A Brief Window of Opportunity

Whirrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

What's that noise? Is that what it sounds like to travel across dimensions? Like a... fan or something. A bright blue light burns my eyes, and it takes a second to adjust. I appear to be inside some kind of white plastic tube, and my head is strapped down to whatever I'm laying on. The lights flash red, and a buzzer sounds, as the platform I'm laying on shifts along the length of the tube.

Finally, it comes to a rest in a simple office-like room, lit by recessed fluorescent fixtures. The equipment holding my head in place slackens, allowing me to sit up. I'm a little dizzy and nauseous, but I manage fine. To my right, a student and a few faculty members are staring at me, mouths agape. I put my head to my hand — or is it my hand going to my head? I'm still a little disoriented — and try to remember what just happened.

Oh yeah, I just had sex with a bunch of ponies...

...No, wait, that can't be right. I think back a little harder.

'...So what we're going to do is inject you with a cocktail of drugs that will induce a lucid dreaming state and allow us to visualize through fMRI scanning whatever world your subconscious generates. The data we collect will be converted to video in real-time, allowing us to track your experiences in the dream and map out how the brain uses those experiences to optimize neural networks. Of course, the ethics board requires us to remind you that your deepest fantasies and desires can and probably will be called forth during the trial, and they will be recorded and kept by the university indefinitely for research purposes...'

Wait, why did I sign up for that experiment again? I look at the four other people in the room with me, who are all still speechless. I look to my left, and see an expensive-looking computer with multiple monitors. Some of the screens show slices of my brain, with bits of color scattered across them, while another monitor shows something completely different. The words 'Experiment Terminated' were etched across the top of a still frame of the very last thing I saw in Equestria. Six ponies bidding me farewell.

These guys just watched that entire thing. I feel like I should be feeling some shame here, but...

...I regret nothing.