Odyssey of my friendship

"Desert, so the temperature is about 50-60 degrees Celsius. No water, no life in sight. Whatever's out here is probably hostile... it's worth a look from above."

Twilight flew high into the sky to get her eyes oriented on something. Her wings were still sore from the strain of the magic, and she couldn't fly much, but it was enough to look around. It was all desert, the distant barchans blending into a vast golden canvas, and in the midst of it all, a dark spot could be seen in the distance.

"There's something out there, isn't there? Forty kilometers or so... Ouch! Head..." placing a hoof on her head, she tried to relieve the symptoms of her headache. - Okay... Stop... I'm going to get a headache if I use magic again. Well, I'll have to go in that direction with my hooves, I have no other options.

The day seemed to drag on for an incredibly long time and didn't seem to be ending. The heat was squeezing all the moisture out of Twilight's body with incredible persistence, and a little while later, she got the idea to make a makeshift cap out of a blank sheet of her diary paper. Though she paid for it a bit with a given headache due to the use of magic. Coming to her senses, she stopped for a pause to make some journal entries.

"Note 1. Thinking with your head before using magic to its full potential.

Note 2. Corroborating myself for doing this, otherwise my friends might have died.

Note 3. Are they my friends?" - after that note, she crossed out that line, she felt disgusted with herself.

Note 4. Again, I'm correcting myself for this, of course they're my friends!

Note final: when transitioning to another world, consider making preparations and getting plenty of rest."

"Speaking of rest. I should take a break. I guess I'd gotten my hopes up too high that this nonsense and nightmare would stop when I put an end to this senseless war. I wonder how Rainbow's doing. She always acts first and thinks later, doesn't she? She's not stupid, it's just that determination is her specialty... Okay... I'll have plenty of time to think about this at my leisure."

An hour, two, three. Lifting her gaze upward, she began to ponder, to take her mind off of the pesky heat at least somewhat

"Who controls the sun and moon? Are there alicorns that move the heavenly bodies? Or do the luminaries here change each other according to other laws of the universe? So, I now know that there are worlds without life, but with day and night. Ooooh... What a heat wave..."

The trampled trail of the alicorn was slowly being erased by the sands of time, trying hard to cover up any trace of the existence of anyone living. It was getting dusk, the sun was hastily disappearing over the horizon, and it was getting cooler at the same time.

"Hmm... It seemed to be getting much easier to walk! It wasn't so hot anymore... Shit... I wish I'd eaten... I'm a fool, why didn't I worry about provisions? Rainbow would've gotten me on the road. I'm so thirsty... If I can survive without food for a while, about thirty days, I won't last a day or two without water in this heat."

The sun had long since gone out of the sky and it was getting dark. The desert was illuminated only by the crescent moon in the night sky, but that light was negligible. It was still dark. It was also getting colder and colder.

"I'd use magic, but my head would be a mess..." She gritted her teeth as she puffed steam and looked carefully at the contents of her bags. "No medication... ah, well, d-d-d-yes. Celestia's smartest student hadn't even bothered to prepare herself properly. Bag's in. Notebook. And some b-b-b-paper to put in her diary! And of course, most importantly, ink! Oh, yeah. That's what I need. I don't need food, but water? I-I-I guess I don't need water either. I didn't expect it to be so cold..." she looked down at the sand, the moonlight reflecting faintly off the surface of the sand. "D-even frost had appeared on the sand. Wait, frost is ice, isn't it? And ice is water! Aha! Well, head, forgive me, I'll have to collect this water, because I'm very thirsty!"

Pulling out a bottle to collect samples of the local flora, she decided to use it as a portable flask for drinking water.

"Hmmm, d-d-yeah that'll do..."

Twilight used her magic carefully, the benefit of the cold was cooling and easing her headache. Condensing the water into a bottle, she made no attempt to drink the icy water. Right now, in this cold, it was like a death sentence.

"Judging by the formation and speed of ice, the humidity is about 15-20% and the temperature is dropping to minus 20. Of course! The sand heats up all day and releases its heat at night, right? Shit... You can't hurry in a situation like this. I wish the morning would come quickly. It's freezing. Brrrr... There are consequences to using magic," Twilight muttered like a sacred mantra. "I could pass out, and if I do, I'm guaranteed frostbite, even death. I could overheat during the day... Okay. The conclusion is that I need shelter... It's most advantageous to hide in the shade during the day and sleep it off, and go in the evening, night and morning. At night to stay warm. What do you suggest I make a tent out of? Hmm... All my equipment that I have with me is a compass... Two bags on the sides. Two books, some water in jars for flora analysis. Hmm... come on, Twilight... Well, I hope Rarity won't be mad that I tore her bags."

Breaking the threads holding back the fabric of one bag, Twilight put together something like a camouflage vest with pockets. She put notebooks in the chest and side compartments to insulate her body.

"There you go, you know how to think when you want to think. It's much warmer now. True, her head was buzzing more. But it was worth it. Now let's move on. Speaking of which, where did my crown go again? It couldn't have just disappeared... Hmm, I wonder if the crown is testing me. Otherwise, I don't see the point of the crown disappearing a second time. Either the crown is the key to opening the portal and the key automatically appears or is carried to where the door is. Then the question becomes, how do you find the crown in a place forgotten by the princesses? Where there's nothing but sand everywhere. Well... Following this law, this black spot in the distance will probably give me the answer to the question, and I really hope I'm not stuck here forever."

In fact, common sense thinking is the best way to calm yourself down. Indeed, when you think logically, you don't have unnecessary questions about "What if I don't get out or what if I die here?" Such questions need to be eradicated immediately.

"So, I've walked about four thousand three hundred and thirty-seven steps today. If only my feet weren't stuck in the sand. Maybe I could have walked more. I'll need to make snowshoes... But in this analogy, sand shoes. Hmm... Is there quicksand here? I don't think so. If there was, that would mean there was a body of water. I don't think that's likely. My head feels much lighter, the cold air favoring it. Apparently magical head trauma has similar symptoms to fever. I'll have to remember that, as long as I don't catch cold here. It's getting light. It's getting light fast, not like it does in Equestria. That's probably because I'm somewhere on the equator. Night and day here have roughly equal proportions of about twelve hours. Sunrise and sunset take place in just half an hour. Which means one thing: in an hour it's going to be sweltering heat... That's not good. What am I gonna make a shelter out of? We must sleep. Two days on my feet with a sore head and exhaustion is putting a lot of pressure on my body. Dig a hole? What if the sand blows in while I'm sleeping? I'd make a joke about digging a grave for myself, but I don't care about jokes. I'll get as much water as I can and move on. In the meantime..." Twilight rubbed her mane against the wet sand, even though it was dirty, it would help to freshen up. - Great, so my only chance of escape is this place. Hell, flying would be faster, but I don't want to pass out. I've got to do the math. Four thousand steps. At least a meter each. So I've covered four kilometers overnight. Thirty-six kilometers to go... Shit... It's a long walk. Twelve days? What am I counting? That's practically two weeks. Nine is right, considering the walking, day and night. Phew... Faust grant that I'll last another three days at this pace. Hmm... What to think of. I'll think about it and keep up the same pace....

"Record 4. Desert. "World 2. "The world is lifeless. The air is breathable. Water can be condensed at night from frost by collecting it with magic, not a good game of attrition. 34.3 kilometers to the point of what? I don't know what, but there's nothing else for me to navigate to, even if that point is a shadow. I'll at least rest in it. If it's something different or dangerous, I'm in for an unenviable ending... Today seems to be hotter than usual, the temperature is around 63 degrees."

Hmmm... After calculating the air temperature and the speed of movement in flight, I realized that if I climbed to an altitude of about a kilometer, the air temperature would drop to about ten degrees. And if I planned on wings, I could cover about seven kilometers. Otherwise, I'll just pass out. Well, it's worth a try.

Twilight spread her majestic wings and took off, slowly gaining altitude.

"It's easier this time. I'll climb and keep a close eye on the state of my body."

It took a quarter of an hour to get to a height where the temperature was comfortable for her body. In the distance she could see the same point and it seemed to get a little bigger.

"Now the planning. Just like Fluttershy taught me. This is what she calls lazy flying. Wow, there's a lot of wind out here. Hmm... I could use this."

Spreading her wings wider, Twilight even flew even higher, thanks to the planet's air currents. She began to plan.

The result exceeded her expectations and, at the end of the flight, she had traveled most of the way. After an estimated reflection, the alicorn realized that it appeared that she had covered about twenty-seven kilometers, and her destination was about seven kilometers away.

"I really hope the crown is in that place after all, otherwise it was all for nothing... In fact, it was very reckless to put my life in that place... But, what choice do I have? I'll have to find some organics, any plant, anything... I'm crazy hungry..." such thoughts made Twilight drool.

"So, what do we have on the plus side? I've traveled about 80-85 percent of the designated path. On the downside. It's hot! I'm hungry!" Twilight exhaled as she stopped clenching her teeth in anger and inhaled a full chest of air. "So... There are still too many minuses. Also, my wings are insanely sore... I should have skipped the training from Rainbow... Eh... Speaking of which... That dark spot is already visible from here. Surprisingly, it's a very spacious dark substance, but that's all I can see for now..."

* * *

"So, the analysis shows that these records have particles of sand... And also a repeat of all the content from before. Apparently, it's soaked the entire book... Uh-huh," Starlight judged, soon after reporting back, she decided to change the subject. "Princess. Twilight still hasn't woken up?"

"We're still forcibly keeping her asleep..."

"But we can't do that! She's been lonely for a long time. And now that she's back home and her nightmares in parallel dimensions are over, will she continue to suffer at home?"

"Don't worry, Starlight. Luna explained to me that her dream is open."

"What do you mean, "open"?"

"Anyone who sleeps in her room can mentally contact her and enter her dream. Twilight didn't close her mind to her guests."

"Does she want to talk to us herself?"

"I think Twilight does it randomly, subconsciously. Her brain is working, well... In multiple directions at once."

"What do you mean?" Starlight doesn't understand.

"You see, the brain of a pony, or any creature different from us, works in different departments and coexists with others, unnoticed by the bearer. As for Twilight, her brain works differently. One department does the work of emotions, another is responsible for character, the third for cold calculation, the fourth for appropriateness, or something, we have not yet fully understood it. And the fifth is responsible for functionality and safety."

"Wow... but how did you know that?"

"The CT scans show that her mind works in a systemic fashion, although the sections are independent of each other. While the first and second divisions are almost non-functional now, the third division is fully functional, but the fourth and fifth divisions have taken over. This is slightly aided by the first division. It's the reason she hasn't committed genocide here."

"She could have killed all of us?" Starlight noted with mild horror, as did Sunburst, who was watching.

"Very easily, and without blinking an eye. Speaking of which, she's very strong. And Applejack's broken legs are proof of that, for she kicked her with all her might, and Twilight, afterwards, flew back only one meter. Although Applejack could kick rocks weighing several tons."

"Wait a minute! She has a fracture?!"

"Yes, but her life and health are no longer in danger. Our doctors were able to help her quickly. Funny thing is, she didn't realize it until her hind legs started to swell."

"I want to talk to her!"

"I really want to talk to her too, Starlight... But right now..." Celestia exhaled sadly. "She's not in the mood, to say the least."

"Princess, I don't know what Twilight's been through, but I think we should send someone into her dream who she hasn't thrown a murderous glare at. Maybe Fluttershy? Or Spike?"

"No... I'm not letting Spike in just yet. It'll traumatize him even more. Fluttershy, maybe, yeah. But she's timid."

"No! She's not timid! She's not the shy filly she used to be, and I can tell you that she has the biggest and most persistent emotional barrier."

"Then we'll send Fluttershy to her today to see if she'll talk to her."

* * *

"This way, Miss Fluttershy."

The doctor led a yellow pegasus with a soft pink mane and tail into the room. She walked quietly behind the doctor. She saw a not very pleasant sight. Twilight was lying on the couch, her eyes bandaged with a tight white bandage for safety, her wings taped at the base to restrain her flapping reflexes. A ring was placed on her horn to restrain magic. She was lying on her back, tied tightly to the couch with wide ribbons that would make her look like an incurable mental patient. Behind her there were two racks and various devices with a huge number of buttons. The first device, with a small screen, showed a heartbeat that was surprisingly low by normal standards. The beats were about thirty per minute. The second rack of instruments was responsible for monitoring the brain. The neurons were now excited. Twilight seemed to be thinking very hard about something. And there were abnormalities here, too.

"You can't do that..." Fluttershy timidly approached Twilight and wanted to touch her.

"You can't!" Pulling her hoof away, the doctor began to explain the instructions. "One! Do not touch the patient, two: do not use magic on her! Three: don't provoke her. Fourth: if you need psychological support after the session, the psychologist is there," the doctor pointed to the next door with her hoof.

"Okay, let's start the session. Lie down here, Ms. Fluttershy", the nurse spoke more calmly.

The pegasus shook with a sharp cry, but soon obediently laid down on the couch not far from Twilight, determined to help her friend.

"Now, listen to me, you could wake up at any moment. Princess Luna made a kind of "lifeline" on purpose and...."

"It'll be fine, Twilight won't hurt me," Fluttershy gently assured her, interrupting the doctor."

I wish you could have seen the state Princess Luna was in after the session," the doctor thought, but he didn't tell Fluttershy, as she had fallen asleep. - Good luck."

* * *

It was still dark. The scent of the place was like the breath of death. No, more like tar. It was still dark and musty. The space in the neighborhood seemed to press down on his entire body from all sides, as if he'd been dipped in water.

"Twilight? Are you in here?" Fluttershy looked around fearfully as she walked past the wreckage of the alicorn's subconscious. Here and there lay shapeless piles of bodies of varying degrees of mortality. "What a horrible place..."

"Fluttershy? Mmm, they decided to send you first?"

The image of Twilight appeared before her, sitting calmly and watching her friend. Her gaze was blank and her pupils were a cloudy color, making it look like a potential corpse was talking to her.

"Twilight! It's so good to see you! - She hugged the alicorn, but only felt the sticky substance that enveloped her fur." Oh! You need a bath!

"It won't help. See..."

Twilight pulsed through the substance. Turns out that dirt signified Twilight's vices. Powerlessness, tears, shame, weakness, lawlessness, genocide, which Fluttershy was partially gifted with as well. In front of her, bits and pieces of her friend's memories flashed by in rapid succession.

Fluttershy was stunned. Tears flowed uncontrollably. She had seen her friend kill. Blood, guts, lust, pain, screams, and Twilight's silent gaze, which was now unblinking and pointedly drilling the pegasus.

"This... This isn't you... Twilight. You didn't just do that!" Fluttershy shrieked.

Her pulse jumped, but she didn't try to get away from her friend, she decided to stand her ground and, no matter how unpleasant or painful it was, to stand her ground.

"It was me, my dear. It's all me. Can you take a piece of my pain? Is my "friend," as you all call yourselves, ready to share in my sins?"

"Yes!" Fluttershy shouted without hesitation, and it even looked like a white aura flashed around the pegasus. "I won't say that everything you did was right, but you were alone the whole time! You had no one to turn to! You were in pain! And I saw it!" she sobbed, struggling to open her eyes to look at her friend.

Time seemed to drag on forever. The pegasus would dream of making tools out of the skins of small animals, of tearing raw meat in order to exchange it for something of equal value, and even of eating animal flesh to keep from starving to death.

"I'm sorry..."

Her heart snapped at those words, and the pegasus opened her eyes for the first time, slowly raising her gaze to her seated friend and seeing her... crying? A faint moisture trickled from her eye, soaking into her own pelt. She was in pain. It even felt like one of her cloudy pupils was giving off a glossy glow. A quiet breeze blew around the sleeping area, though it shouldn't be, and soon she was awake.

Fluttershy took a greedy gulp of air and cried again. Soon after the yellow pony regained consciousness, she told Celestia what had happened.

"Princess... She was in pain... She was crying... She..." and still barely holding back, she boldly reported to Celestia. She hugged her gently.

"I know, Fluttershy. You're good. You're the first to reach her. Next time, we'll continue with the others, and you need to rest..." she stroked Fluttershy's mane, trying to calm the pegasus.

* * *

"Record 5. World 2: Desert. I'm still walking. Blur seemed somewhat different, something that shouldn't be on this planet. And it seemed cold? The closer I got to it, the colder it got. No, it seemed icy. Tomorrow I'll continue during the day, try to get to my destination with my body thermoregulating."

So, the night passed rather draughtily. Although there was a relative abundance of water, there was still not enough for the day. And it was impossible to stockpile more under the circumstances. Because of the cold that came from the border of the dark spot, it was decided not to go there at night, because the temperature had dropped to -43 degrees, and it was extremely dangerous. The tips of my wings began to freeze in that cold. I had to use magic and curl up in a ball to keep warm. At least she managed to nap for a couple hours. But still, she couldn't count on a full night's sleep.

"Day six. I feel my crown is right there. I'm going there," Twilight said as she walked across the icy sand, wrinkling her nose at the ground that felt cold to her hooves. - It's already daytime. And the temperature is barely rising just above freezing... And dropping lower. Hmmm... can you see an entrance up ahead? That's it! That's what I saw in the distance, it wasn't a black spot. In fact, it's a building made of some kind of black material. What kind of material? Hmm. I don't know what it is, but its structure and color resembles Hematite.

As Twilight approached the entrance, she could feel the icy wind oozing out of it. The stairs at the entrance went somewhere deep inside.

"Well, about ten degrees below zero."

A state of non-state, that's how one could describe Twilight's physical capabilities at the moment. But now it was up to her to either go back to the warm sands or dive deeper. It was scary to make the wrong choice, and it was scary not to decide. Twilight weighed the pros and cons of her speculation some more.

"If there's any place my crown could go, it's here."

Wrapping herself in magic to keep her warm, she headed downstairs. The steps were slippery with a thin layer of frost, and it was possible to break one's hooves or, worse, crash to one's death.

Time went on and on, but the steps did not seem to end. They seemed to lead to the core of the planet. The walls were no different. The same mosaic set of squares and rectangles in a repeating pattern.

"2375, 2376, 2377..." Twilight counted to keep her brain from going numb. The point in all of this was that you have to think constantly and keep your brain active to keep the magic going. "Twilight, Twilight... you'd be sitting at home right now, warm and fed, with Spike watching over you. Your apprentice Starlight would come in and reprimand you for falling asleep at the books by your desk again. Eh... I miss those days. I wonder if they'd follow me. No, I probably shouldn't expect help, since the only key to this world is my crown. How ironic. I should have left it there. And then maybe I could come back? Wouldn't you? But the crown is here... Stupid... If I return home alive, I'll definitely make it taboo to explore other worlds."

Exhaling again, she looked ahead. Dark nothing and stairs, her hoof muscles had already memorized the rhythmic action and were moving on their own, and it looked like she could sleep.

"No! Brrr! You can't sleep!" Slackening her magic a bit, she refreshed herself with a cold, no, icy stream of descending air from below. Gritting her teeth once more, she regained magical control. "Ooooh... it's getting easier, but when will this descent end? I can already feel the pressure drop in my ears."

"3766, 3767. So, a little math. Given that each step is about 22 centimeters high, multiply, we get 82874 centimeters. So, divide that by that, you get 828 meters down. Oh, even my head felt bad from such calculations, although earlier, when I was awake, I used to multiply different numbers in my mind with twelve digits. Through Fourier transforms. Uh-huh... I hope there's a warm room downstairs where I could sleep. Wow... It's considerably colder here, as much as 63 degrees below zero."

Once again, Twilight was overcome with fear. She could go back before it was too late, but what if it wasn't too far away?

"Okay, calm down... Deep breath. Calm down. I can feel the crown coming on. I just need to be confident. Determined! Courageous! Come on! Make a decision and move on, be brave!" Twilight tried to cheer herself up.

Her words echoed noisily on the walls of the endless descent. Next, shutting down her brain for a while, she tried to make the minimum power consumption for its functionality. Maintaining her body temperature and rhythmic steps downward with counting in her mind. She succeeded. So she continued onward. Bang... Abruptly her body froze, feeling something new under her hooves, almost cowering from the sensation of the phantom step below. Her body hadn't expected something flat and made painful contact with the floor.

"Hmmm... So. Apparently, this is the end of the stairs. 4545, I think. Exactly one hundred thousand centimeters, or exactly one kilometer. Given the cold environment and the depth of the terrain, about 900 millimeters of mercury. Oho... That's not good for my head."

The corridor continued onward. Finally, something new, Twilight thought, scrutinizing the walls and ceiling.

"Minus 84 degrees, and no change. Why is it the coldest here? Yikes... at this temperature, even metal breaks down. Hmm..."

After a hundred meters, she detected a light. The light was coming from a blue crystal, and there were some nasty artifacts nearby, most likely something alive was on this planet, there were two skeletons. It was hard to identify the remains, corroded by time. But fragments of wings and ossified remains let us know that they were pegasi after all.

"Rest in harmony, rest in peace..." Twilight cremated the remains of the deceased with fire and began to study the crystal. She touched the edge of the crystal with a bottle, making it glaze over. "Amazing, the crystal giving off that kind of frost. Absolute zero? The temperature in a vacuum. But a physical object shouldn't be this cold. I think I figured out how they and all civilization on this planet died. This crystal is like a parasite left behind by some malevolent entity. If that's the case, I will destroy it!"

With a powerful stream and a sharp pulse, she directed the magic straight into the crystal, which reluctantly hummed and soon began to crack, and then exploded, stunning Twilight herself and pinning her to the wall. Her head whistled, and her concussed body slid downward, unable to fight gravity.

"No, you can't sleep... You can't..." Twilight struggled, but the pleasant warmth of hypothermia was treacherously trying to put her to sleep. Soon drowsiness, fatigue and exhaustion took over and the alicorn simply collapsed on her side, passing out.

It was unclear how long it had been since she had fallen asleep, but she awoke to a pleasant warmth she didn't want, a warmth comparable to the memory of someone as a child snuggling you in bed while you slept. It turned out that the makeshift vest had been keeping her well warm the whole time, keeping the heat away from her body. Twilight jumped up almost immediately, feeling even hotter.

"The temperature! 27 degrees... Oh..." her legs suddenly shook, cooling Twilight's fervor, and she came to her senses a little while later, greedily draining the bottled water, wetting her parched throat. "I'm alive... I'm alive... I'm alive..." the smile on her face was proof of that. Endorphin rushed generously into her head, gifting her with a great mood. "Phew... I finally got some sleep... Well, the crown wasn't here, but at least I got some rest," trying to brush the drops of sweat off her head, she felt something on it. Pulling the strange object off, she noticed her crown.

"A crown? Who? What? How did it get here? I don't remember wearing it..." looking over the crown again, she saw the star in the center glowing with the color of her harmony. - Thank you," she said softly and with a smile, hugging the crown like a friend.

The crown began to levitate, opening a portal. Twilight looked at the shell and the color of the portal. Green with a yellow border.

"Diary, the condition for receiving the crown was to eradicate the problem. Or find a solution to it. You don't always have to find the crown, sometimes the crown will find you. And if your heart is brave, your mind is clear, and your desire is persistent, you will succeed."

This time, thoroughly prepared, Twilight took some hematite stones and drew water, condensing it from the air. With a good rest, she stepped into the portal.

A hum and a light breeze blew around her. Stepping to the other side of the portal, she found herself... in a forest? Whether the forest was friendly or dangerous, she didn't know yet, but she knew the answer almost immediately, recognizing that her crown was no longer on her head.

* * *

"And so ended her second world," Sunburst finished reading." Well, let's move on. Starlight, don't get distracted!

"Twilight is so smart and brave, I didn't realize she could be so cool!" Starlight looked at the stallion in amazement, she smiled and was very proud of her teacher.

* * *

*For now, for now, for now. Starlight, you will learn the sins of your teacher. And then, will you be able to call me that, after all you've read?*