Cave Inanilogistam

by Betless

Liber Primus: Ambagem Ingentem Advenit

"Spectratricem noctis conlocutioni nostri eam noscere non adproba...si quis eius tenes..."

"Mane! Nondum decede..."

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I open my eyes as the first rays of the morning sun stream in through the window. Stretching, I throw off the sheets, but carefully remake the bed before I walk over and peer out the window. What a lovely day it is in Ponyville today! I've always loved the view from this window in the castle. That's probably the Tree's doing.

After admiring the beautiful sunrise over Ponyville for a minute, I sigh contentedly and make my way over to my writing desk. Every morning, I make sure to check my calendar and write out a schedule for the day. That way, I know exactly what I'm supposed to be doing, and the day just goes that much smoother.

Since I've been scheduling every morning since before I can remember, I've gotten rather good at this, and I'm soon done writing. I have to inventory the library in the School of Friendship again, and speaking of the school, I have a few flyers to design for next year's admission season. Rarity and Pinkie already agreed to help me with that particular hurdle, so I bet that will be relatively painless. Next, I've got a second spring cleaning for the castle, and to top it all off, I have to make sure to catch the evening train to Canterlot to make it in time for Luna's Hayley's Comet astronomy party.

That last one catches my eye again...oh, I've been looking forward to that one! Hayley's Comet only appears every hundred years, or every thousand three hundred fifty two point two three moons! Rounded to the nearest hundredth, of course. I'm really jealous that Celestia got to see it more than ten times in her lifetime...but this is the first time Luna's going to see it since her banishment! I can only imagine how excited she'll be--she's the only pony I know who likes astronomy more than me!

But for now, I've got a shower to take, breakfast to eat, and some chores to do. After I make sure to keep a mental picture of the list, I put it down on my desk to check off periodically. Smiling in anticipation, I make my way to the bathroom to take my morning shower. Nothing like a good routine, I always say!

Although I can't help but feel I'm forgetting something...

Five minutes later, newly refreshed, I finish drying my mane and head down to the kitchen. Spike's already there.

"Good morning, Spike!" I call, and he turns around from his sizzling stove. "Hey Twilight!" he responds, before returning his attention to the large pan he has a claw on. "I found this new recipe in Pinkie's cookbook, she let me borrow it for a day." he states, swirling the pan around. "If I had any idea of what it was supposed to make, I'd be the first to tell you, but no dice."

I giggle a little at that. "Well, it seems to smell good, at least. Not like the last thing Pinkie suggested you make."

He shudders. "Don't make me think about that any more than absolutely necessary," he groans, leaving the pan and checking something in the oven. "And by absolutely necessary, I mean never, ever again." Screwing up his face, he continues. "I still can't figure out how it managed to turn my eyes pink."

"Pinkie will forever be an enigma," I say, and Spike nods sagely. "The minute someone says a truer word, I'll eat Applejack's hat," he says, a gravity in his voice, and I giggle again.

We sit in companionable silence until Spike finishes cooking Pinkie's mystery breakfast, which turns out to look something like a cross between a souffle and a cheesecake, but strangely smells more like a blackberry scone. "The recipe was called 'Breakfast Blackberry Buttermilk Antebellum Biscuit,'" Spike says as he cuts two large slices. "The description said it was great for anypony 'with an appreciation for organization.' So," he shrugs, "I figured you'd probably like it."

He watches in trepidation as I take the first bite. Suddenly, my mouth is full of flavor, but in little steps, like a staircase. I taste the earthy sweet flavor of blackberries, and the creamy smooth flavor of the pastry itself. Simple, but beautiful. The honey glaze that Spike was cooking in the pan adds a layer to the taste, a layer that combines with the other ingredients to create a taste that is to the tongue what a Tuscan column is to the eyes...

I open my eyes to see Spike staring at me in disappointment. "You don't like it?" he says.

Not like it? Not...like it? It's like a whole new library opened right next door. It's like a loved one that's been missing for years just came back, and they brought back the lost Inanis Prospariolo. It's like a whole new part of me has just awakened, a part of me that sees food as more than just sustenance...as a work of art in its own right.

I slowly take another bite, savor it, and swallow. "Spike?" I say, and he raises an eyebrow, confused. I, on the other hand, can only wonder why Pinkie hasn't made this already, several times. "Remind me," I calmly say, "remind me to make a copy of this recipe as soon as possible."

He meets my eyes, and a grin spreads across his face. "That good, eh?"

Then he looks down at my plate, and his eyes widen. "Wow. Alright, guess that's my answer. Would you like another slice?" he offers, smirking.

I nod.

Fifteen minutes later, when I've consumed half of the full biscuit and recalled myself from the philosophical debate I had with myself over it, I leave Spike off for the day and head over to the School of Friendship to inventory the library. I've already inventoried the library last week, but it never hurts to double-check. Better be safe than sorry, I always say.

I look at the list in my magic and make my way down through the aisles, checking off each book alphabetically. There's something very relaxing about simple, repetitive tasks like this, where the only thing I'm thinking about is the task at hoof. Call me crazy, but with my frantic thought pace, it's rather nice to take a break from thinking for a while.

Before I know it, I'm already finished, and it looks like all the books are in their proper places, surprisingly enough. I suppose all my reminders got to the students in the end. Either that, I reason, or my neurotic tendencies if things aren't properly organized.

Summoning the day's list out in front of me, I check off the first of my tasks. Then, pausing, I put another box in the list: Remember to thank Pinkie for the recipe.

Speaking of Pinkie, that's my next appointment, and I'm even ahead of schedule a little! I decide to take a relaxing stroll over to Rarity's Boutique, where we'll be designing the flyers. As I leave the school and walk across the stone bridge, I look up and admire how beautiful the day is. There's a few altocirrus clouds in the sky, but I always thought that they added something to the straight blue of the sky beyond. A pleasantly cool breeze wafts by, shaking the leaves of the trees at the edge of the forest.

What a day! There's a joyful feel to the air itself, and I think I might go for a fly.

Landing in front of Rarity's Boutique, I knock lightly on the door. "Oh, Twilight, is that you?" Rarity says through the door, and shortly opens it. "Sorry to keep you waiting, darling, it's just Pinkie's been, er..."

She opens the door further and gestures to the pink pony sitting stock still in the middle of the floor with her eyes closed and her back hooves crossed like a dalai llama. "Well," Rarity says, rolling a hoof, "she's been quiet, for one."

After we stare collectively for a few seconds at the uncharacteristically motionless pony, Rarity adds, "And still. And frankly, darling, I'm not entirely sure whether I should be scared or thankful." She frowns.

I'm about to reply when suddenly Pinkie's eyes fly open, and she fixes her gaze on me, a warm but small smile breaking across her face. "Oh, there you are, Twilight," she says, in a strangely muted tone. "I've been waiting for you to get here, silly!"

I smile, and then remembering the list, I say, "Thanks for waiting, you two. And Pinkie?" she raises an eyebrow. "Thanks for letting Spike have that blackberry biscuit recipe. Why have you never made that before? It was great!"

Pinkie gets a twinkle and a far-off look in her eye. "I never made it before," she starts slowly, "because had I tried to force you to see the light, you would never have seen. It takes one's own eyes to see, and a pony can only open them oneself."

She smiles again at me and Rarity, both of us completely shocked as to Pinkie's demeanor, before suddenly Pinkie appears right between us and hooks a hoof around each of our necks. "Welcome to the club, Twilight!" she says mysteriously, and breaks into a ear-splitting grin.

Just like that, Pinkie is back to...well, her normal, and we spend the next three hours discussing the flyers for the School of Friendship. Rarity, with her knowledge of color theory and art psychology, makes sure that the final flyer is eye-catching, but not bombastic. Pinkie, with her endless enthusiasm and knowledge of what makes other creatures happy, adds the elements of fun to the poster, but yet keeps it professional. And I, with my encyclopedic knowledge of everything school and friendship related, make sure the poster fits the facts but advertises well. Soon enough, we've got a finished prototype flyer, ready for replication and mail delivery to all the cities in Equestria--and beyond.

"Thanks so much, Rarity, Pinkie," I say, looking over the finished product. "I just know this will get everyone interested in the School!"

Rarity flicks her mane. "Darling, it's really the least we can do! After all, it is our school as well."

Pinkie does a happy dance. "A new flyer means new creatures coming to the school! How can I not want to help?"

"Well, I'm happy you two are so enthusiastic!" I say, giving the flyer back to Rarity. "Now, do either of you have plans for lunch?"

They both look sheepish. "Oh, terribly sorry," says Rarity, "but I promised I would help dear Sweetie learn to cook, and even though we're starting off with scrambled eggs, I fear if I leave her unattended..."

Pinkie's smile falls. "And I have a biiiiig order to make up for for the Cakes today!" she explains.

"That's alright," I smile. "I know how it gets."

Rarity thanks me and leaves to stop Sweetie from turning the Carousel Boutique into the Carousel Brulee, but Pinkie leans over and whispers, "Sorry about lunch, but when you see me next, tell me what it tasted like!"

She winks and before I can respond, she's already gone.

Blinking, I shrug. I've seen weirder. Where should I go for lunch?

A few minutes later I'm seated outside at my favorite restaurant, a plate of daffodil sandwich and hayfries just being placed before me. I wonder if the creatures outside of Equestria will like the flyer?

Absently, I pick up a hayfry and chew it slowly, mind still occupied with questions and theories, when an image makes its way into my head. A dark wood crossbeam, stained with smoke, crossing above an old Bitain pub.

I start, and look around me. Nothing unusual seems to be going on, where did that picture come from?

It takes me a minute to put two and two together, and I take another bite of a hayfry. That's it! That's where the image came from! The hayfry's taste!

Somehow.

Intrigued, I pick up the daffodil sandwich and eye it warily, before taking an experimental bite. Immediately, another image comes into my head. A whitewashed wall in a summer garden. Interesting.

I sit back in my chair and try to puzzle out just exactly what's going on. Apparently, I now taste in...pictures? How? Some neural connection manifested itself? Do I have a degenerative brain disease that turns me into a savant but drastically reduces my lifespan? But, I'm an alicorn...how would that work? Actually, back on the topic of my new sensory confusion, what's more important than how is why? Why now? Has someone cast a spell on me in my sleep or something? That's a little concerning.... Wait, Pinkie's stranger than usual behavior today might have something to do with it, she did ask me to tell her what lunch tasted like. And another thing...she did say welcome to the club...does she taste in images too? What implications does that have? Is that why she always makes such great-tasting desserts? Also, how did she know? ...aside from Pinkie Sense. Was she the one who...gave me the ability?? That seems far-fetched. There's only one way to be sure...

In my scheduled free hour for lunch, I make my way over to Sugarcube Corner, and manage to find Pinkie successfully stuffing an enormous chocolate trifle into a hoofbag. She looks over and notices me, and apparently my expression, too, because a mischievous glint comes into her eyes. "So," she leads. "How'd lunch taste?"

"Pinkie," I say, "first of all, if I didn't know you better I'd have thought you drugged my food, at least by your phrasing and tone. But second, what in Equestria is going on? Do you know something I don't?"

"Is that so strange?" Pinkie blinks. "You might be the smartest pony in Ponyville, Twilight, but nopony knows everything, silly."

"That's not it!" I say, stomping a hoof. "How did you know I was going to start tasting in pictures today?" I notice her grin, and frown in reply. "...And don't say Pinkie Sense!"

Pinkie snaps her mouth shut, but raises an eyebrow. "What kind of pictures?"

"What?"

"What kind of pictures do you taste in?" Pinkie says, genuinely curious.

"Uh," I scrunch up my nose, "well, a...crossbeam, and a whitewashed wall."

"What about the Breakfast Blackberry Buttermilk Antebellum Biscuit?" she asks. "Did you see anything when you ate that?"

I think about it for a minute. "Actually, now that you mention it, yes I did," I say slowly. "I think it was a...Tuscan column."

"Whoa!" Pinkie's eyes are open as far as they can go. "That's so cool!"

"But you're still not telling me anything!" I scowl. "Why do you want to know?"

She zips the hoofbag closed. "Twilight, you know all about the theory of ambient magic, right?"

I nod, confused. "Yes, but that theory was disproven five hundred years ago by Clear Head when she discovered that the only sources of magic were living biological organisms. What does that have to do with anything?"

"Well...that's true," Pinkie says, "but what about chaos magic?"

I mull her words over for a minute, and suddenly I realize. The only source of chaos magic anypony has ever discovered was Discord...who, at the time of the disproving of that theory, had already been encased in stone for half a millenium. Not to mention that no reliable method of identifying chaos magic has been developed yet in the few years since he returned.... There's no telling where chaos magic might be hiding, nopony's ever looked for it. Like dark matter or something.

"Sweet Celestia, Pinkie," I say. "...that's a good point."

"My guess," says Pinkie, "is that there's a bit of chaos magic in everypony, and just about anything. But it's all sleeping, of course! And," she continues, "it's really tricky to get it to wake up! Although, I wonder why Discord hasn't said anything about it."

Dormant chaos magic? ...That would explain a lot about Pinkie... "But how does that relate to tasting images?"

"It means you're starting to use your innate chaos magic!" Pinkie explains. "See, I taste in colors! You, on the other hoof, taste in architecture."

What? "How can you tell?"

"It's what all three of your examples have in common," she reasons.

Fair enough, I guess. I think about that for a while, before my eyes widen in realization. "Wait. Pinkie, about the chaos magic...is that what you meant about making me see the light, and how I can only open my eyes myself?"

Pinkie nods vigorously. "Yep! And that biscuit was specifically designed to help, but only when pure random chance decided to bring it to you!" She pushes the hoofbag into my hooves. "Try the trifle next!"

Setting the bag down, I put a hoof to my temple. "Thanks, Pinkie, but right now I think I need to lie down."

Once I get back to the Castle, I sink into a chair and put my head in my hooves. What in Equestria is going on? I don't have any literature on chaos magic, I always thought it was a waste of time trying to understand, and besides, nopony ever researched it in the first place. But how could Pinkie be right? Sure, I get a picture in my head when I eat something, but, but that was only three times! Correlation is not causation!

Groaning, I slump backwards. There's only one way I'm going to be able to get any answers, but I'm not too enthusiastic about it.... I sigh. Might as well get it over with.

"Discord?" I call. "Discord! Get over here!"

A familiar scratchy voice comes from behind me. "Oh! Twilight, I was just investigating a volcano in the Dragonlands, but I came as quickly as I could--you see, my ears were burning!!"

He grabs a fire extinguisher to put them out, but I sigh again and reluctantly say, "Discord, I need your help."

He pauses, and stares at me incredulously. "Really." Snapping his fingers, he pulls up a large chesterfield and dons a suit and tie, and uses a cloth to absently polish his glasses. "Now, if I know you, Twilight Sparkle, this is a rather unexpected turn of events. Tell me, is it opposite day today?"

"No, it's not, Discord," I say. "I need you to tell me whether Pinkie's theory of ambient chaos magic is true or not."

"What's that?" Discord says, filing his nails. "And you are right, it's never opposite day, especially on opposite day itself."

I ignore his last comment, and continue the train of the conversation. "That there's a little bit of dormant chaos magic inside every living creature, but it's really hard to activate, but once you activate it, you can bend the laws of reality?"

Discord's eyes pop out of his head, and he scrambles on the floor to get them back. "What? Pinkie thinks that?"

I nod, and Discord chuckles. "No, no, heavens no. Although that would be an interesting theory to see play out...I can imagine it now," he says, waving his hands and manifesting a moving picture into the room. "A society broken and battered, led by the tyrannical Chaos Lords, who use the magic to enforce their rule in the most wacky and hilarious way possible." The picture switches to different scenes. "But one Chaos Lord rebels and sees the power of friendship as greater than its opposite, and after finding the love of his life, he, her, and a group of six skilled warriors take down the despotic government and become benevolent leaders of the new society!" He puts an arm on my shoulder and pulls me up beside him. "It would be called, Chaos Crusade: Discord and Rhyme. What do you think?"

"Sounds...interesting, Discord," I admit, "but does that mean that there's no such thing as ambient chaos magic?"

"Of course not!" says Discord, waving a claw. "Nopony's ever had chaos magic! It's very xenophobic, you see. Doesn't like organisms based on Harmony." He then pauses. "Actually, that's not entirely true. Not everypony lacks chaos magic. But, then again, they're special cases..."

Interesting. "Well, what in Equestria could make these things possible, if her theory isn't really correct?"

"What things?" Discord returns to filing his nails, albeit with more curiosity this time.

I explain the situation, including Pinkie's strange behavior, Discord looking more and more puzzled the farther I get in the narrative. "Well now, that's just odd," he mumbles, before starting and speaking up, "and for me that's high praise!" He pulls out a massive magnifying glass and peers at me through it. "I don't sense any chaos magic in your...signature..." Trailing off, his eyes grow wide. "Bear with me, Twilight."

He pulls a microscope out of his ear and, with a snap of his fingers, I'm shrunk down onto the stage underneath the lenses. "Discord, what's going on?" I ask, somewhat irritated, but he simply shushes me and puts his eye to the objective.

It's a tense few moments before he snaps his fingers again and everything is back to normal, aside from his newly acquired lab coat and stethoscope. "Well, Twilight," he begins, flipping through a clipboard, "I've got some good news and some bad news. Would you care to choose which you'd rather hear first?"

"Bad news, please," I say, "get to the point."

"Well, unfortunately, the good news explains the bad news, so I'll have to tell you that first," he says, chewing on the end of his pen. "The good news is, your unmistakably confusing taste symptoms have a very definite and explainable origin that is not, as Pinkie thought, chaos magic. My personal theory," he continues, polishing his glasses, "actually, is Pinkie was able to sense something magically strange about to happen--through her previously encountered Pinkie Sense--and misinterpreted 'strange' as 'chaotic.' The truth," he put down the clipboard and glasses on the medical gurney beside him, "is where the bad news comes in."

After a pause, I prompt, "So...?"

He jumps, apparently snapping out of a reverie. "Ah. Well, dear Twilight Sparkle, I know exactly what the cause of your strange and frankly nonsensical ability is. Unfortunately, I have no idea why. See," he pauses and frowns. "I really don't know how to explain this--but everything points to it being caused by a form of magic I have only seen occasionally, even in my long and admittedly eclectic years."

There is a long, awkward silence, before I finally ask, "Are you pulling my leg, Discord?"

"No," he replies, utterly and uncharacteristically seriously. "If I was doing so, I would have pulled it already to set up a boisterous and most likely disrespectful visual gag. You know me." He hums in thought and taps a claw on his clipboard. "Anyway, enough suspense, it appears that somehow you've acquired a small amount of dream magic."

When I just stare at him blankly, he nods, still frowning. "Exactly. I almost couldn't believe it myself. Nopony other than Luna herself has ever been known to use dream magic, according to Celestia." He shrugs. "Of course, I wouldn't know, I was banished even longer than Miss Moon Mare was."

"Wait, wait." I put a hoof to my head again--I seem to be doing that a lot recently--and continue. "You're telling me that I not only have a new type of magic, but that it's not chaos magic, that it actually is a more rare and unusual type of magic that only one pony in all of Equestrian history has ever been known to use, and somehow this same magic is amounting to little more than making me taste in architecture?"

"That is correct!" Discord says, throwing his hands in the air, streamers and confetti raining down from everywhere. "Congratulations, Twilight, you've just won the award for the most absurd real-life scenario that I personally have never instigated before!" With a flourish of trumpets, he bestows the corresponding ribbon upon my chest. "Consider me impressed! All jokes aside," he cleans up the confetti with a snap, "I legitimately have no possible clue as to how this happened. Dream magic is a very mysterious thing." He cocks his head to the side and raises an eyebrow. "Actually, come to think of it...have you been sleeping with Luna recently?"

As my mind tries to analyze that statement, it fails spectacularly, and after running through some data recovery scenarios it settles for the less-than-graceful failure of "W-wha? B--No! No, no!" If my face was any redder, I'd bet it'd be classified as an exotic bird. "Discord, what? I, I'm...No!"

He looks confused, and then his eyes widen and he waves his arms wildly. "No, no, of course I didn't mean to imply...er, that, of course not! I meant to say you could have absorbed some residual dream magic if you've been in..." He frowns, and gives a mirthless chuckle. "well, I was going to say 'close contact' but now that seems like a bad idea."

"No!" I clear my throat, trying to simultaneously clear some images out of my head. "No, actually, Luna very rarely visits Ponyville. Most of the time, she's too busy guarding the Dream Realm to go anywhere." I take Discord pouring a bottle of bleach into his open head as an invitation to remove the excessively wordy award ribbon from my chest, setting it on the floor.

"Well, have you been dreaming of her lately?" Discord says, and then seeing my renewed expression, slaps a paw over his face. "Forgive me Twilight. I swear, I am not trying to make this any more embarrassing than it already is."

I cough several times. "No, no, I understand. And no, I haven't been having nightmares recently, so Luna has no reason to stop by." Something from the back of my mind nags me, though... "At least, I think I haven't been having nightmares."

"Regardless," says Discord, waving away his own embarrassment, "You need to talk with Luna at the soonest possible time. This new magic of yours is too strange to not bring to her attention."

"I agree," I agree, and then I remember my checklist for the day. "Oh! Tonight, Luna's having a Hayley's Comet astronomy party! It's on my schedule!" Summoning the list, I frown when I reach the unchecked mark for 'clean castle.' "Can't be helped," I mutter to myself, before speaking to Discord. "The train leaves in...fifteen minutes. Oh no!" I gasp. "I still need to pack! I don't remember where Spike took my telescope, and I need all my books I want Luna to sign, and the constellation charts--"

"Twilight Sparkle," Discord says, laying a paw on my shoulder. "I do hate to say it, but please calm yourself. I'll take care of everything." With a snap of his fingers, we're at the train station, everything I had planned to bring piled neatly by our side. "There." He lets out a long breath. "My. I haven't done anything orderly in...well, I don't really care to remember."

I stare at the baggage in shock, then pick it up in my magic. "Thanks," I say genuinely, if a little bewilderedly, to which Discord graciously bows his head. Blinking, I give Discord a curious look. "Well, uh, what makes you so eager to be orderly now?"

He looks up from apparently being lost in thought. "Hm? Oh! That's easy. This is quite easily one of the most nonsensical events I've ever had the pleasure to be a part of, and I fully intend to see it through to the end. The chaos is delicious!" He rubs his hands together.

Typical. "Why aren't you just teleporting us straight to Canterlot? You hate trains." I say, puzzled.

"Au contraire, my dear Twilight," he says, reclining in a chair that wasn't there before. "I adore trains. I simply don't like how they go from one place to another."

"They say," he summons a piece of paper and a marker, drawing a line, "that the shortest distance from one point to another is a straight line. Others say," he folds the paper and punches a hole in it with a claw, "the shortest distance is travelling directly from one point to the other with nothing in between. Unfortunately," he eats the paper and picks at his teeth with a claw, "They're missing the point. Why bother folding spacetime at all?"

"As for why I'm not teleporting us straight to Canterlot, well..." he scratches the back of his neck. "Let's just say the Sisters and I had a little...disagreement the last time I used my powers there, and I'd rather be safe than sorry, as it were. Oh, you wouldn't have heard of it yet," he says in response to my questioning glance. "In light of our continued friendship and my continued animation, I swore not to use my powers inside the city walls. They made me sign a waiver, and they anticipated all my loopholes, too, which is a crying shame." he growls. "But they had to give me something in return for the contract to be made, so I made sure I'd be getting a fair deal..." he trailed off, staring into the distance.

"What did you ask for?" I finally ask, intrigued.

There's a long pause. Discord seems to think my words over in his head for a while.

"A glimpse," he says, finally, absently. "A chance to see the future."

Both of us fall silent at that. He's still staring at nothing in particular, lost in thought. That's pretty unusual for Discord. But a glimpse of the future? I've heard that Celestia and Luna get the occasional vision in times of stress, but do they have the power to look into the future? They combined must have more than enough magic to do some world-bending spells...it's got to be a possibility. But in that eventuality, what did Discord see? Did he see anything? He must have, he's too quiet to assume anything else. He's got to have seen something, something important--or dangerous. I'm bursting with curiosity, but I'm...I'm worried about what I might hear if I ask.... So I just keep my peace and don't bother his thoughts.

The train pulls up behind the station, and Discord looks up. "Come to think of it, hold a second," he says, looking at a watch he didn't have before. "This has been going on for far too long."

What? "What's going on, Discord?"

"Nothing that should concern you," he mutters, "but this has been a long day. Perhaps once on the train, we should break until evening."

"Sounds good to me," I say, shrugging and picking up the pile of astronomy-related paraphernalia. Discord will be Discord.

Discord brings his talon up, grinning. "Aaaaaaaaaaannnnd break!"

---

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Author's Note:

"Spectratricem noctis conlocutioni nostri eam noscere non adproba...si quis eius tenes..."

"Mane! Nondum decede..."

"The apparition of the night must not be allowed to learn of our parley...if anyone could comprehend, she could..."

"Wait! Don't go..."