Row upon row upon yet another row of them. They lined the walls and covered the floor of the room. There were big caskets, little caskets, new caskets, old caskets, caskets which looked like old discarded boxes, caskets which were gilded with gold, yet every one of them served as a grim reminder that the inevitable end [i]will[/i] come.

     In bold defiance of these symbols of death, an immortal alicorn walked down the single aisle, the single break in the rows of caskets, and drew near a group of mourners at the aisle’s end. The small, somber crowd was bathed in the single spot of light by which the rest of the room was dimly illuminated.

     In front of the mourners, a number of closed caskets rested on the stone floor in a semicircle, each draped with black linen. This was not the first funeral the alicorn had witnessed, nor would it be the last. She approached the mourners and asked a mare, “Whose coffins are these?”

     The mare turned her head, gasped, and fell backwards. She pointed a hoof at the alicorn and whispered in awe, “It’s her!”

     “I’m sorry. What was that?” the alicorn pressed.

     “It’s [i]her![/i]” the mare said aloud.

     “Yes, I am here. Now tell me, what are the names of the ponies interred in those coffins?”

     “[i]It’s her![/i]” the mare shouted, still pointing at the alicorn. The mourners turned and faced the alicorn. Many gasped, some blinked or rubbed their eyes, while the rest just stared, dumbfounded.

     “But—but the knife, the note, the rumors—they’re not true?” asked a stallion.

     “I stand before you now, do I not?” stated the alicorn.

     The stallion reached out a hoof, and gently touched her foreleg. He gasped when he felt it, as he had just refuted the notion that the alicorn was an apparition or hallucination. “It [i]is[/i] her! She lives!”

     “Yes, I live. Now who are the ones in the caskets?” she retorted.

     The mourners glanced uneasily among themselves. “Well, it’s—um, we thought it to be—you.”

     “Me?” she asked in surprise. “What in Equestria gave you that idea? And who is in the coffins if I am out here?” This drew their attention to the caskets. One stallion partially removed the black linen and tried forcing the lid open, but it didn’t budge. Next, a pegasus bucked the casket, after which a unicorn used her magic, but both had the same results as the earth pony. “Stand back from the casket. Mortals do not have the power to break the barrier between the living and the dead.”

     The alicorn magically lifted the casket, letting the linen fall to the stone floor. Painted on the lid was the cutie mark of one she used to know; one she once called a friend. Next, she herself levitated as magic energy coursed through her body. With a single spell, the lid of the casket loosened and fell atop the black linen. As soon as the alicorn’s eyes stopped glowing white, she would get her first glance at the lifeless form of her friend in the casket.

     Both alicorn and casket floated to the ground, and the mare’s eyes returned to normal. She was alone in the room now, and not just one, but all the lids had been removed from their caskets. The alicorn peered into the first casket to see a white unicorn mare who still looked good despite her age. The second contained an older yellow pegasus, who was still smiling even in her coffin. The third held a middle-aged orange earth pony. In the fourth rested a scarred, wounded cyan pegasus who had sacrificed herself for her friends while she was still young. The fifth and final coffin housed a young pink earth pony who still bore mortal wounds from long ago.

     Twilight Sparkle looked over her friends again, but they looked different than they had a second ago. Rarity’s mane didn’t normally look that way. Fluttershy never had a horn, nor Applejack wings. Rainbow Dash was more muscular that that. And Pinkie Pie’s coat [i]definitely[/i] wasn’t purple. Suddenly, the figures rose and, with a flash of light, morphed into a single mare. Twilight now stared face-to-face with a lifeless figure of herself. When it slumped forward onto her, she screamed in terror and woke up in a cold, clammy sweat.

     “Twilight! Are you alright?” asked the baby dragon she had awaken with her shout.

     “I’m fine. It was just a bad dream,” replied the young alicorn.