Twilight wasn’t completely aware of the world around her as she recited the poem, not to the degree that she normally was. It was more difficult than she previously thought; recalling memories within a dream. Thankfully, or not, she had stared at those same five lines long enough to have them engraved in her mind as well as anything else she had studied.

That may have been the reason why she felt herself trying to sing the lyrics as she spoke them, believing in her theory that the true magic of the words were beyond their meaning, and focused deeper on the enunciation of the words. And as such, she spoke them as she believed they were meant to be spoken.

When she was done, her eyes opened to see the same columns of books around her, unchanged and unmoving. There were no clouds shifting through the pillars, no trees growing from the ground, and nothing different than before.

Nothing, except for Dash’s jaw on the floor. Twilight took it as she saw it.

“I know,” she said, shaking her head. “It’s extremely confusing and all around impossible to understand. I’ve tried looking up various geographical phenomena across Equestria, but none of them detail any nights during the day. Celestia was very rigorous with her duties during Luna’s absence, and even the few texts before the dual monarchy never detail any such event.”

“That’s not to mention the second line. It has the exact opposite problem from the first line. I’m willing to bet nearly one hundred percent of the storm cloud ‘veils the sun’, and it certainly would be rather easy for a pony or two to walk in the rain. Hay, I see ponies do it all the time!”

“Twilight…” Dash lightly spoke behind the alicorn, but she paid little attention.

“And of course I’ve analyzed with the assumption that the lines are metaphors for various parts in a pony’s life, but nearly all the levels at which I’ve compared the text to forms of joy, merriment, romance, work, depression, or even life in general haven’t worked.”

“Twilight!” Rainbow had since risen to her hooves, walking towards the rambling mare. Twilight was too far into her own thoughts to pay attention.

“It’s the implications that keep ruining me, because it’s easy to strap a low-point in life to the text, but then what do the words imply with it? It could mean anyone of a hundred different possibilities and-” Twilight stopped as she felt hooves grabbing at her shoulders.

“Twilight!” Rainbow nearly yelled at Twilight, silencing the lavender mare instantly.

The silence that followed was pregnant, tense, and uneasy. Both mares could feel the towers of books around them sway, as if ready to topple with the slightest touch. Twilight swallowed lightly on a ball in her throat, following by inhaling a calming breath. The towers slowed to a still. Dash gave them an eye before turning back towards the alicorn.

“Twilight,” Dash began. “Where did you find that poem?” The question made one of Twilight’s brows rise, unsure of how that pertained to her current conundrum.

“It was in my books back at the library.” She answered easily. “I was reorganizing the sections regarding pegasus specific wing dynamics and meteorology, because the two usually go hoof in hoof. Somepony must have left it there when they were looking through them before.” Dash nodded at the words, her eyes slowly turning from the alicorn. She mumbled under her breath, causing Twilight to perk her ears in interest. “What was that?”

“Nothing,” Rainbow dismissed with a wave of her hoof. The lavender mare was half way to opening her mouth to insist on an answer, but Dash beat her to it. “I-I was just thinking that you could… could have asked the pony who gave it to you. That’s all.”

Twilight let out a soft sigh. “That was my first idea. Both books haven’t been checked out for some time, but they have been reorganized. Spike told me that it wasn’t there before, so I can only assume that somepony visiting the library left it there on accident.” Twilight looked around the endless stacks of books, a joke forming in her mind. “Do you think I could read my own mind to remember who that pony was?”

“Yeah, heh, probably not.” The tone in which the pegasus spoke was obviously downcast, earning the immediate attention of the alicorn.

“Dash?” Twilight questioned, trotting the short distance to her. “What’s wrong?” The pegasus lightly shook her head.

“Nothing, nothing just….” Dash’s hoof lightly circled in the air, as if she were trying to catch a stray thought. “I… I’m pretty sure I get that poem of yours.” Twilight’s eyes couldn’t fly open fast enough.

“What?!” Her wings expanded as she let out the sudden declaration.

The towers of books around them suddenly jumped into the air, putting both mares instantly in a defensive stance. But just as quickly were they thrown into the air did they come falling back down, landing in the still perfect pillars like before. Twilight had to remind herself this was a dream, so it was possible.

“I mean…” Twilight started again. “You already understand the poem? Dash, I don’t mean to be too blunt here, but… the most analytical thing I’ve ever seen you read is the author’s bio on Daring Do, and that was about my mother.” Dash gave a little chuckle with an averting gaze.

“Yeah well… doesn’t mean I can’t understand it, right?” As simple as the admission was, it was a point the alicorn couldn’t ignore. She was assuming too much about her marefriend by conjecture alone.

“Yes,” Twilight quickly conceded. “You’re right Rainbow. I just… I’ve been working on this literally all day, and I was getting ready for all night. I’m a little surprised that you got it so quickly.”

“Y-Yeah,” Rainbow returned with a small shake in her voice. Her hoof scratched at the back of her head. “I guess there are some things other than flying I can pick up on, huh?” The pegasus gave the alicorn a smile, her smile to be precise.

But something was wrong.

It was favoring one side; with the coat beneath her right eye pulled back much tighter than her left. Her head was slightly lolled towards the favored side as well. But something about Dash’s eyes irked Twilight. They weren’t full of the confident vigor that usually came with her signature smirk. But for the life of her, Twilight couldn’t guess what they were.

“So you want me to tell you what it means?” Dash’s question caught Twilight off guard. The alicorn’s mouth was open, in preparation to ask said pegasus if she was alright, even ready to respond to the usual ‘fine’ with acknowledgement towards superior understanding of Dash’s small idioms and facial expressions.

In the end though, Dash spoke first and with a rather engaging conversation topic. Twilight was forced to concede to her marefriend.

“Yes, of course.” She spoke clearly, but made a small nibble on her lip before she continued. “Can we… you know.” Her hoof motioned towards said pegasus, let out a small snicker before waving her wing. Twilight was already trotting the few hooves distance needed to close the gap between them. Dash fell in tune with her actions almost immediately.

As soon as Twilight was by the pegasus’ side, Dash extended and wrapped a wing around her, blanketing the alicorn about her carriage. Even with their mating only moments behind them, Twilight savored the warm embrace. The heat of their bonding was intense, but just letting their coats mingle did so much more for her concentration and peace of mind.

The two settled on the ground, no heat to disturb them and no discomfort to speak of. Twilight adjusted her hooves beneath herself, unapologetically pushing herself closer to Rainbow as she did. The pegasus spoke no words of mind. When they were still Dash gave the alicorn an eye as she spoke.

“Better egghead?” Dash asked her sweetly, pet-name included. Twilight genuinely smiled as she leaned into the pegasus’s touch.

“Better than before, and I was already great.” The amendment made Dash chuckle like Dash always did; confidently and with joy. It warmed Twilight as much as her touch.

The alicorn’s eyes dared to venture around the many pillars of books, only to notice that the world had changed like before. It did not become the euphoric mass of love and joy as it had during her release, but instead it was… calming.

The books had silently descended, dropped away into the ground like before. In their place there were pools of hot water surrounding them, columns of steam slowly rising into the air. Normally, Twilight was quite sure the closeness to the vicinity of steaming pools would make her embrace with the pegasus unbearable, yet, she continued to feel nothing but elation at the touch.

The rest of the landscape remained just as barren as before, no stray odd objects, no changes in the landscape, and certainly no other signs of life for all her eyes could see. It was just Dash, herself, and the secret of a poem hovering above their heads with the steam of heated water of course.

This was as close to heaven as she needed to be.

“So,” Twilight mewled as she adjusted herself beside the pegasus. “Can you start?”

“Alright, but cut me some slack. I’m new to the teaching thing.” Twilight couldn’t help but lightly giggle at the pegasus’s comment.

“Of course Dash,” she assured as she rubbed at her marefriend’s side. “Whenever you’re ready.”

“Right,” Rainbow took in a breath of air, pushing lightly against Twilight as she did so. “Well, to start, what do you feel when you’re thinking about the poem?” It was only thanks to the comfortable state Twilight was in that the question didn’t catch her off guard.

“Well, not much. I’m analyzing it with an open mind, looking for similarities or possible representations in the words. Its hard to properly analyze something if you let your emotions drive you a certain direction.” It was true, at least in the alicorn’s experience. Strong beliefs were often the reason such critical information in regards to magic was undiscovered for so long. She listed the existence of the Ley Lines to start.

Her examples, however, were thrown aside as Dash started to shake her head.

“See, that’s the problem right there.” The pegasus spoke while she raised her hoof. She gave the lavender mare a small boop on her nose, forcing Twilight to raise her own leg to rub at her snout. The two shared a soft smile at the action before Rainbow continued.

“That poem, I got it because… because I understand what it was trying to say. I don’t get it because I know the symbols or all that stuff, that’s your cloud, not mine. I get it because it’s trying to make you feel someway, and I know why it is.” Twilight’s curiosity was anything but extinguished. Dash took one look at her eyes before nibbling on her lip.

“Look, think of it like this dream of yours.” Dash waved her hoof as she gave the instruction to the alicorn, pushing away a few stray clouds of steam as she did so.

“What do you mean?” The metaphor didn’t register in the alicorn’s mind in the slightest.

“None of this stuff changed while you were telling me the poem. Like, at all.” Twilight blinked as she recalled that moment.

Rainbow was right. The whole time Twilight recited the poem, her towers of books remained. Nothing changed at all in her dreamscape. Not the books, not the land, nothing at all. But whenever Dash started touching her, everything changed, be it the release of an orgasm or the soft embrace of the pegasus’s wing, the land changed.

It wasn’t hard for her to see what affected the land, it was too easy to see. This was a dream, which was in her mind. Like all emotions, they began in one of the two insular cortices, hence, her mind. Anything she felt would easily correspond to her dreams. As nothing changed in her dream, nothing changed with her emotions.

Twilight wasn’t feeling anything when she thought of the poem. That was a problem.

“But… But that defeats the ARP.” One look at Dash’s confused expression and Twilight reiterated. “The Apathetic Research Principle, the research law stating that all experiments or areas of investigation should be done so under minimal to no emotional attachment, as it can cause discrepancies between what is real and what isn’t.”

“You’re seriously gonna try throwing that one out there when you’re the supposed ‘Princess of Friendship’? Best friends with the ‘Princess of Love’?” Twilight felt a blush climb through her body again, making the sauna pools around them generate a bit more steam than before. She wished it was because the pegasus holding her close, but she knew better.

Dash caught on too, as the signature smirk was evident in her eyes. It was complete this time with the glow in her pink irises.

“C’mon Twi, even I got this one figured out.” That made Twilight burn for a very different reason. Thankfully once more, Rainbow caught on. “Look, try it like this.” Her hoof waved in front of her, pushing the steam as she did so. “Poems and stuff like it are meant to make their readers feel something, right?” Twilight nodded slowly.

“Well, yes, but most of those same poems are able to be broken down and analyzed by their elements, like anything else.” Dash caught on quick.

“C’mon Twi, nothing’s 100%.” If there were a table keeping score of their conversation, Twilight was sure Rainbow was leading her by miles. Sometimes she was more annoyed than pleased by the pegasus’s quick wit. “Like I was saying, the poems are supposed to make us feel. To get them to feel right, the pony writing them has probably got to be feeling something like what they want the poem to feel like. It’s… It’s like flying. I can describe what flying is like a hundred times better than Applejack or Rarity, ‘cause they can’t fly. Probably the same thing for you and magic.”

That supposed scoreboard, the one Twilight was thankful her dream had yet to conjure up, she wasn’t so sure it would be long enough to track the difference between her and Rainbow at this moment.

Then a point of Rainbow’s hammered home.

“Dash,” Twilight began. “If you’re right, then… then that means you not only know what the pony who wrote the poem was trying to say, but you felt like it before, right?” The alicorn felt the wing over her back shiver. It was probably the worst way to realize she was right. “What was the poem about Dash?”

The pegasus licked her lips, eyes turning away from the alicorn. Twilight was patient, as she had to be with Rainbow by her side. Her patience had grown for the cyan mare’s brashness and unapologetic tenacity to charge forward. Now though, it paid off to let the mare take her time before speaking.

“The poem…” Dash began, “The poem’s about accepting somepony’s death.”

Twilight’s eyes couldn’t open any wider. Dots connected in her mind like a light fuse burning down an obvious trail. As her mind did, the world changed again.

The steam quickly began to dissipate, either rising to impossible heights in the sky or vanishing altogether. The hot water didn’t vanish, so much as it stopped moving. The small ripples of rising heat stopped, the waves of motion ceased, as the temperature dropped. Even when the water was what could be called cold, it continued to drop.

The water became ice. In the second after, a world of snow-covered mountains and trenches surrounded the pair.

Dash hugged Twilight closer to her. Twilight pulled her nearer as well.