"I'll be with you... I'll be with you." The voice echoed throughout the room, almost as if taunting her. Still, the voice filled her with hope as she saw Celestia smiling at her. It also filled her with a sense of dread... What if she were to fail? She couldn't put Celestia through losing another student...
'Time to go... Now, where is the exit?' Her thought was short lived as the walls began to rumble. Confusion turned to utter panic as the room began to tumble around her, sending her smashing violently into the walls with dull thuds. She tried to scream in pain, but each collision with the hard walls knocked even more breath out of her. Tears welled in her eyes as she landed in a final thud on the floor. Consciousness barely upon her, she looked around the room, bloody spots where she had hit. Without warning, the walls began to twist and shift, eventually collapsing into themselves, a black void replacing them.
She struggled to stand. Her ribs felt as if someone had lit them on fire; each breath she took pained her beyond all reason. Moving hurt her terribly, yet so did not moving. She had also hit her muzzle on one of the walls pretty hard. Each time she inhaled, she smelt the blood; each exhale sent small pellets of crimson life essence from her nose.
She coughed as she took a shaky step forward, a bit of blood permeating from her mouth. She could taste it, that terrible copper taste. Her breaths were raspy, as the simple movement of breathing brought her extreme pain. Luckily, she didn't seem to have sustained in any head damages... Her chest however.
Rubbing a hoof over her midsection, she winced in pain. About three of her ribs were broken from what she could tell... But even worse, one of them had penetrated through the skin. It wasn't bad enough to cause a threat to her life, but it still hurt like hell.
That damned white room collapsed on us... The dark void was back... And it didn't want us to be in full strength.
"Mystia, your leg..."
"It's not that bad... Probably just a sprain."
Even though the blood on the walls had indicated a major injury, she didn't seem to have sustained any life threatening gashes. The worst wound was the rib poking through, but even that wasn't terrible. Could be fixed with a simply bandaged wrapping, although where she was to get a bandage, she had no idea.
'Okay, back in the dark void... Guess that's progress. But where am I supposed to go?' Knowing she won't get a answer anytime soon, she did what she always did... She started walking in any direction. The void was mostly the same, although something was... different.
It still maintained the usual appearance, but something else lurked around. While before she had been confused, it was simply a place she was in. Now, it had a sinister feel about it. The cold that still lurked now felt colder. Not on her body, but on her soul. As if it was trying to chill her very being, so that she may simply feel the coldness of knowing she was powerless in this realm. Then there was the fog...
While it had been misty before, it now felt heavier, weighing her down. It was thicker, harder to see through. Even worse, she saw the occasional shape form into it, each one recognizable, but never forming anything in particular. Sometimes, when she looked through it, she saw a strange form of two ponies walking side by side, one with a limp.
Finally, there was the sounds... Where before it had been dead silent, singing could be heard. It seemed to be a reprise of the song that had been sung during the two previous world transitions. She didn't know what the song was, but she felt strangely attached to it... Almost as if she had heard it hundreds of times before, but she was sure she hadn't. No vocals could be easily heard, rather a angelic singing. Oddly enough, she felt she had heard the voice of the singer before...
"Mystia, you need to rest."
"And do what? If we don't keep moving, we'll never make progress. If this place works the way I think it works, we'll be getting another illusion soon. Tough through that and this place will give us something for out injuries."
"I hope you're right..."
"So am I..." Twilight grunted in agony as she moved her legs in a walking motion. Her front right hoof was almost directly connected to her three broken ribs, the left one also causing her pain. If she could just get started, she'd be able to focus her mind on something else to ignore the pain. It worked for her head injury, so why couldn't it work now? Her breathing labored, she made her way into a nearby blanket of fog.
She imagined that the fog would part as she entered it, but it was the exact opposite. The fog wrapped around her like a cold, unforgiving blanket of sorrow. Each step she took, lightning stuck somewhere in the fog. It wasn't electrical lightning, rather that of a memory. Electrons in her brain snapped as they connected to the strange plain, forging a memory for her viewing. The fog slowly grew in color until an entire foggy scene could be seen before her. The fog fading, she was able to see the scene before her... She somehow imagined it to be one of her own. Surprise was the key as she saw a beautiful mare with a white coat and a glorious yellow mane, fashioned as if she were attending a fancy party.
---
"Princess, I finished all of the books you assigned me."
"It's only been one day!" Mystia levitated the pile of 10 books to the table and dropped them, her light yellow aura fading away from the pile of books. She had been given an entire weekend to read them, but she had finished early.
"I know. Thought I'd get it out of the way early so that I could practice more of my magic this weekend." Celestia looked at the mare before her. She stood at about a foot taller than most ponies, her eyes were a beautiful shade of purple and always seemed to reflect light no matter the current lighting. No matter the circumstances, she always had a essence of pure joy about her.
"Well, uh... Okay then. You're sure that you actually gathered all of the information from it?" Mystia rolled her eyes playfully and nodded happily.
"Of course! You know that I've never not soaked up all the information in a book. Do you need me to do anything else before I go?"
"No, my most faithful student." Celestia smiled happily. "You can enjoy the rest of the weekend. Come the start of the week, I'll be showing you some new magic."
"I can't wait! Is it-"
"Shush now. Go and rest or enjoy yourself. You work too hard, my little pony. If you didn't get sad if I didn't teach you a new spell or two every week, I'd allow you the rest of the week off." Mystia nodded to the Princess as she happily made her way from the princess's chambers.
The halls were all royally decorated. Brilliant colors lined the walls, the white marble and stone complimented by the glorious colors. Occasionally, there was the royal guard standing in his spot, looking onward and never phasing. Half the time, Mystia thought they were just colored statues. But if you looked at them long enough, you could barely manage to catch the signs of one breathing.
She began to hum a tune ever so familiar to her. It was the song her mother had sung to her as a Filly, the very song she always sang to herself when in trouble. It had been passed down through her family for generations, each new bloodline adding a new verse to the song. As it was now, the song was a four minute long hymn, one of which that could easily cheer the heart of anypony listening to it.
"For you, only you would I stay my life, leaving a chance for you to live yours the perfect way." She sang the verse that her mother had added for her. Sadly, those very lyrics had come true the day she became Celestia's student. It had been about ten years previous, on a stormy day.
Mystia, who was but a filly, and her mother were heading to the castle to see her father, who was the head of the royal guard. Upon arrival, they noted that something was wrong. Where there were usually guards, there was nothing.
"Mystia, stay here..." Her mother held the small filly back and neared the front door of the magnificent castle, her magic on the ready. She had never had to fight anything before, but years of being married to her husband taught her to see the worst in situations like this. That gave her the strength she would need if anything was amiss. Mystia gasped as she heard a shout from somewhere in the castle, immediately recognized as her fathers.
"Get to the Princess! The changelings are here!" the sounds of hooves hitting stone echoed all the way to the outside as the guards tried their best to rush to their princess. Luna was in no danger, since she was currently on a diplomatic mission to the Gryphon nation. Celestia, however, was in danger of the changeling attack.
"Mystia! Hide, now!" Mystia's eye widened as she looked around for a suitable hiding spot as her mother charged into the main corridor of the castle. Seeing nowhere inside, she decided that she could easily hide in the castle. The large front door creaked slightly on it's hinges as she pushed it open. Slowly stepping inside, she could easily see the castle was empty. Shadows were caste across the dark entrance hall, a storm brewing outside. She squeaked and jumped into the air as crack of thunder exploded violently into the silence of the castle, amplified by the acoustics of the empty hall.
She shook as she made her way down the hall. So far, nothing looked a suitable hiding place. Maybe upstairs? She quickly dashed behind a pillar as she heard the front door opening once more. A quick peek around the corner revealed the horrors of the changelings, which until now had just been a old campfire story to her. Seeing them in the flesh, well... It made her realize how much trouble she really was in.
The moment they looked away, she silently darted up the stairs and went to the left. She found herself in winding corridors, none of which she had the time to remember as she ran for her life. No doubt that the horrors downstairs had heard her and were right on her tail. Her heart pounded against her chest as she turned down corridor upon corridor, sliding on the rugs as she tried to change her direction.
Finally, she managed to find a door that was slightly cracked, a light coming forth from inside. Seeing this as her best chance, she darted into the room and quickly closed the door behind her. A burst of relief fell over her as if it was a warm blanket that had been heated on a winters night as she saw none other than Princess Celestia sitting in front of a marvelously decorated desk, reading some sort of tome and copying its contents to a scroll.
She hummed a seemingly random tune to herself as she copied the tome's contents. Her eyes enlarged as the felt something attach itself to her front right hoof. Looking down, she saw a small white filly with a yellow mane and tail. She was breathing heavily and she could feel the poor thing's heart beating against her forehoof.
"What do we have here? How did you get in here, little one?" The princess smiled at the smile filly as she looked up. No doubt she had probably gotten lost and managed to find her way to her chambers.
"C-Ch-" Mystia struggled to warn the princess of what was coming, but she couldn't find her breath long enough to do so.
"Calm down, my little pony. Is something the matter?"
"PRINCESS!" Celestia turned as she heard the door opening behind her. She didn't even have time to react as she saw a green bolt flying at her from across the hall. She clenched her eyes closed and awaited the bolt to hit her. It was the only thing her brain could tell her to do after an entire day of no sleep.
"Mom!" She opened her eyes as she realized that the bolt had either missed her... Or hit something else. Looking down, she saw a mare lying on the ground, a hole right in the middle of her chest. Anger washed over her as she realized that the mare had dived in the way of the bolt to save her. The changeling, seeing this, cringed as Celestia banished it to the castle dungeons for future interrogation.
"Mystia..." Her mother coughed small spurt of blood as her daughter neared her. The hole in her chest was still smoking from the blast hitting her, but she couldn't even feel it. She already knew that it was fatal, that she probably didn't even have a full minute left. "Your father... He's... He's..." She coughed once more, this time enough blood to splash her entire face coming from within her throat. Celestia, not wanting the small filly to see her mother like that, grabbed Mystia and pulled her face lovingly to her chest.
"Don't look, Mystia."
"Thank... You..." The mare smiled at the Princess. She laid her head back and looked to the ceiling, her vision slowly blackening. "For you... only you would I stay my life... leaving a chance for you... to live yours the perfect way..." Her voice faded as she released a final breath. Celestia allowed the small filly to soak her midsection with her tears as she cried.
"She'll be made a hero. Without her... I'd be the one on the ground." She stared at the mare on her floor, a steady pool of blood forming beneath her. Slowly, guards entered the room and took their helmets off at the sight. There was their princess... A small filly crying, a dead mare that they all recognized as their late captains wife. The princess nodded to one of the guardsmen, gesturing them to quickly move the body elsewhere for a proper funeral. Three minutes later, the mare's body was gone.
"She's gone... Isn't she?" The filly looked up to the princess, who slowly nodded her head with a frown on her face. Celestia knew it was her fault that this filly was now an orphan. That was what made the situation all the more worse.
"This is my fault..." The filly jerked a little from the unexpected warm droplet of water that landed on her head. Looking up, she saw the princess looking to where her mother had just been laying, tears in her eyes. "You can stay here. I understand if you hate me for this, but even granted... You shall stay here, in my old room. We never have to speak to one another, if you do indeed hate me."
"I... Don't hate you." She looked down at Mystia, who had cleared the tears from her eyes. Those beautiful purple eyes. Even granted the circumstances, they still held a bit of happiness in them. Almost as if they saw the best in everything.
"Come, let me show you to your room. I'll arrange for everything from your home to be brought to your new room. In time, I shall set up a room as grand as my room. Do you like magic?"
"I do, but I never learned much."
"I can never repay the sacrifice your mother made for me... I'll take you in as my student, teach you everything I know about magic."
"T-thank you..." The two stopped outside of a door. Pushing it open, Celestia revealed a room fit for a princess.
"Here you go, Mystia. I'll alert the guards that you are my personal guest, so none of them will bother you. If you need anything, come find me. For tonight, stay in the room. Tomorrow, the entire castle will be made you home." Mystia couldn't think of anything to say. She'd always wanted to live as a princess, always wanted a luxurious life... There it was, right in front of her. But all she wanted was to hug her mother... Without any warning, the filly latched onto Celestia once more. For she was now the only mother she knew.
Mystia sighed as she remembered that terrible night. It seemed like so long ago, yet each night she was haunted with the memories. She looked around her room, which was not the same one she had been given as a filly. About a month later, she had requested that she be moved to the room where her mother had been killed. Celestia, of course, agreed. There was now a large purple rug where her mother had died, but she could still see the scene before her eyes.
Shaking the scene from her head, she turned to her desk and sat down. It was the very same desk that Celestia had been using on that fateful night, one of which she had grown attached to. Returning to her usual happy demeanor, she levitated a new book she had recently acquired from a traveling salespony. Opening it up, she began to read. She expected to find some spells... But instead found something ever more interesting.
A description of another plane of existence... A plane where the memories of the deceased go. A place that if traveled to, could be used to talk to the deceased. There was only one description of this plane... A dark void of nothingness.