Justin's stomach grumbled loudly, but he seemed to be embracing the pain. He sat in a dark corner in his house, hugging his knees, while staring at a makeshift torch that he made out of a table leg and one of the glowing mushrooms. He wasn't sure how they glowed like that, but who cares? A light's still a light, and he surely wasn't going to sit around and die in the dark, at least!

Quietly, he spoke to himself. "I wish this nightmare would end... please, may someone be out there, anyone that can understand me. Please, whoever can hear me, please let me know I'm not alone in this world..." As expected, he was greeted by silence. Lowering his head, he sighed. "I thought so... guess I really am alone, now."

Standing up, and lifting the makeshift torch from the ground, he stepped outside the ruined house, and searched around the neighborhood for anything at least halfway decent to eat.

He ended up finding nothing, of course. Just a few leftover scraps of rancid meat-looking packages, each of which when opened, produced an odor that Justin couldn't stand being near. "Great... I wake up from a centomillenium nap, just to die of starvation! Could this day get any worse?!" He yelled, now unable to hide his anger. When he took another step to the side, he ended up falling into a loose plank, which caused him to fall about ten feet down, and painfully land on a stone surface. As he landed, he passed out from both, exhaustion and pain.

"Justin... don't forget us..." Familiar voices could be heard. Justin couldn't, however, see the faces of the voices that only repeated those words. "Please... don't give up! We know you can make it through this!"

"No, please! Don't go!" Justin cried out, walking through an endless void of white light. He tried finding someone who can help him in his ordeal.

Before he could take any more steps, he saw a black portal-like vortex appear on the floor just ten meters away from where he stood, directly in front of him. When it appeared, a familiar-looking figure stepped up from what appeared to be an invisible stairway. The figure, of course, was familiar to Justin, due to it being a character from a cartoon series he knew all too well.

"P-Princess Celestia?! What's going on? Where am I?!" Justin asked, before remembering his manners, and bowing his head respectfully to the Princess of the Sun.

Princess Celestia gave him a confused look, and replied, "I've heard the cries of a wounded spirit, and came as soon as you lost consciousness. I have to say, though... I never expected the spirit to belong to a creature such as yourself." Then, she eyed him up and down. "Not to sound rude, but what exactly are you, and why are you here?" Then, she closed her eyes, while her horn glowed gold, before opening her eyes again, and adding, "And while I'm at it... where are you, exactly?"

Justin stood back up, and explained the situation he was in, that he was currently in the ruins of his hometown, "Diamond Heights", how he knew who she was, the show that revealed who she and the Elements were, the fact that he just woke up from a centomillenium nap, and that as far as he knew, everyone he ever knew and loved is dead, and that he was a human, which judging from Celestia's confused look, either wasn't that familiar with the race, or had terrible news to give to Justin. As he had feared, it was the latter.

"So, wait... you're a human?!" Celestia asked, now sounding more worried, but not out of fear. It seemed to have a concerned tone to it, which gave Justin an uneasy feeling regardless. Despite his feelings, however, he managed a nod, preparing his sanity for one of the biggest hits it could take. Celestia sighed deeply, and looked down, before saying, "I don't know how to tell you this, but... humanity has been extinct for thousands of years, now... hundreds of thousands, in fact! Just seeing you here makes me wonder if you're actually dead, but lost from the spiritual plane, or if you somehow managed to survive the years, and hid from all magic sensors, which should be impossible for humans, anyways, due to the nature of the magic!" Then, she closed her eyes again, and shook her head. "For some odd reason, I cannot find you in the world... are you above ground level, or below it?"

"Below, if I'm not mistaken." Justin replied, unable to hide the tears already starting to fall from his eyes.

Celestia's horn glowed again, but this time, her eyes opened widely, followed by her gasping. "This... doesn't add up, though!"

"What is it?" Justin asked, now worried about her tone.

"You... you are real, and you are alive, but at the same time, you aren't!"

Now, Justin was confused. Alive, but dead? How in the heck does that add up?! "What do you mean by that?" Justin asked.

Celestia shook her head, and replied, "I just did a teleport spell on you, but for some odd reason, you weren't affected by it! You must be immune to magic somehow, but... only the dead can't be affected by magic like that, yet you still exist!" Celestia was having trouble speaking at this time, due to the level of confusion she was going through, until Justin held his left hand up, motioning her to stop. She did so, only out of curiosity by what the sign meant.

Justin closed his eyes, lowered his head, and placed his right pointing finger and thumb on his forehead, rubbing it in the process. "So, wait... what you're saying is that I'm... undead?!" Celestia nodded, which made Justin sigh. "And that pretty much means that, no matter what happens to me, I'm unable to die... right?" His nerves appeared to be getting more and more out of control, until she gave him another nod. Then, things went silent.

The silence was discomforting and long, until an unnervingly dark smile formed on Justin's lips, followed by him giving out a weak chuckle. Then, when he stopped laughing, he began speaking in a soft voice, which only got louder as he continued. "Great... so now I won't be able to see my family again! All of those dearest to me will have to go on with their afterlives, and not have to wait for me, because guess what? I ain't even welcome there, anymore!" Justin yelled the last sentence at the sky, trying to hide his expression from Celestia. She looked worriedly at him, who's arms were stretched out in the air, forming a "w" shape, until he fell onto the ground, curled his legs onto his chest, and cried, while his left arm wrapped over his knees, and his right arm was flatly perched on the ground.

Then, Celestia slowly trotted towards him, and wrapped her right wing over his back, which caused him to tense up at the contact, but he did nothing to refuse the warm feeling. When he looked up at her, he saw that she was crying with him. Seeing her crying only made him feel worse, yet better... almost like he didn't want to cry anymore, because seeing him cry was making her cry, which he never liked doing. In fact, it was normally against his nature to cause problems to begin with. Slowly, he stood back up, and smiled. "Thank you, Princess... I'm sorry that you saw me like this... I'm sure you're familiar with this kind of thing. Y'know, because you've lived for well over a thousand years, and all that."

Celestia raised an eyebrow at that statement, but shook her head, and replied, "Actually, this is something new to me. You see, after humanity died out, the Equines rose from the ashes, and maintained order, followed by the Dragons and the Gryphons rising from their hiding places. Soon we were given the ability to cast magic by the Tree of Harmony. With the powers we were given, my sister and I abolished death altogether, to keep tragedies like this from ruining our ways of Love and Tolerance. Slowly, life began to develop again." Then she sighed, and lowered her head. "If what you said is true about the show you watched, then we may be in dire need of your knowledge."

"What do you need me for, though? In case you haven't noticed, humans most likely aren't the most welcome things to appear from thin air, and with Princess Twilight being on the throne with her friends, I'm sure they don't need me, either!"

"That's just it, Justin," Celestia began, "none of those things have happened yet!"

Justin stared at her blankly. "Wait, what? What was the latest thing from the show that I told you about that happened?"

Celestia looked up, and replied, "The very beginning, actually... when Twilight rescued my sister."

"Dang! That early on?!" Justin thought to himself, to which Celestia nodded. "You can read minds, can't you?" Again, another nod.

"In fact," Celestia began, "if trained properly, all unicorns could read minds!" Well, that was something worth noting, Justin believed.

"So, how do I get out of this trance?" Justin asked, standing back up, and looking around.

Celestia looked at him confusedly. "It'll only stop when I leave, but I must ask," she cleared her throat, "how exactly are you going to escape, if I can't teleport you?"

Justin smiled, and replied, "Why don't you just create a portal that I can walk through? If you can't use magic directly towards me, why not try something indirectly? Worth a try, at least."

Suddenly, Celestia's eyes widened, while her jaw dropped. "And just why didn't I think of that?!" Then, she smiled. "I'm certain your thinking capabilities could be helpful, as well!"

With a nod, Justin replied, "Thank you, but I'd rather not risk losing my sanity trying to understand Unicorn knowledge. I'm sure y'all have me beat by eons of wisdom, by now!"

"Don't cut yourself short, Justin. Just you being able to describe what happened to the Elements, even going into more detail than they did, says enough about your intellect!" Justin nodded his head, while Celestia began to turn around.

Before Celestia could turn completely around, Justin held his right hand out, and asked, "Wait... will we still be able to communicate when I'm awake again?"

After a long sigh, Celestia shook her head, and replied, "I'm sorry, Justin... I do not know, but with your immunity to magic, I would highly doubt it."

Then, Justin asked, "Well... when I return to the real world, can you give me five minutes to find where I want the portal to be? I'd... like it to be placed close to my home, if that's okay."

Celestia stood there silently, before a small smile formed on her face. Then, she nodded her head, and replied, "Of course... and while you're there, I'll find a spot to put your portal, should you ever need to visit your hometown."

Justin smiled again, and nodded his head. "Thank you, Princess Celestia... I'm glad you're the one who's rules I woke up under, and not some evil Centaur named 'Tirek'." Celestia shuddered at that name, but she still nodded, enjoying the compliments she was receiving, almost like he were one of her closest friends.

"For the record, Justin, you don't have to address me as 'Princess', if it makes you feel easier. Just 'Celestia', or 'Tia' will do." Then, she cleared her throat. "Not that I'm really into being formal anyways..."

Before the conversation could continue, Justin slowly started to feel dizzy inside the strange room, as Celestia started to disappear into the light. When she was completely gone, Justin fell on his back, and soon he passed out again.

Slowly, Justin's eyes opened again. Whatever just happened must've been real, because as he woke up, he found himself on his bed again, but the room around him was still destroyed. "Wait a minute," Justin began, before feeling his chest, then his body. Sure enough, he was still human, and not some zombie-like undead creature, but he wasn't hungry anymore, and he certainly wasn't in any pain. He also felt in his pockets, and found his phone, his photo album in his wallet, and the recorder, which still played Ethan's music. Surely there must be something magic about his bed. "I must've died from that fall earlier!" Then, he smiled at the thought of at least being in the world he could only dream of being in. With a chuckle, he said, "And to think that it was where I was this whole time! ...Time..." Depression sunk in again, as he realized that his "time" would never come, and that he may never, no, will never see his family again. When the thoughts kicked in, he curled up, and cried for the five minutes Celestia promised him.