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// A reason for madness 
// Story: The Heart of History 
// by Flubberix 
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	"This second time I was being magically transported against my will, I arrived fully aware and awake. And I don't think that I am adequately prepared to describe to you what I was seeing before my eyes. If your world was all of a sudden turned upside down, LITERALLY, all while rain clouds made out of popped corn kernels dropped rainbow flavored water that flew upwards, groups of ponies gathered together in large pony boulders that rolled across the plain, the sun was the darkest spot on the sky and the stars changed their places and formed grotesque shapes, it would still be a little too naive a description. The best word that I can come up with is chaos, pure and simple chaos. I honestly think that I laughed my hind off as I thought that this must be the residential quarter of my ghost, because no other place must have felt more like home for a malevolent entity that was bent of causing mayhem for myself and those around me. I was standing on top of a grassy cliff, looking down on the outrageous events that occurred in the small seaside town below, when I heard small hooves pacing behind me. I turned to see a group of young ponies displaying a most sincere curiosity towards my presence. And I have to say that they were the weirdest of all things that I saw around, as they seemed completely normal."

Philomena's high-pitched twitter rose with the sun that just breached through a layer of clouds. And with Philomena, the whole castle awakened, ponies rushing in every direction to reach their dutiful spots. Twilight watched as in their hurry few of them had time to groom their manes or put all four shoes on, not to mention the proper clothes; not few were the drowsy unicorns that were still yawning as they emerged from their homes still dressed in their nightwear; she was quite amused to see pony folk that were so serious and adult-like during the regular hours of the day look so silly and unkempt. But for all Twilight could tell, they had a more than adequate excuse: the sun dial pointed to their having overslept, and they must have been more than aware of that. A phoenix feather descended on top of Twilight's head, and as she picked it she waved at those few that managed to notice her presence and crop up the most brief of smiles. Finally, as she landed once more on top of the purple filly's head, Philomena greeted the whole courtyard with her crystalline call. And the whole castle was officially back in the daily business. Using the feather as a bookmark, Twilight entered the castle, headed for her room.

The guard was a bit puzzled seeing her greeting him, but regained his disciplined posture after she put her small hooves on his knee guards, smiling at him and assuring him that she wouldn't tell Celestia a single thing about his minor slip-up. Shining Armor had just woken up as well, and he too was more than surprised to see his little sister up and about. Caressing her rather unruly mane, he smiled and posed a question:

- How are you feeling, Twilie?

- I am more than fine, sleepy head. No need to worry, Star Swirl took care of me. I have to take this book to her Majesty and discuss about it. I think I am being part of something incredible, and it might have a big impact on magic everywhere. She must know about it, and...

Shining Armor interrupted her, taking her fore hooves in his own.

- She most definitely knows about it, and she even said that you, my dear sister, might be the first one to be able to read it through and through. Just promise you won't wander off where I can't find you, alright? If you still need to talk to her Majesty, I am sure she will be more than happy to welcome you in her tower. Have fun!

- And what are you going to do, brother? wondered Twilight. Aren't you going to read it to me some more?

- Maybe later tonight, sister. I have a new spell I want to practice and I'll be the whole day on the training grounds just outside the castle's domain. Now go and do what you do best, laughed the young unicorn, releasing his little sister and setting her on her own way.

Twilight decided it would be in her best interest that she shared her newly acquired knowledge with her Majesty before doing anything else, but the book had other plans it seemed. As she climbed the first few steps that spiraled up towards the Princess' room, the tome ceased to follow her, dropping inertly on the first step. Twilight came down and tried to pick up the book and carry it herself up the stairs, but the worn out manuscript refused to budge even under her best attempts at levitation spells. But as soon as she turned her back to the staircase and went in the opposite direction, the book lifted itself from the ground and floated behind her as innocuously as before. Twilight nodded maliciously in response to one of her own inner thoughts, grinning as she thought about pushing the book up the steps as it floated; the plan failed as the book sensed her intention and once more completely refused to cooperate with her. Opening the tome at the pages between which the phoenix feather resided, she read the few words that were visible:

"I would very much like it to finish the story before discussing it with anypony else, even your friend that you shared it with for a while."

- Why are you being so secretive about it? whispered Twilight within the yellowed pages. It struck her as a bit odd to actually talk to the book, but what had seemed strange a night before no longer weighed in her mind and she felt honored to participate in a most talented wizard's experiment. The book replied:

"You will read about things that I deign to be most dangerous, little one. I can only suspect that in your time this level of knowledge is considered as perilous as I know it is right now. But you have no idea what I'm talking about, do you? I'm sorry, I shouldn't have presumed that... oh hay seeds! Never mind what I said before, I guess you want to get on with that story, don't you. Well, I mentioned those young ponies before, haven't I?

In a land where donkeys dance with bears dressed in pink polka-dotted ballet-skirts and clouds chased pegasi flying backwards and bunny rabbits dressed in costumes speaking in tongues to a captive audience of leaves and berries, a small group of seemingly all-right-in-the-noggin fillies and foals will strike as odd in no time. I backed away carefully, trying to avoid the edge of the hill. They approached me at a steady pace, with the creepiest smiles I have ever seen. Magenta and teal, lime and cinnamon, coal and peach: young ponies of all colors were closing in on my position, some even climbing from the valley behind me and up the nearly vertical wall of rock on top of which I was facing down my possible doom. In a few minutes, as the creepy herd had no intention to rush things, I had no place left to go: everywhere I looked, even above me, I was flanked by ponies with disturbing smiles. They all stopped at about twenty hooves away from me, and the first to speak was a lavender coated unicorn pony with aquamarine eyes:

- Fish.

A second earth filly continued:

- Top-hat.

A third pegasus colt picked up the pace:

- And a baseball bat with wheels.

Simultaneously, all the other ponies started to yell at me from the top of their lungs, screaming and kicking around as none of their words made sense to my suffering ears. I cowered in pain as the ... attackers pursued their venture of vociferating in the most incoherent fashion. At some point, their voice lowered and all the ponies in front of me began to merge in coherent rows, slowly coalescing into an orderly fashion. A row was left empty, and in the middle of it appeared out of thin air the very personified image of the words spoken by the three ponies.A rather large fish-shaped creature, wielding a baseball bat decked with wheels, and wearing a most elegant top-hat. It looked at me with its gelatinous eyes, scrutinizing my appearance from head to hooves; it gargled quite horribly as it attempted to speak to me, but I somehow managed to keep myself from throwing up:

- I see we have two visitors this day, one rather more fetching that the other. Why are both of you here?

I picked myself up from the ground and challenged his deranged stare. It would be an understatement to say that I was pissed off at my current predicament, and I was not going to waste any more time with this parade of insanity. In my mind, I was entitled to some answers, some morsels of truth that could cast my unfortunate circumstances into a clearer light. So I yelled back at him:

- What do you want with me? And why am I here?

The creature laughed in the most disturbing fashion - not disturbing enough for the other ponies around it seemed, as they joined the insane merriment, for all appearances joyous at my unlucky state of being. They all closed their mouths instantly as the creature waved at them with the peculiar looking bat. It then turned towards me, slowly lurching its unsightly body. It ceased its wobbling motion at a distance that allowed him to poke me with his wooden stick, which he did before he spoke once more:

- To answer both of your questions, ask yourself. We, denizens of Discordia, do not bother ourselves with issues such as yours. The delicious insanity of his Chaoticness is our daily bread and butterfingers, and I'm sorry to say but you are quite sane. You don't belong here more than apple-making apple trees do in this beautiful landscape of ours. We will personally see to it that you either remain with us in one or more pieces or do not remain at all. And please stop your companion from fidgeting as much as he does, he unnerves me.

I saw nopony I knew besides me, and it struck me as rather odd that he was able to see someone that was... And then something finally clicked. I immediately jumped at the fish-thing, grabbing his scaly skin and shaking his surprisingly light body from side to side:

- Can you see my ghost? Can you? Please, please tell him to go away, tell him to leave me alone. I am tired, I don't want to play his games any longer! Tell him to take a hike and go back in the swirling star cloud that brought him here! Please, can you do that?

The creature slithered away from my clutch and bent over to the ground, picking something up which it then placed in my hooves. It was the potion given to me by the zebra of unknown name; in the strange scenario I was in, I hadn't even noticed that it slipped out of my grasp. I wished to thank it for the kind gesture, but my words never left the throat as the ground shook and all the ponies scattered in the four winds. The fish creature itself was trying to run away as best as it could, but it only limped across the grass. Without thinking too much, I rushed towards him and picked him up on my back; running downhill, opposing the sea, I turned my head to see what were we running from: on the horizon, a large sphere of crackling magic kept expanding towards the little village, encompassing the entire ocean that stood between it and the twisted houses, its stranger denizens and myself. And the fishy thing, of course. I was starting to run out of breath, and my rider was restless on my back, pulling my mane in its feeble attempts to stop me. It then whispered in my left ear:

- There is little point in running, my normal friend. Before we part, I do have something important to tell you: at your peak of insanity you will find the peace you'll need to make sense of yourself. I wish I could join you in what I see that lies ahead for you, but that would be barking mad, and I know madness when I see it. I am the creation of unleashed, unstable minds. I do not belong in the world that lies behind that wall of magic that's encroaching on our plains of the insane, and part of you does not either since you can see and talk to me. You'll lose this core full of crazy, and maybe you think now that you'll be better off without it. But hear my words: exactly because you will be changed as much as I must be when that gigantic spell will collapse on top of us, you will lose the only thing you can possibly rely on when your reason will abandon your senses, and your senses will be out of reach for your mind to collect. Trust your hooves, my friend: they did carry you up to this moment, and they will still do in your time ahead. Be ...

It tingled a bit when the magical surge cascaded through my body. I dropped to my knees as the fish creature was split apart and disintegrated into nothingness. I tried to shield the potion with my body, keeping it tight to my chest, and felt it heating up and bubbling. Those were the moments where I've been the most afraid, and I could do little but to hope that it would not shatter under the pressure of the boiling gases that were building up inside. I do not remember exactly what drove me to swallow it, as I felt it burning down my throat and my stomach. I was twisting in pain on the ground, long after the magic wall had passed though the land and the burning sensation only swelled up, more and more as I felt my entire body in flames. 

And flames they were indeed, flames of magic that enveloped me completely. Amidst the ever-changing fires, my mind heard a distant echo. If I can compare it to anything, it would be like a deaf foal hearing his mother's voice for the very first time after years spent in silence; it felt like a blind colt seeing the deep blue sky when all his life up to that moment was darkness sprinkled with sounds. I saw the magic within me and outside of me, and it overwhelmed me. My mind was going number by the second as I could not control my outbursts of magic; I think I saw something approaching me, a carriage profiling in the horizon; I could not see who was in it, for after unleashing a terrible shout, I lost all senses to what was going on outside. The last second before losing consciousness, I saw my first spell being cast into the sky. That spell carried me in a place darker than the farthest depths I could have imagined. And I was not alone."