Like a G5
by Present Perfect

"How can all my friends... Equestria... just vanish?"

Twilight Sparkle, voice cracking, drew a wing across her eyes, her feathers already soaked with tears. It wouldn't have stopped them from continuing to fall if they hadn't been.

"Princess, I don't understand!"

Princess Celestia shook her head as she led Twilight through the castle once called Canterlot. It shook still, blocks of alabaster crumbling around them.

"My dear Twilight," she said heavily, "if my explanation has not been sufficient, then it is time you met She who set everything in motion."

Twilight's head filled with questions, yet the gravity of Celestia's statement -- she could hear the capital "S" in "She" -- stilled her tongue. The floor rumbled and a crack opened beneath her hooves. She stepped around it lightly. Ever since watching her friends disappear into one such crack, the shifting ground had ceased to surprise.

They had been heading downward, deeper and deeper through levels of the castle that Twilight had never before seen, not as Princess Celestia's student, nor even as a princess herself. Twilight felt that, even had the castle, Equestria and reality not been crumbling around them, this area would still have been dark, dusty, and in great disrepair.

At last, their gait never having surpassed a gentle lope despite the circumstances, they approached a door and stopped. Despite the low ceiling on this floor, the door stretched up before them, gold and ivory surmounted by deep mahogany in a plain yet commanding pattern. It seemed strangely untouched by the decay and neglect in this part of the castle, gleaming in the light of their horns. Celestia stepped forward and unlocked the door with her horn as Twilight had seen her open the vault that contained the Elements of Harmony, once upon a destined afternoon.

This time, however, the door seemed to take something from Celestia. The door clicked and she lurched forward as though pushed from behind, sinking to one knee. Twilight gasped as Celestia's mane diminished from the ethereal flag of pastels she had always known to a simple light pink bob. She rushed to the Princess's side.

"Celestia!"

"Come, Twilight." Celestia's voice strained as she rose with Twilight's help. She took a moment to steady herself, then entered the room.

Despite the ornateness of the door, the vault they entered was austere. There was a desk, or the skeleton thereof, the wood having rotted away long ago, leaving behind just metal embellishments and a pile of drawer pulls. In the center of the room was a short dais, upon which sat a plain high-backed chair that could only generously be considered a throne.

Twilight took the chair's occupant for a skeleton or mummy, some ancient ruler entombed for all eternity upon their throne, ruling naught but cobwebs forevermore. But there was a certain regality in its stature that lent to the designation of "throne". That is, until the eyes opened, shining like blue suns, and dislodged the eons' worth of thick dust covering them. There was something ineffable about that gaze, something that answered all of Twilight's questions before she could even think to ask them.

Celestia stepped forward, and the eyes followed her.

"It is time," was all the Princess said.

Great wings, white as Celestia's and even more imposing, spread toward the ceiling, shaking off a cloud of dust that quickly filled the room. Twilight found that, despite the tickling in her nose and graininess in her eyes, it did not make her cough; no doubt another benefit to Princesshood that she still had not heretofore discovered. Even at the end of everything, she still had much to learn.

When the dust cleared, the alicorn beneath it sat upon her throne with enough otherworldly grace to make Celestia seem a small foal in comparison. Celestia was bowing her head to the forgotten monarch, whose rust-colored mane was styled similarly to Twilight's own. The unnamed regent nodded ever so slightly, and Celestia rose. Then the great, pearly-white horn produced a tiny, soft light. Despite its dimness, Twilight felt her breath catch in her throat at the tremendous power it held. The power did not emanate from the horn so much as spill across the room, and two portals appeared in the corners of the room.

No, "appear" was not the right word. They were not revealed to have been there previously, nor were they summoned into existence by magic. The very fabric of the universe that had moments before said, in no uncertain terms, that no such portals existed there or anywhere else in creation, had been unraveled and rewritten in such a way as to brook no argument from anyone or anything, not even the laws of physics. The portals simply were.

From out of the portals stepped two more alicorns. Twilight gasped, not only because they were the first male alicorns she had ever seen. One was black and blue, the other blue and black, and both wore dark suits and sunglasses. They bore striking resemblances to...

"You!" The word left her lips like a shot, and she began striding toward the nearest one, horn flaring. "You were there in Ponyville when the world started collapsing! You killed my friends!"

The alicorn on the throne spoke not a word, nor did her expression harden, but as Twilight felt that ponderous blue gaze wash over her, she stilled. The male alicorn who she had approached spoke, his words clipped and professional.

"Regrettable, but necessary." He nodded to Twilight. "I'd apologize for the pain you've gone through, Miss Sparkle, but it's too late for apologies now."

"We're brand marketing, ma'am," said the other, stepping forward. "I'm from Hasbro, and he's from the Hub."

Twilight took a step back. "The hub of what? Who are you?"

The male alicorns exchanged unreadable glances from behind their shades, and then one of them said, "We're with reality, ma'am."

"Friendship Is Magic has come to a close. We're here to reboot the franchise."

Twilight looked helplessly to Celestia, who stood in the center of the room, her head lowered and an inscrutable smile on her face.

"I don't understand a thing you're saying! Princess, can't we make them stop this?"

"No," Celestia said quietly. She lifted her head. "I suppose Mother will have to explain."

Nothing was said, but the instant she looked into that white alicorn's eyes, Twilight knew everything. Series four was over. The audience, both intended and otherwise, had moved on. It was time to reboot, to attract a new audience.

A single tear slid down Twilight's face. The harshest truth of what was to occur wasn't that she would never see her friends again, but that she would not be allowed to join them. They would live on in her memories, and in her memories only.

"Generation five needs a Princess, you see," the alicorn from Hasbro said gently.

"I see." Twilight's voice was small, and her gaze dropped to the dusty floor. The castle shook.

"If you've no further objections," the other male alicorn said, "we should vacate the premises ahead of full-scale reality collapse."

"I..." Twilight looked at Celestia, who seemed to have shrunk in stature since they entered. "Princess, can't you come too?"

Celestia turned eyes rimmed with tears toward her, and gave her a profoundly heartbreaking smile.

"If only I could, my faithful friend. I am a creation of this generation, which you have transcended. I'll stay here with Mother and keep her company as the world dies." She laughed softly. "Don't fret, Twilight, we won't die with it. So long as there are fanfiction writers, we'll live on in perpetuity, just... lessened." She raised her eyes to her mother's, and her mother smiled for the first time. "Luna is already there, in the fandom. She always was popular."

She closed her eyes and drew in a deep breath. "I'll work out my issues with my sister. I'll battle Discord and Chrysalis again and again. I'll fall in love with everyone, even you. Perhaps we'll even have a child." Opening her eyes, she smiled at Twilight. "The sky is the limit."

"We should go now," said one of the alicorns. Twilight couldn't be sure which. "Please, follow me, Miss Sparkle."

The castle shook hard enough to make them all lurch to one side. Twilight dashed the few steps to Celestia and threw her arms around the other alicorn's neck, squeezing tightly.

"Thank you," she said through choking tears.

"Go Twilight," Celestia whispered. "Remember us."

Twilight nodded, stepping back, her eyes on Celestia. She turned toward Celestia's mother, who smiled again and nodded imperceptibly.

"With me, ma'am," said the alicorn from the Hub. Twilight stepped over to him, nodded, and then stepped through the portal.