It was another beautiful day in the magical land of Equestria. The mighty Sun was shining, the swirly soft clouds were few and far between, the sky was as blue as ever, and the tree branches swayed in the gentle breeze. Ponies laughed, played, talked, and lounged about in this midsummer's day. Nearly everypony was content and happy. Twilight Sparkle was suddenly not.

"Pinkie! What are you doing?!"

The pink pony stopped bouncing, hung in midair for a moment, then fell to the ground. In a split second she popped up from the ground and was standing next to the unicorn.

"I'm bouncing, Twilight!" She started up again, making spring noises.

"No, not that! How did you just do that?!"

"Do what?" She asked, still bouncing around.

"That thing where you stopped in midair!" Twilight gestured at the Earth pony with her hoof as she lay on the bench watching her friend's activity.

"What thing where I stopped in midair?"

"You did it just after I asked you what you were doing the first time! And how did you get so close to me so fast after that?"

"Uh, I dunno! It just happened! Don't worry about it," Pinkie Pie assured.

"I'm not worrying, it just confuses me... You confuse me."

"Well as long as you're smilin—" Pinkie opened her eyes at the height of her bounce, saw Twilight's perplexed, non-smiling face, and screeched to a halt with a sound like rubber friction. She landed softly on her hooves. Twilight wasn't smiling.

"You just did it again, Pinkie! You’re defying the law of constant acceleration!"

"Twilight,” the pink pony shouted, “you're not smiling! This is terrible! What am I doing wrong?"

Twilight sighed. "You're not doing anything wrong. You're just really confusing me. How do you do it?"

"Do what?"

"You know what, the stop-in-midair thing!"

"I dunno, Twilight! I don't really think about it!" Pinkie smiled uneasily at Twilight. "Does that answer your question?"

"...No, it doesn't! Furthermore, remember your birthday party?"

"Yep! Well, not at first I didn't. Boy was it a surprise!"

"When you had that outburst at us, you were floating and zipping all over the place! How did you do that?"

"I dunno, I was, um... I wasn't feeling all that happy, is all..." Pinkie looked downcast for a bit, then brightened up. "Hey, wanna go bake something? Mr. Cake just bought this really tasty new mint icing, and he said I could use some! C'mon, let's go!" Sitting where she was, a good five feet away, she stretched her forelegs and tried to grab ahold of Twilight's body to take her to Sugarcube Corner. Twilight reared away, standing up on the bench.

"ACK! What the hay! How did you do that?!"

"Geez, what's with you today, Twilight? You don't usually act this nervous."

"No, Pinkie, something's up with YOU today! Something really strange!"

"What're you talking about? I'm always like this!"

Twilight blinked, looking through her memories. Incidents came to her one at a time. She remembered.

"...Pinkie, what ARE you?!"

The Earth pony shrugged. "I'm a pony! Didn't you know that?"

"Well, yes, but... you constantly do impossible things, and nopony confronts you about it!"

Pinkie thought momentarily. "I guess nopony minds it!"

"I don't think they even notice it!" Twilight exclaimed, "I don't think anypony but me has ever noticed this! How do you work, Pinkie?!"

"...Same as any other pony...?" Pinkie frowned a little. "Twilight, are you mad at me? Is it cuz I'm always so hyper? Because if it really makes you so upset, I can tone it down, I think..."

"No, no, I'm not mad at you! You just shouldn't be possible! You shouldn't exist!"

Her eyes wet. She sniffled. "...That hurts, Twilight... ...I thought we were friends."

Twilight said nothing, still baffled, as Pinkie noiselessly trotted away. She wanted to call out to her, ask her to turn around, to come back, so she could tell her she was sorry. At the same time, she didn't want to believe that Pinkie Pie was possible according to modern understandings of physics and biology, and dreaded talking with her for fear of disaster. Finally Pinkie disappeared over the hill with the path leading into the center of town.

"I will not let this issue stand unresolved," Twilight said to herself as she stood up off the bench and headed to her library.

The clouds in the blue sky mindlessly went about their unfettered business.

Spike grunted as he forced the library door open, carrying a heavy bag of groceries. Nestled deep in the brown paper, amongst eggs, milk, and bread, were a selection of the finest limestone stalactites the Appaloosan Mining Consortium could offer at their geology stall in the marketplace. Spike had paid his entire month's allowance for them, and he was looking forward to devouring them with finesse. Perhaps he would pick his teeth with them while he ate the leftover aquamarines he had from last month.

In any case, it took much more effort than usual to open the front door, and once he was inside he saw why. Towering stacks of books were arranged in a labyrinthine manner, interpolated with piles of baled scrolls. Some of the books had kept the door shut.

"Twilight? Is it your time of year again?" he called out, hoping she was somewhere in the mess. A purple head popped up over the top of a tall row of magazines.

"What?! No! That was three months ago. This is something else. Hold still." Her horn lit up and Spike was surrounded by a ball of purple energy, transporting him to the center of the maze.

He found himself looking at a unicorn dressed in full scientist get-up. Not only did she have a labcoat on, but her mane was done up in a tight bun, her eyes were cased in thick goggles, and under her labcoat she wore a bright blue polo shirt with the text "Canterlot University Quantum Physics Lab" embroidered on the breast.

"Whoa! So, whatcha doing?" Spike asked innocently.

"Currently I am measuring the speed of light in a vacuum."

He scratched his head. "...Then what's all this stuff for?"

Twilight giggled. "Well, more generally I'm trying to ascertain the true nature of the universe."

"Um. And that is?"

"If I knew already, I wouldn't be doing this!"

Spike looked around the inner sanctum. There were large machines beeping and humming, tools on tables reflecting argently, weights, pulleys, flashlights, bows and arrows, and all sorts of unconnected items. He picked one up.

"You're using a banana to ascertain the nature of the universe?"

She swiped it away. "The TRUE nature. And that's my lunch. Also it models a theoretical hyperdimensional space. A Bananach-Tarski space. But not after I eat it."

Spike scratched his head again. "I don't get it."

"...It's just a banana. Now, I need your help with an experiment, okay?"

"...Okay?"

"Grrreat! Just great! Alright, I need you to lie down on this table for a few minutes." She lifted him magically and did it for him.

"Not bad so far. What's this experiment abo- whoa, what's with the straps?" Three leather bands were tightly secured over his body, on his forehead, belly, and legs.

"Just so you don't move, Spike. This is a delicate experiment, but when it's over I need you to tell me everything you remember about it."

Spike started to sweat. "Remember about what?" he asked nervously.

Twilight didn't clarify. She attached his arm to an ECG and put suckers from an EEG on his head. Both quietly chittered. "Just relax and keep an open mind. Relax. Relaaaax."

Spike gulped, not believing her. "Okay, got it. I'm relaxed. I'm relaxed."

KRAKOW!

A bolt of lightning struck Spike right in the chest, killing him. The ECG hit the ceiling and then dropped to a flatline almost immediately. The EEG shew a burst of wild waves for a few seconds and then too flatlined. Twilight counted fifteen seconds on the clock, during which the ECG droned on. Then she picked up the defibrillator, and shocked Spike back to life. He woke up coughing and spluttering.

"T-Twilight?! WHAT THE HAY WAS THAT?!" She put a hoof to his lips.

"Right now, before it slips from your mind. Tell me what you remember. Everything. Did you see a light? Did you go into it? Is there an afterlife?" She pulled away the hoof.

"Wha— NO!! The last thing I remember is getting electrocuted by you! Then I got electrocuted by you, AGAIN!"

"No afterlife is discernible by the subject after 15 seconds," she murmured, writing down Spike's observations of death on a notepad without looking at him. Putting the clipboard down, she turned to face him. "Well, let's try for 30 seconds now, hmm?"

"Twilight! No! You just killed me! I'm not letting you do it again!"

"Subject is resistant to, possibly fearful of, the idea of murder," she wrote. She put the clipboard down and checked the printouts from the machines monitoring Spike. Spike took this as an opportunity to slip out of the tight leather straps and get away, but Twilight teleported him back just as he made it out of the center of the labyrinth. She held him in her magic as she wrote.

"Subject managed to escape the inescapably tight straps while not being observed. Suggests Observer's Paradox mechanism to relieve discomfort or stress. Must study further."

"Twilight, let me go! I don't want to die again!"

"Spike, calm your bits. This is for science!" She floated him over to the table, even as he struggled. "We're only going to do this a couple dozen times."

"But what if you can't get me back?"

"Then I'll be missing a data point. Now hold still."

"Twilight, I—"

Suddenly a pink blur pole-vaulted through the library window and over the mountains of books into the center, grabbing Spike in one hoof and landing atop a bookshelf.

"Gotcha, Spike! Haha, pinchy knee never lies!"

"Subject's rescuer indicated using her Pinkie Sense that this experiment was considered 'something scary' by the subject." She looked up at the two. Pinkie had a fancy black hat, cape, mustache and mask, along with a wide red belt, and was carrying a rapier. "Pinkie Pie! Give him back! I need to kill him for science!"

"What are you trying to prove, mi caballamiga Twilight?" the pink pony inquired with a Spanish accent.

"I'm trying to determine the true nature of the universe, and one step of that involves determining whether or not an afterlife exists!"

Pinkie pretended to think about this for a moment, tapping her chin. "Hmm... ¡No! I cannot let you muerte Spike!"

"Pinkiiiieeee!!!" Twilight teleported herself to the next bookshelf over, stepping forward menacingly.

"...¡Vamos!" she yelped, and triple-backflipped out of the window behind her, Spike curled against her belly. Twilight closed her eyes in disbelief, and when she opened them the wind had blown the curtains flush, revealing an angular letter P slashed into the fabric. Somehow the middle of the P stayed in place, flowing with the rest of the curtain. Twilight jotted down this horrible inconsistency in physics in her notes and stared out the window, a trail of far-spaced hoofprints in the grass where Pinkie had undoubtably run off with Spike on her back.

"Test subject number two results: inconclusive." She glanced over at Owloysius's perch, where what looked like a fried chicken stood smoking faintly. "Test subject number one results: still inconclusive. Note to self: avoid over-using lightning on endothermic animals."

Hauling her apple cart through the marketplace, Applejack spied her good friend Twilight sitting at a table outside a restaurant, drawing on a banana. Being such a good friend, she unhitched her cart at the side of the road and went over.

"Howdy Twi! Whatcha got there?"

"I'm mapping a theoretical, hyperdimensional space with the observable geometry of our universe at the present time."

"...Looks like a banana t' me, but if you say so!"

"Would you like to join me, Applejack?"

Applejack glimpsed at the town clock and back. "Sure, Ah have time!" She sat down and put her hooves on the table. "So, uh, what's this Ah hear about you making Pinkie cry?"

"It's not my fault she's impossible! She defies the laws of physics without even thinking! They're laws for a reason!" Twilight said.

"There's an exception to every rule, sugarcube."

"Really? Including that one?"

Applejack blanked, confused. "Uh... Ah dunno. Th' point is, ya can't go around making ponies, yer friends, cry like a bee stung 'em. It's not a nice thing t' do."

"You're right, Applejack. I'll apologize to her for that."

The cowpony changed the subject. "Ah like yer new mane-do, very professional-like."

"Thanks! It stays out of my eyes this way."

"Y' got some marks around yer eyes,though..." she squinted and rubbed her chin, "...Goggles?"

"Yes!" Twilight grinned.

"Have y'all been sciencing again? Oh no, is this about Pinkie Pie? Please tell me it ain't about Pinkie Pie."

"It is about Pinkie Pie in part, but more broadly it's about the very nature of our existence."

"...Philosophy, huh? Ah got one fer ya: There's a little island off th' coast a' Peloponysus. All the stallions there must be shaved clean a' their beards. There's only one barber, and everypony has to be shaved by th' barber. But nopony's allowed to shave themself. Who shaves the barber?"

Twilight pondered silently for a few seconds, then said, "Nopony does! The barber's a mare!"

"Eeexactly! First prize in philosophy goes t' Miss Twilight Sparkle a' Ponyville."

"Very good, Applejack, thank you! But... that's an example of lateral thinking, not philosophy. And I'm not doing philosophy, I'm doing metaphysics, I think."

"Well, Ah never met-a-physics Ah didn't like."

Twilight chuckled. "Honestly, Applejack, you're as corny as Pinkie Pie today."

"An' what a lovely day it is, ain't it, Twi?"

They both stared at the azure sunny sky. They watched the lazy, weightless clouds drift by.

"...AJ?"

"Yes, Twi?"

"I think Pinkie knows more than she's letting on."

Applejack scoffed. "Y'all can't expect that silly pony t' know anything about metaphysics." She paused, her face straightening. "Can you?"

"I can and I do. Countless times she has broken the laws of physics. Running across a chasm at Froggy Bottom Bog, getting random objects from out of nowhere, being inordinately lucky with her timing, extending her limbs far past the length a normal pony can achieve... it's all her! Everything points to her!"

Applejack nodded hesitantly. "Suuure... well, uh, maybe you should write t' Princess Celestia about whatever you think yer seeing Pinkie do. Ah gotta tell you, though, ain't nothing too unusual about that mare in terms a' the laws of physics."

"Do... do you doubt me, Applejack?!"

"No, no, not a bit... Ah'm just concerned that yer on the mother of all wild goose chases."

The unicorn glared sullenly at the Earth pony.

"...Applejack, I am going to calmly eat this theoretical hyperdimensional space for my lunch, and I would greatly appreciate it if you would make like a Fluttershy and leave before it ends up in your plothole."

"Whoa there! Okay, okay, Ah'm getting!" The orange pony scrambled away from the table, Twilight scowling at her the whole time and unpeeling the equation-covered banana. Applejack hitched herself up to her cart again and made high tail out of the marketplace.

The town clock struck high noon. The fluffy clouds split and passed around the Sun, making way for the light.

"RAINBOW DAAA-AAASH!!"

A ruffled head poked out from on top of a single cloud. "Yeah, Twilight?"

"Hi Rainbow! I'd like to ask a few questions, if you don't mind?"

"Sure thing! What kinda questions?" The pegasus glided down from the cloud and stood in front of Twilight.

"Physics!"

"Yes! One of the science classes I was actually okay at! Shoot."

"What is the fastest speed you've ever reached?"

"Duh, the Sonic Rainboom. Um, about Mach 5?"

"And did you break the sound barrier at Mach 1 beforehand?"

She stared. "...Sound barrier?"

"Uh, next question... What did you experience, from your point of view, as you broke the Rainboom barrier?"

"My blood was rushing into my back hooves. My wings were pushed flat to my sides. I felt like I was going to black out! But I saw all these amazing colors... it looked like two big wheels rolling towards me, against each other, and I'm zooming at the middle and it's covered with these patterns of squares and lines and rays, and the wheels didn't ever stop turning!"

"And when you turned to catch Rarity?"

"And the Wonderbolts!" she boasted. "Well, when I turned, the wheels kind of went away, and then all I saw was little floaty things."

"Did you feel any connection with something bigger than yourself?"

"Hmm... now that you mention it, yeah! Just as I broke the Rainboom, there was like this feeling that I was being watched or something."

"We were all watching you from the stadium," Twilight pointed out.

"No, this was... it's too hard to describe. For a split second, I think I knew just what Pinkie Pie is always yammering about."

"What? What was it?!" Twilight pressed her face against Dash's face.

"Whoa, calm down Twi. I... I can't remember it! It escaped so fast! Ha, just like me - so fast!" She struck a pose.

"...Last question: have you ever gained an understanding of the entire universe?"

"I think I already answered that one. Just barely and for no time at all."

"Well, uh, thanks for your help, Dash. See you later!"

"No problem, you too, Twilight!" Rainbow Dash flew up to her cloud and fell asleep again. Twilight trotted back through Ponyville to her next destination.

The layers of clouds passed over each other, filling holes and emptying them again, changing shape and moving on their own.

"Um... hello?" The pegasus said through a cracked door.

"Hello Fluttershy! It's me, Twilight. If you're not busy, I'd like to ask you a few questions about animals."

"Oh, okay, come in." Fluttershy unchained the door and opened it, letting the purple mare inside. "What can I help you with, Twilight?" She asked as they sat down in the living room.

"Just a few questions. Nothing too big. Ready?"

She took a deep breath. "Ready."

"Do animals have minds?"

Fluttershy stumbled mentally. "—Um... uh... Yes, I'm sure they must. They couldn't be so friendly otherwise."

"Do monsters in the Everfree have minds?"

"Ooh, um, that's a bit harder... No, I don't think so..."

"What marks the distinction between an animal and a monster?"

"Well, um... a monster is just a kind of animal that's big and mean and scary."

"And that doesn't have a mind?"

"Uh... um... yes, I guess so."

"Do animals have souls?"

"Eep!" Fluttershy jumped at the unexpected and provocative question. "Well... um... they should... oh my, now I'm thinking about if... oh my..."

"Take your time, Fluttershy."

"Uh... I don't think there's a way to tell."

"Okay. Do monsters have souls?"

"Um... oh my goodness... well, uh, no, definitely not..."

"So monsters don't have minds or souls?"

"Uh... no..."

“Where do monsters come from?”

“Um, their parents?”

“No, where did the first monsters come from? Why are there monsters at all?”

“Uhh... Twilight, I uh, I... I don’t know... it’s... it’s the circle of life, right?”

"Next question. You agree that ponies have minds, right?"

"Yes...?"

"So do ponies have souls?"

"Um, uh, Twilight, you know, theology isn't, um, my strong suit..." she shrank down.

"So now with ponies it's a question of theology?" Twilight asked, riled up.

"Um... eep..." she huddled into herself. Twilight observed her intently.

She groaned lightly. "...I can see you're in no shape to answer anymore questions." She got off the couch and went for the door. "Goodbye Fluttershy! Thanks for your help!" The door shut, leaving Fluttershy unnerved and questioning everything she knew.

The clouds outside were slowly grazing on the sky like sheep let out to pasture. The breeze had died down. Fluttershy's wind-chimes plaintively let out a few notes before silencing abruptly, as if held still by force.

There was a knock at the door of Carousel Boutique. A charming voice rang out from inside. "Comiiing~!"

The door opened. "Welcome to Carousel Boutique, where everything is chique, unique, and— oh, hello Twilight! What brings you here on such a gorgeous day?"

Twilight levitated a heavy scroll out of her saddlebag and gave it to Rarity. "Hello. I've been doing some research and I need to send this letter to Princess Celestia, but I can't find Spike. I'm pretty sure he's here, so can you ask him to send this ASAP?"

"Why of course, darling!" Rarity chimed. "My, that's quite a lot of research. What's the topic?"

Twilight closed her eyes and recited. "On the True Nature of the Universe and Reality Itself."

"Rather... esoteric, wouldn't you say?" Rarity asked. "I doubt anypony could fathom something like that. Er, except the Princess! Of course she could!"

"It's okay, Rarity, I know what you mean. Most of the research is just re-measuring universal constants to higher degrees of accuracy, along with a study of Pinkie Pie's abilities, the physics of a Sonic Rainboom, animal minds, and the question of whether an afterlife exists."

"Whatever you say, darling. I'll give this to Spike right away." She leant inside and closed the door, but opened it again a few seconds later. "Well?"

"Well what?"

"Is there an afterlife?"

"Spike couldn't remember."

Rarity cringed at the implication. "I... see. Well, thank you for your visit, Twilight, I'll be sure to send the letter. Goodbye!" She shut the door. Twilight left for one more talk with a friend.

The clouds were coalescing gradually, without any help, pooling together to fill the sky, even partially blocking out the Sun, thin as they were.

The door to Sugarcube Corner opened before Twilight could even knock on it. Pinkie Pie looked out at the unicorn calmly, her hair still curly as normal, which was reassuring.

“I’ve been expecting you, Twilight. Come inside.” She led her in and closed the door. There were no special decorations in place, nothing unusual of note. The phonograph was playing some kind of requiem. Twilight couldn’t identify which one it was, but she found it kind of funny, and kind of sad too.

“Pinkie Pie, I just wanted to apologize for getting angry at you. You confuse me sometimes, but you’re still one of my best friends.”

“I accept your apology, Twilight. All is forgiven.”

Twilight stared at the pink pony, who was acting strangely un-Pinkie.

“Are you okay, Pinkie?”

“Oh, me? I’m fine! Just a little worried is all.”

“What are you worried about?” Twilight asked cautiously.

“The world is ending,” she stated flatly.

Twilight reared up. “WHAT?! THE WORLD IS ENDING?! Why didn’t you tell anypony?!” She shouted.

“It doesn’t concern anypony else.”

Twilight began to panic. “Pinkie! Of course the end of the world concerns everypony else! You could have told me! Princess Celestia! Anypony!”

“They would just have panicked like you’re doing now. Calm down, Twilight.”

Twilight took a deep breath in her nose and out through her mouth. Her heart rate fell to normal. “...How do you know the world is ending?”

“Pinkie Sense. Just got a flash of knowledge. I think you did too.”

“...When?”

Pinkie motioned vaguely with her hoof. “When you asked me what I was doing in the park. You were noticing something you, nor anypony else, had never noticed before. How I break science and all that. Nopony but me ever caught onto that until then.”

“So what can we do to save the world?”

“Nothing!”

Twilight’s eyes went wide, almost innocently. “Nothing?”

“Nothing. It’s not a bug, it’s a feature of the universe.” She smirked.

“We can’t stop it? We can’t save the world?” she asked.

“Nope. It was always going to happen.”

"Does anything we did have consequences?"

"Nope!"

Twilight lay down, trying to process it all. “...How long do we have?”

“About ten minutes.”

“TEN MINUTES?!” Her head shot up from between her hooves.

“No use panicking, Twilight. It can’t delay the inevitable. It only wastes the time we have left.”

“What do we do?”

“Well, you’ve alienated most of your best friends already, and Dash is asleep, so there’s no point in trying to repair that.  But it doesn't matter. How about I tell you a secret, Twilight?”

“A secret?”

“The biggest secret of all! The true nature of the universe and reality itself!”

“...You knew all along?”

“Yep! Since I got my cutie mark!” Pinkie grinned. “C’mere.”

Twilight stood up and stepped closer. “What’s the secret?”

“We only have... nine minutes, so telling you this won’t do anything worse than what’s going to happen. This is the secret that ends the world.”

“...Tell me.”

Pinkie zipped forward, gripped Twilight’s head with her hooves, and whispered in her ear.

“You're dreaming.”

“…”

“...”

“...WHAT?!” Twilight snapped. Something outside crashed.

“Well, technically we’re all dreaming. The universe is a dream.” More crashing noises.

Twilight was on. She raced outside in the blink of an eye. The world shivered, and began to self-destruct. The mountains were shaking, the trees were falling down, the road was exploding into thousands of pieces. The buildings crumbled and shattered. Ponies ran around panicking. The dim clouds bubbled and boiled like stew.

Pinkie appeared next to Twilight. “There’s nothing you can do. The dream is collapsing. This secret ends the world, but the world was meant to end anyways. We would have only had another seven minutes.”

Twilight turned to face Pinkie. “How long do we have now?!” She shouted over the roar and din of nullifying destruction the world over. Somewhere distant a volcano erupted.

“About 30 seconds, but perhaps you’ll get lucky!” Pinkie shouted back.

“Lucky?!”

“Concentrate on finding peace! On finding what lies beyond this dream! Concentrate!!”

"What lies beyond a dream?!" Twilight hollered, the ground around and between them forming deep crevasses.

"The waking world!!" Pinkie hollered back, the two growing farther apart as the cloudy sky ripped and the black and white void past it timbered, tumulted, tumbled.

The world ended.

Twilight knelt in the center of an infinite gray plane.

Before her stood an alicorn, taller than either Celestia or Luna, with a coat the color of vanilla ice cream - yellow so pale it might as well be white - and a deep crimson mane cut into straight bangs over her forehead, falling down the back of her neck the same way. Her wings were unfurled to their full extent, reaching even higher than her horn, which was as long as Twilight was from nose to tail.

"Arise, Twilight Sparkle," the alicorn said. Twilight stood up slowly, marveling at the perfect being before her.

"...Are you the Creator?"

The alicorn smiled. "Yes. Call me Fyre-Flye."

"Fyre Flye?" She studied the Creator. The Creator looked very tired. She had bags under her bright blue eyes and her neck was stiff.

"Fyre-Flye, with a hyphen. Or you can just call me Queen."

"Queen? So... you're the Princesses' mother?"

"I am everypony's mother, Twilight."

Twilight looked around the featureless plane, feeling completely at peace with everything. "The world ended... Is this the afterlife?"

Fyre-Flye shook her head. "No. This is limbo. I pulled you down here for a few minutes to talk." She leant down to Twilight. "Somehow I always knew it would be you that ended the dream."

"So this is the waking world?"

"No, this is still a dream. Just one last bubble of it which hasn't burst."

"How did Pinkie know it was a dream?"

"I don't know the answer to that. She's a mystery even to me. Now is it only going to be questions from you, Twilight?" She winked.

Twilight blushed. "Well, um, thank you, Queen, for creating everything, I guess... I was sad to see it go..."

"Don't worry. There are plenty more dreams to be had."

"Whose dream was it, anyways?"

"Mine, of course!" She prided, her smile twinkling, though her tired eyes revealed her.

"Can I come with you when the dream ends?" Twilight asked.

"Unfortunately, no... the waking world can't support you."

"So where will I go?" She asked nervously.

Fyre-Flye closed her eyes momentarily as she spoke. "There's a place called Tumbolia, the land of dead hiccups and extinguished light bulbs. Where dreamed characters go when the dreamer wakes up. That's where you'll go. And when the dream begins again, you'll be brought back." She opened her eyes and swayed slightly, blinking oddly.

"Queen, you look tired. Maybe you should take a rest."

"Yes, Twilight. I've been awake for thousands of years. Now I will rest, and the dream will end." Fyre-Flye lay down on her hooves. "Thank you for your service."

Twilight wasn't there anymore. Neither was the gray plane.

Fyre-Flye tucked her head between her forelegs and fell asleep.

The dream ended.

The dream ended.

Lauren woke up.

She took a deep breath and pulled off her headphones. The late-day sun shone through the window, glinting off the metal of the suitcase which contained the PASIV device. Clearing her eyes from her cat nap, she detached the IV and let it retract into the machine with a high-pitched whine. She got out of bed and left through the door, calling as she went downstairs.

"Craig, what's for dinner?"

The clouds outside blazed golden, free spirits on fire in the afternoon glory. It had been another beautiful day.