Far above the dying world of Equestria, a single star which had once given the planet life spluttered and strobed in its last and final gasps of power. Below, nothing still lived to observe its death. Only the dust of countless civilizations long since dead remained, dust that scoured the planet to its bones as the endless wind howled in mindless rage.

A weak flicker of violet light lit the sky, once, twice, then with a third flash turned into a somewhat frazzled alicorn princess who hovered far above the dead world. With tears filling her eyes, she looked down into the whirling clouds of dust that obscured her world, desperately searching for something that only she knew, as if she had traveled to the ends of the universe in search of an element essential to her very life.

But it was not there. Only the dust remained

Finally, the young princess let out a sob of mixed fury and sorrow as she stared downwards, screaming one name in her anguish.

“CELESTIA!”

“What do you wish, my Faithful Student?”

The alicorn whirled in place, looking up into the sky where a stream of brilliant light descended. Eons of time had not passed the Princess of the Sun without touching her in the embrace that no living creature can avoid. Very little of the physical alicorn remained except for the glitter of violet eyes and the hint of a smile below. All else had turned into light and pastel rainbows, with even her mighty wings nothing but sheets of coruscating light that shimmered as they rose and fell.

“Princess Celestia! What… How…”

“Be at peace, Twilight Sparkle.”

Even as a being of light, Celestia’s smile brought a sense of calm to Twilight’s wildly-beating heart. She took a deep breath of the rarified air and swallowed, feeling the warm rays of the erratic sun above caress her body as if the blazing orb had missed equine companionship for a great span of years. “I’m sorry—”

“No, Twilight.” One of those huge iridescent wings swept around and held the smaller alicorn up in a firm hug. “It is I who should apologise to you. Although it has been so ago, I remember the day you disobeyed my command and read Starswirl’s forbidden journal as if it were yesterday. For you it has been but mere moments, but I have had to live with the consequences of my decision ever since. You never were exactly the same after you returned from this place, never looked at me in exactly the same way. There was always a distance between us after your trip through time to the end of all things, and I can understand that now. I was wrong to withhold the knowledge from you. Starswirl was unable to control the powers he unleashed and detached himself from the timestream with his final spell, but you have powers that Starswirl could never comprehend.”

“There has to be some way to stop this, Princess. There has to be another way!”

Celestia shook her head, becoming larger and more indistinct as her wings spread. “No, Twilight. You know all things have a beginning and an end, even our kind. This is mine. Goodbye.”

“NO! No…” Twilight watched as the eternal Celestia continued to expand in rays of pure sunlight that encompassed the dead world below and the dying sun above. “I love you.”

“As I love you, Twilight.” The words echoed through her head as if the entire universe were speaking. “Always and forever.”

A bubble of violet light surrounded the young alicorn as the brilliance of her mentor filled the entire sky. Even the dying sun seemed to cease its flickering in anticipation of Celestia’s next words.

“Let there be light.”

And there was.