Twilight’s eyes rapidly flickered open. “Hello?! Where am I?!”
She was in a seemingly endless white void, her voice echoing off into the distance. She couldn’t see anypony around. There wasn’t even gravity to keep her company.
She turned around in the air, spotting something else that was white. But this was one of the most powerful creatures she had ever known.
“Mom!” Twilight swam through the air, making her way to Celestia. The Princess’ horn glowed furiously, her eyes closed. She opened them slowly and it was easily apparent how tired she was.
Twilight stopped, floating before her surrogate mother. “What’s wrong?! What’s happened?!”
“Everything will be fine, Twilight.” Celestia smiled weakly, pulling the filly over to her with her huge wing. “I just wanted to show you something. Something very special.”
Twilight’s eyes darted around. “What? There’s nothing here!”
The sound of magic being cast could be heard, as a beam of yellow magic went from Celestia’s horn to the space in front of the two. The beam split into two and followed a set path, meeting each other in the middle and forming a flat square. Inside the square, an image materialised. Twilight gawked at the image, rubbing her eyes to make sure it was real.
“Is...is that...?”
“Yes, Twilight. That is you.”
The square presented Twilight as an adult, standing next to her best friends. Her face was the true definition of joy and contentment.
“I look so...happy.” The unicorn looked to Celestia, so many questions in her head. Luckily, the alicorn seemed to have mind reading abilities.
“We are in the void. I have managed to separate ourselves from reality, for just a moment. I wanted to see how you had changed.” Twilight listened to her, but went to staring at her adult self. “And I think you needed to.”
“Do we stay here forever, then?”
“No, for the magic of the wish is too powerful. It is currently setting things straight once again. I have managed to split ourselves off from the real world, but soon the wish’s magic will overpower and we will disappear from this realm and forget that any of this ever happened.” Despite her weary state, her tone was still as patient as ever.
Twilight slowly nodded, becoming more enamoured with herself as an adult. “That’s me...and I look so confident. So satisfied with life...” She blinked, noticing a smaller figure in the image. “And that’s Spike? He looks...” The filly looked down at her hooves, then back at Spike. “A bit like me...how can you do this?”
“Being here allows me to peer into the world and view it from an outsider’s perspective...” Celestia said, sounding fatigued.
The image sparked with magic and it suddenly vanished into thin air. Twilight looked to Celestia, who was visibly strained with the effort of maintaining such a spell.
Twilight snuggled up against the alicorn. “Is it almost time...?”
Celestia looked down, wrapping both wings around the filly, locking the two in an embrace. “Yes, Twilight, it is. Are you scared?”
“Not anymore, no.” Twilight rubbed her head lovingly against her mother, who nuzzled the filly’s head in return. Twilight smiled brightly, but there were tears in her eyes.
“I’m...I’m happy.”
The two stayed there, never breaking apart from one another. They endured their fates and faded from the void.