At first, Twilight feels like the spell she cast backfired, causing her to go blind and deaf. Mostly because she can’t make out anything besides blindingly bright lights, or hear the excited shouts of her Friends any more. Or anything else, for that matter. She might as well throw mute into that category, too, if only because she is too stunned to speak.
Ugh, she shouldn’t have copied Starlight Glimmer’s methodology of doing absolutely no double checking and just going with her gut instinct! Unless she’s now like the Mare of Dares from Spike’s comics, and by losing her other senses her magic increases that much more to compensate! Then she really would have magic without end! That would be, to borrow a phrase from Rainbow Dash, so awesome!!
Then she opens her mouth to breathe - and definitely not shriek in excitement like a little filly - and the odd reverberation around her lets her scratch the last two items off that list. Boo. Well, maybe she’s still blind? The constant colorful pinpricks of light constantly dancing all around are starting to get annoying. Even so, it’s downright creepy listening to herself breathe as if through somepony else’s ears.
She tentatively opens her mouth, a hesitant, “Hello?” echoing for far longer than it should. It gradually gets quieter until she can’t tell if it’s the blood rushing through her ears or if she can still hear the sound.
It takes a few minutes before Twilight realizes that her vision is recovering, because when she closes her eyes there is a tiny amount of black to compete with the sparks still obscuring her vision. That and she can see her hoof, if barely, when she holds it up to her face. Or at least the outline as it blocks out the lights, finally letting her eyes relax and stop straining.
“Where am I?” she calls again, that unnerving echo playing in the back of her mind far longer than it has any right to.
She looks down, and her mind briefly seizes at seeing absolutely nothing underneath her. Her wings flare out, but it proves unnecessary, as she doesn’t actually feel like she’s falling. Or has anywhere to fall to. Just thousands upon thousands of individually discernible, regularly distributed lights in every direction. She holds her hooves up, making a rough box, and counting the number of dots within. Then, with a bit of geometry, she compares the area of the box to the area of the sphere around her.
That weird place in the back of her mind that dredges up minor facts and trivial details recalls that the number she got is approximately the same as the number of ponies who have lived, including those alive now, under Princess Celestia’s rule.
“What is this place?” she asks the lights, at this point not really expecting an answer. Besides her own voice, that is, but she’s mostly able to tune that out by now. She takes a hesitant step forward. It’s far harder than it should be, like when she’s walking down the steps of the library at night and she can’t remember if she’s taken twenty five or twenty six steps, so her whole body is tensed and ready to catch herself if it’s only twenty five but part of her is still expecting it to be twenty six.
Her fear of toppling off whatever invisible pedestal she is standing on turns out to be unnecessary as her hoof comes down on something solid. Still just as transparent. She takes another step, this one slightly bolder than before, with exactly the same result.
Just as her voice finishes echoing she feels a presence join her. How she knows, she can’t exactly pinpoint. Maybe it’s the lights slightly dimming, or the faint twinge of air running across her wings, or the harp in the background that plays a quick scale. She turns, the blurring of a small section of stars the only indication that something is approaching.
The light slowly washes out, as if individual lights change color to green, and blue, and pink, and purple. The aurora coalesces into a rough blob that is then split in two by a sea of white. Twilight’s eyes try to focus as she takes a step backward. It isn’t until she spots a brief glimpse of gold against two black dots that she realizes what is approaching.
“Twilight Sparkle?” Celestia asks, her voice hesitant and unsure. It echoes only once.
“Princess Celestia!” Twilight happily exclaims at nearly the same time, almost dropping to a bow before she notes the tone in her mentor’s voice. Her voice continues echoing long after she stops speaking.
“What are you doing here?” they demand from each other in unison.
The two stare in relative silence for several long seconds.
“I suppose I shall answer first, my most faithful student,” Celestia says, breaking the uncomfortable pause with a soft smile. She raises a hoof as Twilight rushes forward, embracing her student in a warm hug. “I use this place to meditate.”
“Meditate?” Twilight looks around the lights, their brightness fading to a dull background light that no longer makes her squint.
Celestia nods, her horn lights gold, the echoes ceasing. “It is, I suppose, a demi-plane. I found it a long, long time ago. I find it helps me… collect my thoughts.”
As Celestia speaks, the lights in the background shift, forming images that flash across the sky. Ephemeral and fleeting, the brief scenes depict hundreds of ponies Twilight has never seen, though the occasional cutie mark or face ignites a spark of recognition.
Twilight blinks rapidly, trying to sort through all the images she saw. “I don’t understand. What happened? Why am I here?”
“I was hoping you could explain that to me, Twilight.” The images blank out, lights spreading away, again forming an incoherent pattern. “I did not expect to see you here so soon, though your appearance is not unwelcome, only unanticipated.”
A thin smile crosses her muzzle as Celestia strides to the side, the lights again forming an image, this time of Twilight Sparkle’s arrival in Ponyville in a pegasus chariot. “I was going to have a whole song prepared, maybe a slideshow of my fondest memories, but I fear my time has been taken up by the refugee situation in Abyssinia.” She coughs into her hoof. “I don’t suppose I could just read you the letter I sent you back when you joined Herd Apple?”
“Oh, um, you don’t have to go through that much trouble for me,” Twilight says, though her eager smile belies that she really really does want it. Images of a young Twilight form, of her getting her cutie mark, Princess Celestia raising the sun, and sitting with Spike in front of Celestia.
“Mm, perhaps another time then.” Celestia waves a hoof, the images again dissipating. “How did you come to this place?”
“Um, I don’t really know,” Twilight says, looking around. “I was working on a spell, and-” Twilight gasps, spinning around to look at where she came from, though the formless ocean of lights provides no clue to her return path. “My Friends!" Images pop up from the void of each of the Element Bearers, each engaging with Twilight in various activities. "I need to get back to my Friends, and-”
“Calm down, Twilight,” Celestia patiently commands, a thin smirk at her student’s antics. “There will be plenty of time for you and your Friends to adjust.” A single image of the six Elements form, sitting together and laughing.
“No!” Twilight shouts, Celestia briefly taken aback at the rebuff, the single image shattering. “No! I need to put things back the way they were!” She frantically searches for an exit again, though her galloping brings her no closer to the lights than when she started.
Twilight’s eyes briefly meet Celestia’s. “Or, maybe you could help? I could use the extra power.” Twilight scoffs, scuffing a hoof on the non-existent floor. “Argh! That won’t work! It has to be me, to be the one who puts things back the way they were!”
“Are… are you saying you don’t want this to happen?” Celestia asks, trying to calm her own breathing. Her eyes flit back and forth; she had certainly not prepared herself for this eventuality. In her mind’s eye, she imagined Twilight being overwhelmed, or giddy, or accepting the change with a grace befitting of her new position. But to turn it down entirely?
Celestia continues after a brief pause, somewhat miffed at Twilight’s disregard, “Perhaps you merely need more time to consider.”
“No!” Twilight bellows again, spinning around to glare so venomously Celestia briefly fears for her own safety. “How could you even think that? These are my Friends we are talking about!”
Celestia softly smiles, though inwardly she is debating whether blocking or dodging would be a better counter should Twilight go on the offensive. Images of shields of every kind surround her, though it appears Twilight is not paying attention to them. “Are you afraid your Friends will have trouble accepting the new you, and your new position?”
“My new position?!” Twilight spits out, stamping a hoof and sending shockwaves through the area, disrupting the images. “As, what, leader of my warped Friends?”
“Well, yes,” Celestia states, though Twilight’s fuming stare makes her consider her next words carefully. “Though I might not have used the word, I suppose it does describe Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash quite well. Especially from Doug’s influence. They do tend to play off each other, and the others, though sometimes reluctantly, find themselves enjoying themselves when they join in.”
Celestia cocks an eye as Twilight’s horn begins charging. Perhaps now is a good time to decide between shield and teleport. Twilight’s eyes are tracking her particularly well despite her fury, so perhaps a shield will work best.
“AARGHH!!” Twilight bellows as she releases a torrent of energy towards Celestia, a hastily summoned bulwark of steel barely intercepting it in time. “WHY?! Why would you do this to me? To my Friends?!”
“I am sorry, Twilight!” Celestia calls from behind her shield of rapidly melting steel. Tears come to her eyes, and not from the exertion of maintaining the barrier, though that strain is quickly getting to her. “I did not think that you becoming an alicorn would change things so! I am truly sorry!”
All of a sudden, the assault on Celestia’s shield stops. She chances a peek above the molten slag, spotting a purple alicorn who seems torn between shock and rage. Her hard breaths shake her body. And then her wings extend, head turning to the side to look at them.
“Huh.”
Twilight Sparkle stares at the wings for several long seconds, nopony daring to move a muscle.
Finally, the purple alicorn turns to the white one. “Celestia? Is… are these real?”
“Yes,” Celestia says, dismissing the dripping defense. “You are a Princess, Twilight Sparkle.”
“...Neat.”
Twilight stares at her wings for a few more seconds before her eyes burst open. “I attacked you!” She lunges towards Celestia, tears streaming down her face as they embrace again. “I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to! I was just so angry at what you had done to my Friends, that I didn’t think! Even though it’s not your fault, it’s all my fault for casting that spell!”
“Slow down, Twilight,” Celestia says calmly, stroking her student’s head. “What spell?”
“Star Swirl’s unfinished masterpiece,” Twilight says matter-of-factly. Celestia’s eyes go wide, her voice catching in her throat. “It swapped the cutie marks of my Friends. And Doug. And I created - well, Starlight helped as well, that’s Starlight Glimmer - a new spell in order to finish Star Swirl’s spell, correctly this time, I think, but I still need to go put everything back in order!”
Celestia stares blankly. “You… created new magic in order to help your Friends? And, simultaneously, proved yourself as great, if not greater, a unicorn than Star Swirl the Bearded?” Celestia takes another look at Twilight’s wings. “I would certainly say you’ve earned those wings, Twilight Sparkle. Or, should I say, Princess Twilight Sparkle.”
“Yes.” Twilight grins as she looks up at Celestia. “But I still need to finish helping my Friends. So, if you don’t mind, I would like to return to them now, and finish this.”
Celestia nods. “Very well, Twilight. I shall see you very soon.” She fades away, leaving Twilight all alone in the void.
Twilight takes a deep breath, then dissipates into nothing.