Written by: Pearple Prose
*****
It began at midnight, the same instant as the bell rang in the silence of the sleeping city.
When it began, Twilight Sparkle awoke, suddenly and seamlessly. She didn't remember falling asleep, and she didn't quite recall waking up either – she simply became aware of herself as she was trotting down the empty hallway in an eerie darkness. Moonlight shone, blisteringly bright, almost alien in its intensity.
There was a lilting sound on the cool night breeze that flowed through the palace. It was barely an echo, but Twilight felt an odd need rise within herself, the urge to hear this sound in its full intensity. And so she ran, her rapid hoofbeats creating a discordant melody in the somber halls. She didn't really consider where it was she was going at all. Rather, it was as if the path was being whispered into her ear.
Twilight turned another corner, and found herself at the top of a grand staircase. The sound was louder now, hauntingly close. It was deep, and mournful, and graceful, and made her soul twist as if it were a physical force, and as she listened and hummed in sync, her hooves carried her down the staircase.
But as she descended the stairs, the song became more distant, harder to recognise. Twilight looked around her, and saw the huge opulent walls around her crumble, screams of fear and defiance ringing in her ears as flames licked at her hooves and consumed the grand wooden steps beneath them. Panicking, she began to run for the great doors ahead of her, but the flames and the screams built higher and higher until they reached a crescendo, and Twilight touched the doors just as they exploded open with white light.
In the next moment, she was standing in an old, tattered courtyard. Around her were the remains of an ancient castle, open to the night sky above her. Behind her, an enormous bell tower stood, still pealing. Twilight turned back to face ahead of her, and noticed a small gray form sitting alone, facing away from her, in the centre of the yard. From where she stood, Twilight could see only a limp gray mane, a cracked horn, and a pair of tattered wings hanging loosely from its back.
Twilight stepped forward. As she approached, she began to hear sobbing. Not the loud, hacking sobs of despair – rather, they were quiet sniffles, ones that a filly would make. She stepped faster, until she was standing right by... her. It was a her, that was it.
She was staring at something intently. Her focus was unflinching, even with Twilight standing right next to her. Twilight followed her gaze, and realised that she was looking into a small pond, right by their hooves.
In the pond was a thing of darkness. Two draconic eyes stared unblinkingly from the midst of a black void, right back at the crying pony by Twilight's side. Twilight turned to look back at the pony, and simply watched for a while, as tears trickled down her cheeks.
Slowly, she lifted her hooves, and wrapped them gently around the crying pony's neck. Her coat was soft, like fine sand, and her mane smelled of moonflowers. She held tighter, and became aware of her own voice whispering sweet nothings into the pony's ear.
Her mane was glowing. It was soft, gradual at first, but it was there. The limp gray mane darkened and thickened, with pinpricks of bright light shining through. The stars were here, in this pony's mane, and Twilight felt herself smile.
She saw the pony smile too. She heard her laughter, felt her return the hug, and together they stared down into the pond. They saw a bright light wrap around a thing of darkness, and the blackness vanished, revealing a deep blue smiling pony in its place.
Yes. Yes, that's right, she was blue.
She heard a giggle, and she turned just as her vision became filled with stars.
And when she became aware again, she was flying. Flying far away, with the deep blue pony with the mane of a starry sky and the moon emblazoned on her flank. Her horn was long and resplendent, and her wings were impeccable. And as they laughed, the land below growing father and farther until it was just them, Twilight and Luna – for that was her name, she remembered – together in the infinite sea of stars.
And it ended as it began, with the eternal ringing of the bell in the sleeping city.