"W-where am I?" I raise my hooves to my eyes rubbing them and get up with a stretch and a wide open yawn. My hooves are making clopping sounds, ah that's right my environment, I remember where I am now. Oh no what am I doing napping here, the girls are probably worried sick! I spot my papers on the ground where I was doing my tests, thirty-six deformed, one well off. I perform the teleport test on the clean sheet once more to make sure its not a shifting time-space alteration. I would need to do alot more calculations if it were, depending on its frequency of updating. I likely am being too cautious because my natural pony magic may just auto-correct any problems anyways with the teleport, but theres no reason to not be cautious. This place has not had much freak encounters relative to other locations across equestria, the girls are going to be fine.
I make sure all my bags are double checked and replace my litter and the safe sheet of paper, then I am ready to teleport. My horn glows majestically brightening up the room, and a flash of light fills my vision and a familiar sound. Normally when a teleport is performed it feels like gravity shifts to my front, then back below me, but this time I felt it in odd directions, then from a range of directions at once, then back down again. I seem to have teleported right upon the girls, oops!
"Gah!"
"Holy smokes!"
"Ehehehe, told you Twi would be back any minute!"
I sure did shock them. "Sorry girls"
"Where 'ave you been Twi, we were worried sick about you!" Applejack approaches with concern in her eyes.
"I already told you we were in a room with a spooooky book Twi couldn't get enough of! Oh Twilight, you and your books." Pinkie tsks much like Rarity wanted to.
"I am sorry Applejack, I will be more careful next time."
"Next time you vanish for hours, you give us advance warning! I don't care about this weird... space thing Pinkie mentioned, at least send us a message telling us you are alright!" Wait, hours? I shake my head, oh, that's right, I had taken a nap.
"I was careless I should have thought better of it. Do we still have time to explore more of the ruins?"
"Well, yeah just," She looks like she expressed herself and is calm now ",we were worried sick about you, an Dash here havin her head filled with those Daring Do adventures kept puttin worryin ideas into our heads. I am just glad you are alright." She embraces me and I can feel her caring, I wrap my hooves around her.
"Come here girls, I owe you all an apology." We share a group hug. Mmmm, one of the true pleasures of having friends there.
"Alright who is ready to explore!"
"Me! Me! Me!" Pinkie excitedly jumps up and down and everypony laughs and our moods are chipper.
We begin trotting down spotting ancient carvings into the stone of the mountain approaching a turning narrow path that seems to be part of a natural cave formation.
"So uh, what were you busy doin in there anyway?" Me and her are at the front of the group but I can sense everypony's curiosity from their lack of dialogue. And oh yes, the book! My goodness the implications.
"A book?" I seem to have been talking out loud again, I sheepishly but unashamedly smile for a moment.
"Ahem, yes. This book, actually seems far more significant than I could have expected."
Applejack seems lightly perplexed. "How do you know its significant?"
"The book, titled 'The Lost Mundane' paints a picture of a time when magic ran more wildly before us ponies had made a more natural ecosystem out of Equestria. Its time-frame seems to be placed before even the Windigos of lore. It is most certainly beyond Celestia's time."
"That does sound significant-"
"Oooo ooo what'd they have in the past, I bet they had delicious puddings custards and tarts!" Pinkie bounces around me and AJ, derailing my train of thought.
"Um, that's not the sort of details the book got into."
"Maybe it spoke about the wildlife."
"Perhaps tales of courageous, strapping young stallions ready to plow a mare's field!" Rarity comments. Applejack looks taken aback.
"Like Big Mac!" Pinkie says. Applejack looks disgusted.
"Mmm yes, like that hunk-" Rarity daydreams.
"You're talkin' 'bout my brother!" Applejack develops a blush.
"Would everypony settle down! The book did not go into any of those sorts of details!"
"Then what sort of details did it go into?"
"It.. I am not really sure. I think it spoke of an alternate magical dimension accessed via our natural magic when we sleep, or perhaps our souls leave our body."
"That sounds dangerous."
"It sounds fun!"
"well, whatever it sounds like, it definitely could change our understanding of the history of magic and how it changed over time. Its a huge discovery!" One I need to look into myself. As Celestia's protégé I am legally allowed first access rights as well and if I publish my findings I am going to be as thorough as I can! Don't need to hand it off to some other pony to take the credit of analysis, they might even make mistakes involved from lack of knowledge of the arcane arts themselves. I am the most qualified to do this, and Celestia has enough on her plate ruling all of Equestria.
Our path brings us into a breathtaking view of the cave. The cave is exposed to the ocean, stalactites and stalagmites in view with art carved into them. We can hear the water crashing and echoing at the foot of the cave bringing an eerie yet relaxing atmosphere. The carvings in the stone contain depictions of ponies and their souls leaving their bodies in meditating postures, their souls traveling upward toward the top of the cave. We all look up at a similar rate eliciting gasps oos and aws. Depending on where you stand there are multiple ways based on the reflection of light within the cave to interpret the art in different ways. As we trot further in it seems to progress from rolling clouds to odd fractal patterns to fields. On second thought this is probably magic, but I do not know how delicate it could be, and judging upon the book's contents I should approach this more cautiously. It is most certainly a depiction of some of what the book was talking about.
"I feel as if I could get lost marveling in its beauty." Rarity says almost mesmerized.
"It was declared safe for the public, and this is a marvelous discovery, so we do not need to fear getting lost into its depths."
"Why would we need to fear it?" Rarity looks to me, then I remember I didn't go into detail over in the book for them.
"Um, its nothing, don't need to worry about it." Rarity seems content for now with that response. I can't help but feel concerned. What really happened to this realm? Maybe the realm is fine, something could just be blocking it. Or maybe it was fueled by natural magics which eventually ran out. Perhaps somepony took its magic for themself.
"Its beautiful."
"Oh it most certainly is darling. This will be a great inspiration for my work. I mean, it'd be even further inspiration if it wasn't all the same drab color, but it will still do."
I look to each pony and they are all admiring its brilliance. I look back to it wondering what I'll see next. We take turns carefully trotting around to not disturb the statues and carved tites and mites.
"This pony sees their family! And this one sees a field of flowers! And this one sees the moon and the stars, and even mars!"
"Pinkie what are you talking about?" I inquire.
"Isn't it obvious?" Everypony looks to Pinkie. "The closer you stand to certain ponies the more it changes to a thing they remember, for example this pony has a cutie mark of a crying onion, and when we stand next to him we see a storm ruining his onion crops! These are all memories of the ponies!" Wow.
"Wow Pinkie, I guess you are right!" We all move about to different ponies to check them out.
"Guys, I am sorta getting a bit hungry, and this isn't moving anyplace soon we can always visit it again later." Rainbow says floating near the ceiling looking at something.
"I suppose I am getting hungry too. Do you think its a good time to take a break?" The girls nod. "Alright lets go." I look back at the cave one more time as everypony is heading out and ponder whats to come.