"Princess Celestia?" a voice asked.
The mare in question stopped reading her book and turned towards her student; a little lavender filly with a pink star for cutie mark, looking at her from the right side of the bed. A small smile appeared in her lips.
While she normally didn't let ponies enter her private chambers, Twilight Sparkle was the exception, probably because she had the ability to avoid the guards. 'Such a ninja.'
"How does it feel to be inmortal?" the filly asked.
Celestia's eyebrows raised.
"Can you repeat what you said, Twilight?" Celestia questioned, still surprised.
"How does it feel to be inmortal?" the filly repeated, using her little hooves to climb the bed, a book enveloped in her magic.
Celestia, instead of answering Twilight's question, remained silent for a few seconds. Then, she spoke, "Twilight, do you know what 'inmortal' means?"
Twilight closed her eyes, thinking. "One who cannot die nor age." She opened her eyes and bounced on the bed. "Somepony like you!" she stopped jumping and came closer to her mentor's body. Like in other occasions, Twilight put herself under Celestia's wing and giggled, like if the wing was a shelter protecting her from the outside world.
Celestia couldn't help but smile.
"Then, how does it feel like?!" asked the excited filly, snuggling in the wing's embrace.
"Not dying?" Celestia could feel a knot in her throat, but she didn't let it affect her calm expression. How many times had that question reached her ears with her other students?
She didn't even know if she was 'inmortal' in its full definition, only ageless. But for a pony that had defeated foes as strong as Discord or Sombra, it didn't surprise her that little Twilight thought that she was inmortal.
"Yes, how does it feel?!" Twilight questioned again, her entusiasm making her oblivious of Celestia's sudden mood change. The wing around her tightened her small body against Celestia's, but she didn't notice.
Celestia sighed. "I'm going to say that... it is awesome at best."
"And how it is at its worst?" Twilight questioned, her eyes shining with innocence.
Celestia gulped and thought, for a second, in answering in a sarcasm tone 'Well, in its worst I see everything and everypony around me aging and dying, while I remain alive, making new friends that will die, too.'
She scolded herself at the idea of doing that.
"Twilight?"
"Hmm?"
"Do you want some cookies from my jar?" she said, completely derailing the subject.
Twilight's eyes became thin lines, as if studying the Princess' face.
"They are royal coookiiiesss."
Twilight's eyes opened and a big smile appeared in her mouth. "Okaaay!" exclaimed the filly, crawling from under the wing so she could jump to the floor and run towards the door.
Celestia laughed and got off the bed, following the little filly along the many hallways. But the question remained in her head, 'How does it feel to be inmortal?'
'How does it feel to be inmortal?' she asked herself.
H o w d o e s i t f e e l t o b e i n m o r t a l ?
"Twilight!"
Twilight groaned, the light blinding her. Her head felt like it was full of cotton and the voice sounded magnified by a bullhorn. She tried to move her foreleg to protect her eyes, but a sharp pain was the only response her body gave her. Clenching her teeth, she felt a pressure in her ribcage, like a anvil, obstructing her breathing.
But the worst was her horn, it felt like a hot nail was being hammered in her head.
"Twilight! Are you okay?" the voice said again, its words rumbling in her eardrums.
"Nnghhh-" she managed to say, blood coming out of her mouth. She blinked, reality taking shape in front of her; a cyan spot morphed into a well-known pegasus with a rainbow mane. Her horn, though still pulsating painfully, stopped feeling like an elepanth crushing her skull.
Finally, air entered her lungs and she coughed.
"Oh my gosh, Twilight!" Rainbow Dash yelled, coming closer to the mare. "A-are you okay?" she asked, helping Twilight to stand up.
Twilight, standing on legs that felt like sticks about to break, managed to said in a hoarse tone. "I-I d-don't think s-s...o," she fell on her legs, too weak to stand up again.
It seemed like a good time to take a nap. However, her gaze met the floor; a white floor. "What?"
She stood up again, finding forces that she didn't have before and gazed at the place around them. There was absolutely nothing in sight apart from her colorful friend and her.
It was in that moment that she noticed the look on Rainbow Dash's face, a worried one that was looking for answers.
"Do... do you know where are we, Twilight?" asked Rainbow, sitting on her haunches, ears dropped.
"I..." she looked around again, "I... I... just..."
"Do you even have an idea of where are we?"
A knot formed in Twilight's throat. She knew where they were, it was one of the risks of performing the spell, after all.
She sat next to her friend, Rainbow had probably been awake before her, she needed to hear the truth. Moving uncomfortable, Twilight prepared herself for what was coming next.
"Do you know?" asked Rainbow Dash. "A-are we d-d-dead, Twilight?" tears formed in the edge of her eyes, waiting to fall in any moment.
Twilight gulped. "N-no... we... we aren't d-dead."
"Then..." Rainbow trailed off, "where are we?"
"In..." Twilight said, not daring to say the place's name. Bitting her lip, she looked to her friend's eyes, full of terror. "We... we are in The White Void."
The words, somehow, echoed in the endless space.