//------------------------------//
// World's End Rhapsody: Part 0 
// Story: Midnight Reverie 
// by nukeiffum 
//------------------------------//

	Everything that lay before her eyes was shrouded by a haze of distortion. The sky threatened to fall and the earth beneath her trembled, cracking violently and parting before her eyes, but the static haze prevented her from grasping the full picture. She felt her mouth open of its own accord, her voice projecting itself towards the far side of the room. She could feel the words rise from her throat, yet the words were distorted, corrupt even.
“… rry… I’m… rry… sa… elf…”
It was disturbing, speaking without knowledge of the words said. It was like she was but a marionette whose strings were pulled by an unknown puppetmaster far above. She existed inside a body that was not her own, inside a body that had its own will, it's own consciousness. She was herself yet somepony else at the same time. The thought sent a chill through her body, a chill that her proxy probably had no awareness of. This entire experience was unpleasant, but she it was important for her to maintain this strange connection.
“… ia… Luna… Ele… mony… ath…”
The marionette perked at the fragmented phrases. Luna? As in Princess Luna? She cursed the static for the distorted dialogue.
Two voices called at her from beyond the forming crevice, but unlike her own fragmented speech she could make out nothing of those other voices. Yet despite the muffled words, her eyes began to mist. A melancholic despair took hold of her body, shaking her heart to its very core. But why? What did those voices say that made her feel this way? The static interference grew as her proxy fought against the tears. She could feel every bit of her strength being directed towards fighting off the despair that clawed at her heart. She didn't know if she could take it anymore. There wasn't anything more that she could learn due to the growing distortions, and if she stayed anchored here any longer she might be swallowed up by her proxy's emotions. She was about to give up on this connection as a lost cause, when suddenly--
She smiled. With the last ounce of her strength, the last drop of her will, she smiled a genuine smile to combat the despair. It was an expression of finality, punctuated by a single tear streaming down her face.
“We can’t fight this fate. So save this world for us, will you?”
The connection snapped, the hazy surroundings instantly dissolved into nothingness. The wall of static was now pressing on all sides of her nonexistent body, and a harsh buzzing sound pierced her eardrums. She felt like she was suffocating, and if she didn’t get out of this void soon, it felt like her spirit would be snuffed out of existence. She desperately searched through her memory to remember the emergency escape spell, and when she did, she quickly set about casting it. The static began to recede, and bit by bit, her consciousness began to settle down. She began to slowly regain the feeling in her hooves, and soon enough the familiar sights of her room entered her vision.
Yes, this was her room. The familiar scent of parchment and wood filled her nostrils as if they welcomed her home. Her body was her own again, and her surroundings calm. She took the time to reorient herself with her body, and once she was satisfied of the complete reconnection of her consciousness, Twilight Sparkle collapsed onto the floor out of exhaustion.
"Spike? Spiiike?" she moaned. "Could you carry me to my bed please? I have a massive headache..."
The baby dragon poked his head into Twilight's room. “Geez Twi, why can’t you do that yourself? You’re only a few feet from your bed after all…”
“Spiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiike!” the unicorn whined.
Spike sighed and gave into Twilight’s order. He grudgingly dragged her onto her bed, where she instantly passed out. “Sheesh, not even a word of thanks…” Spike muttered as he left the room.
Twilight allowed her muscles to relax in the comfort of her own bed. Her mind was racing with what she just experienced. She hoped to discover something new from her little excursion, but the entire ordeal left her with more questions than answers. As the unicorn struggled to piece together some answers, she slowly drifted away into the realm of slumber.



Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and Rarity were gathered outside of the library, watching a certain orange earth pony pace back and forth irritably.
“Where is that gosh darned stripey-maned pegasus?!” Applejack exclaimed. “She was s’posed ta be here ten minutes ago like everypony else!”
“U-um, maybe she’s busy with work… or something…” Fluttershy squeaked, trying to come up with a reason as to why Rainbow Dash was late.
“Work? Are ya pullin’ mah tail, Fluttershy?” Applejack threw her hooves up in the air. “That pegasus gets less work done than a filly durin’ naptime!”
“Oh, oh! I remember naptime!” Pinkie Pie was jumping around excitedly for no actual reason. “It was all sleepy and dreamy and full of candy! Except when I had candy I couldn’t get to sleepy! So that means no dreamy! And no dreamy means no—”
“Don’t be so hard on Fluttershy, darling.” Rarity said to Applejack, completely ignoring Pinkie’s randomness. “Just because Rainbow Dash is such an unrefined pony for being late doesn’t mean you have to take out your frustrations on poor little Fluttershy here. Isn’t that right, Fluttershy?”
Fluttershy smiled shyly at Rarity. “U-um… yes.”
Applejack sighed. “Well ah apologize fer snappin’ at ya, sugarcube, but whenever that darn pegasus pony doesn’t show up when she’s supposed ta, ah always feel so—”
A rainbow blue blur suddenly whizzed past Applejack, stylishly braking in front of the group of ponies. “Somepony call for the amazing Rainbow Dash?” The pegasus pony said triumphantly.
Applejack facehooved. “‘Amazing?’ More like amazingly late! What took ya so long!?”
“Oh… heh heh.” Rainbow Dash let out a nervous laugh. “I woke up a little late from my nap is all, no big deal.”
“Sure it’s no big deal if ya do it once.” Applejack commented dryly. “But when ya do it again and again and again and again—”
“And a dream within a dream within a dream within a dream is totally like Inception!” Pinkie Pie cut in energetically. The other four ponies gave a strange and confused look to Pinkie Pie. “What?” Pinkie said, shrugging. “It totally is!”
Rainbow Dash shook her head, trying to rid herself of Pinkie Pie’s random comment. “A-anyways, what’s so important that we all gotta meet up here anyways?”
“Are you seriously asking that question, darling?” Rarity asked, tilting her head. “Don’t tell me you’ve been so preoccupied with your silly flight practice that you haven’t noticed!”
“Silly?!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed. “I’ve been working my flank off to get into the Wonderbolts!”
“And I, as you so elegantly put it, ‘have been working my flank off’ too on a large order for Hoity Toity!” Rarity scoffed. “And yet even with my busy career I still know what’s been going on. You were probably napping the entire time.”
“So what if I was?!” Rainbow Dash shouted. Rarity snickered, causing Rainbow Dash to quickly notice her mistake. “I-I mean, uh, BLAH!” The blue pegasus crossed her hooves and glared at Rarity. “Since you know so much about everything going on in Ponyville, why don’t you fill me in on what’s going on? Or are you worried that I might sleep through your explanation?”
“Oh nonsense!” Rarity waved her hoof at Rainbow Dash’s comment. “There’s no way anypony would fall asleep while I’m talking! That’s preposterous!” Rarity laughed haughtily while the other three ponies plus Pinkie Pie gave her a disbelieving stare. Rarity noticed the stares plus Pinkie Pie, and instantly toned down her haughtiness a few levels. “Well, um, you see Dashiekins,” The blue pegasus winced at the overly sugary nickname. “Our dear Twilight Sparkle has locked herself in the library and nopony has seen her in ages! Why, I am just head over heels in worry for the poor mare! Just think of how her mane must look after being deprived of natural light saturation, simply dreadful!”
“… anypony else want to explain?” Rainbow Dash asked, putting aside Rarity’s overly dramatic explanation.
Pinkie Pie perked up instantly. “Weelllllllllllll—”
“Anypony that’s not about to break out into song?” Rainbow Dash added.
“Oh fooie-patooie!” Pinkie huffed.
“Um, I suggested we visit her since she hasn’t been out in a couple days.” Fluttershy mumbled. “Twilight’s probably hard at work studying, and, uh, I thought it would be nice if we all greeted her and let her take a break. You know, if it’s okay.”
“Just studying?” Rainbow Dash sighed. “Does that unicorn ever do anything other than study when she’s not hanging with us?”
“Um… no.” Fluttershy answered timidly.
Rainbow Dash facehooved.
“Whatever’s keepin’ her inside must be big though.” Applejack commented. “She got some delivery in the mail a couple o’ days back, and she hasn’t left the library since!”
“She’s just a workaholic.” Rainbow Dash yawned. “Since I’m here, maybe she’ll let me borrow her bed…”
“GAH I CAN’T TAKE IT!” Pinkie Pie suddenly burst out from her extended silence. “I HAVE TO SING THE SONG I MADE FOR TWILIGHT!” The other ponies grimaced as Pinkie Pie took a deep breath.
“Here we go again…” Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes.
Pinkie started to sing. “Oh Twilight Twilight Twiiiiiliiiiiighhht, you always study so haarrrrddd! Oh Twilight Twilight Twiiiiiiiiiiiliiiiiighhht, you don’t even send us a caaarrrrddd! You study all day but you don’t come out to play and now your friends stand in your yaaaaaaaaaaarrrrdd!”
“Oh Celestia, what is with all this noise?!” Twilight threw open her front door, glaring at the source of the noise.
“Oh hi Twilight!” Pinkie said, oblivious to Twilight’s look. “Didja hear my song? Didja, didja?”
“Yes, Pinkie. I heard your song.” Twilight sighed. “Now what’s this all about anyways? What’s everypony doing here?”
“Y’see, sugarcube.” Applejack explained. “Fluttershy here was worried ‘bout ya since ya’ve been locked up inside this here library fer the past couple o’ days. Ain’t that right, Fluttershy?”
The yellow pegasus nodded timidly. “Um… yes.” Fluttershy’s shy smile melted away the annoyed look on Twilight’s face.
Twilight Sparkle sighed. “It can’t be helped I guess. Why don’t you all come inside and I’ll serve you all some tea?” The other ponies nodded and gladly stepped inside the library. “SPIIIIIIIIIIIIIKE! YOU AWAKE?” Twilight called. “I NEED YOU TO MAKE SOME TEA!”
“Alright, alright!! I’m right here!” Spike called out from under a pile of books. “You could add a please at the end though…”
“Please Spike.” Twilight smiled as Spike dug himself out of the books and made his way to the kitchen.
“Oh Twilight! You look simply dreadful!” Rarity exclaimed as the ponies settled down.
“I do?” Twilight asked. She quickly examined her looks. “I don’t really see anything off about me… although I guess I haven’t really brushed my mane in a while…”
“Oh no no no! That simply won’t do, darling!” Rarity trotted over to Twilight and started to brush her hair. “Now don’t worry dearie, Rarity’s going to fix everything up for you!”
“Wait, where did you get that brush?” Twilight asked.
“Oh you silly girl.” Rarity chuckled. “I wouldn’t be caught dead without at least a hairbrush on me!”
“All this froo-froo aside,” Applejack cut in. “What’ve ya been up ta, Twilight? From the looks of things, ah’d say some crazy nights o’ studyin’.”
Twilight giggled nervously at the mess of books around the library. “Is it really that obvious?”
Everypony nodded. “Yep.”
“Well… maybe if Spike did a better job cleaning then it wouldn’t be… speaking of which.” Twilight raised her voice. “SPIKE! SPIIIIKE! HOW’S THAT TEA COMING ALONG?”
“Fine, fine!!” Spike called out from the kitchen. “You’re such a slave driver, Twilight! Geez…” The dragon came out of the kitchen with a tray of tea and an annoyed look on his face. “Here’s your tea Twilight. And here’s yours Rarity!” Spike’s tone instantly perked up when serving Rarity her tea.
“Why thank you Spike!” Rarity complimented.
“Anytime Rarity…” Spike said dreamily.
“Ahem!” Twilight cleared her throat. “I think that’s all we need for now, Spike. Thanks for all the hard work!”
Spike frowned. “Yeah, yeah, you’re welcome Twilight. I’m going to take a nap…” The dragon yawned and dragged himself to Twilight’s room, leaving the ponies to converse by themselves.
“So what’s so important that you gotta spend all this time studying for?” Rainbow Dash asked, getting straight to the point.
“Oh, well…” Twilight suddenly beamed from being able to talk about her studies. “You see, I was delivered some really interesting books the other day, and I just had to do some research on their contents! At first, I thought it was a load of manure, but it’s actually pretty amazing stuff!”
“And what is this amazin’ stuff exactly?” Applejack asked.
“Well…” For a moment, the enthusiasm fell from Twilight's face. She was still troubled by her experiment from earlier, shaken by the emotions that had gripped her proxy.
"Umm...Twilight?" Fluttershy said softly. "Are you alright...?"
Twilight blinked. "Uh, yeah Fluttershy! I'm just a bit drowsy from my nap." Fluttershy gave a small nod of understanding, Twilight smiling in response. She didn't want her friends to worry about her, especially since she didn't know why exactly she should herself should be worried.
"Anyways," she continued, “it’s a book that’s instructs how to access the memory of a pony’s deoxyribonucleic acid by utilizing an ancient spell that’s designed to dissect the inner workings of the electronic impulses that run through our cells! It’s especially interesting because it operates on the proposed theory that memories are locked within our DNA, which many ponies of academia tend to look upon skeptically. I must admit, while I read the books I was pretty skeptical too, but through a test run I was able to access part of my ancestor’s memory! If you told me before today that there was a spell that allows a pony to examine the inner workings of their very cells, I’d call them crazy! Especially since the idea of tiny particles composing the systems of everypony and everything is a relatively new study! It’s amazing how the ancients already knew these things that we’re only discovering today! It’s neat stuff!!”
“… you lost me at ‘It’s a book.’” Rainbow Dash commented. “Anypony understand a word she just said?”
“Oooh! Oooh! I did!!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed. For some reason, nopony really was surprised at this.
“Mind explainin’ it fer us plain folk ta understand?” Applejack asked.
“Sure!!” Pinkie said before Twilight could get a word in. “It’s a magical magic spell that lets you go into the past!! But not actually into the past, because that will cause all sorts of nasty paradoxies!”
“… you lost me again.” Rainbow Dash admitted. “One more time in simpler terms?”
“It lets you see the past!” Twilight Sparkle answered before Pinkie Pie could answer for her. “It’s really cool, since you experience it like you’re actually there!”
“Well that’s definitely interesting and all.” Rarity commented, putting the finishing touches on Twilight’s mane. “But I don’t really see how this is so important that you have to neglect your poor mane for it!”
“Gotta agree with her.” Applejack said. “Not really with the mane part though.”
“Same here.” Rainbow Dash added.
“… ditto.” Fluttershy squeaked.
“It makes perfect sense to me!” Pinkie exclaimed.
The other four confused ponies shot a glance to Pinkie Pie.
“What?”
Twilight cleared her throat. “Anyways girls, you see, this spell can be used to observe the past before Celestia’s reign!”
A look of understanding and later shock slowly dawned over everypony’s face.
“B-but isn’t that the hidden history?” Fluttershy stuttered. “I-I thought it was hidden for a reason!”
Twilight shrugged. “It’s not really hidden, it’s just that nopony really kept any records of history until after the fall of Princess Luna. Anything before the tale of the Mare in the Moon can barely even be found! And Celestia just laughs and says I don’t need to concern myself with ancient history whenever I ask her.” Twilight pouted.
“So basically, this is one huge glorified study trip?” Rainbow Dash asked bluntly. The other ponies glared at the pegasus. “What?! I’m sure you all were thinking that too!”
“Well… kinda, yeah.” Twilight admitted. “But don’t you girls think it’s interesting? Being able to live out a history that nopony knows about? It’s exciting just thinking about it! And besides,” Twilight looked at each of her friends. “Aren’t you curious what your ancestors might’ve been like?”
“Oooh! Oooh! I am! I am!” Pinkie bounced.
“… maybe a little.” Fluttershy admitted.
Rainbow Dash and Applejack just looked at each other and shrugged. Applejack answered for the both of them. “Ah guess, sugarcube.”
Twilight Sparkle beamed at her friends. “Okay then! So why don’t we get ready to dive into the past?”
“Hold up a minute!” Applejack exclaimed. “Ya sure this spell is safe?”
“Of course, Applejack!” Twilight exclaimed. “The way this spell works is that your consciousness is transplanted into your ancestor, and you’re able to move them around based on your will! Isn’t that cool?”
“… but wouldn’t that make it not a memory anymore?” Fluttershy asked.
“Well, it would still be a memory.” Twilight explained. “While you have some control over your ancestor’s actions, you won’t be able to speak through them and the spell will adjust the setting in case you go too much against the memory. I guess you could call it… ‘desynchronization’ if you step too far outside the bounds of the memory. Though I don’t think that’ll happen too often.”
“It sounds pretty complicated.” Rainbow Dash commented. “We’ll just take your word for it, okay?”
“Oooh! Oooh!” Pinkie Pie bounced. “Would we be assassins in our memories? Going to go fight the Templars and save the world from solar flare aliens?”
“… uhh, I don’t think so, Pinkie.” Twilight said, confused. What were Templars anyways?
“Hold up another minute, sugarcube!” Applejack interrupted. “If we go through with this, how long’ll we be out of it?”
“Well the books said time will travel differently for each of us, depending on the events our ancestors are going through…” Twilight explained. “So while it may seem like we’re in there for a long time, in reality only a couple minutes would have passed!”
“… well, as long as ah can get back to the farm to get some work on later on.” Applejack smiled. “Alright, sugarcube. Guess we’re in.”
“You bet!” Rainbow Dash punched the air. “I hope my ancestor kicks as much flank as I do!”
“Which is hardly any, sweetheart.” Rarity chuckled. “I know that my ancestor will be as fabulous as I am!”
“I hope mine’s… nice.” Fluttershy commented.
Twilight smiled. She thought that it’s nice to be able to share such an educational experience with her closest friends. “Alright girls, I’m going to cast the spell now!” She concentrated her magic the way she read in the book and performed the necessary protection spells. Last time she was kicked out it was because she was in a corrupted memory, but she figured if she cast the spell to place them at the beginning of their ancestor’s lives… then it can build up properly to the corrupted memory and play it properly. And if that doesn’t work, then they’d just have to call it a day!
The magic washed over the six ponies and put them all in a dreamlike state, transferring their consciousnesses to the faraway time, long before Celestia’s rule. As they connected to their ancestors, the memory of Twilight's last attempt drifted briefly through her mind.
“… rry… I’m… rry… sa… elf…”
“… ia… Luna… Ele… mony… ath…”
“We can’t fight this fate. So save this world for us, will you?”