Tick, tick tick. This was the only sound that could be heard, a tranquil sort of ticking though, it wasn't a timer, nor was it something dangerous. The sound eminated only from one room, one of the about 10 identical rooms along the hallway. The hallway was white, with a lovely reflective blue and a bronze prison door every few metres. The doors had bars on them but that was all, being a mental institution they would not allow their occupants too much slack. Tick, tick, tick. It was louder now, more heavy and menacing. Wits End stood in his cell, holding a piece of chalk in his hoof, writing what was probably his hundreth equation today. The dull, grey wall was actually mostly white, covered in impossible to understand mathematics and foreign languages. Every few minutes his hoof would waver and his arm would move towards his face, pondering, thinking, always thinking.This must be it, it has to be, if I am wrong this won't work and nothing should happen... But, BUT! If it does, then I will be the first non unicorn to learn telekinesis. Although I could easily escape this place, that is what spoons are for but it would make escape alot easier. He reached over to a stack of paper and a pen in the corner, he brought out a piece of paper and grabbed the pen and put it to the paper. The words flowed out fluently and in a cursive script, soft lines of black on the white. However, every now and then one of the words that came out would be coarse and blunt on the paper, and he would twitch his head a little when this happened. He placed the pen down on the floor and scrolled down the page reading aloud as he did so.
"Dear Princess Celestia,
Today I learned that objects can be MANIPULATED by a force other than magic. After MANY hours of writing and computing formulas on my CELL wall, I have gathered that magic can simulated by means of sheer WILLPOWER and brainpower. Although many would dismiss my theories, the public SHUN me and most of them don't even know I EXIST. This not only saddens me but INFURIATES me, as not only will I never see the natural sunlight, instead of the artificial, aqua lights in my cell, but I also will never, EVER meet someone, never to feel wanted, loved or repsected. I know you may or may not read this letter. If it even LEAVES this building it will be nothing short of a MIRACLE. With this I shall entrust that you and only YOU will read this letter, as I have written to you for a YEAR every week. I now understand something must be done, SOMETHING must change for my state to change. Did I ever tell you the definition of INSANITY? It is a pony, repeating something OVER and OVER expecting something different every time. But that is only a quote of Einstein, in my opinion the fine line between GENIUS and INSANITY, is measured only by success."
He drew a breath and folded it over twice and on its side he wrote 'To Princess Celestia' in a brilliant cursive and slid it under the door. A guard walked past and noticed the note and picked it up. He began laughing as he went to open it and instantly Wits End was against the window bars on his doors, his blue eyes looking particularly manic as he breathed heavily at the guard. "Why would you read that? That is NOT adressed to YOU! If you have any sanity, you will not open that, listen to me 'if you have any sanity' that is quite ironic, is it not?" Wits End was head to hoof white, with a dull brown mane with brilliant sapphire streaks in them. The guard was now on the floor of the hallway his wide open in panic as he stumbled away from the door.
"Is there a problem?" came a voice from the corner of the corridor, it was a famililar voice to the guard, why wouldn't be? The voice in question belonged to Twilight Sparkle, 'Warden' of the Equestrian Mental Institution. She was Comepletely purple, with the exeption of her cutie mark and a streak of pink hair amongst the purple. She wore a white labcoat and a pair of glasses that sat neatly on her nose. A clipboard floated in front of her, a purple aura around it. Her horn showed the same glowing color and it would not take more than a seconds thinking to figure she was using her magic.
"Th-the c-convict jumped at me!" the guard repied hastly.
"Now, that is not entirely true, but it IS your own fault for trying to read something not meant for you, now miss Sparkle, can you PLEASE make sure this reaches the Princess? I have been writing for a year and I am unsure if ANY of my letters have reached the her?"
Twilight reached over and picked up the folded piece of paper and turned it in her hoof. " Well, I must say you have excellent handwriting, but if it must go to the Princess. then I must at least check it does not contain anything sinister."
"Oh you wound me madam, but if you must examine it, go right on ahead." he said as he clutched a hoof to his chest smiling.
As she examined the note, passing her eyes along almost every inch of the paper, Wits End busily paced his cell, with piece of chalk in hoof. He began writing even more equations on the walls, but these ones made no sense, although only those who understood advanced mathematics would find that these sums and what not made no sense. and at the very bottom he wrote: 'Half of everything is truth, but that sits underneath the lies.' He smiled and put down the chalk once again and sat down in the corner and began to fold one of the various loose sheets of paper that fell off the pile he had.
"Well," started Twilight, adjusting her glasses on the bridge of her nose, "I can tell you that this letter does not contain anything dangerous and can be sent to Princess Celestia."
Wits End actually started jumping up and down with joy as he heard those words, he would finally have a letter read by the Princess, suddenly his almost countless years in his now too familiar cell (although he had been counting) suddenly didn't seem so much of a bother anymore. "I shall take this to her personally," continued Twilight "I am fairly certain she find your work rather interesting." And with that she swiftly left the clipboard on the ground, to picked up by the guard, who looked at it, puzzled as to what to do with it. She walked outside through the large, oak double doors, inlaid with metal, mostly iron, which had been smelted intricately into the dark brown wood. The sun was high in the afternoon sky and had a lazy feel about it. As the golden rays hit her face she felt a lovely warmth spread throughout her body as she sighed and then breathed in a mouthful of sweet scented, fresh air. The sky had virtually no clouds in sight, except for a single, rather large, white cloud on the horizon which would most likely fly over during the middle of the night. There was a single dirt path that wound in a few lazy corners here and there as it wormed its way to a train station, the old steam train just pulling into station. If the train had just arrived she would need to hurry if she wanted to get to Canterlot. Canterlot could be seen even from where she was right now. It was high in the mountains, which for some reason always had white on the peaks amongst the mass of blackish-grey. She began running down he path, down towards the train station, to the Princess and ultimately, to something that could change everything.