When the morning sun rose, I heard somepony singing. My eyes squinted as I gazed eastward, overwhelmed by a great dizziness. I tried to say something, but my mouth was dry. My hooves stretched into nothingness. The sky spun. I flung my limbs out to grab ahold of something, and I caught empty air. Something was lifting me up, pulling me towards the bright blue zenith. My muscles hurt and relaxed all at once. The air was freezing; I was breathless.
The singing continued. I looked up, only to realize that I was looking down. The world was spinning, twirling. Was I spinning upside down? Was I flipping? No—falling?
A scream escaped my lips; it was exultant. My coat shimmered with the glittering toastiness that only the morning could bring. Everything was weightless and wild, but the light on the horizon was my one anchor. I felt its warm waves washing over my body in multiple spins, as if I was being rotated before a heat lamp at the speed of sound.
The world stretched beneath me, rising up, blurring into my peripheral vision. I smelled wood and pollen. There was a great, waving, emerald sea of life beneath me, and I was sailing straight towards it. The air beat behind me. I glanced back with a twitching gaze.
Wings?
"Bellesmith, can you hear me?"
My body vibrated from the noise. I seethed and looked ahead. Treetops and treetops and treetops and—
"Your heart is racing. Try to calm down."
"Somepony tell me what's going on!" I exclaimed, and yet I didn't. I had no voice; I had every voice. A pony was singing, and I was flinging my way towards it. I saw birds darting up into the sky. I felt feathers and sweat and morning dew. "Blessed Spark! I'm dying!"
"You are not dying, Bellesmith. You've accessed a random sphere. Just take deep breaths and attempt to blend with the subject until your senses acclimate."
"I'm going someplace!" I shrieked. "I don't know where! The singing! It's deafening!"
"Just hold on. We're going to switch spheres. I promise you that we'll find something less stressful."
"Help me, Spark." I was crying, and yet I was smiling. My face and another were battling for the same mouth as a raspy scream came from a singular, cosmic throat. "I want to see my beloved again." My eyes twitched. An open clearing was directly in front of me. The singing intensified. There were shapes, colorful shapes, colorful manes. A picnic? A party? A grave? They looked at me. They waved at me. I was being sucked towards them in a laugh and a scream and a sob. "Nnnngh—Dalton! Please!"
"Switching now, Bellesmith!" The lights multiplied. The horizon exploded as the emerald around me stretched and blurred. "Hold on!"
I saw eyes. I saw smiles. I felt warm forelimbs, and in the center of it all...
Ash.