Twilight smiled dreamily as she lounged on the smooth grass, splotches of green rubbing off onto her coat as she lay. Above her the sky was a pure, beautiful blue, as it always was in Ponyville, and the sun a perfect yellow, presiding on high over her wonderful village.

She stared at the sun, enraptured, for what felt like hours. At the back of her mind a voice was telling her that it should hurt, that staring at the sun could irreversibly damage her eyes. Twilight wasn’t sure how this could be possible, though; the sun wasn’t bright, it was just a yellow circle of paint as it had always been, in the exact centre of that watercolour sky.

A small silver-and-blue pony cheekily leapt over her, eyes fixed on a butterfly that seemed to drift along on the breeze. Twilight gave a wry smile as Silver Crescent tripped and fell headfirst into the ground, a look of surprise on her face as she became covered in the powdery green of the grass. The butterfly moved higher without even flapping its perfectly drawn wings, and flew into the far distance, to the mountains that were just barely-formed scribbles and scratches of ink on the horizon. One day, Twilight was sure, she and her new friends would travel there, and then the mountains would be drawn better and become just as detailed and real as Ponyville was.

She rolled onto her side to smile at the white pony that sat next to her. Yellowstar’s bright white coat seemed to sparkle in the light, her yellow hair matching the colour of the sun and glowing with radiance. Twilight felt safe when Yellowstar was around. She knew that Yellowstar was the best pony in Ponyville, in all of Equestria, and that she and Silver Crescent were lucky to be around her.

Yellowstar returned the smile, and it was the most wonderful and heartwarming smile that Twilight had ever seen. “Are you happy, Twilight Sparkle?”

Twilight just nodded in contentment, stretching out on the grass. “Oh yes!” she replied. “I don’t think I’ve ever been so happy in all my life!” She furrowed her brow slightly. She couldn’t actually remember anything else about her life, apart from this one moment with Yellowstar. But that didn’t matter. She wasn’t important.