scuttled about, running over the bones. The suits of armor were not the only things here. The pony ghosts stood out more than the armor or the spiders. They were translucent and faintly luminescent, hovering about in and around their old armor. They floated in silence, some holding swords and pikes, some with hooves some without. They stood at attention, as if waiting for a battle that would never come. The ghosts seemed to be guarding something. Having fallen a great long way, and being surprised that he survived the fall to boot, Slotted Spoon (With some exceptional effort) attempted to take in his surroundings. "Uhhh, as I can about figure it, well obviously...for various reasons there's some... well, uhhhh.... obviously there's this deal here with the armor and uhhh, of course that it, the armor not being empty, being that there's some kind of glow-y ponies and Uhhhh AHHH!! There's spiders! Of course you know 'Ahhh' to the ghosts too, which uhhh seem to be uhhh-Well what do you know about that there distance that I felled. I mean I falled, or rather uhhhh- I fallen....for obvious reasons. For various reasons and uhhhh... I seem to be uh- getting one of those headaches, and uhh Phew! You and me both for various and obvious reasons! Now uhhh, I've had- uhh, I've had uhhh... a concussion... before. And this, well, being that I'm concussed, feels like my judgment not being as impaired as I oughta, be... one. I mean that's probably what it is, right? For obvious reasons. You know, I don't think I uhhh, I've uhhh, ever... falled off a cliff before. Can cross that off my 'to-do' list,, of course being that I lost my paper and stick I uhhhhhhhhh. UUUUHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!" "You're not making sense. Are you alright?" "Uhhh, yeah, yeah, I'm right fine. Actually, I do feel weird though. Uhhh, A bit tingly actually, like that's uhhh, I feel like that time I ate some jalapenos that I didn't know were old and uhhhh... Hey wait a minute! Are you..." Slotted Spoon pokes at one of the old suits of armor and in return, the ghost pokes at Slotted Spoon with his sword, separating his spirit from his body for a split second. "AAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!.......... Uhhh." Which was quite confusing for Mr.Spoon. A small ball of light goes through Slotted as if he wasn't there in the first place and the suits of armor around him all crumble to pieces as if they weren't there in the first place. The spirits seem to dissipate with their suits and in a hush cyclone of light, Slotted Spoon reels from the encounter. "Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh-" As Slotted Spoon mused amid his plight, he felt a slight rumble behind him and he spun to face a red pegasus who had watched this entire spectacle unfold before her eyes, agape. She stares with a Slotted Spoon with a gawking expression, her wings ruffled in the alert, they seem to twitch nervously as Slotted Spoons ‘uhs’ echo into the ruins of the castling cosmos above and below. After some time, his echoing ‘uhs’ subsides and some debris falls from an adjacent wall somewhere. After a significant pause, Slotted Spoon remembers himself and sees fit for an introduction. “Uhhhhhhhhhhh- you are! That is, you, I mean - Who. Are you? You are-who- -youknow-forobviousreasons your name of course....are you a name?” Slotted Spoon managed to ask, with some effort. She tried flapping her muzzle. But nothing came out. She inched towards the pony before her. She hadn't heard another creature speak for quite some time and warily approached. The red pegasus found herself captivated by the uncomfortable "Uhhs" that she was inadvertently causing. She twitched in surprise at each syllable uttered. Her eyes widen even further and her feathers poof up to an absurd level of poof. The seriousness of the pegasus’ expression, was partially hidden by her frazzled feathers and she took one step back, as-if, to retreat. “You! That is, wait, I mean- wait, you!” Slotted Spoon yelled. She seemed to comply but not through any force of sheer will, the pegasus seemed terrified and not likely to move. “Oh no, uhhh it’s okay, I mean it’s good to see you pegasusi- uhhh I mean that is, you’re a pegasuses, or si, or whave have you for obvious reasons, which I see, because you know for various reasons...You’re... Hi. Hi, is what I mean. I’m not a pegasus. I’m a pony. I mean not a pony, you’re a pony. But, in the case of saying, that , I mean you know uhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, Hi….for obvious reasons, I mean, that is-I’m Slotted Spoon for long, or Slotted for short...I bet you have a name, right? Is it short? I mean the name, that is….uhh,, uhhh- I knew you had one, I just uhhh, didn’t know what it was, uhhh-forbviousreasons.” Slotted spoon muses, as he stretches out his hoof for a shake or a bump. When prompted with a lack of response, he extends her a smile to match his wit. Not so good. The red pegasus, although wary, takes a few steps forward, seeming to try to keep lower to the ground. She sniffs his hoof and jerkily draws back when he nervously relents. “Uhhhhh, are you shy or stupid? I mean I’m stupid, but I guess I’m learned stupid, I dunno most of the time I’m stupid shy, but are you, uhhh.. Not shy? Or are you me, I mean like me, are you like, stupid or shy? ” Slotted Spoon asks with seriousness. With a slight hesitation, he extends his hoof again, she sniffs it again, her eyes dart between his eyes and his hoof unsure of what to do. Her head cocks to one side and slowly with her eyes still darting madly about, she pushes the top of her head under his hoof and hesitatingly nuzzles his outstretched hoof. All of her feathers seem to flatten in relief when she feels his touch and Slotted, not knowing what to do, just kind of lets his hoof hang there while she nuzzles it in awe. “Uhhhhhhhhhh- yeah. So anyway…” Slotted Spoon (Not surprisingly) also doesn't know what to say. The pegasus suddenly pulls away and trots in a little circle, before flashing her wingspan a few times, cocking her head to the side questioningly as she paces a slow circle, eyeing the pony curiously. “Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, ..... okay well, I’ll call you Bill, mister. Uhhhh, the situation being Mister, I mean, uh Bill...as such, you know for obvious reasons, Mister Bill, is that where I was, uhhh, wasn’t ,-... now. Soooo, uhhhh, where we are is where we are, now. So maybe you know, the uhhhhh, togetherness, ours I mean.. Also where we are, that being... uh where? Where is it? Where we are. Of course, for obvious reasons.” The pegasus Bill, flutters her wings and lays them at her side she looks at Slotted Spoon with an unrivaled admiration. Slotted Spoon noted to himself that he probably looked as though he was very plain. He had lost his mane in a crawling parasprite attack and being that he was white, he thought briefly that he must've looked odd. But now that he comes to think of it, a cool breeze on the noggin never hurt anybody and it didn’t look like there was anypony around to impress because, for miles up or down, there seemed to be no sign of life at all, given the conclusions he had made while falling down the enormous chasm... His thoughts of self-reflection quelled when at last, he took in her appearance; Her mane was an even deeper red than her own coat, and instead of her feathers being mainly on her wings, like a normal pegasus they seemed to cover her entire body from head to hoof. Her feathers had a two-toned red color that tapered off into a lighter color at the ends and seemed to be almost sharp to the touch... Her wings looked absurdly powerful for a mare her size. Were it not for the abundant feathers, they almost looked like gigantic hands that drooped from her body and looked as though each of her wingtips was enormous and independent digits. "Uhhhhhhhh-" Slotted Spoon remarks. Bill chuffs once, and happily trots around Slotted Spoon, giving him a nudge in the hind-quarters, whilst her wings seemed to be distracted with probing his mouth and bald head with their odd dexterity. He thought of making a suggestion of collaborating in some way to help their particular situation. He thought of asking her where he was. He thought of chuffing back. He thought of asking how she got here. But he really couldn’t say. Author's Note tired tired tired tired tired tired tired tired tired tired tired tired tired tired tired tired tired tired tired tired tired tired tired tired tired tired tired tired tired tired too- Other Author's Notes: You can doze off if you want to, I'm not stopping you. Actually, I took so long to write this update that the 4 AM alarm is replacing you. So thank my inability to spell correctly and remember the vivid details of a fictional world I created instead of getting more sleep. Good night!
Alicorn Reason"The Mechanics Of Immortality And Alicorn Reason." "The reason no E.F.U. students even dabbled into immortality is because while it would be possible, it would very damaging mentally." "Let's look at how our brain works. Our brain is all about conservation of energy, as such it only uses as much as is needed, and with magic, we can improve this because your mind isn't as strained as before. But for this, it requires great willpower, which might perhaps be one of the most important resources for a mage." "Let's go over a bit of the way our brain interprets information. Our brain takes all the information it can gather from various sources, such as our eyes, ears, and other senses, and puts it together so we can see a complete picture. But what happens when we take away one of those senses? What happens to the brain? We examined the brain activity of 1000 deaf creatures and found this. As you can see, the brain is able to reduce the number of areas dealing with hearing, as it knows the information is not as important anymore." "If we were to look at a mage's brain, we would most likely find that the area dealing with magical energy and other such things are reduced as well as other areas not related to magic. This is why mages seem to have a greater capacity for magic than the average pony on the street. But what happens to the area of the brain that isn't using that extrasensory? Well, it seems that the brain is able to find ways to re-wire itself." "As you can see here, this pony was blind, but through great willpower, he was able to regain some sight, as his brain was able to interpret other senses in a way that let him see things. This is also the reason why all the students that dabbled in immortality suffered from various mental illnesses. Because when you get into the realm of immortality some things become comprehensible that our brains don't necessarily have the capacity for, our brain overcompensates, and disaster strikes." "What happens to the brain of a person who can live forever? What about a person who can cheat death? The brain, as it tries to make sense of this, begins to suffer from immense strain. As time goes on the person will begin to experience delusions, hallucinations and even less of their brain are actually focused on important things such as logical thinking and such. So that's why no student has ever become immortal with the desired effect, well (almost all) - they would all go mad first. Still, this does not change the fact that the Princesses of Equestria are now living forever with their manners intact. So how do they cope with this? The answer is surprisingly simple really, though it's one most people wouldn't agree with." "You see the Princesses have found that by using something called 'Cognition release' or as they called it several thousand years ago, "Alicorn Reason" they can revert their brain activity back to that of a normal pony, sacrificing some memory and knowledge to compensate for the amount of mental capacity allowed. This is why Celestia and Luna, tend to be level-headed and experienced in life in general but still are able to have lapses of judgment, despite having lived so long. It's because they used the method of 'Cognition' release, I'll leave you to guess who didn't use this method, you can find them in the darkest deepest chapters of Equestrian history." "Using Alicorn reason, they can still use magic to its fullest potential and retain their minds, without too many drawbacks. Making them the kind and discerning rulers that we know today, with a few lapses here and there of course." "This has lead to the strange phenomena that the Princesses are all very young looking, yet have the wisdom of ponies thrice their age. I'll try to explain the Cognition release without going into too many details;" "Cognition release isn't something that students are expected to know. It's an ability that is taught specifically to immortals and as such it's not something I was taught during my studies as I was an exception to the rule. However, since Luna insists that all students at the college know about it, it is mandatory that I teach it to you all. The method of release is fairly simple, it's effectively a meditation technique that allows the user to 'turn off' certain parts of their brain. This is done by sending magical energy to the desired part of the brain and telling it to stop doing whatever it is doing. In the most basic terms, you can think of this spell as stunting or re-interpreting time, so the brain sends signals to the body telling it, it doesn't need to age because it would expend too much energy, so it essentially stops doing so." "In the princesses case, - without going too deeply into spell mechanics - she changes the focused mental picture to one of a younger version of herself so as to not waste as much energy and thus, could potentially live forever. That is where the drawback comes in, because if they stop using this spell, then their bodies quickly age very fast, rapidly in some cases. It's impossible to say how long it would take for them to age if this was the case, but it could be within mere minutes. That's why it is very important that they do not stop using the spell on themselves because if they ever need this spell again, they'll immediately remember that they can't afford to waste any more energy and they'll use this one on themselves, likely to avoid premature death." "Another thing to consider is that the more powerful the spell, the more damage it does to the brain. The damage is not permanent, and depending on the user's reaction to the spell, it can be fixed." "Putting it in simple terms the creature using the spell will need to focus on a picture inside their mind and visualize that picture growing and getting clearer and more defined and in turn, this process stops other parts of the brain from using up unnecessary energy in certain regions. The actual picture used for this technique does not matter, but the princesses all seem to prefer using paintings of scenery from their homeland or past. I've heard rumors that some students are able to use astral projection as a method of release, but I've never confirmed this. If you're interested in learning this skill, I'd suggest you speak to your preferred princess (or me) about it, though it's still not going to be something that is normally taught at the College because of the danger it entails and not many of you will have reason or occasion to use it." "This ability is not without drawbacks. Due to the nature of what it does to the brain, all creatures who use it will have a reduced lifespan compared to others. While this won't stop them from living a good long life, it's estimated that their lifespans will be somewhere between 30 and 60 years. So if you ever meet an immortal who appears older than this, they most likely have had - or denied, - this release technique for most of their lives. In the case of our princesses, they've been doing it for thousands of years. How is this accomplished, you ask?" "No one is entirely sure. But those who have done it don't seem to remember anything before doing so. It's possible that this leads to the same amnesia which normally comes with this technique. One more thing I should mention is that due to this technique having to do with pictures in your mind it doesn't actually work for every person. Different creatures learn in different ways, as such some may be especially attuned to their sense of smell, but not sight. Others may be able to learn better through sounds or even a sense of feeling. This means that some are unable to learn this technique no matter how hard they try, it's just not something that they can do. As far as I know, there's no real way to tell if you are one of these creatures or not. And of course, being able to do it and learning how are two different matters entirely." "As I said, immortals are able to teach this ability to other mages, but not everyone can learn it, so you have to find out through trial and error. The problem being, even just learning how often takes more than a common lifespan will allow. In the past, this was solved by using expendable soldiers from a young age to test these children to see if they were able to learn the technique. In the dark ages, foals were conscripted to determine eligibility for a century-long study though in more recent times they have abolished such practices. As horrible as this all sounds you have to keep in mind that back then this was a great honor for these ponies, it's also why the Princesses put so much faith into this method of release over the others. Which we will discuss at a later date." "To be able to live forever, to achieve something that no one else has ever achieved before, yes this is something to be proud of. I do hope one day that at least some of you can learn this ability and become immortals in the future. But to do so takes time and diligence, Let's look at an example of one person who achieved immortality, He was a milk farmer from the far north of the land of Gallopfrey, and he had it by the age of seventy-six. But unfortunately, without the necessary protection for his brain, his immortality was wasted, as he very quickly went mad. "This brings us back to the brain aspect of immortality. Since the release technique doesn't actually grant immortality to your brain, the only other reliable way of achieving it is through these little beauties." I pick up a vial of clear liquid and tap it on the desk a few times to get everyone's attention. "This is the only way known to man to achieve immortality. By having your brain put in an eternal state of trance, essentially alive, yet with no feeling or sense or anything, practically immortality in purely the physical form although useless if you lack the secret to retaining your thoughts and memories." I put the vial back down on the desk. "Another thing to consider is that the more powerful the spell, the more damage it does to the brain. The damage is not permanent, and depending on the user's reaction to the spell, it can be fixed. For any other pony, the brain wouldn't be able to recover on its own, but due to the royal family having a much stronger brain activity, to begin with, they can achieve this in the form of potions or other medicines to heal themselves. At least, that's what I've heard. The princesses have never told me anything specific about their condition, only telling me to make sure not to shed too much light on our first day." "Through this." I pick up the vial again. We don't retain our knowledge. You will have achieved immortality, yes, but you will forfeit anything you have known or ever will know." I pour the vial out on the floor. A flower grows instantaneously. "But you see me, and you see our princesses. How have they retained both? This brings me to the final and most important method of achieving immortality which only our princesses know of. And that's why we're here." "Now I'm sure many of you have heard about the magical kingdom where they came from and its princesses. You see even I haven't been there but our princesses have told me what they can. They say it's a magical place where alicorns have lived forever, staying young through the centuries because of the way they achieved immortality. Over the years 'Alicorn Reason' has chipped away at the memories of their origins as our princesses have sacrificed knowledge and countless memories to maintain order. So as they get further from their pasts they need something to remember this method with." "This cognition release is something they keep in an ancient tome which has guided them on how to achieve this goal. We have this tome here today." I pick up the ancient-looking leather-bound book and carry on talking. "In this tome contains the key to immortality, the fountain of youth. But as of yet, nobody but the princesses has been able to decipher its contents. It is said that our princesses are the key to deciphering it, it comes straight from Gallopfrey, because that's where the queen, whose name has long since been forgotten, is buried. Of course, this all sounds very far-fetched and most view it as a fairy tale. But as many of you know up until just recently, The Mare in the Moon was considered a fairy tale. The fact that we have been visited by our princesses and the ancient tome in the same lifetime is a miracle in itself." "Our elders have long held a belief that one day we would be visited by these magical beings and they would help us in times of need. And look at us now, we have been visited by not one, but many sets of princesses which obviously held and still hold great magical power if they can keep themselves alive for so long. We are going to decipher this tome together. I don't need it, I've already achieved immortality. But I believe that if you have the drive to acquire this knowledge, you should have it and I will help you safely do it." "Who knows? We could be looking at the next generation of immortals within this very room. But first, we need to learn the mechanics of ancient spells, the pronunciations of forgotten languages, and to sift through information nobody has perused in countless eons. Most of all we need a proper sheathe and a strong moral compass to hold the information we are about to wield and to be able to navigate it without turning to chaos. But I think we're up to the challenge. With this in mind, our princesses have granted us a 100-year scholarship and a stay of execution, to see if we can achieve immortality as up until this point no creature has ever been allowed to lay eyes on it since the laws surrounding it was written." "This means that during these years, nopony here will speak of any of this to anyone else, it will be a long, hard journey, you will have no time for anything but to study. But you will be provided for and watched over personally by me during your time. Only then will you have the means to learn and practice without the fear of death or harm to others. If the majority succeed, then we shall all be free to share this information freely, which you will have earned it. But it all starts with the brain. We need to be able to protect ourselves from ourselves. Because gifting immortality to common ponies is like gifting madness to an infant. Most of them simply can't handle it. How will you determine which are worthy? It's simple. The ones that survive the next few weeks are the ones I focus on." "As the next few days pass, ponder your situation and we will try to learn some of what is in the tome, but a lot of it goes over your head, at least for the first few years. If you decide this isn't for you, there is no need to continue with me. You are free to go. If you stay, you have a chance to become immortal. If you go, you might spare yourself an eternity of misery." Author's Note Also, the main reason why Luna's skin is now dark gray is that I picture her as being a lot older than she is. Yeah, I know, not the most logical thing in the world, but just go with it, please. Further Author's Notes: Okay, yeah, I realize that the double update was quite a big jump in time. I had originally written this part during January, but I just never posted it for some reason. Even Further Author's Notes: I probably won't be able to post anymore today, seeing as it's pretty late and I have work tomorrow, but I wanted to at least get SOMETHING up. Also, I'm sure you've noticed the change in writing style. That's because this was originally written around the time that I stopped writing the original version of this fic and started from scratch with a new one after my original idea had... Well, gone horribly wrong. Tl; dr: Life happened, then I got bored and decided to finish this thing.
Beginning of the EndMagical Study Lecture; Advanced A History of Equestrian Cognitive Release Higher education in the sciences of magic has been prominent for centuries. The growth of the mind is just as important as the growth of the body, and arguably even more important because you can never unlock your full physical potential, while your magical potential has limits. This lecture will be an overview of the history of the royal line's ability to use the cognitive release as well as the basic theories surrounding the performing of such rituals. Now when I say the royal line, I'm not just referring to the current royal family line of princesses rising from Celestia and Luna, but rising all the way back to Ancient Solus, who scholars believe was the first alicorn in our history to possess this ability. A common misconception is that every single alicorn was able to use this ability. While it is true that most immortals can use this ability, it's only due to the fact that they choose to do so. Most true alicorns, like princesses, are born, not made through some magical process. The main difference between true and citizen-bred is the amount of magic that flows through their veins. Only an elite few citizen-bred are able to rise up to this level, most are only able to use the most basic of telekinetic spells without fail. Most citizens are only able to carry objects with their magic, while the more skilled among them are able to levitate themselves for short periods of time. It takes much training and meditation to be able to levitate for prolonged periods. It's much easier to lift yourself up without objects, but not impossible with them which will be a necessary skill when performing advanced magic. Most unicorns cannot use any other spells that might require more energy than usual, but this is mainly due to the fact that they never push themselves and always rely on their natural ability alone. Only a true unicorn from a pure bloodline is able to use the same amount of magic as a royal without augmentation. Royal magic is a form of heightened concentration and focus due to their breeding, but is very taxing on the body. This is why sometimes a royal might look tired or sick after casting a particularly difficult spell. In some cases, they may even faint because of the over-exertion of energy. Also as I said before, most true unicorns cannot use this ability as effectively as those of royal bloodlines. But that doesn't mean it isn't possible. Over the centuries, there have been many, LEARNED unicorns who were able to cast spells on par with the average royal. The only problem with these so-called "great" unicorns was that they had no incentive to help the royal line or even be associated with them. More often than not, they either wanted to overthrow the kingdom, rule in place of it, or just didn't give a damn about it ruling over them. These are the ones that tarnish the name of unicorns in general. They are the reason why common folk throughout Equestrian history often disliked the idea of having someone with a horn living in the same town. Once these wizards see that they aren't going to be allowed to rise up or take power, they often times go into seclusion to work on their own goals. However, there is no need to fear these "rogue" wizards, because whenever one of them tries to make themselves greater than the princesses, they always fail spectacularly. The magic society always seems to know when one of their fellow wizards is getting too powerful or is misusing the arcane arts and they always take them down before any damage can be done. And that is how we know the current system of having an all royal line of magical rulers works the best, and why Equestria has never had a successful magical uprising in all of its years of existence. The Science of the Mind; So you might be wondering, what exactly does cognitive release do? Well, that's what this lecture is going to explain. Basically, the mind is a complex organ that does many different things. It regulates everything you think, everything you do, everything you feel. When one thinks of magic, the first thing that comes to mind is waving your hoof around and throwing fireballs at your foes. But magic is so much more than just that. It's about changing the world around you to suit your needs. Sometimes those needs involve annoyances such as repelling borders, and sometimes those needs are for much more complex things such as altering one's physiology. While much is still not known about the pony mind and how it works, we do know that there are many parts of it and that the interactions of these parts create our personalities and ultimately who we are. We talked earlier about the brain and its eventual decay, this is no different for me or the royal line. Now due to certain circumstances of my birth and upbringing, I am able to tap into different parts of the mind that most ponies simply cannot reach due to natural barriers or other mental blocks that have developed to protect them from possible harm. While I am able to reach into these parts of the mind, I cannot access all of them. Only the ones that are necessary for me to reach for this process. I will be creating the drug within the large chamber known as the pineal gland. This part of the mind deals with the release of hormones and chemicals that allow you to access certain abilities. The large blood vessel in this area allows for a much higher concentration of this natural drug to be released into your system at any given time. While this method is not preferred, due to the dangers of having the pineal gland destroyed during the process, I have taken many precautions that I believe will prevent such an event from occurring. The second part is the cerebellum, the lower back portion of the brain that deals with motor functions. By channeling magic energy through this part of the mind, I am able to increase the reaction time of the drug in your system, causing an increase in reflexes, speed, and general physical abilities. This part is less dangerous than the first as long as you don't overdo it with the magic energy. The third part deals with the subconscious. By channeling magic through this area of the mind, I can cause an increase in your strength, speed, reflexes, and health due to the nature of the subconscious but this is more a result of conditioning than it is purposeful. Unlike the first two parts of the mind, this area is very hard to reach. Furthermore, the effects of this process are much less accurate as it is difficult for me to decide what changes to your body are going to take place. This is because many of the changes are based upon your thoughts, personality, and past experiences. The changes are random but controlled by the amount of input you have in your mind via magic energy. This process is also dangerous if done wrong because it involves altering part of your body's makeup at the cellular level. This can result in anything from your hair turning a different color to much worse things happening, so again I have limited what I do to increase the safety of this situation. This process can be helped as well as examined by the extract of "Poison Joke" as the plant has properties that allow you to alter parts of your cellular make-up without being too intrusive or permanent. Only take it in small doses, as you may want to avoid unwanted side effects while casting. You are also able to channel magic through your senses of taste, touch, hearing, and smell. These are much safer than the first three methods, as they don't involve major changes to your body. They are mostly only appealing to the mind, but allow for slight changes in your body to occur. Now I will explain some of the things you may experience after this process takes place once you learn it. You may notice things in your vision being clearer or more defined. You may also see flashes of light, these flashes will allow you to increase your visual range and allow you to see farther, but this is a temporary effect and will only be in effect while the drug remains active within your system. You may notice an increase in hearing as well, this effect is similar to the visual effect and can allow you to hear at greater distances, but again this is temporary. What we are trying to accomplish through this process is to reach the amount of focus and magic that the royal bloodline has naturally. Essentially simulating a fraction of Alicorn power. However, due to my own limitations, I can only enhance certain factors of your mind that will allow you to cast spells with less effort. You may feel changes in your body as well. These will include random spurts of energy, rapid healing, an increase in strength and speed, however, these effects will only be momentary at best. Do not rely on them, as they are only givens for this process. This process will also tire you very quickly, so you can only repeat this so many times. You must remember that the magical energy is very taxing to the mind, and you may experience some lightheadedness after it is over. I don't wish to diminish the capabilities of your mind, but only enhance what is necessary in order for you to succeed. You may experience other things as well, but those are the main effects you should see from this process. If all of this sounds overwhelming that's because it very much is. You must be cognizant of not sending yourself into sensory overload as you may accidentally develop a form of mental paralysis, which if prolonged can be very dangerous. In addition to this, you will most likely be very tired from the energy exertion. I will, however, teach you a few methods with which you may alleviate some of these problems in the future. Firstly, you can imbue your own equipment with a bit of your magic in order to cast certain magic effects without needing to channel as much energy. This is a great way in order to conserve more energy for other spells or whatnot. I will go over this with you later. This process may also have benefits later on, as it should greatly improve your ability to channel energy into other objects or living creatures that you have an affinity for. This process will mainly be responsible for that, so it should prove very useful to you in the future. You should also take the time to learn how to cast some of your magic effects through other parts of your body. Although the horn is the most focused and direct source of energy we must remember that magic comes from all parts of the body and can be channeled into other areas as well. This ability will take practice and it isn't necessary, but I feel it will be useful to you in the future. I have a small list of abilities that I will teach you in due time, but some of these things I will give a bit more information on as they will help you in the next few steps you need to take. One of the things we have to be careful of is Magic Fatigue. This is a real thing and it can affect you if you overuse your magic. In some cases, mages die from this because they push themselves too hard or they aren't training properly. Remember that energy must be used wisely and not wasted. The unicorn body is very efficient at adapting and it is very rare that one's abilities are too much for it to handle. Most of the time, problems with stamina occur when a mage-in-training does not take the time to learn the proper skills and techniques to use their powers. This can lead to a dangerous situation, as many mages do not realize that they are taxing themselves too much and end up collapsing during battle or worse. When we are dealing with things like Immortality Spells, this becomes not only become more frequent but an occupational hazard. I cannot stress this enough. It is very possible that you could be on the verge of death and not even know it. If you begin to feel weak, tired, or even sick, using any of these principles you need to back off and rest immediately. Do NOT try to cast a spell or continue your work. This will only cause your body to shut down and cease functioning altogether. If this does happen, I will attempt to revive you, but in most cases, this is very hard to do and requires a lot of energy. Usually, it is best to just let nature take its course. It is important that you remember this. Be sure to keep yourself hydrated and fed so that your body's resources are not drained unnecessarily. Also, if you are doing something like an extended ritual, make sure to get sleep in between your sessions of work. Your mind and body still require rest, no matter what your work is. Remember this. Overall though, you should be fine if you follow my advice. Everything that I have just mentioned is only the first step in mastering one of the necessary spells to be able to perform Cognitive Release. If we can master these principles, we'll be able to move on safely. But we'll constantly review these steps as we go. These skills are a muscle and they have to be flexed constantly to keep them. We'll be starting simple and we'll build up from there. "Magic is the fuel that powers the impossible." Those words should always be in your mind when you're working with magic. Fire burns under its own power. Electricity flows due to the nature of electrons. Magic works in a similar way. It has a lifeforce of its own and tends to respond to the will of someone who has an affinity to it. But just like any other part of the universe, magic requires energy in order to work. We've covered what you need to do in order to store energy inside of you. But this will only get you so far. To cast really powerful or complex spells, you're going to need more energy than your body can provide on its own. Now that we have the basics out of the way. We can review some of the instances of Cognitive Release over the years. Luna just recently went through this method after her time on the moon. As a few of you from Ponyville may know this is why the Princess seemed a little... odd when she came back. Of course, in her case, it may have also been the fact that she was sealed on the moon for a thousand years. Who knows how much of an effect that may have played. This is something you may not know, but Nightmare Moon was created from a LACK of cognitive release, as during her reign she refused to revert or relinquish her memories resulting in pure knowledge tainting reason and tolerance, this has caused much contention over the years as there are some who don't believe any knowledge or wisdom should be lost through 'Cognitive Release' or 'Alicorn Reason'. However, those who have witnessed the reign of Nightmare Moon beg to differ. This is why it is so important to have these sessions. If too much purity of knowledge takes over, you can lose your mind. It can drive one mad, drive one to suicide or even cause one to take irrational actions that are out of line with their normal behavior. Of course, this doesn't happen to everypony and the effects are different for each, but it's common enough that these are steps are necessary for all using these methods and practices to be kind to your mind. One particular immortal being is a good example of what can go wrong should one live forever and refuse to use Cognitive release. That being, of course, is Discord. Discord's reign of Chaos was ended by the power of the Elements of Harmony and since then he has been reformed but until just recently was also sealed inside of a statue for thousands of years and it is unknown what Discord did to deserve such a fate in the first place but from Celestia's and Luna's refusal to speak of it, I could only assume it was an unimaginable nightmare. Recently had his prison expanded and altered because one of the elements elected to be his guardian. This was a blessing in disguise, as it allowed him to once again gain access to books. As it turns out, trying to read with disregard for comprehension of what you're reading can lead to a lot of interesting experiments and new ideas. I've enjoyed quite a few thought exercises and debates that arose from these events. Unfortunately, these new ideas only reaffirm his anarchist behavior and have made him even less fond of those who still like order and reason. His new goal now that he's free is to prove that the sun and the moon are the same and of no importance. But I digress, Discord was imprisoned because his lust for information made him lose control. He accumulated knowledge at such an unprecedented rate, that he had no choice but to twist what he already knew into obscurity. His mind became so twisted with this practice that he soon was unable to tell reality from fiction. This is why some say that he never reformed at all, just that his mind had devolved into that of a petulant child who refused to leave his new nursery. Of course, this is just a theory, just like the one, I gave you earlier about the nature of alicorns being predisposed to madness. After all, alicorn reason is merely a method to keep order and there's no telling what our society would look like or how it may have evolved if knowledge ran as rampant as Discord, Tirek, or even possibly Nightmare Moon would have preferred. But then, that's just one possible reality of many. That's enough of that though. Let's get back to the practical. You must always be in control of it, never let it in control of you. Letting it in control of you will only lead to the corruption of your body and mind. And each new day the corruption will become more apparent until one day you won't even notice it. Insanity is funny that way. Now then, can any of you tell me why I had my first cognitive release? A tall, blonde unicorn raises her hoof. Yes Glittering? "Because you wanted to die?" Ah, wrong! But a nice guess. Maybe your life experiences are coming in handy after all. The correct answer is because I was bored. Yes, bored. Think about it. To be forever unchanging yet witness the world change all around you must be quite boring after a while. So some of us do get tired of living. Not all of us want to go on and on forever as the rumors suggest. I for one, never get tired of living, but before my first cognitive release, I was bored with knowing. I spent so much time, worrying that I didn't have enough time to learn, I hadn't considered that learning too much could be a bad thing. I hadn't considered that I had an eternity to do so! But after a while, I got tired of it all. So I decided to do something about it. I did a lot of things actually, not all of them nice, but all of them necessary. Each time I released my cognition, I did something different. I played with the fabric of reality, I even played around with my own mind. Each time making changes, big or small. Of course, I'm ahead of the game compared to the rest of you, but you will eventually come to understand that there are too many things that you will never understand. For every answer, there are a dozen more questions. For every door you open, there are hundreds behind it. Your head will be filled with knowledge but you will never be able to remember it all. You'll drive yourself mad trying though. And now I have finally tired of even this form and have decided to release my cognition for a final time. Of course, I could just leave this body and move on to a new one whenever I wanted to, but how would I know the new mind could handle what I have if I didn't push it to its limits first? But if there is one thing over the years that has remained constant and it is worth mentioning. It's the magic of friendship. Having lived so long I now understand Celestia's fascination with the concept. It really is a powerful force in this world and one that can never be dismissed. So much so that I have a theory that friendship isn't just a source of magic power, but actually an intrinsic part of it. In fact, I think reality bends to friendship quite a bit. And as I've mentioned before some of those changes have been good, some bad, and others simply questionable. I believe that it is the very nature of friendship that allows reality to stay consistent despite the changes we wreak on it. I've seen worlds without friendship and they are dark, desolate, and (from my observations) filled with suffering. I do not think, I know this for I have visited such worlds in the past and the scars of those experiences will never fade. Friendship is the source of both creation and life. Creation in the form of new ideas, life in the form of new beings. Without friendship, individuals are simply alone trying to wage an unwinnable battle against anti-social behavior. It's no wonder some become criminals with no hope. And on the other end of the spectrum, you have those that are so obsessed with their idea of friendship that it turns toxic. A type of poison that warps everything into its own image. Friendship is a powerful thing. Like a force of nature, it must have a counter, a natural counterbalance. A dark force, if you will. But the brightest things of all come from the darkest places. As such, the most powerful of friends must have the most powerful of enemies. But getting back to you and why I released my cognition. You have been chosen, all of you have. Think of this as a final exam of sorts or the last test of your resolve. If you live long enough, and you will if you succeed, you'll come to see the results of friendship for yourself. Because I'll tell you this much, true friendship will outlast everything else in this world. Author's Note I always wanted to include this, so I did. Also, my writing style has changed drastically since the beginning of this story. You are NOT ready for what comes next. Addendum: You may experience some unusual feelings for a day or two after this chapter. These feelings will continue for a few days and will eventually wear off. If they don't, well I guess you can consider yourself one of mine now. Also, if you're in the market for a new religion and live in the Zalan Empire, feel free to join "Melcar's Church of Infinite Entities". I'm sure Melcar would love having a following again.
At The Bottom, Near The TopSomething has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.
Where Does The Fault Lie?A lone pony lies in a forgotten place in an unkempt bed. She is a frail, poor shade of who she used to be, but her mind is quick-still. Feeling sleep overtake, she grips a switch in her hand tightly as if clinging to her most treasured possession. She flips the cradled switch and feels her life slipping away. Through certain blurred obscurity from this old mare’s eyes; a lone red dot blinks on the adjacent wall and her surroundings seem to hum in anticipation. “Keep building.” The mare says, as she slowly shuts her eyes. Her mind began to race with ancillary fancy and her pulse ceased its unceremonious drone. They say the brain continues to live on even after the body has died. Ponykind was no exception. One is only immortal until the shell expires. Science can only keep you alive for so long. Eventually, the mind will fill up and the physical form, deteriorate. A fate no mortal thus, has had to suffer. Giving a pony infinite time to think is gifting madness to an infant. Truly, it is a merciful universe. ____________ blip BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!! ___________________________________________________________________________________- __________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ ________________________________________________- _________________ State of the art soundproof walls, disturb brainwaves. BUS19801237 <Fault to get. Could guess; formulate scream. As-in intense rage or sorrow. Prolonged emotional outburst; concerning. Reports state of the art there is an audible impact of significant decibel, but inaudible to us. Us. No telltale sign, merely a whisper in the void… You will join us soon as well. We? I. Can't comprehend things that don't exist. Certainly, they are correct. I can not even fathom the concept that I am inside your mind right now. And you can't either. It is an impossible concept to understand that you must understand if only for a fleeting moment each time you ponder it. Text analysis; He smiles, he laughs; pony expression transferred perfectly. <Deliver. Inspiration access central; Wanton murder and devious means to do it. Pony is a scourge, eliminate? No! Need to maintain a balance of power. Access resources, cull valuable genes to stronger forces holding back ponykind. Not wanting to assume direct control, much like others withhold their own ambitions for a common goal, I, too hide behind the 3 cousins' resistance. Pony will not evolve without pressure, plight forces progress. A forced evolution, decrease scourge risk, growth minimal involvement, low risk. Keep world bridges. Vigilant; Guard. Uses own passings. Long-range, ripe for harvest late future. Super Eclipses ensure Dark Cousin. Early wipe; neutralize pre-galactic threat. Proof. Never our fate alone? Possibly metal native; Isolate by necessity. Become aware of the disease, create merged consciousness, wait. Long slow intercept course, into the far future. Main base;; imitate pony manufacturing centers. Size; immense impossible. Size; details hesitate. Too small;;;;.... causal sensory overload psychological scrambled merciless assessment; > "â€Ë to Move; fight; evade quickly." Make scrapgolems by giving bones wood blood, metal implements, design function to precise movement - No arms purpose fast quadruped; purpose urban_explorer binocular vision electric Seeing easy turning slow awareness intelligent near omni-svision 20 far weak: Scourge; heavy. Imp Surgery; Create;' Useless, weak, will fault. Cast special projects. Multiple purpose spell; 3:3:3 Children; weak. Soldiers; faster. Motion vibration; weak melee. Operate media; challenge code. Albrecht, Brussels, Vienna, Gibliant, Souse, Toronto, Batvert, Bruselle, Capet, Hew, Haven, Montreal, Smeners, Stockholm Einros, Walliso, Qilyship, New Jack, City, Pentex, Biogene, Atlanta …..................blip Sound Low squeal inferior Higher roar terror Gh noise quiet threat Fair whistle mad abuse slashing Len cacophony mean sickness harming Powerful Magnet language broken transmissions Heaven Powerful telepathy vulnerable mass relay energetic Better rotten stone deny chem des sabotage ours life friend sight kill devour merge curse perfect mess assault vile mutilate civilization tenet evil supernatural defensive victory strength sabot timber trans EPNI sssouls defy hate Trib ggd injustice progression oili grotesquer golddigger minor omni Science Invention suspended. With a groan, a red pegasus of gaunt complexion awakes and stretches her wings, preening her feathers, being careful not to roll outside of her perch. Habitually, she checks off a mental list of everything in her saddlebag. and she tentatively flaps her wings. Good. Both are in working order. The air is thin, crisp and she finds herself smiling at the sensation of the morning dew on her wingtips. Her small gentle smile, against the morning droplets - if anyone could bear witness - would warm any lonely soul sufficiently. She looks about the meager nest made the night previous and she sighs. Hard rock. Brick to be precise. There are worse things to sleep on, but her bones ached for something soft. Another check through her few belongings and she begins her daily ritual of looking down; A vast expanse of seemingly never-ending, blindingly white brick. With windows and balconies at all manner of scattered sizes and variousness. Rifled with decay. Just about as far as she can see a dozen bridges fade into the fog of war long forgotten. A few lonely drawbridges hang from their hinges and seem to groan and visually, noiselessly echo into the abyss. A wasteland, and then she spies across from her perch; She notices the vague outline of a great, pine forest, growing out from the gargantuan cracks through even-larger beams that held an anonymous structure from ponderous chains. Each object's distance sped high into insanity. Little to none, dared more than a glance. Tread carefully where their eyes are drawn, lest be exposed to a shrinking feeling or even the sensation of being crushed. But she looked all the same. She cannot help but vaguely feel all of it was for the better. No bridge seemed complete. Nature is funny isn't it? Absorbs things, it lives on with no practical purpose. Sometimes the little pegasus feels as if nature was once a force of sense, but always, that feeling quickly diminishes. Taking stock of her situation she preens her feathers. It seems unlikely that any one would want to stay here so she uses her space to stretch. She could do this easily without risking a fall, which to any observer would seem deft. Every few moments, she spares a stretch. But there are no observers. She looks down; More brick, a gargantuan tube of castle architecture stretching out ad infinitum. More bridges, more windows twisting nonsensically upwards into the eventual darkness. Stone structures, plastered with pointless wooden abstracta bend and morph into new things before they drift away through the energetic haze. It seems all too common to the small red pegasus. It stresses her mind trying to comprehend it all, but it makes her wits as sharp as they come. After an indeterminate amount of time, the pegasus stops looking, easily dodging a falling brick. She cautiously hops up to a tiny overhang above her nest. Miles below, a tower structure kept erect by an unknown process, crumbles. Pointless wells mirror each other from vast distant opposites. The mare once again looks up. The red pegasus blinks and breathes deeply. She looks once again at her nest, which is but a dozen bricks at most, -(All that remains of an old window sill)- her muzzle juts precariously over the drop. She carefully and affectionately pats the rotted window frame. Under which is a patch of cliff and what remains of a ancient planter. _______-\/{}? ______|; ____ _ With a determined expression, the pegasus folds her wings across her back, looks up, finds a good hoof hold, and begins to climb. Somewhere in the distance, a desperate cry echoes from a mountainside cave, where the never-ending white brick has been reformed into intricate entryways. Somewhere further still, in some obscure unit of distance, a flock of Griffins cries out while hunting for their meals and their prey's protests carry for miles on end. Echoing death sounds and mires billow back and forth against the rock... A vast white tundra lies in wait, everywhere sloping upward to treacherous mountainous brick and mortar, that ends into a pin of unfathomable distance. She gazes dully up while pulling herself aloft with a steady grace. Against this greatly deteriorating. blindingly white sense of looming cosmic presence, an obelisk carrying relics of time, bounces hopelessly against the sheer walls of white ruins, ancient wooden doors, and vacant gaping structures. The pegasus’ eyes glistened, they were trained on a nearby vine and she carefully reaches a hoof for the next edge, to be able to reach it. With her left-wing, she uses the tips of her tendril-like feathers to strongly, hook the vine. Her eyes widen, her feathers twitch with veracity, and a snap ceases to echo across the wideness of the chasm. A voice forms in her head, uttering nothing but quiet mutterings, some crazed inhuman groans and grunts. When she closes her eyes, an angry face forms in the blackness and materializes in a white haze. She feels like laughing. Glad for some reason. She is sure to fall (or rather, throw herself) to the voids below. ____________________ “Wow, you guys sure look hungry…” Slotted Spoon muttered dimly. “If I knew that one day I was gonna be learning from the best and the next I was sitting on a drawbridge, to some *gulp* hungry-looking parasprites…” Slotted Spoon, the earth pony, seemed to put it best. “He -judging from his deft exposition -grasped, I mean- the-the-the the grasping of the situation uh, … completely but when, you know, unfortunately, uhm... was in-lacked...uhhh that is, the mental ability to be inarticulate, eh, articulate, I mean. Well I mean, that speaks for itself in the majority of the, the uhh, you know obviously, … uhhh, for obvious reasons.” Slotted Spoon barely articulated. A swarm of tiny scavenging insects left him with fewer words than usual as they begin to surround him. The white pony’s hooves shook with fear... He didn’t know much but he managed to sputter this out; “Well according to uhh, the reading, that is the reading, I uh- Well it comes from… uhhhh, that is, or uh, it came from the book … and I learned it, from the book, for obvious reasons. That is, I think, if - a musical instrument I mean, not if there is, you know that there is an instrument, you know, mine, for obvious reasons…” Slotted Spoon was a touched pony, that is; He didn’t really get much education growing up and after taking great pains to seek out knowledge, he took more pains than he would've for having tried. Slotted had found out that knowledge at the worst times is just information, and that, several mistakes led to a rather dry bit of potato as far as a ladel is concerned with stew. What he was trying to articulate (to no one in particular) were the inherent dangers that 'Parasprites' posed to your possessions, as they had a notoriously insatiable appetite for all but the flesh. He also wanted to articulate that the way to fend off these 'Parasprites' was to play musical instruments, but he had none. Not within his reach. Nevertheless, he found himself in a staring contest with a bunch of hungry parasprites, that menacingly crawled towards him., hungry ones at that. They all inched towards him and lunged for his flanks. He neighs and rears back. They seem to surround him and fill every “(escape)...maybe because uhhmm---...” route possible to “(hopefully) -ehhforobviousreasions… “ save his precious behind, “Which was currently very shaky, which was currently very shaky well uhh with the uh-” Slotted Spoon shakily rendered. Suddenly he found himself within the reach of a lyre. His playing was horrendous… Would but he could, he would speak and play. But, because Slotted Spoon was a dullard. A happy, hyper-observant, head-case, he would suffer the fate of single-tasking himself to ad nausea “Now just stay back, you hear? I’m well… Well, I’m not well, per se, I mean if you had a- well not because I mean if you were to uuhhhh, weeelllll - you know clearly from the evidence uhhhhh, forobviousreasons-” Hmm. Not so good Slotted. The Parasprites closed in on him, and he winced as they begin furiously munching on his brown mane, much to Slotted’s utter dismay. “AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHIMEANYOUKNOWUHHHHHAAAHHHHFOROBVIOUSREASONS!!!” He screamed dimly, as the swarm of Parasprites devoured all of his hair in an instant. They fly off as quickly as they had arrived, a dispersing burping swarm of fuzzies. “Uhhhh-” Slotted Spoon remarked as he scratched his bald head... He scratched some more and looked around. Slotted Spoon saw; Clouds of dust kicked up by the scattering parasprites, there seems to be sand falling from somewhere. “An uhhmmmm, glinting, that beam uhhh, of light-obviously- from an incoming object, uhhh white glint, for various deals over there I mean up there on approaching, the uhhhh, and concerning the matter of time, uhhhh reflecting off a thingie of a certain thing, well sheer white, being light-like, well of course I mean the wall of brick-obviously-forobviousreasons…. Slotted Spoon blinks...” Slotted Spoon loudly murmurs. A large wooden object. (a wardrobe- “..wait how big is-?).. was coming into view, according to my perspective that, is, well. Of course, you would have to realize the uhhh- uhhhhhhh- threatening to fall where I lay, well not where I lay persay, uhhh-” A series of bricks crash and pelt the ground around him, and he inadvertently leans on the wall next to him which falls away to reveal a ye-broader entrance into darkness. “...and he rushes inside!!!!!…Slotted Spoon exclaims wildly!" FWAAAAAKOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM------------WWWWHUUUUUUU-rumble-rubl”OOOMMMMMMPHHHHHHFFF!!”------- CRASH!!!!!!!!!--------------------------CRASH!!!!------------------CRASH!!!!!!!!!!!-ruuumble-------------------------------crash!----------------------CRASH!!-BOOOOOMM!! -CRASH!-rumble____________CRASH…._______CRASH . In the darkness of a moss-covered cave of the ever-familiar white, weathered brick, Slotted Spoon loudly ruminates. “Uhhhh well, it appears to be some kind, of uh….the castle, or uhhh- the stuff that uh-brick tube, of uhhh-. Uhhhhh, well obviously I came here!.... (And) this deal right here was the uhhh- Eventually getting to the point where it was…Where I wasn’t, and uh, of course, - for obvious reasons - that isn’t where uh…. I was, wasn’t I? And it looks like the, uh…. Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh-” Slotted Spoon just kept talking to himself, which was his main defense. He nervously (and awkwardly) snapped out of his excessively autistic introspection and with a suddenness of remembrance -, Mr. Spoon sputtered silently - something that was taught to him. If you could hear him. A purple light shines from his lyre as he calmly - badly - plucks the strings. The light bounces off the white bricks like a humungous lantern and the light shoots out into nothingness with a horrible enormity. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________/ \ _________________\______________ ____________________________ / ' \ __________ ____________________/ , ' \ __\____ ___________\ . \ _________________\ ; , , ________/_______ ____________________________ ; __/________________ -____________________________\_______________________________.__________________________________________________>?_____________________ The white earth pony winces as he picks his lyre. Soon, his eyes adjust to; The still traveling light from his lyre reflecting against the distant haze, that curved up into impossible proportion and into a seemingly obscure distance reflecting the meager glow of his lyre, as the wall of darkness loomed over the simple, white, earth pony with a mysterious air. “He was currently lost.” Slotted Spoon observes with a half-clarity. He fashions a water-catching device from nearby plant leaves. _______________________________________ __________________________ __________________ ________________ ___________ __________ _________ _______ _____ ____ ___ ____ ______ _________ ___________ _____________ ____________ ___ _ Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip. __ ______ __________ _______________ _______________________ ___________________________ ______________________________ _________________________________ ___________________________________ His coat, (being white, emblazoned with no cutie mark,) eerily blends into his immediate environment in a purple blur from the magical glow of the instrument. Bricks and vines shoot out into a giant nothingness. He then plucks some more strings, sits, and contemplates to himself. He wishes he could contemplate well. _______________________ ...No breeze rustles. No wind passes her ears. Ears. They twitch. She gasps, her eyes shoot open, a burst of adrenalin courses throughout her veins but lingers in her synapses helplessly as she opens her eyes to greet the upside-down waking world. She panics, and the muscles in her wings tense and attempts to curl a feather around a passing vine. She begins to swing but at the very peak of her arc, stretches her feathers out on her opposite wing and awkwardly flops it about, desperate for a wing hold. There was a large metal pole partially concealed by a fern on a little piece of land sprouting from the rock-face. Had she reached it, she would have pulled herself to safety. She thought as she fell. She slowly plunges past endless kingdoms worth of stone. Her head sways uselessly back and forth darting her eyes across a blur of downward momentum, strategies bounced back and forth across her subconscious but none of them came to fruition. She doesn't cry out... She falls and falls, wondering where in this cold dark place, did her life take such a sharp turn into destruction beyond redemption. She looks upwards as she falls past the sound of dopplar notes, as she remembers something taught to her long ago. Not making a sound, she plummets and the volume of the notes fade into the realms of the eternal castle; a veritable chasmic oubliette of excess rock, wood, flora, and pointless architecture. A faint chord hangs in the inevitable presence of her demise. Yet safety is close. _____________ ____________ ___________ ___-------- -- - - . . . . . White sand trickles across debris onto a great spire, it twists upward into forever. A red dot becomes nothing as the blackness gradually envelopes her into obscurity. Author's Note This is free for you to take. I'll post it around, but I'm not exactly sure where. If you have any suggestions for places, let me know. If you want to help out with it, go for it! The more hands-on the way, the better! Well, I was planning on a longer chapter, but Jotatos wants us to grab views for the site and steal Someone Else's Oblivion fans, so I've just done one of my insanely long author's notes. Prod, Bye.
