And Then ... In Chapter 28
"My Pot!" where the words said by two ponies that had bumped into each other on a Friday afternoon. Nopony cared.
"Your Pot?" was the answer said by both. Twilight quickly snatched the bag away from view, checking that nopony was looking. Nopony cared.
The rainbow mare glared at the other. "Hey! That's mine!"
"Quiet down Rainbow!" The purple mare responded quickly, looking around again. "Nopony has heard, but if you keep yelling somepony might!" This didn't reach Rainbow as she started to hover off the ground.
"I don’t care! That’s mine, and I need it! I was gonna use it to... to make uh... tea! Yeah, tea!" An unimpressed eyebrow from the alicorn made her crack. "I'm serious Twi!" She moved closer to Twilight's face, who refused to back away.
"Tea? Really? That's the best excuse you have?" The pegasus crossed her hooves and pouted.
"Ok, you got me! Fine! But It's still mine!" Twilight gave an exasperated sigh.
"Look, we can’t argue about this here. Let’s... let’s go somewhere private. Somewhere nopony will bother us"
"Like where?" Rainbow backed away, raising an eyebrow.
"I think I know a place." Both ponies where gone in a flash of magic.
It doesn't really matter what happened in the last hour or hours. Neither remembered or cared to recall, but they did know that they sat in a pile of pillows by some discarded fiction novels. Snacks and drinks just barely missing their pages. Twilight took a breath of the joint held in her magic, savoring it and exhaling. She watched the smoke swirl and curl upward into the crystals that made up the walls and ceiling.
"Whoa... Dash, do you see how the smoke is... like, becoming part of the castle?" Twilight asked, her eyes tracing the ceiling and how is swirled with the smoke. Maybe it was the other way around. Dash grabbed the joint from Twilight, taking a drag as she looked up to the smoke. Her eyes widened as she exhaled.
"Dude... it's like the castle is alive. I swear I just saw one of those crystals pulse like a heartbeat."
"Right? It's like... this place knows we're here." She looked at how the crystals shined. When did the night come? The moon's light being helped by the stars. "What if this castle is a being? Like, not a building, but... a consciousness?" Rainbow laughed through light coughs, turning to look at the high alicorn.
"Okay, okay. What if... we're the crystals? And this whole reality is just some giant castle smoking us?" Twilight gasped dramatically in response. Or did she just forget to breath? No one remembers.
"Dash. Stop. That's too much. But also… what if that’s true? What if every time we, like, “zone out,” it’s actually the castle hitting its joint?" Twilight turned to Rainbow, causing Dash to lean back and look at the ceiling again.
"Oh damm. That makes so much sense. That’s why time feels weird sometimes. Like, when you think it’s been five minutes but it’s actually been an hour. The castle was taking a break." Twilight took the joint back from Rainbow.
"You’re blowing my mind right now. I can’t tell if it’s the weed or this place, but everything feels... connected, you know?"
"Totally! Like ... like when we used the Elements. Do you think they remember stuff? Like ... like all the ponies who've used them before us?" Twilight tilted her head as Dash looked back to her.
"Maybe they do. Maybe the Tree does. It's so ... so shiny-"
"Sparkly, Sparkle."
"-so sparkly! What if every sparkle is a memory? Like, every time somepony felt joy, or wonder, or even sadness, it left an imprint." Dash's eyes widened as Twilight spoke.
"Twi ... we’re adding to its sparkle right now. Like, our vibes are becoming part of the castle’s... vibe library." Twilight laughed at that.
"The Great Cosmic Vibe Library. I love that." She continued to giggle. Dash joined in. They laughed for who knows how long. It could have been seconds, maybe minutes, it felt like hours. Finally they calmed, with Dash taking another hit from the magically levitated joint which she didn't bother grabbing back again. She watched the smoke float away as Twilight took her own hit. Dash leaned closer, her voice going low.
"Okay, but listen. We’re the first ponies to ever get high in this castle? Like ... we’re the trailblazers of this dimension." Twilight gave a short snort, smoke escaping through her nose mid exhale.
"Trailblazers?" she coughed out more smoke. "More like trail haze-ers." Dash laughed into Twilight, finding her wings the perfect pillow. Twilight couldn't help but join in the laughter as time lost meaning again.
"Oh my gods, Twi, you’re ridiculous." Twilight grinned at Dash, fluffing her feather to tickle at the smaller mare.
"You know what, though? If this castle is alive-"
"Or the Elements, or the Tree"
"Harmony?"
"Yeah that sounds good."
"Well then if Harmony is alive, I think it likes us." They smiled together at the idea.
"Yeah. I feel it too. Like, it’s... happy we’re here." They sat in comfortable silence for a moment, noticing how their eyes shined from the light that the crystals reflected. Noticing how the crystals seemed to hum softly around them. The hum becoming a song, and that song a language. They won't remember what its saying, but for now, it was harmony. The non-silence had to be broken at some point though, and it was done by Twilight.
"So... should we try to talk to it?" Dash grinned at her suggestion.
"Only if you’re ready to blow your own mind again." They burst into laughter as the castle’s light seems to dance around them, as if sharing the joke. And they felt it, the Elements, the Tree, the Harmony that spoke through them. They didn't know if it was the weed, or if they heard a third laugh with them, but they were not scared. A friend was with them. And the world was in harmony, and Harmony was with them.
Author's Note
So. Went a bit over 24 hours. But to be fair I only wrote for like 4 hours really, the rest of that time was spent buying and wrapping presents.
Hope it was somewhat good, I actually liked how this turned out. I might add it to the stuff I'm working on for my au. This ended up much less silly and much more wholesome than I initially thought this would be.
Added a few of my head-cannons in, so feel free to do whatever with that information.
