> Revelations: The Dark Void
>  by GhostofSandwich
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> The Loss of a Friend
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The five ponies and Twilight's assistants stood by Twilight's hospital bed. Soft sounds of crying could be heard as Spike held Twilight's hoof close to him. Nopony really knew what had happened to her. According to Spike, she had been practicing her magic. He had departed down the stairs to get a snack, when he heard the sound of a thud above. Quickly, he had ran up the stairs to find her on the ground, a book of powerful magic nearby. Everypony just hoped that she had overexerted herself and would be fine in a day or two. But the doctor had said she had entered a deep coma, and may never wake.

"Please wake up Twi... Please." Spike's voice was cracking from him crying, tears slowly streaming down his face and dripping onto Twilight's hoof. It had only been a mere three hours since he had found her on the ground, but to him it seemed like an eternity since he had spoken to her; seen her smile.

The other ponies in the room simply on looked the scene before them. It became too much for them as Spike fell to his knees, hugging Twilight's hoof. Even Pinkie was crying, her usual demeanor completely gone.

"She's going to be alright... She has to be." Rainbow said softly. "Egg heads always pull through." Her joke, although lightening the mood only a tiny bit, instilled the hope that the six needed. But it still wasn't enough. Silence took over the room, the only sound that of the machinery and Twilight's soft yet shallow breathing. Spike slowly released Twilight's hoof and returned it to her side, and with a sniffle says a goodbye, in case she doesn't make it through the night. None of them want to think they will lose their friend, neither can they live under the false belief she will make a perfect recovery.

"Twi... In case you can hear me, please know that... I love you. You've been there for me ever since I hatched, did everything for me..." He paused a moment to catch his breath and wipe his eyes once more. "And I know that you wouldn't want me to worry about you. But it's so hard... Twilight," He climbed onto the bed and hugged the lavender Unicorn, "please don't leave me." The five ponies simply stared in silence at the small dragon. All of them wanted to do the same, but it was best they let Spike get it out of his system. But they needed to let Twilight get the rest she needs.

"Spike... I know you don't want to leave her side... None of us do." Rarity placed her hoof on the small dragons back, who returned a tear soaked eye as he peeked over his shoulder. "But we need to let her get her rest." With a sniffle, the tiny dragon slowly crawled off of Twilight, a small stain where he had just been on the sheets. "Come on, you can stay with me."

"Thanks Rarity... But Twilight would want me to keep the library running." He glanced at Twilight, hoping slightly for a response, even though he knew one wouldn't come. With a final sniffle, he started heading towards the door. Rarity started to follow after him.

"No." She stopped abruptly as Rainbow placed her hoof in front of Rarity. "Let him be alone for a little bit. We'll stop by the library in a bit." Rarity nodded slowly to Rainbow as Spike opened the door. Not seeing the tall figure before him, he walked right into the hoof of Celestia.

"Spike." She looked down on the small dragon, who returned the look before quickly hurrying away from the room.

"Princess..." The five mares looked at the royal figure as she entered the room and stood next to Twilight's bed.

"I'm sorry, but could you five..."

"Of course princess." Applejack stepped forward and said goodbye to her friend, followed by the four others. They left one by one, leaving the princess standing over her beloved student.

"Twilight..." Tears began to well up steadily into the princess's eyes as she sat near her most beloved student. "What happened to you?" A single tear dropped from her eye, landing on Twilight's right hoof. Celestia look up from Twilight and out the window, the sunset casting a brilliant orange on the horizon; a shadow of Twilight breathing slowly on the wall, with Celestia sitting by her.

Slowly, Celestia leaned her head down and touched her horn to her student's. The coma she was in was beyond any magical help, but she thought that perhaps Twilight would become aware of her standing by her side if they had a magical connection. Another tear dripped from her eye onto Twilight's muzzle as she she pulled her horn away. The fact that she got nothing from touching her horn meant that her student was in no state of conscious at all. She probably wasn't even dreaming, which meant that her student at least wasn't feeling any pain.

"My most loyal student... No, my favorite student... Even if you can't hear me, I want you to know that..." She looked away from the unconscious mare to the floor as tears began to pour from her eyes. "That I love you like a daughter. I wanted you to know that in case..." She stood up and walked to the door, not able to take looking at the only pony she had ever loved as a daughter before in that state. "You don't wake up."

The door slowly closed behind Celestia as she left. If she had stayed a moment longer, she would have notice that Twilight was indeed in some state of conscious. Although it wasn't a good one... Because as she left, a single tear rolled from Twilight's eye and fell softly onto her pillow.
	
> The Dark Void
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Pain encompassed the unicorns' entire body as she slowly regained consciousness. She couldn't quite make out her surroundings, seeing as she had a thick liquid filled in her eyes. Slowly, the liquid slid down her muzzle and into her mouth as she stood. She knew the taste... The taste of blood. That terrible metallic taste.

Anxiety began to take over the lavender unicorn as she started panicking. Her head throbbed painfully as she moved, forcing her to fall on her side. As she lay there ever the more weakening, she slowly reached up and wiped the blood from her eyes. Her mind told her to reach up and examine her injury, but she was quite afraid of what might be there. She could have anything from a major head injury to a simply cut that was just bleeding badly. The throbbing pain that grew with every breath indicated it was the former.

'Alright Twilight... Calm down and think. You're smart, you can fix this.' With a shaky hoof, she reached up and examined her head. She began to hyperventilate slightly as she ran her hoof across her forehead, revealing a large gash that ran across the entire width of it. She pulled her hoof away and examined it. Her entire hoof was now soaked in the thick crimson  substance, which began to make Twilight's stomach gurgle.

Knowing she had to calm herself, she took a few breaths and began to examine her immediate surroundings. Although there wasn't much to see... The only notable elements in the barren void around her was the cold fog that slowly moved throughout the entire place. Other than that, it was pure blackness as far as she could see.

'Where am I? She began to carefully try to remember how she had gotten here. The last thing she remembered was Spike heading down into the kitchen. After that, it was a blank page. But that still didn't answer the question as to where she was. With a quivery breath, she stood again on shaky legs. The movement unsettling her stomach, causing her to spew a mix of bile and blood from her mouth. As she looked down at what she had just expelled from her stomach, which was mostly blood, she fell to the ground once more.

The whole situation seemed hopeless to her. Whatever had happened, she feared she wouldn't be leaving this place. Her thoughts turned instead from her situation to her friends, who would miss her dearly. Her eyelids slowly growing heavy, she prepared to pass peacefully away. Then she heard it... A voice so familiar, yet so strangely foreign to her echoed out quietly across the void.

"I love you like a daughter. Her head slightly perked up. There was a bit more after that, but it was more quiet and inaudible. She knew the voice from somewhere, but her mind continuously drew a blank on whom the voice belonged to. She slowly closed her eyes again and prepared for her eternal slumber. Right before drifting off, she felt a small bit of liquid hit her right hoof, followed immediately by another on her muzzle. Within mere seconds a cooling drizzle of rain began, washing the crimson from her in a river of grime and blood. 

The cool liquid felt good on her overheated body, and even served to make the cut less painful. She was pretty sure she had a fever, which was dangerous considering she didn't think she was even near a town. The rain also served to give Twilight some hope. She was highly dehydrated, but knew she couldn't drink the blood filled water around her, lest she vomit again. She struggled to stand upright, but fell down to the ground once more. Finally, with a yell of pain and determination, she stood on her shaky legs and took a single step forward.

'Okay Twilight, you can do this...' Each step a struggle to both keep from collapsing and a war in her stomach to keep from vomiting her remaining fluids. Looking back, she saw a sight that nearly made her lose the war with her stomach. Where she had been laying was a massive pool of crimson and bile. Judging from the amount of blood, she had been out for at least a hour or two. What worried her most was that the wound hadn't even attempted to close. Sure, it was a large one, but she would think that it would at least clot up a tiny bit.

Not wanting to think about how dangerous that amount of blood loss was, she decided to shakily continue on. For five minutes she walked, making it no more than about thirty feet. Panic began to set in as she realized that no matter where she went, where she looked, her surrounding were exactly the same. It was the same exact thing for miles. Deciding that walking any further was a complete waste of time, she slowly lowered herself to her haunches and looked at the inviting water before her.

'Don't care if it's clean or not... So thirsty.' With a lick of her lips, she leaned down and began to drink the small pools of water around her. She couldn't help but notice that the ground was completely smooth, as if made from the finest of marble. It was also black as night, the pools of water only seen by the reflecting of light from somewhere.

After drinking enough to at least restore her energy and cure her dehydration, she scooped up a bit more between her hooves and started applying the cool substance to her hot wound. Each application of water served to make her feel a bit better, but she also continuously wished that she had something to fix the wound. She would even accept a pack of small bandages used for healing small scrapes.

Even though she was strong, she couldn't help but start crying. Pressure slowly grew behind her eyes, followed by tears beginning to well in her eyes. Quickly, she stopped the tears so as not to lose any more precious water, but not before a single tear escaped and fell from her cheek. The drizzle slowly began to turn into a pour down of liquids, soaking Twilight to the bone. But she had no worries about it, since it began to cool her body back to a normal temperature.

Needing more liquids and thinking it best to not drink from the ground, she looked into the sky and opened her mouth. Closing her eyes as the cool water washed the remaining crimson from her face, she happily took in the refreshing water. Even though she was worried, she began to feel a twang of hope. Wherever she was, her friends would find her.

Feeling more energy in her still weak body, she decided it best not to remain here. Even if there was the smallest chance that this void wasn't everlasting, she had to try. What's the worst that can happen from her moving? No matter where she stayed, the wound would continue bleeding. Best if she continued on and at least tried to look for something to help her.

The steps she took were still hard to make, but much easier now that she wasn't as dehydrated. As she walked, the only thing that kept her going was the thought of seeing her friends again. She wondered how worried they were... But at the same time she was worried about finding them. She would never want to show up looking like this, since it would make them worry so much about her. Never did she want to make her friends worry. Still, it was best to show up injured than to not show up at all.

'Step... Okay, right hoof Twilight.' She thought instructions on how to walk to herself. It was the only thing that kept her going, since almost everything else brought her back to the fact that she was in this predicament.

'Keep moving. Spike must be worried sick...' A faint image her small dragon friend appeared by her side. Strangely, even though she knew it was a hallucination, she felt that he was really there. Tears began to once more well up in her eyes as she heard him talking. It was faint, and sounded as if it was being said through a long tunnel.

"Twilight, please wake up! It's been two days now... Everypony is worried... They... The voice trailed off, along with the image of the small dragon by her side. What had he meant by wake up? Was this all just a bad dream? He said it had been a day... What happened to her?

She stopped walking and instead focused all of her remaining energy into remembering the moments from before she got here. 'Spike went downstairs... Then I... I... She put her right hoof to the side of her head and tried forcing the memory forward. But she couldn't remember it, no matter how hard she tried.

Not seeing any hope of remembering what happened to get her here, she focused once more on walking in the direction she had been heading. Each step she took, it seemed the rain grew heavier and heavier. What was once a relaxing, cooling drizzle of rain, was now a downpour that pelted against her as she took a step. It was almost as if it didn't want her making any progress. Of course, she knew that was completely ridiculous. 

'Alright Twilight... You're making progress. Keep going... Everything will be fine.'  The wound on her head started to throb more, and despite the cold refreshing rain, started to heat up again. The adrenaline to keep going was keeping most of the pain back, but it was still enough to make her lose all focus and wish she could just lay down and give up.

She stopped dead in her tracks as the land around her began to change. A low pitched, slow humming could be heard around, which sounded so familiar to her. The hard black marble ground slowly began to turn to dirt, complete with dead grass on it. The sky slowly formed into that of a night sky, complete with a full moon that casts a cool light over the unicorn. but with each good thing, comes a bad. Along with the grass came thorn bushes all around her, their thorns like fangs of a hungry beast of the woods waiting to bite into her flesh.

'Am I going crazy?' She wipes her hoof across the grass to see if it is indeed real. The soft texture of the grass fills her hoof with coolness, as the grass is as cold as the rain before. Now that she thought of it, everything around her was cool. Never cold, but that cool that is expected on a autumn night. The kind made a pony feel inner peace...

A cool breeze blows through Twilight's still wet mane, causing her to shiver lightly. But the cold wasn't on her mind. It was the fact that she was now in semi-familiar territory, which meant ponies had to live nearby. With a sigh and tears of happiness, she began running in a random direction. Each time her hoof hit the ground, it sent a shocking pain through Twilight's head. She assumed that she probably had a major concussion, but it didn't worry her.

She would soon be with her friends, this she hoped.

She skidded to a stop as she came over a hill. Below it is a field of thorn bushes, but at the end a small cabin. From where she was, it seemed that going around the field was highly impossible. She knew she had to go through it, but could her body handle any more blood loss? She began to feel dizzy at the thought of losing another drop, let alone opening a new wound on her body.

Knowing that the shed may be her only chance, she slid down the side of the hill to the front of the thorn bush field. 'Okay Twilight, you can do this... Do I rush through and get it over fast, or do I slowly move through and risk more pain, but less serious wounds?' The sound of wind rushing through her head, followed by a uncontrollable sense of dizziness gave her the answer. If she didn't hurry, she would pass out and not wake back up.

Taking a deep breath, then releasing it into the cool night air, she prepared to run. As she started running, she thought that maybe her body would be numb enough to ignore the pain. Unfortunately, she was wrong. Each move of a muscle brought another intense pain in various parts of her body. She could feel the warm blood trickling from her cold body.

'Keep moving...' She continued running through the field despite her bodies' protest to stop.

Searing pain took over her entire body.

'Almost there...' Tears began to well in her eyes, flowing quickly out from the unbearable pain.

Coldness started taking over her body.

'Too much blood loss... Not... Going to... Make it.' Despite her brain giving up, her body continued through the field. She could now see the shed, less than twenty feet away.

Her vision began to darken.

'Goodbye Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow, Pinkie, Fluttershy... Spike...' The struggle to remember the name of the disembodied voice from earlier kept her focused on something else. It was somepony very close to her, yet she couldn't even remember what her name was, what she looked like...

Her hooves gave out from under her.

Landing violently on the ground, rolling a multitude of times before stopping, she looked up to the night sky. Her vision was now no more than a very small amount of vision in the very center, surrounded by a border of black around that slowly closed in on what little she could still see. Looking to the left, she saw the shack, only five feet away. She had managed to roll exactly out of the thorn bush field.

'So close...' Her eyes began to burn from the tears falling from them. Each drop landed on a different cut on her body, causing even more intense pain than there already was. She was about to give up and just close her eyes as she heard another voice from somewhere in her mind.

"She's made a turn for the worse... She might not make it through the night." The sounds of crying immediately filled the silence of the night. "It's best you say your goodbyes now. I'll leave you with her." The voices slowly began to fade away like the stars in the sky, but she managed to make out one last thing.

"Twilight... No..." She jerked slightly as she felt something climb onto her chest. When she looked down, she saw nothing, but felt it as if something were hugging her. "Please... Please don't go." The sounds of sobbing slowly faded into the night; the ghostly figure hugging her slowly fading away. She knew immediately it was Spike... She couldn't give up... She had to be strong for Spike, and indeed all her friends. Even the disembodied voice whose name she couldn't remember.

Using her final reserves of energy, she stood and began limping very slowly towards the small cabin. Her body screamed in agony for the unicorn to stop and allow it to rest; her insides screamed for a break, as she feared they may start shutting down. Her heart raced to provide blood to the body, but wasn't able to do its job correctly due to all the blood loss.

Her vision slowly darkened more and more as she neared the cabin. After what seemed like an eternity of pain and wanting to die, she finally reached the door and slowly slid it open. Inside was a pretty much bare cabin with a bed, table with a candle on it, and a rug on the floor. Hope filled her as she noticed a emergency medical kit lying on the table, next to the candle.

She carefully limped to it and opened it. Inside was just what she needed to fix herself up. Disinfectant, bandages, etc. There was even a small mirror to examine herself with. She wished she could use her magic to levitate the supplies and mirror, but she feared that any more exertion would cause her to pass out. She examined her body slowly with the mirror, having sat it on the table with her mouth.

It wasn't as bad as she had expected, but it was pretty bad. The gash on her forehead had somehow originated at her horn and ripped from there across the entire width of her forehead. She struggled to remember what she would have done to cause such an injury, but still drew up a blank. The gash was caked in dirt from landing outside, which meant it would require a good cleaning. She limped over to the sink and carefully cleaned the wound of the dirt. The dirt had clotted the blood flow though, so the blood immediately started flowing again as soon as she removed all the dirt.

Quickly, she disinfected the wound and dressed it in multiple layers of bandaging. Knowing that her worst injury was taken care of, she lazily turned back towards the mirror and began to examine the rest of her body. She felt a little sadness when she saw the state she was in... Her once lavender coat was now a mix of matted blood mixed with dirt and cuts. Her legs weren't as bad as she imagined, and would stop bleeding soon. But to be safe, she slowly but surely applied bandaging to the more major wounds and disinfected every wound on her body. The pain was excruciating, but she did it because if she didn't, the infection would cause a much bigger problem.

It took her about twenty minutes, and the whole time she was on the verge of passing out. as she applied the last bandage, she looked at herself in the mirror. Blood was caked all over he face, her eyes had black bags under them. Her eyes themselves were red and puffy.

"I could really use a bath..." Knowing she probably wouldn't be so lucky as to get one, she walked over to the bed. As she laid down in it, she couldn't help but wonder who this cabin belonged to. Perhaps some pony who just wanted privacy. She hoped that they would understand her predicament and reminded herself to pay the stranger when she gained access to her bits.

As she began to drift off to sleep, she felt the warm bed beneath her turn to hard stone. A quick opening of her eye revealed her to be in the same void she had been in previously. But strangely, her bandages were still on. She wanted so badly to panic, but was far too tired. As she fell asleep, she never knew that her friends were staring at her in the hospital room, knowing that she probably didn't have much more time left. But as she drifted into her dream, she felt the warmness of another ponies' muzzle brushing against hers. She longed so much to see her friends again, and wondered if they would ever find her.


> Farewell, Twilight
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"Spike, you've been alone for two days now." The five mares stood over the small dragon, who was curled up in Twilight's bed. It had been two days since that night at the hospital and Spike had only gotten worse.

"Maybe I want to be alone..." Spike curled even tighter into the ball.

"Come on, Twilight wouldn't want you to be sulking about." Rainbow's words hit the dragon like a brick wall. He knew she would never want him to be sad, no matter what happened. But every time he thought of her being in the hospital; thought of growing up without waking to her smiling above him... It tore him up inside.

"Please, just leave me be..." The truth was, he didn't want to be alone in the home. But he also didn't want to be around other living beings. All he wanted was to be by Twilight's side, but that wasn't possible at the moment, since the hospital required a 48 stay to get the patient settled in. For Twilight's case, they needed a bit more time. She'd be allowed visitor at sundown today.

"Okay Spikey... Please, take care of yourself." Rarity put on a fake smile as the dragon looked up to her. But even a smile from Rarity wasn't enough to cheer the small dragon.

"I'm going to the hospital tonight..." His voice was completely emotionless. For the two days he had been alone, he had been crying nonstop. But at least he knew that tonight he would be able to be by her side.

"But only her family-" Pinkie raised her hoof to Rarity.

"Okay Spike. Be safe." Pinkie nodded to her friends and slowly exited the house, looking back once to the small dragon.

The five ponies descended the stairs, the sound of a door shutting moments later. Not wanting to get up, he closed his eyes and hoped for a dream to take him away from the world. Unfortunately, he awoke three hours later to find he had just had the usual dreamless sleep of the last few days. At least he rest assured knowing Twilight was probably having a coma dream where she had everything she wanted.

A quick glance out the window revealed the sun to be setting. Pretty soon Twilight would be able to have visitors, which meant he should probably go. He wanted to be able to be alone with her for a tiny bit before her family got there. Standing up, he quickly cleaned himself up and wiped the dried tears from his face. Upon ensuring he didn't look like a complete train wreck, he exited out into the warm summer evening.

As he walked down the street to the hospital, the ponies around him gave him concerned looks. Some whispered to each other, while some just outright came to him and said they were sorry. Even though he knew they meant the best, he was angered at their pity. Why were they giving him the pity, when it was Twilight who was in the hospital? But that was just the way the world worked... Nopony felt sorry for the ones that were actually hurt.

The hospital loomed in the distance as Spike neared it. Each step made his heart beat a little faster. What if she is getting worse? He shook his head and forced himself to not think bad thoughts like that. She was going to be completely fine, and they would return to their life as before. He sighed as he realized that wasn't true... Even if she recovered, there was still the fact that she probably wouldn't be able to use her magic as well. Still, he hoped for the best; for her to have a complete recovery.

The hospitals' front doors slid closed behind him as entered to the lobby. The reception office was pretty much empty, probably on account that Celestia, Shining Armor, and Cadence were showing up. Two princesses and the captain of the royal guard coming to the same place is sure to clean it out. Security risks and all that.

"Sorry little guy, the hospital is closed to visitors for the evening."

"I'm here to see Twilight Sparkle. I'm with Celestia's group."

"Oh, then in that case go on ahead. She was moved to room 305."

"Thanks." He waved to the pony in scrubs as he walked away. A few minutes later, he arrived at room 305. Taking a deep breath and releasing it slowly, he entered her room. The first thing he was greeted with was the sight of the sunset, which made the sky a glorious pink color. The room itself was tinted orange from the remaining sun, which made the room seem so much warmer than it was.

"Hey Twi." Twilight laid in the bed, her mouth slightly open. Her breathing sounded slightly labored and her heart rate was slightly lower than normal. Spike wondered if he should tell the nurse, but decided against it since he wanted at least a minute to see her. "Don't know if you can hear me or not, but it's me, Spike." He sat on the end of the bed between her hind hooves. "Been a hard two days without you, but I looked out for the library. Cried a lot too, you know? I know you want me to be strong... But it's so hard. If you can hear me, don't feel bad." He stopped talking and walked over to the window for a moment. The sight of a carriage ran by a royal guardsman landing near the hospital was the first thing he noticed. 

"Looks like Celestia and your family are here. Your mom will be coming and... "Tears began to fall from Spike's eyes once more as he looked at Twilight. "Twilight, please wake up! It's been two days now... Everypony is worried... They keep wondering if you're ever going to wake up... The time is probably flying by in whatever dream you're having, but out here... Each day without you seems like an eternity. Even Pinkie hasn't smiled in two days." He wiped his eyes and looked out the window again. Celestia and the others were just now entering the hospital. "Everypony's heading in right now." He stood from the bed and sat on a nearby chair. A minute later, the door opened and Twilight's family entered.

"Hello there, Spike." Twilight's mother sat next to the small dragon and smiled half-heartily. Even though she was terribly worried about her daughter, it wasn't in her nature to be sad. Twilight's father, however, immediately began crying when he saw his daughter in the hospital bed. Despite all that, Shining Armor was the first to near his sister.

"Oh, Twiley... It seems like just yesterday that you were smiling as you showed off your magic... " He leaned down and nuzzled his sister, before backing slowly away, his eyes still on her. Cadence was the next up.

"Never thought I'd see you like this... I... I can't do this." Tears flowing steadily from her eyes and sobs escaping from her throat, she ran out of the room.

"I'll go make sure she's okay..." Shining Armor, whose eyes were slowly pooling with tears exited out of the room to console his wife. Celestia, knowing it was her duty to be strong, simply stood back and stared at her student in the bed. The struggle to keep herself from crying was near impossible, but she managed it. For three minutes, everypony remained quiet and simply stared at the lavender unicorn.

"I'm sorry, I'm fine... I'm fine." Shining Armor and Cadence re-entered the room and stood next to Celestia. 

"Where's Luna?" Spike's voice broke the silence, as he feared he might explode in a bout of tears of the silence continued any longer.

"Somepony has to run everything while I'm gone. She'll get around to coming around soon." Spike nodded slowly and returned his gaze to Twilight. As they sat there in silence, he wandered if she could feel them all staring at her. Five minutes that seemed like hours passed slowly, everypony just staring at her. Nopony said a word, as they all knew that the second they even tried, they would just burst out in tears.

Without any warning, the heart monitor began to beep. This obviously served the cause and immediate panic among the visitors, but they all remained calm and collected long enough to move out of the way for the doctor who entered. He didn't ask them to leave, even though it was standard procedure to do so. After about a minute, he managed to stop the beeping, which meant he had returned her heart rate to normal. Everypony began to fear the worst as he turned around, gazed everypony in the room, and sighed.

"I'm afraid that... She's made a turn for the worse... She might not make it through the night." Everypony in the room gasped lightly. This news was too much to handle and everypony started crying. All of them wanted to simply keel over and just burst into tears, but what if Twilight could hear them? None of them wanted to put her through knowing she was causing such sadness... "It's best you say your goodbyes now. I'll leave you with her." The doctor swiftly exited the room, leaving all of them sobbing.

None of them said a word as Spike neared the bed. "Twilight... No..." The tiny assistant climbed onto the bed and latched tightly onto her chest. His tears steadily flowed from his eyes onto her chest, leaving a wet spot on it. "Please... Please don't go!" He continued to hug her, never wanting to let go. 

"NO!" Everypony immediately turned to the sound of the yell, which was Celestia. She shakily breathed between sobs as she looked to the ground. Nopony said a word as the princess of their kingdom cried. None ever though they would see it happen, but they all knew that no matter what, she was still just a pony. "This can't be happening again..." Celestia knew she was immortal... That is why she almost always avoided making friends with her subjects. But despite all of her attempts, she always managed to make a good friend every once in a while. But when it came time for them to pass... It only reminded her that she was going to outlive everything.

"My daughter loves you, Celestia." Everypony, including Celestia, looked up as Twilight's mother spoke. "She speaks so highly of you, almost as if you're a second mother to her. This isn't easy on any of us..." Tears began to pool on the arm rest of the chair as she talked. "You and I both know that she's tougher than this... I don't know if she can hear us, but if she can... We  need to keep our hopes up. Not for us, but for her." She turned to her daughter and frowned.

"Yes..." That was the only word the princess could think. She had quieted herself to a mere soft sobbing, but she still wanted to just let it all out. That, she would have to save for home.

All of the ponies sat around Twilight for about an hour and a half. While there, they made small talk about Twilight and other various topics. While they weren't talking, they were looking at Twilight's whose breathing slowly got worse. All of them knew that tonight might be the last time they saw here alive... But none of them allowed themselves to grieve in the same room as the pony they were trying to instill hope in. Eventually, her family stood and began to show themselves out, each kissing her lightly on the cheek or forehead before they left.

"Goodbye, my favorite student..." Celestia leaned over and nuzzled her student on the cheek. "You made me happy, Twilight. I'll miss you." With some hesitance, she leaned in and kissed the unicorn on the forehead. A sad nod to Spike, she exited the room. They had recently got a hold of Twilight's best friends, whom were all now probably just getting here. Spike's lower lip quivered as he looked at Twilight. 

"This can't be goodbye..." He sobbed quietly as he looked at her. "Goodbye, Twilight..." His throat closed up as he said Twilight's name, which caused him to finally explode into a bout of tears. This sight was immediately witnessed by Rarity, who had just entered the room. She wanted to assist the poor dragon, but decided that it was best if he was alone. Looking up, he saw the five mares, who themselves were beginning to have tears form in their eyes. "I'll be at the library..." Still crying out of control, he stood and exited the room.

"This isn't happening..." Pinkie neared her friend and placed her hoof gently on her. The heart monitor nearby was slowly counting down on numbers and Twilight was feeling colder than normal. "This can't be happening." The five cried softly as their friends breathing continued to slow.

"Ah hate to say it, but we have to say goodbye..." Applejack took her hat off and stood next to her friend in the bed. "It's been quite the rodeo, Twi. but," she took a deep breath and held her hat over her face, "I know you'll make plenty of friends in the next life." The sounds of her sobbing echoed slightly out of the hat. Replacing the hat onto her head, she took a seat and awaited the tearful farewell of her friends.

"Twilight, you were the best friend that a party pony could have..." Pinkie pulled a napkin from nowhere and blew her nose. "Even though you'll be gone, I'll be sure to throw some parties in your honor." She blew her nose once more and sat next to Applejack.

"Darling Twilight... Even though you were never much for fashion, I always admired your sense of style. Made me remember sometimes that fashion isn't everything. Promise me that you won't change your fashion sense in the next life." She turned to walk away, before turning back to her. "Don't worry about Spike... I'll take care of him." Her mane fell limply to its side due to her not caring for it today. For the first time in a long while, it was the last thing on her mind.

"Twilight, umm... I..." Fluttershy quickly ran from the room crying harder than anypony else had since she went to the hospital. 

"You guys go check on her. I'm going to say goodbye..." Rainbow's friends left to tend to Fluttershy, leaving Rainbow Dash and Twilight alone. "Never thought I'd be doing this..." Despite Dash's usual toughness, she herself was now sobbing pretty hard. "See? You went and made me get all sappy..." She chuckled lightly. "Despite being an egghead, you were pretty cool. No, you were awesome!" She smiled and looked at the ceiling, allowing the tears to drip from her chin to her chest. "This happening... It's just so... not cool." 

The four other mares entered once more into the hospital room. They silently stared at their dear friend as her heart monitor continued to go down.

70 bpm. The friends all engaged in a final hug with Twilight.

60 bpm. All sniffling, they wipe their eyes and smile warmly at their friend, hoping that she may somehow see them. If she could... They'd rather that she saw one final happy sight.

40 bpm. The heart monitor began to beep, causing a doctor to run in. The friends however stand idly aside... Who were they to prolong her life if she would just be stuck in a coma? 

20 bpm. The doctor began to try and keep her heart going.

10 bpm. "Farewell, Twilight. We'll all miss you." The five friends let a single tear drip from each of their eyes as Twilight stops breathing.

Flatline.
> Heartbeats
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Thump.

Thump, thump.

Thump. Twilight slowly awoke from her slumber to the sound of her slowed pulse pounding through her head. Her entire body was sore beyond all reason and she felt as if she had been mauled by thousands of angry manticores. Slowly, she opened her eyes and began to examine her surroundings. Happiness and relief came over her as she noticed that she was in her own room. 

The first thing she did was look out her window. It was night time, but a very dark night at that. She was barely able to make out the outline of Canterlot in the distance. By her side was a small table with water and a half eaten sandwich on it. She assumed Spike had made it for her. But how long ago had they found her in that dark void? Oh well, that didn't matter now. She was safe in her warm bed and was alive. There was nothing more else she could want.

She very carefully levitated the glass of water to herself and happily finished the still cold glass off. She also wanted to eat some of the sandwich, but the image of all that blood was still fresh on her mind. Remembering that she had in fact just barely escaped death, she quickly looked down at her body to examine the damage. But when she saw nothing...

'How long was I out?' She tried to get out of bed, being stopped by her head ringing violently and giving her a piercing pain as if her brain had just been poked with hundreds of needles. Quickly but carefully replacing her head on the pillow, she looked around the room.

'Of all the times to not have a mirror in my room...' Not knowing what else to do and the hunger growing, she levitated the sandwich to her mouth and gratefully took a bite. Even though the bread was soft, each motion of chewing furthered the pain in her head. She quickly realized that she was still completely sapped of all energy, as she tired herself out by just chewing the sandwich.

"This one is a fighter... That's for sure. It's been how long since we barely saved her from flat-lining? Five day? She immediately stopped chewing and began looking around the room. Where had that voice came from? And what did it mean by flat-lining? Had somepony nearly died? She listened once more for the voice, but upon not hearing it again, assumed it was part of her imagination. Understandably considering she had basically been dead not that long ago. Or was it long ago?

"S-Spike?" She immediately winced in pain from the sudden burst of noise coming from her. "Spike!" Curiosity began to turn into worry. Where was her little assistant at? Surely he should be downstairs... After all, it was night time. Where could he have went this late at night? 

Not knowing what else to do, she laid back on her cool pillow and allowed it to sooth her fever. She knew she had been in a bad state, but was it really bad enough for her to have been bedded for long enough to have her wounds heal? Well that wasn't entirely sure... She still wasn't sure of that gash on her head. Reaching up and feeling, she gasped. There was no indication of there ever having even being a gash there.

'Did I dream that all? Yes, that has to be it... I probably got sick after studying too late and passed out. It was just a terrible fever dream... She sighed and fell back on the pillow with a large smile on her face. 'It's going to all be okay.' She closed her eyes and imagined her friends coming to visit her soon. Surely Spike had told them about her.

"Twilight? Oh good. You're awake. You've been out cold for six hours now." Twilight perked up at the sound of Spike's voice. She grinned from ear to ear as she saw the tiny dragon. Ignoring her headache, she jumped out of the bed and embraced the dragon in a hug.

"Oh Spike! I'm so happy to see you! I had the worst nightmare..."

"Jeez, you'd think you hadn't seen me in weeks! Come on, get back in bed. You took quite the fall down the stairs and hit your head pretty good. I'm actually surprised I didn't have to take you to the hospital." Taking her favorite assistant's advice, she climbed back into the bed. Yeah, that all made sense... She had obviously fallen and hit her head. The stress of that caused a fever nightmare in which she had a major head wound. Probably just her brain trying to create a much worse situation to make this one seem better. And it was definitely working! Compared to that dream, this was a day at the library.

"Sorry, but that nightmare seemed so real... I was in some sort of black abyss, and I had a terrible head wound... The worst part was that nopony, nor you, were nearby."

"It's alright Twi. I'll get you some more water. You just rest and forget about that nightmare." She closed her eyes and nodded, the smile still plastered on her face. The tiny dragon returned a few moments later with a full glass of water, another sandwich, and a pill, which was probably a headache relief. She began to hope she didn't have a concussion, but that would still be a thousand times better than that dream.

"Thank you, Spike." She weakly levitated the glass of water to her lips and happily drank the cool liquid. Afterwards, she took the pill and took another drink.

"Need anything else?" She grinned and shook her head softly.

"No thank you." Twilight turned away from the small dragon and looked out the window. After that dream, she had a slight phobia of the dark. She'd get over it soon though. As she looked out the window, she couldn't help but feel as if something was a little... Off. Not in the sense that anything was wrong, or out of place. But rather because it usually wasn't that dark. 

'You're just over thinking, Twilight.' She turned back to the small dragon and smiled. He smiled back happily as she closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep.

---

Twilight's eyes slowly opened as she awoke. With a yawn, she sat up and began to look around the room.

'Yep, still in my room. Guess that nightmare last night was just that, a nightmare. I'm going to have to have a little talk with Luna the next time I'm in Canterlot...' She looked down to Spike's bed, seeing it empty. Her worry was almost immediately suppressed as Spike's foot hit the nearby floor by the stairs.	

"Hey Twilight, you're up early."

"Well I did get a good amount of sleep last night. Well, besides the nightmare, but at least it didn't revisit me."

"That's good. Here, I made you some breakfast." Spike extended his arms, a nice hot plate of pancakes drowned in syrup on it.

"Thank you, Spike." She carefully levitated the plate onto her lap and looked at the inviting food. "This looks delicious."

"Thanks. I'll be back up in a few minutes to get the plate."

"There's no need for that, Spike. I feel much better."

"Nonsense, Twi. You are staying in bed today, got it?"

"Okay, if you insist. But tomorrow, I'm treating you to breakfast in bed." She chuckled softly. Much to her relief, it didn't hurt her head at all, which had dulled down to a mere occasional throb. And even that wasn't nearly as bad as the previous night. Spike departed down the stairs while whistling a happy tune as Twilight began to dig into the pancakes. For five minutes she ate while looking out the window into the town of Ponyville. Upon finishing, she sat the plate on the table next to her bed and laid back down. Everything was perfect, now all she wanted to do was see her friends.

"All done?" Spike poked his head over the top step and came up. 

"Yep. That was some of the best pancakes I've ever had. Thank you." He laughed and blushed slightly as he grabbed the plate.

"I'm still holding you to that breakfast tomorrow." Spike began to make his way back down the stairs, before Twilight interrupted him.

"Hey, Spike?"

"Yeah, Twi?"

"Think you could go get Rainbow Dash and the others?" Spike stopped and turned around, a look of worry on his face.

"Uhh, Twilight? Are you sure you're feeling alright?"

"Yeah, why?" Spike sighed and returned the plate to the table.

"You really don't remember?"

"No, remember what?"

"Rainbow Dash and them all disappeared in the winter wrap up blizzard three months ago." The words hit Twilight with the force of a fully speeding train. When had this happened?! How did she not remember that? No, he had to be pulling some sort of sick joke.

"Spike, that's not funny."

"I'm sorry, Twi, But I'm not joking. They never found them or... their bodies." Twilight choked a bit. Was this really happening? No, no... She had to be having another nightmare. Without any hesitation, she levitated a book to her and pinched herself with it. When she didn't wake...

'No... It can't be... How did I forget something like this?!' She wanted to outburst at something, anything. But managed to keep herself from doing it. How could the past few hours be going so bad? 'First I have the worst nightmare of my life, and then... this...' She slowly began sobbing to herself.

"Look, get some rest. We'll go to Canterlot and see if-" She screamed out in pain as the world around her immediately began to distort. The small dragon himself simply stopped moving, until he collapsed into a puddle of water.

"WHAT'S GOING ON?!" The yell, of course, sponsored no answer. Confusion turned to horror as the walls around her began to dissipate, being replaced instead by a black abyss of nothingness for as far as the eye can see; the floor turning to cold black marble like flooring. She fell to the ground and closed her eyes, opening them a moment later.

"No... It was all an illusion?" She looked down at her body, which was now sporting multiple bandages, most of which were red. "It all seemed so real..." She reached up to her head and traced the line of the bandage on her head, which was crisp and crusty with dried blood. "What in Tartarus is going on?!" Luckily, her head wasn't so bad that she was immobilized. In fact, she now had most of her energy back, save for the occasional burning pain from her head wound. All the other cuts on her body had scabbed or scarred over though.

Sighing, she began to look around the dark void, hoping to spot something; anything. Seeing nothing, she falls back on her haunches and looks at the pitch black floor. It gave no reflection back, even though it is smooth as glass. Strangely, it had a strange feeling of emptiness to it. There was no way of telling, but just by touch you could feel the cold emptiness of it.

The air around her wasn't much different either. Looking up, right, down, left, didn't matter. It was always the same darkness with the dark fog floating around it. Her temperature had dropped from the time she had been near death to now, so she now felt how cold this place actually was. But it wasn't a cold that comes from temperature... It was a spiritual cold, the kind that made Twilight cold on the inside.

'Well... At least I'm alive.' She stood and began walking in a random direction.

"Love you like a daughter..." She jumped slightly as the voice intruded into the silence around her. It was the same exact voice she had heard when she first woke in this place, but it now seemed distorted. Thinking that her brain now might be up to it, she began trying to remember who the owner of the voice was. After five minutes, she was still drawing the same exact blank.

Because her mind didn't want her to remember what had happened...  or who had caused it.
> False Truths
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"So thirsty..." Her voice echoed out around the barren wasteland of black air as if she was encased in a small room. Her head and body had stopped aching as badly about three hours ago, but the loss of blood had dehydrated her terribly. She had been walking for about five hours ever since her hallucination of being back in her room.

"So sorry..."

"It feels so cold... What'd we do to deserve this?!" She stopped in her tracks and looked around. These voices were different from the others. Instead of sounding like they were actually in her head, these voices sounded as if they were somewhere in the void. The first voice was that of a stallion, the second a sweet voice of a young mare. 

"Hello?! Is somepony there? Please help!" She tried to pinpoint where the voices had come from, but they didn't seem to be coming from any particular direction. Yet, they didn't echo either. It was as if she was hearing it in her head, but from outside in the dark void at the same time.

"SHUT UP!" Twilight jumped slightly from the sudden outburst of the stallion.

'What is going on?!" Her heart beating, she began to walk in what she presumed to be the direction she was walking. 'Am I going insane?' She stopped as she heard a familiar angelic singing. It sounded like something Fluttershy would sing to her animals, but there were no words. Instead, it was like a angelic choir echoing throughout the void around her. The strangest part, however, was the fact that she felt she recognized the song. It was the same one she had heard when the world transformed to that thorn field, which she also recognized from sometime in her life.

She raised a hoof slightly in alarm and surprise as the ground below her slowly turned to a white floor similar to the floor of the dark void. The world around her began to sparkle magically as it turned to a brilliant white room with a large red carpet down the middle and stained glass windows on the sides.

'This has to be a hallucination. No way I'm in the Canterlot castle' 

"Leave here."

"But-"

"NOW!" She snapped her head to the end of the room where the voices had come from. Surprise filled her eyes as she saw her mother talking to a large figure behind a pillar. She couldn't make out who the figure was though.

"Please, she just wants one more chance."

"I'm sorry that your daughter wants another chance, but I can't do it." Twilight's mother neared the figure with sadness in her eyes.

"I'll do anything."

"There's nothing to do. That filly just has no skill in magic, nor will she ever. Now, please leave or my guards will escort you out."

"Congratulations," Twilight's mother struggled to keep tears from filling her eyes as she walked to the exit of the large room, "you killed a little filly's dreams." Twilight's jaw fell open. She recognized this scene... It was the same exact recurring nightmare she had a couple days before her magic exam. But why couldn't she recognize the figure? She was sure that the figure was somepony very important to her.

"WHAT IS GOING ON?!" The sudden movement as she screamed and tried to rush to figure managed to cause her head wound to reopen. Without any warning, a small trickle of warm blood began to flow from beneath the bandage, which started slipping off. Quickly re-adjusting it, she began to try and see the figure behind the pillar. Her attempts were for naught, since each step made the pillar seem to grow in size.

"You evil... FUCKING BITCH!" Twilight gasped at the sudden outburst of profanity. The voice was that of the mare from moments before, but was filled with anger and betrayal.

"Where are you? Can you hear me?!" Her plea received no response. "Please, somepony tell me what's going on..." She sat on the floor of the castle she loved so much. Wanting so badly to be there, she kept hoping that her wishes would come true and she would just teleport to Canterlot. She knew it wouldn't happen though.

Her eyes began to water as the walls around her started to melt, revealing the black void. She quickly looked to the pillar and hoped that it would melt away as well to reveal the figure. Disappointment prevailed as the figure disappeared into a cloud of golden mist, floating off into the dark void. Sadness turned to relief as she felt the cool pellets of rain hitting her coat.

'Guess something is going right...' She opened her mouth and allowed the refreshing water to fill her mouth. With multiple gulps, she felt herself re-hydrate. Unfortunately, the rain made her bandages fall away from her, landing in a pool of water that soon turned crimson. All of her small cuts had managed to scab over, but her head wound was still open. Fortunately, it was only trickling blood which fell over her left eye. Nothing like before the thorn field.

"How long was I asleep? Should have taken at least a week for that type of healing..." Worrying about her friends, she began to dash in any direction. All emotions left her replaced by the one that she had not felt entirely yet... Panic.

Heart racing, brain racing, lungs ceasing to work properly, tears filling her eyes, she dashed in panic in any direction. Whimpers and sobs broke through her labored breathing, causing her breath to fog in front of her from the coldness of the rain. Frantically, she looked around in hopes of seeing anything familiar.

"Please! Anypony, help me!" Each landing of her hoof splashed more clean, freezing water onto her body. Her head throbbed from her pulse as she continued onward. The panic began to rise until she simply stopped and looked around in every direction frantically in hopes of seeing anything. Her sobs and whimpers had now turned to exasperated wails of panic and crying. Her tears flowed faster, dripping off of her and splashing onto the pools of water below her as she looked around.

"Rainbow Dash!" Her pulse continued to rise to a alarming rate.

"Pinkie Pie!" Her eyes stung from the tears and rain. The temperature dropped to below freezing.

"Fluttershy!" She started running in a straight line once more.

"Applejack!" Panic turned to strong hysteria as she felt the temperature drop to around zero degrees. The rain turned to snow, more specifically a heavy blizzard.

"Rarity!" The blizzard coated the entire black void in a blanket of white. Hills began to form around her, but were mostly invisible due to the blizzard, which had reduced her vision to a very small bubble around her.

"Anypony..." She began to calm as the blizzard grew around her. Even though she couldn't see anything, she recognized the landscape as the frozen lake that Pinkie liked to ice skate on.''

"Good memories... Or lies?" The voice barely made it through the blizzard. "Which one do you think it is, Mystia? It was the voice of the stallion, but sounded much quieter.

"Please, tell me where you are!" No response.

"Lies, Delphian. This black place is trying to play tricks on us... Never should have..." The two voices trailed off. Were those their names? Even though she didn't think they were anywhere close to her, she felt somewhat safe when their voices came through to her. The oddest part? She felt as if she had heard those names before. But from where?

"Like a daughter..." There was that voice again. She recognized it now as the voice of the figure behind the pillar. It wasn't her mother, so who was it? One of her friends? No, she remembered her slightly as someone she looked up to... Anything after that was completely blank.

She darted around as she heard a whisper in her ear. She couldn't make out what it said, but she was sure that it was a whisper and not the wind. Honestly, she was starting to get a little scared. The blizzard continued to rage on as she made her way to the lake. Once there, she overlooked the glistening frozen lake, which was completely empty at the moment. Somehow she had hoped to see Pinkie skating on it and she would look to her and yell happily.

"N-n-need a-a-a f-fire." She started shivering violently from the cold. Ponyville probably didn't exist in this hallucination. She still didn't know what was going on, but each one of the visions had served to do something. The thorn field and cabin gave her bandages to survive, her home gave her food and water, the castle brought up an old nightmare, and this lake would do something. Of course, she could be horrible wrong.

She walked to the center of the lake and began to look around. From here the blizzard wasn't as bad, due to the lake being in a semi crater. It was still bad, but she could at least see around the perimeter of the lake. Her shivers stopped as she noted a cave in the distance. She started to head for the cave.

She screamed as a very large gust of wind knocked her off of her feet onto the ice, which cracked beneath her. The cold water immediately caused her body to go into shock. Knowing she only had a few second before the water froze her and she drowned, she frantically tried to climb out of the water.

After a few seconds that seemed like multiple minutes, she climbed out of the water shivering and barely able to move. Each step was a challenge that made her entire body want to collapse. But she was strong and managed to eventually make it to the inside of the cave. Once inside, she made her way around a corner and covered herself into a corner. Curling into a ball to warm herself, she began to breath heavily.

For thirty minutes she laid there listening to the whistling of the wind from outside. For the first time, she wished she was back in that black nothingness. At least it was warm there. After warming to a reasonable degree, she stood and made her way further into the cave. It was dark, but she was still able to see enough to make her way into the back. A little bit of happiness filled her as she saw a old camp fire. Fortunately, it still had a bit of firewood on it.

"Finally, something goes right..." She shivered slightly as she neared the small campfire. She still doubted her ability to use magic, so instead sat in front of it and started to light it like an earth pony. The whole time she was trying to light it, she kept wondering where she had heard the names of the ponies who she kept hearing. Mystia, and Delphian. She was sure she never met anypony by those names, so who could they be?

She turned around as the sounds of wind died down. 'Did the blizzard stop?" She looked back to the campfire as she heard a spark, followed by the crackling of fire. The warmth of the fire immediately began to give her a sense of peace in her cold aching body. 'Thankfully I don't think I got hypothermia..."

She stood and made her way back to the entrance of the cave to see if the storm had died down. Curiosity turned to a very slight panic as she saw the entrance covered with a cave in of rocks. She wanted to panic, but the cold had made her extremely tired. Instead, she made her way back to the campfire and lied down in front of it. With a sigh of comfort, she felt herself drifting off to sleep.

"She's still holding on. But we can't seem to get any brain activity. It doesn't make any sense at all... But she's still well alive." The voice didn't phase her as she drifted into a dreamless sleep. Her last thoughts of a book that she received in the mail.

	

> The Cavern of Hope
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The fire crackled slowly as Twilight forced her eyes slowly open. She expected to be back in that dark void, but instead she found herself laying in front of a dying fire in the middle of a barren cave. With a yawn, she stood and neared the warm fire. The previous night forces it's way back into her memory and with it the fact that she is trapped.

"How long have we been here, Delphian?"

"No Idea, Mystia... Seems like centuries..."

"No telling time... No escape." The voices had stopped startling Twilight. Sure, it was still strange that she could hear them, but it had become normal for her. And they made a point... She had no way of telling how long she had been in that void; that shape-shifting plane of nothingness. It could have been only a day, or it could have been years. Either way, she was tired of it and just wanted to be back home.

'This cave has to go further than this. Come on, Twilight...' Her head felt reasonable, but she feared too much exertion would cause her to get a terrible headache. Steadily, she focused magic into her horn, making a light source from it. Something as simple as that caused her head to feel as if there was pressure being applied on it, but she felt she could make it.

Relief filled her body as she saw a small opening just big enough for her to crawl through. It could just be a little alcove, but it was worth a shot. She crawled through the small hole, exiting out into another cavern. 

The cavern of hope, they called it. The thought rushed into her head as she looked around. Where had she heard that before? No, she had read about it... But from where? The walls on either side looked as if they had been chiseled with extreme mathematical precision. The further down the cavern she went, the straighter the walls got.

It exist not in the mortal realm, rather in each of us. The cavern is in a different plane of existence, commonly called the realm of internal sorrow. I went there once... I still remember that dark void... Yes, she had indeed read about this place somewhere before. She couldn't quite recall where from, but she was more worried about how she got there...

'What else did the book say... Come on, think!' Her head began to throb from the excessive amount of work it had to do. In all honestly, she shouldn't even be awake with a head wound of her caliber. It was a miracle it wasn't still bleeding. But she couldn't just carry on until she was sure that she would be safe...

The place was a terrible... My friend and I both suffered through so many hardships. There was no telling the time; no knowing if you are even alive or not. Then we reached that damned cavern... Everything went downhill from there. But we couldn't turn back... Twilight immediately turned around to ensure that the exit was still there. We camped outside of the entrance to the cavern. It was a cold night, since there was a raging blizzard outside. Not like we had a choice to be in there... The entrance had collapsed. 

'What... Am I following in the footsteps of the pony who wrote that book?' She struggled to try and remember the book, but to no avail. Looking back down the to the dull light at the end of the cavern, she sighed and began to walk down. Each step brought sorrow down upon her from somewhere.

I remember that dreadful walk down that long cavern corridor... The walls had gotten smoother and smoother as we continued down it. The weight of sorrow fell upon us from somewhere. Still to this day I know not where the sorrow came from, but it was heavy... Still today I feel it. Tears began to well up in her eyes as the sorrow of ponies unknown filled her. She felt the pain of losing a loved one... Felt the pain of knowing you'll be leaving the world soon; felt the sorrow of everything.

We toughed through the sorrow... It wasn't easy, but it had to be done if we wanted to survive. Twilight couldn't help but feel she was right there with the author. Each step was a burden on her fragile mind, up to a point that her magic ceased to work. Darkness engulfed the room around her, the only light being the dull yellow one at the end of the hall.

There was a light at the end of the corridor. It taunted us mercilessly... Even as we grew nearer, it never increased in size. Then again, out hope was very slim... Far as I could tell, we were the first ponies to make it that far. The days before were hard to get through... The dark void forced us into three different scenarios, each a painful one in itself. One of them was one that caused great physical harm to both of us, the other two of our greatest nightmares. The light shimmered at the same velocity, no matter how close she neared. Still, it urged hope into her...

Then... We finally reached the light. We thought the dark void was bad... The nightmare was just beginning Twilight stopped in front of the orb that was emitting a very small amount of light. Not having any other options, she reached out and touched it.

We thought everything was over when we first touched it... Far from it. The cavern began to light up all around her. Her jaw slowly slid open as carvings of everything she knew and loved started to appear on them.

That cavern gave us hope... Perhaps it was that hope that kept us going. The carvings all slowly began to fade away, as did the entire cavern. It didn't fade like normal, rather everything slowly started to blow away like leaves in the wind.

"What's happening?!"

"Looks like we're done here..."

"Mystia, I'm scared.

"I am too.

"So am I..." Twilight felt a strange out of body experience. Looking down, she saw her hooves turning to a dust and flying away. Her body slowly began to fade into dust as it traveled from her hooves to her body. As it reached her neck, she closed her eyes and awaited whatever was to happen.
> The White Room
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Blinding white all around. Neither of us could see. Heh, I'd take the dark void any day over that place.

Twilight opened her eyes to find herself in a white room that seemed as if everything was actually glowing. She quickly reached up to her head and felt where the injury was. Nothing. Not even a scar. Did that orb of light heal her, or was this just another illusion... She struggled to remember more of the book she had read, but drew a blank.

"What is this place..."

"No idea, Delphian. Come on, let's get moving... Hey, the gash on your side is gone!"

"And your eye... It looks normal!" 

"Please, can you hear me?!" Her headache was completely gone. Not only that, but she felt as if she had been asleep for months! She felt completely rejuvenated.

"Hey, Twiley..." She perked up as she heard her brothers voice. "Been so long since I heard your voice... Seen you smile. Everypony is real worried about you, but they can't bring themselves to come see you like this."

In that white room... We were able to hear the voices of our family and friends perfectly. We knew we were in another plane of existence. We just didn't know at the time this place existed in our own minds. Twilight looked around. Every which direction was blocked off with a white wall. She was literally in a box. 

She awaited the voices to start talking to her again. That or a memory from reading the book. Either one would be welcome at the moment. Five minutes passed without a single word or memory. Seeing it as a lost cause, she simply stared in one direction. Surprise filled hey eyes as the wall she neared turned into a reflection. It was as if the wall itself was made of water.

Mirrors to the soul, I called them. She found herself drawn to her eyes in the reflection. Not because they were bigger than usual, but because she saw a scene in them... The reflection zoomed slowly in on the mesmerized mare's eyes as she saw herself lying in a hospital bed, her friends gathering at the foot of it looking at her.

Her heart skipped a beat as she saw the heart monitor drop.

70 bpm. The friends all engaged in a final hug with Twilight.

60 bpm. All sniffling, they wipe their eyes and smile warmly at their friend, hoping that she may somehow see them. If she could... They'd rather that she saw one final happy sight.

40 bpm. The heart monitor began to beep, causing a doctor to run in. The friends however stand idly aside... Who were they to prolong her life if she would just be stuck in a coma? 

20 bpm. The doctor began to try and keep her heart going.

10 bpm. "Farewell, Twilight. We'll all miss you." The five friends let a single tear drip from each of their eyes as Twilight stops breathing.

Flatline. Twilight felt tears filling her eyes as her friends all leaned their heads down and began crying.

"Come on... We should go make sure Spike is okay." The doctor was still hard at work, trying his best to get a pulse. Her friends all exited out into the hallway, seconds later a beeping sound. She watched as the doctor stepped away as the heart monitor returned to normal. 

The reflection pulled itself away from her eyes as they returned to normal size. Slowly, the reflection turned into a normal white wall again.

We saw the truth in those walls... We weren't just in another plane... We were in comas.

"Coma? No... How did this happen?" As if answering the question, the wall turned back to a reflection and zoomed once more into her eyes. She immediately saw her library, Twilight herself sitting at her reading desk with a book she felt she had seen before. It was a large book with a dark cover. Her heart jumped into her throat as she saw the cover.

A painting of the Dark Void sat on the front.

"Hey, Twilight. I'm going down to the kitchen."

"Yeah, have fun at Rarity's." She was drawn into her book so much that she hadn't even really listened to her assistant. She had a habit of doing that. "What's this? Recite these words at your caution, for they will..." Twilight's voice faded off to a mere wording of the sentence. Twilight was beginning to remember... The book had been sent to her by... Why couldn't she remember anything about who sent it to her? She had opened the package. It came with a simple note: Be careful, Twilight. After that, she immediately started to read it. What she was watching right now was the end of the book, where those damned words were...

My name is Mystia, and I never made it out of this place... Using the remaining bit of my magic, I am sending this book to Equestria. Since it is traveling to another plane, I estimate that it will take at least 1,000 years to reach Equestria... I hope it will reach my Mentor, Princess Celestia. That's it! That was the name of the pony who had said she loved Twilight like a daughter... But all she knew was her name. She was the one that had me come here, with promises that I'd be safe... She may have been wrong, but she was right about one thing... There is much magic here. If you're reading this Celestia, I... I had to sacrifice my own brother, Delphian to be able to transport this to you. I hope you learned everything you wanted from this place... Because I'm still trapped here and will be until someone comes and gets me. No doubt you've place my body under magical protection... Twilight stopped reading and looked up, a single tear dropping from her eye onto the page.

I know you are incapable of coming to this realm, so I know you know what must happen... No doubt you now have a new student, since that was always your thing. This realm has no time, so it will be just like your new student is right behind me. Nopony else you sent ever made it past the first Dark Void... I know you won't send anymore until you've heard from me, so... Send your new student or not... If she comes, no doubt she'll absorb my memories... Of you, of Luna... I know you loved me like a daughter, as do you all of your students. I'll understand if you don't send another student... Goodbye, Celestia. I'll miss you.

She sighed as she watched herself open the written note that came with it. Inside were the magical words  that would transport anypony to the realm.

Dearest Twilight, I hope you read the book before opening this note... I won't make you do this, since I know it will be very dangerous. If you do choose to go, do know that you won't be able to leave until you find Mystia. When you say these words, you will be placed into a coma. You'll survive, as long as you keep your wits about you and be strong. As I'm sure you read, you will forget everything about how you got there and about me for a while. Twilight read over the note a couple times before flipping it over and reading over the words.

A life long gone, a plane untouched. Magical world, sight unseen. Love for love, life for life. Hope... or loss. Twilight knew what was coming... At the same time, both her real self and fantasy self opened their mouths.

"A life long gone, a plane untouched. Magical world, sight unseen. Love for love, life for life. Hope... or loss." She watched as her real self immediately closed her eyes and fell over in a slump on the floor. Spike came running up a moment later. The reflection turned once more into a white wall.

"Twilight, please wake up... I never wanted to lose you." The voice of Celestia could easily be heard, accompanied by sobs.

"Princess... Don't worry, I won't fail you."

	

	
 
> 365 Days
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Spike was humming slowly to himself as he placed book after book on the shelf. Stepping back, he admired his handiwork. The books were in absolute alphabetical order and they were even color coded to a degree. It had taken him all day, but in the end it looked amazing.

Turning away from the bookshelf, he walked up the stairs to the second floor. All of Twilight's stuff was still there, not touched at all by the time that had passed. He had taken to sleeping in Twilight's bed, since he had grown a bit larger. His old bed was still large enough, but he felt that he was close to Twilight when he slept in her bed.

"Hello? Spike?" He looked down the stairs as Rarity called in. She had been the one to check in on him everyday, even offering to stay the night so many times. She had truly been a good friend to him ever since Twilight entered her coma.

"Up here." He began to make the bed as Rarity ascended the stairs. A small smile formed as she saw the dragon making the bed. For the past year, he had insisted that he stay alone in the library to keep it in tip top shape, a duty he fulfilled to the letter.

"How're you doing?" He finished making the bed, placed his hands on his hips and began to survey the room. Seeing it with brilliant expectations, he smiled and answered the white unicorn.

"Fine, just been cleaning. Wasn't easy after Pinkie came by yesterday with her cannon."

"Glad to hear. Need any help with anything?" He put a claw to his chin as he thought. A moment later he shook his head and smiled.

"Nope, got everything under control. Actually, now that I think about it...  Would you mind coming with me to the market?"

"Sure. What all do you need?"

"Just some milk, a couple apples, some ice cream, and a couple cupcakes. Oh, and some eggs."

"Pinkie probably has all of that." In the long year since Twilight had entered her coma, Pinkie had become the actual owner of Sugarcube Corner. Mr. and Ms. Cake had to sell it since they needed more time to spend with their children. As luck would have it, Pinkie had more than enough money from the entire time she had worked there to buy the shop.

Spike frowned as he looked under Twilight's bed, the large book with the painting of the black nothingness on the front. He had told nopony yet, but he had recently read the book and the note accompanying it... He knew that Celestia was the reason his dearest friend was in her coma, but he couldn't bring himself to tell his friends. Maybe it was finally time...

"Rarity... I know what happened to Twilight." 

"What ever do you mean?" Rarity looked at the dragon, who was trying his hardest to avert his gaze from Rarity.

"I've known for three months."

"Why didn't you tell anyone?" Her voice had involuntarily grown to that one anger. She didn't mean to be mad at the young dragon, but how was she to react? Twilight was one of her best friends.

"Nopony would like the answer..." A tear glimmered in the sunlight as it fell to the floor, splashing soon afterwards on the floor. Rarity, seeing this, laid on the floor in front of the dragon and pushed his chin lightly up to look him in the eyes. Still, he looked in every which direction to avoid her eyes.

"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to."

"I don't want to tell anypony... But I have to tell everypony." Without any warning her latched onto Rarity and buried his face into her mane. Normally, this would alert her extremely, but this was an exception.

"Only if you feel you have to..." She wrapped a loving hoof around the dragon as he soaked her mane with his tears.

"It was Celestia... Well, not exactly. It was both Celestia and Twilight." 

"What...?" Rarity tried to comprehend what he was saying. With a sniffle, Spike back away from her, reached under the bed, and retracted his hand, a note in hand. He handed it to Rarity, allowing her to be the fourth living being to know of the secret.

"I didn't know how anypony would react..." Her eyes moved from left to right as she read over the letter. Upon finishing it, she levitated it over to the nightstand and sat it down.

"Why... Why would Celestia do this? I thought she cared for Twilight..."

"She does. You read it... She told Twilight she didn't have to do it she didn't want to. Knowing Twilight, she did it on her own accord." Rarity knew this was true. Honestly, she felt more sorry for Celestia than anything. The past year she had visited Twilight every day, even staying in her room some days.

"I know... I just want answers... Do you mind if I take that book she mentioned with me?" Spike hesitated.

"You know I don't mind lending it to you... But, you won't do anything... Stupid, will you?"

"Spike! Whatever do you mean?"

"I mean, you won't... Go after her, will you?" Honestly, the thought had crossed her mind. But she just wasn't that willing...

"No, of course not. I would never put you or the girls through losing another friend..." He nodded and pulled the book from under the bed and placed it into a saddlebag. "Thank you, Spike." He halfheartedly nodded and helped her put the saddlebag on.

"Okay, let's go get some food." He allowed his voice to take a happier tone. "Read that tonight and we'll tell everypony tomorrow... We'll drop it off at your house as we leave." Rarity closed her eyes and nodded before the two departed down the stairs. 

-----

"She's in the same room as usual, Mr. Shining Armor." The white royal guard stallion nodded to the pony in scrubs as he was pointed to Twilight's room. About a month after her coma, Celestia had ensured Twilight be put in the highest care, as such she was allowed a large room on the top floor right next to the doctors and nurse's lounge.

After a short walk up the stairs, he found himself outside of Twilight's room. A quick peek through the glass wall revealed his dear sister to be laying in the bed much like he expected. He stepped in and examined his sister, who he had not had a chance to come see for weeks.

He mane was extremely unkempt, even thought the doctors were under orders to keep it trimmed. The dye was long gone, her hair completely natural. Same for her tail. For the most part, the tubes that were running to her were gone, since she had not been in any medical danger for 11 months. Actually, according to tests, she had not had any actual brain activity for 11 months. It was almost as if she had been in a coma within her brain as well.

"Hey, Twiley. Been so long since I heard your voice... seen you smile..." She placed a loving hoof onto his sister as he leaned in and kissed her on the cheek. Her only response was a light breathing. "I wish I could stay longer, but... Honestly, with Celestia coming here everyday, it's been up to me and Luna to keep Canterlot under wraps. You know... Everypony is real worried, but they can't bring themselves to come see you.

"Don't blame them... This has been hard on everypony, especially mom and dad. Dad mostly, but I can tell mom's about to crack. Anyways, I thought you'd like some company other than just Celestia for a bit." He grabbed her left hoof and held it, simply setting by at bedside like that for ten minutes before he finally placed it back on her bed. "Wish I could stay longer, but I'm probably already late as it is." He looked back as the door cracked open, Celestia coming in.

"Oh, Shining Armor. I didn't expect to see you here."

"I was just leaving, your Highness." Celestia nodded as the stallion made his way past Celestia and into the hallway. Closing the door behind her and the blinds of the glass wall, she stood by her student. No matter how strong she was; how many times she saw it, seeing her favorite student like that... It always made her eyes start to water.

"Don't worry, Twilight. I'm here for you..." She looked to the floor as three tears dropped in succession from her eyes. "I'm here for you and I won't ever leave." As she looked over Twilight, she saw Mystia in that same exact position. That was the real reason she had yelled out a year ago... Because she couldn't live with herself knowing that she did it to another one of her students.

"Princess... Don't worry about me. I'll go into that realm and be right back out lickity split!" Another four tears fell from her eyes as the last words Mystia had said to her filled her mind.

"Twilight, please wake up... I never wanted to lose you. I made that mistake a millennium ago with Mystia and her brother... You may be powerful in your magic, but... No, you have to be strong enough to make it through all of this. You've got something Mystia never had... Friends. She had nothing to lose if she didn't make it... You do. Hopefully that is enough to motivate you to make it.

"If you can hear me, please..." The sun princess's voice was now cracking, her cheeks both soaked in tears. "Just be safe. I don't know how much longer you'll be in there... But you'll make it." Celestia began to make her way to the door, looking back on her student. "You'll make it." Celestia wiped her eyes before exiting out into the hallway. A couple moments later, a miracle happened.

"Won't... Fail..." Twilight's lips slowly moved as her words were carried from one plane of existence to the next.
> Reprise
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"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.
	
> A Future Uncertain
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The fog around Twilight slowly turned from the memory of Mystia back to normal fog. As it transformed, Twilight couldn't help but feel the tears dripping from her eyes brought upon by seeing what Mystia had gone through. Wiping the tears away, she continued her way through the deep fog. Each step reminded her of the pain in her chest, but she continued to push on.

Not for her, but for Mystia. The whole coming here was never for Twilight... No, she had felt sorry for Mystia, so she decided that no matter what happened, she would make it through and find the mare and bring her back. She deserved at least that granted the life she had. Of course, when she had read the book she never could have imagined how she had became Celestia's student. Somehow, knowing this, she felt she had connected to Mystia more than she ever though possible.

She didn't know if it was the Dark Void, or just Mystia's magic, but while she watched that scene... She felt as if she had Mystia's feelings; felt everything, thought everything she thought. She also sensed the great love between her and Celestia...There was a unbreakable bond between the two, the likes of which that even put the one between Twilight and Celestia to shame.

So she ignored any and all pain on her body to help connect Mystia and her beloved mentor once again. There was also a need to survive, just to see her friends and Spike again. The thought had not once crossed her mind about what going into a coma would do to her friends, as she had only been thinking about Mystia in this dark place when she did it. Now, she just hoped that they would forgive her when she managed to escape.

She winced in pain as she yawned, the force on her chest causing her vision to go black for a moment. Afraid to take a breath due to the pain, she simply stopped and quit breathing for a moment. Unfortunately, that also hurt. She didn't know what the Dark Void had in store for her now, but if it even had the slightest of painkillers, she would take it.

She continued along in the same direction, eventually coming out of the fog into another black area of nothingness. She jumped into the air a little as her hoof squished in something below her. Looking down, she saw a large puddle of blood. I looked like it had been there for ages, yet it still felt fresh, albeit extremely cold. She gasped as it grew around her, the edges flowing as if trying to take over the entirety of the dark void.

Slowly, the crimson liquid started flying into the air, forming a large circular formation about thirty feet above her. She found herself wondering what was going on as it violently crashed down on her, smashing her against the ground with enough force to knock the breath out of her and force her broken ribs to snap even more. She tried to scream in pain, but found that she was suspended in a lake of blood, which she quickly -albeit painfully- swam to the surface of.

Gasping for breath, she continued to wade in the sea of crimson before her. The thickness of the lake was terrible, Twilight barely able to keep herself afloat. Her stomach began to feel queasy as she spit a small amount of the liquid from her mouth, bile threatening to be the next thing out. She looked around as the sky began to slowly turn a light blue, complete with clouds spotted in the beautiful blue.

The world around her began to warp into place around her, a beach forming along the edges of the sea around her, hills beyond that. Much to her immediate relief, the sea of blood transformed to a shimmering blue lake, the water a perfect temperature. She continued to wade in it as the sounds of birds around her began to fill her ears, the happy sounds making her smile. Even though she knew it was but an illusion, she felt content in knowing that she was safe for just a little while.

"Pinkie Pie, would you slow down! Honestly, darling..." Twilight turned and smiled extremely widely as she heard the voice of Rarity. The smile only grew larger as Pinkie hopped happily over a nearby hill, all of her friends in tow. With extreme relief that she could talk to them, even if it was a manifestation of her mind, she swam happily to the shore and awaited her friends. Her smile turned to a frown of disappointment as her friends all began to set up around her, not even acknowledging her.

"Can you see me; hear me?" She sighed and held her side, which was beginning to hurt and drip blood once more. She found herself pouting softy at she scene before her, as her friends all enjoyed themselves as if she had never existed.

"Hey, Rarity. Wasn't Spike behind you?"

"Yes, he must have gotten lost... Spikey!"

"I'm here!" Twilight looked down underneath herself, the small dragon standing inside of her. Even though she knew she was ethereal, it was still a odd sight. "Sorry, dropped something." He set a load of supplies next to him, which she could only assume was for a party.

"Ah, good. You've been such a help since Twilight..."

"DON'T... say her name." The dragon snapped, obviously angered at the mention of his former friends name.

"Sorry, Spike. You know it slips from time to time..." 

"I know, it just pains me to hear her name, knowing I never had the chance to say goodbye..." The dragon looked as if he were about to cry for a moment, before perking up and putting a snorkel on. "Anyways, she's gone and she wouldn't want us to fret over it." Without admonishment, the dragon jumped into the lake, splashing Rarity with a load of water. Twilight found herself smiling at the sight of her friends enjoying themselves, even though she wasn't there with them...

We saw the truth behind everything... Immediately, we knew... This vision wasn't like the rest, it wasn't a 'what if' scenario... It was showing the future. Twilight frowned as the memory from the book washed over her mind... Could it be true? Was she truly to pass, her friends only knowing her as a memory...?

"Cannonball!" Twilight watched with sorrow as Pinkie jumped into the lake in the form of a ball.

"Hey, girls!" Twilight stiffened as she heard the familiar voice she had recently come accustomed with... "Celestia let me leave early. Hope you don't mind if I join you?" Tears began to fall steadily from Twilight's eyes as the mare walked through her. But for the first time, not tears of sadness or pain...

"Hey, Mystia! Glad you made it." 

Twilight smiled as tears of joy fell from her eyes.
> Delphian
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Twilight wiped the tears from her eyes as the vision of her friends and Mystia disappeared from before her. She was completely sure that it would be the last time that she would see her friends until she made her way out of the void, so she cherished it.

Despite feeling better from the lake's water, she still had a burning sensation in her chest as well as a difficulty to breath. She knew she'd be fine, as the blood had already clotted and stopped bleeding. Didn't stop the burning though, plus there was still the worry of infection. Either way, she felt she was nearing the end of this place anyways and would soon be back in the real world. Hopefully, she'd be out of this place before an infection was even a threat.

The fog split around her as she made her way through it. Each step was a burden on her body, but she continued to force her way through. All around, she could hear the angelic humming of the song that Mystia had been singing, almost as if it was interwoven with the void itself. It brought both joy and sadness to her to hear. Joy because it seemed to grow louder as she walked, sadness because she knew the truth behind the song.

"I'm so sorry, Delphian..." The faint sound of a sickened cough could be heard.

"Don't be, Mystia. I won't be able to continue on in this state anyways. Please, allow me to put all of my being into you, so that you'll have the magical energy to escape from this place."

"No, I can't let you do that..."

"I either do this and help you and live on inside you, or I die here." Twilight gasped as a ghostly image of Mystia laying besides a white stallion with a blonde mane appeared before her. The stallion had a large gash going down the entire length of his side, bleeding uncontrollably.

"I know it's what you have to do and I know your going to do it... Just doesn't make it any easier. You're the last of my family, Delphian." Delphian weakly reached up with a shaky hoof, placing in on his sister's face.

"You still have Celestia. You know she loves you more than her own sister. She sees you as her actual daughter." Delphian coughed violently, a spurt of blood coating his muzzle. Even a foal could tell that he didn't have much more time.

"I know, but I mean of blood relation."

"Don't worry, my dear sister... I didn't tell you, since I knew it would only alarm you... But back in the white room, I saw something you didn't... I have a child; a filly. I never knew about her until then... You need to get out of here, be a mother to her." Twilight watched as Mystia stared dumbfounded at her brother. It was obvious she was struggling for words.

"You... No. I can't leave you here if you have a daughter-"

"Shush. She'll be fine if you make it back. I'd never be able to be a father since I never had a mother or father. But you... You can show her everything she knows. Magic runs deep in our family, no doubt her and her descendants will be strong in magic. She even has my last name... A name I'm sure she's proud of."

"Who's the mother? How do I find her?"

"A simple house-mare in Canterlot. I won't go into details, but I met her about seven years ago. If only I'd known... Don't  worry about finding her. You can have Celestia find her when you get out of here."

"Okay... Okay, Delphian."

"Please, let me do this... If not for you, then for my daughter."

"Goodbye..." Twilight watched in sadness as the two touched horns. Each of them glowed with a blinding white light. When they touched, a burst of brilliant light erupted from them, temporarily lighting the entire void up. Once Twilight was able to see again, she could see the life-less body of Delphian lying on the ground, Mystia sobbing lightly next to him. "Delphian Sparkle."

Twilight revolted back in shock as the image before her disappeared. Had she heard her right? Surely this was just the void playing more tricks on her. Even though she wanted to believe this, she knew it was the truth... She had just watched one of her ancestors die before her eyes and he was the brother of Mystia. How exactly he was, she still didn't know.

Almost as if answering her question, the world around her started to ripple as if it was a pool of water that just had something dropped in the middle of it. As the ripples cleared, the darkness of the void turned to another vision, this on in Mystia's room.


-----


"Mystia?"

"Yeah, Celestia?" Mystia looked up from her books.

"I have some news for you... It's up to you to decide if it's good news, or bad."

"What is it?"

"You... Have a brother."

"What?!" The mare stood and looked at the princess, who looked to the floor.

"I only just found out. I know it's been seven years since..." Celestia stopped herself from mentioning that night. "But I managed to find your brother. He shares the same mother and father as you, but he was left with a foster family because he was born when your father was but in training."

"Foster family, why?"

"Any guard in training that has a child is to be immediately released, so they won't be putting their child in danger. Of course, they are allowed to have a child after they get to a high enough rank and prove that they are capable of maintaining their job and a child. Anyways, none of that is important. What's important is that I've found him."

"Can I meet him?"

"Yes, but I wanted to make sure that you wanted to meet him before I called him from his home."

"Can- can he live here?" Celestia looked forward in thought, then nodded happily.

"Of course, Mystia. If he's alright with it, I'll have a room set up for him." Mystia jumped from her chair and hugged the princess, who smiled happily and returned it.

"Thank you!"

"Anything for you, my dau-... Mystia." Celestia held her breath as she waited to see of Mystia had caught what she said. It wasn't the first time she had nearly called her daughter, but it was definitely one of the times she nearly didn't catch herself.

"What's his name?" She released the breath from her lungs and smiled.

"Delphian Sparkle. He took the name of his father, a noble-stallion. I'll go send for him immediately. Don't worry, I've had the pleasure to meet him. One of the nicest ponies this side of Equestria if you ask me. You two will get along just fine."

"I don't even know how to thank you."

"Mystia, just being here is thank you enough." Celestia closed the door behind her as she exited the room, leaving Mystia alone with a smile plastered on her face. She jumped up and down in excitement at knowing that she actually has a brother. She stopped as she caught glimpse of the black book again.

She had slowly read the book in her spare time over the last seven years, never reading more than a page in a single week. Not because she was a slow reader or wasn't interested in it, but because it filled her with extreme sorrow when she read it. Almost as if the sadness described in the book, in this 'dark void' was seeping through to her. She hoped that Celestia would never find her reading it, since she knew that studies of such planes of existence saddened her.

Celestia herself had once studied the other planes of existence. She did this because she knew that there was much to be learned from them, especially one such as the one described in the book in question. But she knew that her god-like status stopped her from leaving this plane, as her immortality was granted in this realm of existence only. Leaving would be the immediate death of her.

But Mystia... She would be fine if she wondered into another plane. Just fine. All she had to do was find the single phrase that, when said, would transport the very soul of the speaker to the Dark Void, leaving their mortal body behind. This would grant them theoretical immortality in the other plane, at least from natural causes. So why couldn't she try? It was the least she owed Celestia...


-----


Mystia's room was slowly swallowed by the dark void once more as the vision ended itself. She started to walk forward once more, before she heard a familiar voice.

"Twilight." She turned and looked at the stallion standing behind her. "She's waiting." Delphian's ethereal form stood behind her, addressing her directly.

"How... How are you talking to me?"

"That's how this realm works. When you come here, you're only able to see your direct family members... Of course, nopony was ever meant to come here. This is a place for the deceased... a paradise for us."

"Paradise?! Look around, it's all darkness... All sadness."

"To a mortal, yes... I used to think the same way. Please, allow me to show you what the Dark Void really is..." Twilight took a single step back as Delphian neared her, but stopped as she realized he didn't mean to harm her. She closed her eyes as Delphian touched her, his hood disappearing through her chest.

As she opened her eyes, she expected to see the dark void... What she saw, it wasn't anything any mortal could ever dream of. As far as the eye could see, there were ponies all chatting with one another, all enjoying themselves. What was once the dark void, was now a beautiful blue sky with bright white clouds, green fields all around.

"This... Is this what the deceased see in this realm?"

"Yes... and no. This is my paradise. It's different for every pony."

"Why are you showing me this?"

"Look behind you, at the end of the dark tunnel." Twilight turned around and sure enough, there was a dark tunnel in the middle of the green field. At the end of it, a light much like the one at the end of that cave back so long ago.

"What is it?"

"She's waiting." The words faded out as Delphian removed his hoof from her. Immediately, the bright world turned back to the depressing Dark Void, but with one difference... There was only one way to go. At the end, a brilliant bright light.

"Is that her?" She looked at Delphian, who stared blankly at her.

"Can't say. You may have more trials ahead of you, or that could be her. But, Twilight... If it is..."

"What?"

"Help her home. It's been a thousand years here for her."

"That's why I'm here."

"Thank you." Delphian faded into the wall behind him, which was made by the same black marble like material that the floor seemed to be made of. She hadn't noticed it before, but the singing was coming from the end of the hallway.

"I'm coming..." She started walking down the hallway, immediately noticing that she had not a single injury on her body.
> Revelations: Twilight to Darkness
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Twilight, I know now that you can hear me... I saw you in my dreams last night, that long dark hallway. I know that you're nearing the end and you'll soon be back with us. You're friends, they... It's been so long, Twilight." Twilight allowed the words of Celestia to enter her ears from the end of the hallway as she continued down. "They can't bring themselves to come see you anymore. I can't tell them that I know you'll be back soon... Because I can't bring myself to see them. They know it was I who sent that book to you. They know it's because of me that you're in here."

"No, I did it myself."

"They don't hate me, but I wish they did. I can't stand to know they forgive me when I know I don't deserve it. Please, Twilight... Even if you can't bring Mystia back, promise me that you'll make it back... Promise me."

Twilight sighed as she continued down the hall. Her mind urged her to say the words, he heart saying no. Deep down, she knew it was a promise that could never be kept, for she did now know what lay at the end of the hall. There was only one way to find out though... As Twilight continued down the hall, she found a irresistible urge to begin singing.

For the rest of the walk, Mystia and her sang the song that was passed down through Mystia's family as she continued down the dark hallway. It didn't even phase her as the hallway slowly turned into the hallway of the Canterlot castle. It didn't phase her as she watched a changeling shoot into the room at the end of the hall, hitting the mare that dived in front of the bolt heading for Celestia.

It didn't phase her as she watched the room come into reach, Celestia disappearing, being replaced with a mare she had came to know. She looked back down the hall, where all of her friends were staring with sadness in their eyes. The dark void was telling her something... And she knew exactly what it was. With a single exhale, she stepped into the room, where the sounds of singing immediately stopped.

Dead silence.

Until the mare that lay on the bed looked up and gasped at the figure standing in the closed doorway. The two simply stared at each other across Mystia's room, the very one her mother had been killed in.

"Who... Who are you?"

"Twilight. Twilight Sparkle." She kept a solemn expression as Mystia's jaw dropped at the mention of her brother's surname. "Second most faithful student of Celestia." Mystia stood from the bed and neared Twilight. She stood half a head taller than Twilight, yet she still seemed to be younger than Twilight.

"Sparkle... You're related to Delphian then. How long..."

"Can't say exactly. Maybe 1,000 years. At least that." Mystia nodded in understanding, then turned back to her bed.

"Been laying in that bed just waiting... I don't know what for. When I sent that book to Equestria, I sacrificed all of my, and Delphian's energy. I'm barely able to even lift a book." Twilight looked around at the organized room around her. The organization put even hers to shame.

"Must have been terrible... I'm so sorry."

"Don't be. Time doesn't pass like it does on Equestria. Sure, I feel like I've been here for so long, but... It feels like ten years at max. Plus, I'm able to speak to my mother from time to time." Mystia looked down at the rug on the floor, where her mother had died at. "Did Celestia send you?"

"Yes." The two stared at each other in silence once more, almost as if they were having a telepathic conversation.

"So I haven't been forgotten..."

"Of course not." Twilight stepped forward and hugged Mystia, who quickly returned the embrace. Twilight remembered finally the final part of the note that had been at the end of the message from Celestia. There was a reason she kept saying she loved Twilight like a daughter... It never was meant for her, but rather meant to make her remember.

"Did she say anything?" Twilight began to feel the tears threatening to soak her eyes for the umpteenth time as the final message to Mystia came to her.

"Mystia, my most faithful student..." As she spoke, she could hear Celestia in her mind, reciting the very same thing while crying. "No, my most beloved student. You've brought me joy beyond anything in this world could ever give. Ever since that night, I knew you would grow up to be something special. Every day, I stare at that book and wonder if I could just open it and out you'd come.

"So many years I've went without you, not having you by my side... The truth of the matter is, I'm lost without having somepony to take care of. It pains me to know that I'll undoubtedly outlive anything that I take under my wing, but if I can have a bit of happiness for just a little while... Then you came along, showed me that something can be more than just a student to me.

"You were the first pony that I truly loved... Not the love a teacher has for a student, not the love I have for my sister... A motherly love. I watched you grow up those ten years; watched you exceed in your magical studies... Never did I imagine that one day, I'd wake up... And you'd no longer be there. When you first told me you wanted to go to the dark void, I wanted so badly to say no... but I could see it in your eyes, that determination." Tears dropped repeatedly from Twilight's eyes as the words left her mouth. No longer was she saying them, rather she was serving as a conduit for transferring Celestia's exact thought to Mystia.

"That's why I let you go. You promised me you'd be safe; promised me you'd return in perfect shape with knowledge from that world. But you never came back... I know you never thought of me as a mother, nor did i ever expect you to. i knew, deep down in my heart, you always blamed me for your mother's death. I could see it in your eyes... You resented me, but you loved me.

"I don't know if you'll ever forgive me for what happened, nor do I know if you'll ever look at me the same way I look at you. I never wanted to lose you, Mystia... Please know, no matter what happens, I'll be with you... I'll be with you. Even if this letter never reaches you, I'm writing it to ease my own conscious. Never got to properly say goodbye... To tell you I love you.

"I love you more than my own life. And the only thing I did was hurt you... That night, it could have easily been avoided. I'd never have met you, but at least you'd still have a family. A family that I'd never be able to provide." Twilight released herself from their hug as she allowed the final words to slip from her lips. "I love you, my dearest daughter."

"I never hated her... I hated myself. She did so much for me, yet I never did anything in return."

"You can tell her yourself." Mystia perked up and looked at Twilight, who had cleared the tears from her eyes.

"What?"

"I didn't come here just to deliver a message... I came to bring you back."

"You think I haven't tried? My magic isn't strong enough and only somepony directly related to me could... send me... back..."

"Your brother told me to get you out."

"You... spoke to him?"

"Yes."

"No way you could possibly have enough magical energy to move me back to Equestria. You probably have just enough for yourself, so please... My life ended the moment I came here, but you still have a lot of life to live."

"I'm the one with the magic here... In the darkness, lies bright hope."

"Please, stop! I beg you, teleport yourself back!" Twilight took a single step forward, her horn beginning to glow a brilliant bright white.

"In my dreams, lies everlasting life."

"Don't do this!" Mystia backed away from the mare as she advanced, falling backwards onto her bed.

"Love breaks through, shines new hope."

"Celestia, please stop her! I'm not worth it!"

"Sun warms all, moon cools ever-long."

"Twilight, don't do this." Twilight sighed, knowing that she had to.

"A new life granted... for the one I love." Twilight touched her horn to the mare, who was still begging her to stop.

"Dammit, bring yourself back! Celestia, Luna, Delphian! Somepony stop her... I want to leave, but not at the cost of another mare being trapped here!"

"Live your life for both of us, Mystia... Goodbye." Mystia frantically looked down at her hooves as they turned a blinding white. She knew that she would soon be out of this dreadful world, but at what cost? As she slowly faded away, the only thing she could think force itself out of her mouth. 

"Thank you." Twilight closed her eyes as Mystia exploded into a blinding flash of light. When she re-opened them, she found herself lying in her bed back in her library, Mystia nowhere to be found. 

"I said I wouldn't fail... But I couldn't keep my promise." She stood from the bed and neared the window. A quick movement of her hoof pushed the curtains away from window. "Never forget me." Her eyes reflected the view from outside of the window as she stared out. She expected herself to be sad, but all she could do was smile as she looked out the window, only one thing outside of it.

The Dark Void.