There are places even gods fear to tread, gaps in reality where things that do not exist can crawl through. In the Badlands of Equestria, there lies one of these places, a three square mile area where nothing exists. Our minds are not able to handle the concept of nothingness: we seek patterns even where none exist.
What do you imagine nonexistence to be like? Complete darkness? An endless white void? Both of these are wrong. Complete darkness implies the existence of darkness. An endless white void requires both space and the color white to exist. Try as we might, nocreature can truly grasp what it means to not exist.
As such, when we found this area of nonexistence, our minds filled in the blanks. We saw it as just a continuation of the Badlands, the red dirt and occasional boulder all that lay within. Those that entered this area ceased to exist, yet we continued to perceive them until we stopped paying attention. It was only when the third pair of researchers failed to return that we began to suspect something was amiss.
Our minds are not able to handle the concept of nonexistence. Although our colleagues stopped existing, we fooled ourselves into thinking they continued to exist. As we kept them in this state, where they existed only within our minds, they eventually grew aware of their predicament. They went mad as their simultaneous existence and nonexistence tore apart their minds. They began to resent us. They began to hate us. They began to scream at us, and with their screams, more and more of us joined their number.
In the end, it was my desire to learn that both saved and doomed me. I found the pattern in the lack of patterns, saw what couldn’t be seen. I made myself forget the others, forget what I even came out here for. And when I no longer remembered, I began to investigate. I learned, again, the forbidden knowledge, and started to hear their screams. And to save myself, I once more made myself forget.
I don’t know how many times I repeated this cycle, learned, forgot, and learned again. I do know it won’t work anymore. I made myself forget again, but the screaming didn’t stop this time. It quieted, sure, but it didn’t stop. It’s been growing louder, as I again learned what shouldn’t have been learned. It’s so loud now, I can barely concentrate on writing this. I could make myself forget again, but that would only delay the inevitable at this point. Soon, I will no longer exist. And with my lack of existence, as my friends and family remember me, I will begin to scream as well. There is only one solution to this, one way to prevent the screaming from overtaking all of Equestria.
Discord, you must take away the memories of me from everycreature that I’ve interacted with. No matter how small or inconsequential the memory may seem, it can serve to bring me into non-existing existence, make me scream. Even your own memories could cause this, and even your powers can’t affect something that doesn’t exist. No, to stop the screaming, I must be so thoroughly forgotten that not even memories of memories of me remain. Fill in the blanks with whatever you want, just make sure that no trace of me is left.
I go now, to embrace oblivion.
Twilight Sparkle