FicFan.org

The more important question to ask here would be who was in any position to be thinking all of these things. Who could live so long as to see them and understand them? Who...or what?

Sentients with physical bodies were obsessed with physical voices and a great many other things composed of matter and concerned with sensations experienced through the nervous system. King Sombra was an extremely rare exception only to a small degree. He had not entirely rid himself of physical form and often returned to it because he loved to feel.

King Sombra...what an interesting one he had been. Hopefully he would continue to be. It was not every eon that a mortal challenged the Vine and escaped death's grip by a mere hair. For that was precisely what he had done so arrogantly in his remarkable youth. If only he would live long enough for that particular episode to have actual meaning.

The Vine of Life was what had been thinking all of these things. It was not necessarily a thing to exist in a place or time, though it did choose to do so every now and then. It didn't know quite why but then “that's life” if one was willing to forgive the use of the expression.

The Vine was not at all an unusual thing even if most ponies would describe it exactly in that way. There were many other strange and powerful things spread across the world and greater universe that would be hard pressed to be categorized either as a being or merely a sentient thing. The Tree of Harmony was one such example. Then, of course, there was also the Shrub of Jubilation. But that was a subject best left untouched as it was something of a laughable black sheep in the flock.

http://www.fimfiction.net/story/102097/14/hive-alive/14-life-is-limitless