Nothingness is a strange thing, especially when being experienced by a cognizant being that was used to the physical plain. All at once she could feel her body but also feel the lack of body. She was sure the experiences were pouring in to her brain via the usual medium of her six senses through the regular channels. However she also had the awareness that her consciousness was suspended uncontained in the wherever she was. The whole thing was giving her a mind ache.
Everything was sound, so logically there had to be some medium it was travelling through and she had to have some kind of aural sense to know there was sound but she couldn’t actually feel her ear while knowing it was there at the same time…
“None of this makes sense!” she shouted, setting of another logic chain. Sometimes Twilight Sparkle hated being so analytical.
“Hello my little pony.” A voice sang through the music.
*
“Wake up my little pony, please wake up.” The urgent voice of her mentor roused Twilight from the blanket of blissful sleep. She opened her eyes and the blurred white blob focused into the concerned visage of Princess Celestia.
“Hmm, Princess… I had a very strange dream…” Twilight grinned lazily and stood up slowly. Whatever had happened had happened outside and she was lying on the floor. She stood higher than usual and there were two extra limbs making themselves known.
“She’s going to faint again.” The voice of the Lunar Monarch said, a slight lilt of amusement in her voice.
“Ah got pools on her getting’ to five.” Applejack chimed in.
“Applejack! How could you! She’s our friend.” There was a pause. “I say six, I am well acquainted with dramatic swooning.”
“Spike, don’t you object to this at all? She is your guardian after all.”
“You kidding? With the commission I’ll be in ice-cream for a month!” Twilight glared at her young charge, the dragon was handling a stack of bits from the bets.
“I would appreciate a little more consideration.” She groused. As she took stock of herself the thought of being a princess now caught her un-awares and she keeled over again.
*
“Is this a dream, a memory or something else entirely?” Twilight requested of the unusual space she resided.
“A little bit of all three.” The voice said, amusement clear in its tones. “They have no meaning here really.”
“Where is here?” Awareness was beginning to make sense to the new alicorn now. But it was still very odd not to have a physical form with which to act.
“This is… Creation, in its basic name. The place of all things; inspiration, magic, power.” It was a kind voice and teetering on the edge of recognition. As that which identified itself as Twilight continued to exist, she began to see colour take shape.
Colour and sound played together and with colour came form. Twilight gave a sigh of relief as she looked at her hoof from eyes that resided in a head. “Why is everything changing here?” was her errant thought.
“Well, you are here now. Something and someone always bring form to nowhere and nothing.” The voice was achingly familiar.
“Can you show yourself to me?” Twilight sat on a rapidly occurring islet in the swirling colours.
“Not just yet dear. You have a lot to learn and discover first.” The voice had a chuckle behind it. “I don’t want to shock you too badly until you are further along.”
“Further along? What’s that supposed to mean?!” Twilight stood quickly, her speed of movement made the “world” waver.
“Sorry little pony, we’ll have to speak later.” The world went dark.
*
This time Twilight awoke in a bed, an unfamiliar bed but a bed nonetheless. She was seeing through her eyes and generally sensing though physical conduits. That was a relief to the strange shifting place she had recently been waking in.
A sound to her left indicated a door had opened and somepony was approaching. “Hello my faithful student. How are you feeling now?”
“Princess?” Twilight shifted to look at her mentor. “My wings ache and I didn’t even have wings yesterday!” She groaned. “What happened to me?”
“We aren’t quite sure Twilight. Spike told me you went to the ruins and the girls said they went looking when you weren’t back by sundown.” Celestia gave Twilight a reassuring nuzzle, just as she had done when her student was just a filly. “I’ve also been having reports of a percussive wave travelling the continent and beyond.” She smiled, “that was some powerful magic you cast.”
“I was being chased.” Twilight sat up, arranging newly lengthened limbs awkwardly. “There were six statues from the ruins, they fired bolts of magic shaped as weapons.” She tapped a hoof to her chin as she thought. “I ran for most of the late afternoon until evening.” She sighed. “Then as night fell I reached the wasteland, the Diamond Dogs weren’t around so I kept running away from anypony... At the gorge I made my plan and fired off the spell. I can’t remember much after that.”
“It’s ok Twilight” Celestia soothed, “You’re fine now.”
*
A sonic boom rushed through the palace catapulting Celestia from her reading. “Luna?” She shouted over their telepathic link.
“I know not what this is sister.” Came the reply. “’Part from ‘tis powerful magic.”
“I can locate it, give me a second,” Celestia dropped the link and probed her kingdom. The magic came from Ghastly Gorge, a worrying thought until the signature blazed across her mind. “TWILIGHT!” She shouted, shocking Philomena from her perch and startling the guards in the castle, without a second thought she teleported from the palace.
“Sister?” Luna burst into the room only to find the remnants of a teleportation. No slouch in tracing spells herself, the lunar monarch followed her elder with speed.
The scene that confronted them was unexpected, a huge crater, some anonymous piles of rubble and five shocked and breathless ponies accompanied by a dragon.
There was no sign of Twilight and Celestia became frantic for the few moments between their arrival and the return of, albeit slightly altered, Twilight Sparkle.
*
“We arrived as quickly as we were able.” Celestia said, seating herself beside the bed. She kept a tight lid on her true emotions, nothing good would come of worrying Twilight, especially a Twilight who had un-quantified magical power in tandem with her prodigious ability. “Then you reappeared in this form.” She smiled to see Twilight flare her wings experimentally. “You fainted a few times and we brought you back to the palace.”
“So no reasons for this change? No clue as to why I suddenly became,” she fluffed her wings and lit her horn, “an Alicorn?”
Celestia looked pensive a moment. “We, Luna and I... We’ve been trying to figure it out ourselves. You slept the night and a day through so far and all our research has turned up nothing.” She smiled at Twilight to relieve the concern she was holding. “We have checked, you are an Alicorn for certain. Earth Pony, Pegasus Pony and Unicorn Pony all rolled into one.”
Twilight sat up neater in the bed. “Does this mean I have to be a Princess?” She wasn’t sure how that would work out for her, especially where her burgeoning relationship with Rainbow was concerned.
Celestia once again looked microscopically worried for a brief moment. “As of now, nopony but myself, Luna and your five friends know what has happened. We blamed the boom on a magical eddy in the wastelands. No one has investigated further.” She sighed. “However it is likely that once your... ascension becomes public knowledge we will have to crown you as a princess.”
Twilight froze. She could see it now, her mane a sparkling flowing field of cosmic purple as the official cerements and crown were placed upon her. Her parents looked on proudly. Shining standing to attention as the captain of the guard and her friends stood to the side, resplendent in gowns designed by Rarity and their elements around their necks. Luna, awake as it was officially Twilight, when day changed to night, Celestia handling the coronation...
A touch to her cheek drew her from the trance. “Twilight? Are you quite alright? Your eyes were looking a little strange for a moment there...” Celestia was once again regarding her with concern. Which was a silly thought, considering that for the first time ever there was nothing really that could hurt her.
“I’m fine princess, just a stray thought. I still feel a little odd, what with all the changes and everything.” Twilight smiled as a niggling feeling in her mind suggested that she hadn’t been imaging the sequence of events that had so enraptured her. “I think I just need some more rest.” She said aloud to banish the thought.
“Of course Twilight, I’ll let you rest. We will call you if any progress is made on figuring out how this happened.” Celestia rose gracefully and walked to the door. “Would you be up to your friends visiting you? They’ve been begging since we took you to this room.”
Twilight smiled happily. “Of course Princess.”
With a final smile and wave the princess left the room and Twilight alone with her thoughts.