The sun, already over the horizon, emerged above the pink clouds. The rays of light acted like a spotlight, focused on a flying figure.
Twilight Sparkle squinted against the sudden arrival of light, as it swept the last traces of darkness away. She looked at the sun, Celestia's lantern, illuminating the world with its embracing warmth, and sighed. Her eyes appeared to be a majestic blue.
Twilight blinked, her violet eyes drinking in the view. A solid layer of clouds lay below her, and another layer of seemingly impermeable clouds shrouded the sky above. The sun was now perfectly in between the two layers, a goal between two eternal posts that stretched out in every direction. The wind was brisk, tugging at Twilight's wing feathers.
On a sudden whim, she did a barrel roll, maintaining her eastward course throughout its execution. She laughed in sheer enjoyment, happy to be alive.
It was the first time that she had smiled in the past two weeks.
Her barrel roll concluded, Twilight gazed at the sun once more, as it beckoned to her, inviting her east. Her eyes gleamed a resplendent magenta, which in the dawn light blazed as glorious rubies. She increased her wing's rate of motion, smoothly accelerating towards the celestial orb.
She felt good to be alive, for the first time in months.
Time passed. The sun disappeared above the upper cloud curtain, taking its appointed daily bath in the sky.
Twilight computed the results of twelve-digit numbers multiplied together in her head even as she soared towards the eastern horizon.
Eventually, around midday, mountains emerged, rocky isles in a sea of clouds. The curtain, meanwhile, was disintegrating, the sun's rays illuminating patches of white on the waves below, alternating with swaths of shadow.
She headed towards the mountaintops, her eyes scanning the shattered topography. Scraps of verdant green were juxtaposed with the blades of alabaster stone that shredded them. Beyond that, twin ranges collided, terminating in two tall mountains, like twin canines bared at the world in a snarl of fury.
It looked familiar. Twilight glided to one of the nearby peaks, setting down on a patch of green moss that thrived in this realm of consistent moisture. She unslung her twin saddlebags, each emblazoned with her cutie mark.
It contained no food or water, for Twilight had learned from Celestia that eating and drinking, while to alicorns a significant pleasure, were not necessary for their survival. They drew their nutrition from magic, an inexhaustible resource that was only limited by the capability of creatures to use, or the extent that magical artifacts could harness it.
She opened up one of her two saddlebags, and levitated out a translucent orb, tinged with a dark shade of indigo. A moment's wait as the magic within the orb ascertained that she was indeed one Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Friendship and former bearer of the Element of Magic, and then a map which, to use a term that she'd picked up in the human world, was holographic sprang into existence.
Twilight looked at the map, which bore a vibrant violet line across it. The line began in the Crystal Empire, headed south and west to Ponyville, and then crossed the sea between Equestria and Griffonia. From there it went straight east, over the Undermarshes, through Dream Valley, then across another sea, called the Sea of Dreams. Finally it breezed by the Diamond Flats, still a ruler aligned to east, and over the Blue Plains. At the end of the line a purple sphere flashed, an unnamed mountain range just to the east of it. Its prominent feature was a set of two peaks that pointed directly towards the sky.
Beyond it, there was nothing.
Twilight deactivated the map, tucking it away in her saddlebag. She then slung her bags back onto her back, and, spreading her wings, took flight once more. She zoomed between the two mountain peaks, a racehorse passing the first gate, heading out into the unknown.
Twilight flew, the landscape beneath her sloping into a verdant green. She saw a set of trees to the north, and was about to dismiss them from further consideration when she saw a flash of red.
Intrigued, she set down, trotting to the trees for a closer look.
There, hanging from the tree branches, were a number of bright red, delicious apples.
Delicately gripping an apple with her alicorn magic, Twilight gently plucked the apple from the tree, levitating it down to her outstretched hoof. She held it and stared at it, even as she ran a full battery of magical tests.
The results came back. There was only one possible conclusion: This apple was exactly identical to the ones grown at Sweet Apple Acres.
In the past, Twilight would have wracked her head trying to find a reasonable explanation for how this was possible. But she was a different mare now. Her friends had been there for her, and had taught her many lessons.
But she was not entirely that mare any longer.
Twilight scowled, her eyes holding a hint of a sickly yellow. She carefully placed the apple in her bag, then plucked twelve more from the tree for good measure, wrapping all thirteen in a magical anti-corruption spell. They went neatly into her saddlebags.
Twilight looked around her for the first time, seeing this place in its pristine wonder. It seemed as if nopony had been there in millennia. Fluttershy would have loved this place.
Her eyes seemed blue in the midday light.
She spread her wings, intent on heading east once more. But suddenly she felt a massive shockwave rolling across her.
Turning to the west, Twilight saw a brilliant beacon of white light, flashing up into the heavens. It was nothing compared to the magical surge that occurred simultaneously, however.
The harmonic energy surged through her, temporarily enhancing her abilities. Twilight gazed, and with her sharpened vision, glimpsed a tumbling speck of brown, which seemed to have ...feathers?
As quickly as they had come, the harmonic surge and the pillar of light dissipated, nearby magic quickly returning to close to normal levels.
Twilight shifted uneasily, pondering what she had barely glimpsed. After a half hour had passed without further occurrence, Twilight shrugged. She turned, spreading her wings and taking flight, headed towards the east once more.
