The funeral of Twilight Sparkle.
Nearly absolute silence was all that followed Princess Celestia's rather depressing speech about her protégé. The only sound seemed to be Twilight Velvet's uncontrollable sobs. Everyone stood stoically, too saddened to move or make a sound out of respect. All three princesses, the numerous friends Twilight Sparkle had accumulated, and Twilight's family had all arrived to see the burial. Celestia stepped away from Twilight's casket and took her place by Luna and Cadance.
"She was a good mare," Luna noted to her older sister.
Princess Celestia nodded solemnly. Inside her heart, she felt intense anger and hatred that burned brighter than the Sun and longed to escape. It was the same darkness that had crept up through Luna a thousand years ago, when she became Nightmare Moon. It was a remnant of Soul Edge's influence over both of them, still lingering on even after so long.
"My condolences," said a male voice to her side.
Celestia turned her head, meeting the face of a stallion her height with a bleach white mane and coat and white eyes. His long horn glinted in the sunlight, and his wings were clasped firmly to his sides. If it weren't for his alicornhood, he wouldn't be out of place in the mass of somber faces around. But Celestia's interest was piqued by this stallion, mostly because she recognized him from years and years ago: the Traveler.
"Why did you come here?" Celestia asked the Traveler. "And why only now?"
The stallion gestured to the casket. "Her."
"You chose the worst time to -"
"I heard of her death."
"How?"
He hesitated. "You know what I told you long ago, of other, parallel universes? Well, every universe I've been to, even my home universe, has their own version of Twilight Sparkle. They're all still living, sadly, which means that your Twilight Sparkle is completely alone. An event as spectacularly unique as this is not to go unnoticed, even in the furor of all Creation." The Traveler's horn glowed a dark gray, and time itself froze around Celestia and him. "Your universe, this version of Equestria, is alone. The day of Nightmare Moon's return was supposed to be the day her destiny came true, but " the Traveler and Celestia's surroundings changed " time is in flux, after all."
Princess Celestia was dumbfounded at the marvelous sight: she was on a white moon hovering miles above Equestria. The planet was huge; it made her feel small in comparison. The Traveler's snow white mane was moving in a nonexistent wind, as was Celestia's more ethereal mane. The immortal wanderer looked like a facet of the moon's surface.
"I... I never realized how small we all are."
"If the whole universe is the size of a table, you aren't even the size of a molecule. That's how small we are." The Traveler smiled slightly. "That's what I love about you all. Such small creatures who are both aware and completely ignorant of their own size. You're brilliant, really. But I didn't bring you to Outer Heaven to chat about that." He cleared his throat and turned to face Celestia. "I have powers, powers beyond all Equestrian reasoning. I can cross universes in the blink of an eye, manipulate the flow of time, set the building blocks of life into motion, and destroy whole realities, to name a very minute amount"
"Yeah, I... know." Celestia spoke offhoofedly, still enamored with the vast nothingness of space, finding it almost irresistibly alluring in its own way.
"This vessel, Outer Heaven, and us, we're the only moving things at the moment. I halted the flow of time itself because I wanted to know if you wished to reverse your protégé's death. I can do that, if you so desire."
Celestia was drawn back into reality. She looked at the Traveler, trying to find something, anything, in his voice or face that could've been joking or lying. His emotions were an enigma even to her, but she could tell the immense empathy he was showing.
"Why?"
The two of them shifted again, this time back to Equestria. They were standing in the shadow of a great crystalline castle that rose like a tree from the earth. At the top of the staircase that led up to the front door was Twilight Sparkle, alive and well, but she was different. Great wings stretched from either side of her as she giddily moved back and forth, excited about something. She was an alicorn.
"This is her, from my home universe. Her future. Who she becomes. Your Twilight was destined for much the same thing."
The Twilight Sparkle atop the stairs halted her movements. Her eyes met those of Princess Celestia, and there was an uneasy silence between them. Minutes passed as Twilight tried to make sense of the two alicorns.
"Yes," Celestia sighed after that silence, closing her eyes to clear her tears. "Do it."
The Traveler and Celestia disappeared from this Equestria, again appearing on Outer Heaven. They were above Celestia's Equestria, not the Traveler's.
"Then we have to say goodbye to this Equestria."
The princess glared at him in confusion. "Why? What's going to happen to us?"
The Traveler was still. "Nothing, not to us. It's what will happen to Equestria. We and we alone will remember this horrible reality; we will be standing at the center of the temporal healing, once it starts. But the billions of ponies down there and the countless other creatures that live alongside them, they will have no recognition except for a passing feeling, like a dream fading from their mind after waking. In some respects, this was little more than a long, long nightmare."
"So this is the end of their Equestria?"
"No. Just a new beginning."
Twilight Sparkle awoke in her bed in Canterlot, shrouded by the darkness of her room. The door to the room opened, and Princess Celestia trotted in, looking at Twilight with a sort of restrained happiness she'd never quite seen out of her. Twilight's head felt woozy, and her body felt weak; there was a pit in her stomach, telling her that something was wrong. She groaned a bit and shifted to an upright position.
"Is something troubling you, Twilight?" Celestia inquired with a tone only mothers could use correctly.
"I just... no, Princess," Twilight answered, her strength coming back, the pit fading. "I just had a nightmare, is all. A horrible nightmare. There was a red sword, an azure knight, and I... I was... and then there was a funeral, and this alicorn, he..."
"Shh. It's okay." Celestia placed a hoof on Twilight's cheek, a caring and warm expression growing on her face. "It was only a dream. You're safe, in Canterlot. Remember?"
"Yeah, I... I'm safe. It's just a bad dream. Thanks, Princess "
Celestia embraced Twilight suddenly, silently crying into her shoulder. Twilight found the affection a bit disconcerting at first but accepted it after a moment, returning the hug. In the door to the room stood a snow white stallion, who was watching them both with a smirk on his face. Twilight, whose gaze met his, was unsure what to think of him, especially since he had both wings and a horn. But then she knew who he was. The alicorn's horn glowed, and just like that, he was gone.