Twilight glanced back down at Serenity's book warily and noticed the bobbing Discord head and spring were gone. Cautiously she turned the page. It was covered with a badly drawn doodle of a pony playing in what seemed to be the roots of an upside down tree. Below it was a whole paragraph of the ancient pony's scrawl:
I have lost the ability to speak properly today. It all happened because of one of the trees I was playing in. The sky was a lovely pink shade at the time and I was trying to climb to the very top of the tree's roots...
Another image rose up in her mind, making her oblivious to everything else around her. It was the same purple pony as before that entered her vision, only younger and much dirtier. She was balancing on a high...root. Twilight looked around in mild interest. There was the ground beneath her hooves, distant rolling hills, and dozens of upside down trees with their roots stuck up in the air. However, there were gaps here and there; white patches in the distance, white smudges among the trees, even bits of the tree the pony was in seemed blurred.
Twilight frowned in thought as she considered the causes of this. There was obviously some sort of magic in the book that allowed the reader to see what was being written about, but why the missing pieces? Was it because the book was so old? Perhaps its magic was wearing out. Or maybe there was another less obvious reason.
Suddenly curious, she glanced down at herself to see she was see-through and a strange bluish color. She immediately thought back to when she had accused Discord of not playing fair after the labyrinth her friends had been corrupted in disappeared. She thought that he said the Elements of Harmony were hidden in the labyrinth but he had laughed hysterically in response. Snapping his talons, he transported the two of them back to when he had given his 'clue' to where the elements were. They both had looked just the same as she did now. Shock and just a small bit of fear ran through her body. This book's power...was it Discord's doing?
She looked back up as the pony she assumed was a young Serenity continued climbing higher. Her face was scrunched together in the effort it took to remain balanced and Twilight wondered why she was climbing the tree in the first place. Serenity struggled and grunted, climbing higher and higher until finally, amazingly, she reached the 'top'. Once there, she started moving her front hooves around as though...doing...something.
Twilight squinted her eyes and tried to walk forward only to find she couldn't move. With a sigh she resigned herself to having to wait for whatever was going to happen. Eventually there was a gleeful squeal and, to Twilight's horror, Serenity jumped from the tree-'top' and....dangled. In the air.
“What?” Twilight leaned forward, trying to get a good look at the floating pony. She was acting as though she was hanging from a rope in her mouth but she couldn't see anything there. Slowly Serenity began to descend, gaily swinging her legs back and forth, obviously pleased with whatever she had accomplished.
As she came within five feet of the ground, Twilight could finally see the thin string in her mouth and the cloud on the other end. Twilight raised an eyebrow at the orange cloud. It reminded her of the cotton candy clouds Discord had made but those were pink. What were orange clouds made of?
“Hee hee ha! I got you!” Serenity cackled after pinning down the string under a large rock, “Let's see what flavor you are today!”
She eagerly leaped forward, diving into the cloud with her mouth wide open. She went in so deep, only her flank and back legs could be seen. Her scruffy black and purple tail wiggled to and fro then suddenly froze. Twilight watched as her back legs started flailing frantically, working to get her out of the cloud. She came out with a plop, landing on the ground covered in orange goo.
“Lloccorb ekil setsat ti!” she screamed in disgust then stopped, “Yas I did tahw?”
Twilight felt a giggle make its way up her throat as the young pony ran in circles while screaming unintelligible things. She would have thought her to be horribly upset if Serenity's screams hadn't been broken with shrill laughter. She acted as though she were enjoying whatever the cloud did to her.
Suddenly she ran off like her tail was on fire. Twilight gasped as the scenery around her began to change, becoming blurred and unimportant. A primitive little village soon appeared and she could only watch helplessly as Serenity ran among the inhabitants, trying to communicate with her garbled speech. No pony could understand her...
Twilight took in a deep breath. She was back on her bed. Hurriedly she turned the page. There was a picture of Serenity...flying? Falling? What had she gotten herself into now? Twilight quickly began to read:
The roads all move today. It was like a wonderful ride! But it was scary too...
Things blurred around her and she found herself beside a road...that was indeed moving. She turned to see where it led to and found herself looking into Serenity's big violet eyes. She was also watching the road with interest.
“Wen si siht,” she murmured. Suddenly she grinned, “Wonk I!” and jumped on. She happily chuckled as she rode the road and Twilight found herself moving along with her. The road twisted this way and that, went up and down. Because of Twilight's perspective, she was able to see that after one of the 'ups' the road disappeared over a huge mud pit. There was nothing she could do to warn the little pony as she went up, gasped, and then fell into the mud with a giant squish.
Serenity managed to drag herself out, shaking off the mud but, to Twilight's surprise, she let loose a whoop, ran over to the road, and jumped back on. Again and again, the young pony rode the road, doing flips and dives into the mud and sometimes running backwards against the flow of the road to make it more challenging.
It was during one of these times that there was a sudden flash in the distance. Sounding like an overworked machine, the road started becoming faster and faster until little Serenity was running as fast as she could to stay in one place. The road was too fast though and she was whisked towards the mud. Or not. The broken end of the road had tilted up so that when she reached it she was flung high up into the air with a terrified scream.
“Serenity!” Twilight yelled in vain, stomping a hoof in anger. This was Discord's doing of course. Didn't he realize that he was putting ponies in danger with his pranks? Didn't he care that he had just thrown a young filly up into the air with the risk of her falling to her death? Didn't he-
“Pleeeeeeeh!!” Serenity was coming back down, apparently unable to even scream correctly, “Eeeem pleeeh !!”
There was another flash and she suddenly appeared only a few feet above the mud, “Haa!”
Splat! Serenity landed on her hooves, looking very confused. She stood still, staring straight ahead and taking in deep breaths. Twilight felt concern for the young pony; she must have been scared half to death. Abruptly Serenity started laughing. It wasn't genuine laughter, it sounded too strained for that, but still she laughed as she squished out of the mud and shook herself off.
Twilight watched in disbelief as she shakily started off in some random direction. How could that pony just...laugh? And after something like that? Was there something wrong with her? Like, mentally?
“Maybe she's like Pinkie Pie,” she murmured to herself as she slowly became aware of her bed again, “Maybe laughter is how she deals with fear,” and she turned the page.