Darkness was something that Twilight had grown used to after jumping into the portal and blacking out. It was her final memory before being in what she thought as the inside of the void Midnight was sucked into, completely empty, quiet, and very lonesome.

“Twilight…” A small voice speaks amongst the pitch black of Twilight’s mind. After being what seemed to be nothingness for several days, the young mare’s inner thoughts burst in joy at hearing the voice. With all of her non-existent might, she gathers her strength and shouts into the black, hoping to get a response. “Twilight,” The voice grows louder, and for the first time ever since being in the seemingly eternal darkness, Twilight’s mind’s eye sees a white dot just within reach if she had any hooves. Twilight shouts once more, even louder as she feels her voice coming back to her.

“Twilight!” The voice had then multiplied itself into seven distinct voices. Twilight screams once more, now being able to push her nonexistent body towards the light.

“Twilight!” The voice grew into eleven voices, all whose identities began to flash before Twilight’s mental sight in the darkness.

Twilight then began to feel words reentering her mind and her throat as she screamed, “Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Rarity, Applejack, Spike, Celestia, Luna, Cadence, Boris!”

At this point, an uncountable number of individual voices joins together in unison into Twilight’s nonexistent ears, “Wake up Twilight!” All of a sudden, a great rush pushes into Twilight as the white light replaces the darkness in her entire vision, blinding her.

The blindness of white soon subsides as Twilight returns to the darkness, but this time, a narrow horizon of light stands before her sight. Her senses quickly began to return to her. She hears the sounds of fumbling hooves and breathing of multiple ponies, she feels what feels like soft cloth surrounding her body and a sharp pain in her back, she smells a metallic odor from her body and tastes the metallic liquid in her mouth. A groan exits her mouth as her eyes flutter open to reveal blurry colors and shapes dancing before her eyes.

“Who? What?” The purple mare slurs as she tries to reorganize her thoughts after the sensation of feelings struck her.

“Twilight,” a mare’s voice cheers from the cyan figure, “you’re alive!” The blurry figures soon began to take shape as some of Twilight’s memories return to her head.

“Alive?”

“Yeah, after the portal closed in on you, we almost thought that you died, and then you came bursting from another portal before it immediately closed!” Eventually, Twilight’s eyes readjust and finally return to normal. She now sees that she is on a hospital bed, surrounded by everypony she knew crowding into the surprisingly large chamber.

“So, what happened again?”

“You won!” Immediately, everypony inside and outside the room began to cheered in joy and celebration, nearly destroying Twilight’s shortly recovered hearing. During the loud vocal celebration, all of the memories of the recent events popped back in her head and flashed before her eyes.

“Wait, what happened to Midnight, did she escape, get sucked into the void, or what?!” The cheers grinded to a halt upon hearing Twilight’s panic attack. Applejack steps forward from Rainbow’s side and up to the hoof of the bed before calmly replying,

“We didn’t see her exit the world. We figured that you took care of the issue.”

“Just be calm,” a male voice talks from over Twilight’s shoulder. The two ponies look to see it two green Earth Ponies looking at the medical clipboard hanging from the side of the bed. “It’s most likely just mild amnesia and mental overload from the kick-start of her senses.”

“Hey, Major Jack,” the second Applejack pokes her head up from behind the first one and yells out, “I didn’t know you were a doctor.”

“Who? Me-Jack?”

“I’m a whale biologist,” the other Jack replies, “if that doesn’t give me permission to diagnose a pony, then I don’t know what will.”

“Wait, you’re a major in your world?”

“Yep,”

“Cool.”

“And according to these records, it seems that you, Twilight Sparkle, have a small laundry list of problems.”

“Like what?” The alicorn princess nervously asks.

“You have: several broken bones, dehydration, malnourishment, 25% loss in natural body mass, a collection of joints sprained, five concussions, second degree burns, several horn scratches, a previously dislocated wing, previous internal and external bleeding, four 500-stitch cuts along the back, and possible cramps and amnesia. Expected full recovery time: about six to nine months…”

“Sixty-nine months?”

“No, six to nine months, it wouldn’t take over five years to fix a broken bone or ten, at least I think so.”

“Oh thank Celestia…”

“Just keep well rested, don’t do anything, yadda-yadda-yadda-typical medical lingo, and you should mostly be better.”

Now I’m starting to question if he really did qualify to be a doctor…

“Now back to the main topic at hand before Twilight woke up,” Major Jack then turns to his alternate before speaking, “what are you going to dress as for Nightmare Night?”

Twilight’s Jack cheerfully replies, “I’m thinking of a pirate.”

“A pirate? Ninjas are better,”

“What? Why?”

“They sneak without thought Jack.”

“But pirates have awesome ships and swords.”

“So do ninjas, just, less swords and no ship…”

“See?”

“I guess you do have a point Jack.”

“Aye,”

“Okay you two,” Celestia declares, “you gave the order, give Twilight some space and rest. That qualifies for the rest of you ponies.”

“What about us?” Boris asks.

“You, Twilight’s friends, and we princesses will stay here for a little while longer before letting the more professional doctors take care of Twilight.” The two Jacks give Celestia a stunned look before bowing their heads in acknowledgement and leaving, soon followed by everypony except for Twilight, Spike, Rainbow Dash, the two Applejacks, the two Rarities, the two Fluttershies, the two Pinkie Pies, the two Borises, the two Shining Armours, and the six other princesses.

The second Boris then turns to Twilight and asks his great niece, “Twilight, how are you feeling right now?”

“Tired, in pain, and slightly dizzy, other than that, I’ve never felt better in months.”

“Why’s that?”

“Well, I’ve reconnected with my great uncle and forgave him for inadvertently starting the whole Empress Midnight ordeal, I’ve discovered what my new magic could be used for, I’ve rescued several worlds from an insane dictator, and I’ve also conquered my inner demons and became aware that I should always monitor myself so that I don’t become a monster myself.”

“Sounds impressive, I wish I was there for the last two parts. When I heard that you were kidnapped by Midnight, I was utterly destroyed. I thought that you would’ve discovered the truth and joined Midnight, because of me.”

“You had good intentions, both of you.” The two Borises’ ears’ perk up at once upon hearing this, but for different reasons. “Other Boris, I may not be the Twilight that you grew up with from your world, but you treated me like I was. Not just a second chance, but as a way of correcting your mistakes, to clear your true good name, and keeping me happy, and for that, all I can truly do is thank and forgive you and welcome you to the Sparkle family again.”

“Thanks.” The two respond in unison before stepping aside for Rainbow Dash to step forward and give her thoughts,

“You were awesome out there, despite the fact that… you know, you being Midnight and all… But I really just wanted to thank you for saving me and everypony else. I just wish Borris was here also to see that the war was over and that his efforts weren’t for nothing.”

“I may not know what became of Borris,” Twilight replies, “but I can guarantee that somewhere out there, he is happy with the Rainbow Dash of his world. Have you found the Borris of this world though?”

“I’ve been here all the past hour or so watching over you, but I will try to find him in hopes that we’ll be friends.” Rainbow Dash then steps aside and Applejack walks forward,

“Hey Twi’,” she says, “You were one tough cookie out there, both against Midnight’s army and the squabbles you had with Raindrop. Reminds me a lot of my sister and I during the days when our farm struggled. On that note, thanks for saving ‘both’ of my sisters,”

Twilight responds, “Thanks Applejack.” Applejack then joins the group of bystanders as Fluttershy approaches Twilight’s side and softly speaks,

“Thank you Twilight, for, basically what they said; I may have not been the most useful out there though…”

“You did your best Fluttershy. And thanks for your thanks as well, despite the fact that they were already said, I knew you meant it the same.” Next follows Pinkie Pie.

“That was the most incredible thing I have ever seen!” She squees, “although I didn’t actually see the fight between you and Midnight, I just knew that you fought super-duper-hard with those super-duper-powers you had! I should write a book about how incredible we all were, and I shall call it ‘Rise of Empress Midnight’, it’ll be a HUGE hit! And then I’ll write a sequel. I wonder what I should call it though, ‘Return of Empress Midnight’, ‘Revenge of Empress Midnight’, ‘Rise of Empress Midnight 2: Electric Boogaloo’, ‘Dawn of Empress Midnight’, ‘Empress Midnight: Rise of the Extinct’, or even maybe ‘Dawn of Twilight Sparkle X Evolution Forever: Legends of the Legacy of Empress Midnight’s Redemption Rebirth Revolutions Collector’s Edition’. I think that last one’s the best one.

“Whatever suits you Pinkie, and thanks for the moral support.” Up next approaches Rarity with a small box being held by her magic.

“Thank you Twilight, for everything,” The white unicorn says, “From what has already been said, to saving my sister, to motivating me coop with the fact that I may slip up at times and make poor choices seeing how you were able to stand up to yours. For doing such, I have prepared for you, this present.” Rarity opens the small jewelry box and leans it towards Twilight’s direct line of sight. A large, white feather is seen being cushioned by a bed of purple cloth, shimmering the colors of the rainbow in the light. “It’s a feather that fell off of you after that transformation; I sought to have it as a memorial to our friendships in such a time of betrayal. I’ll give this to Spike to place it in your castle while you heal.”

“Rarity, it’s so beautiful, thank you.”

“I’m so glad you agree, Spike.” The two baby dragons pull up on each side of Rarity and stretch out their arms to catch the box.

“She means the Spike from this world.” One of the two Spikes gives a small blush before retreating back to the alternate versions of Twilight’s friends hanging out at the other end of the room. The Spike that remained is then given the box and steps forward as Rarity moves to the side with the others who have spoken.

“Hey Twilight,” the young dragon exclaims, “From what I heard, you were by far the best out there. I wish I could’ve been there for you more often, but I wanted to do some volunteer work for the RAEM.”

“It’s fine; you were a great assistant to everypony out there.”

“So where should I put this feather?”

“Put it on the desk in the library, I’ll find an ideal place for it later when I can leave.” Spike gives a salute to Twilight as he steps aside to let the next pony talked, which turned out to be the alternate Fluttershy, Spike, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Applejack grouped into one unit.

“We cannot thank you enough for what you have done for us over the last several hours.” Marshal Rarity announces, “What you and your friends have achieved yesterday and today has been greater than the entire RAEM’s efforts in the last couple of months. You and your friends have liberated our ponies from both the armies of Midnight and the Mork control itself, saving countless number of lives. You have defeated the empress, fully exposed and her true identity displayed to all, a feat that none of us could ever imagine doing. We feel sorry that you had to take the burden for our pains and problems, which is why we are ever more grateful. From all the ponies of our world, we thank you and are eternally in your debt. For me personally, I am sorry for betraying you and everypony else here. You have become my role model that I want to follow, seeing how you were able to stop such a monster that was created from a mere change in time.”

“You’re forgiven, you still know the magic words?”

“Friendship is magic.”

“Right,” A warm smile glows on everypony’s face as the group of five joins the sidelines, leaving only the six princesses and both versions of her brother. In unison, they all bow their heads with a teary congratulation, with both Celestias and Shining Armours being notably more joyous. The Lunas, Cadences, and Shining Armours then raise their heads and join the spectators, now leaving the two Celestias.

“Twilight,” Celestia tearfully asks, “Did Raindrop say anything before she… moved on?”

“Yes, she and the other said their goodbyes, but not before Raindrop gave a great speech that you should hear. She said that what she heard, what she felt, what she saw, throughout this entire war, was heroes, heroes that, despite having their enemies be them and cause great suffering, the heroes would face their self-conflicts and confront the evil. Friends that would stick together at all costs and even if one slips up, they could be forgiven. Family that despite having problems in the past and present, can see past that and still love each other. Kindness, generosity, loyalty, honesty, and laughter, even in the cold face of war, are still present and shared by ponies. Magic, beautiful magic that can perform miracle actions and summon the greatest in ponies. And do you know what she thought was best of all?

“What?”

“Purpose, purpose for living, for developing and sharing talents and traits with others, for being what you are for the good of harmony and peace, and for exploring every world out there and experiencing it’s wonders. And her closing words were; ‘I have a purpose to fulfill now, and I thank you for such a wonderful adventure.’” In a split second, both Celestias broke down into a full weeping fit of tears, sorrow, happiness, and hundreds of other emotions blinking through their minds.

“That’s, the most, beautiful thing I have ever heard from anypony in all of my life. I’m so proud of her.”

“Me too,” the other Celestia cries out before the two embrace themselves onto the carpet floor. Twilight, with tears in her eyes as well, looks over to her side to see everypony else, also shedding some tears with a smile mixed with both happiness and grief.

“I-I-I need a second, to regain myself.”

“S-Same here, I’ll get somepony to call up your therapist.”

“That sounds like a good idea.” The two regal princesses then pick themselves up before slowly heading for the door out of the chamber.

“Come along everypony, let’s go.” Shortly after the order was given, all twenty one ponies exit the room and close the door behind them, leaving behind Twilight in her bed. After an hour or two of being completely alone with the only sound being her sniffles, Twilight’s eyes grow heavy as she drifts to sleep.