Warning: Philosophically dark.

A lot has happened since Celestia and Luna disappeared nine hundred years ago. There are no wars, no diseases, no pain, no death. Princess Twilight, Discord, and Spike do everything to ensure that the utopia continues.

But even the most ideal paradises have ponies that wish it wasn't so.

Story inspired by Mister Saugrenu’s artwork 1000 Years in the Future.

Reading by Scribbler Productions

Edited by Soge.
French translation by Anima Draconis.

Alicornhood is a dream that most ponies never consider past their tenth birthday, when they finally understand reality. For Twilight Sparkle, that reality was just turned on its head. The day after her ascension, after the excitement and happiness has worn off slightly, the facts of the situation finally set in. During a breakfast conversation about the responsibility she will soon bear, Spike asks a simple question: "Do you really want to be a princess, Twilight?"

Time travel is not a simple case of following someone back to stop them from committing whatever evil deeds they plan on. To stop a change to the past, one must prevent the traveler from going there in the first place.

Twilight and Spike failed to do this, but that's okay.

For more than a millennium, it was believed that the princesses were immortal. But as time marched ever forward, it become clear that even the alicorns won't live forever.

Princess Celestia is at the end of her life.

While Equestria must find a way to cope with this new reality, those that are truly suffering are those closest to her. None are struggling as much as her sister, Princess Luna. Not only is she forced to handle the duties of ruling Equestria and taking care of the transition, she must also cope with the imminent death of her beloved sister.

Image source.

Warning: comments may contain spoilers.

Twilight has always felt just a little uneasy about how others treat her, but after a tragedy befalls the Sparkle household, she reveals her greatest truth at the funeral.

Can her friends, family, and teacher comfort her this time?

No. 

...but when emotions are high and mistrust and confusion are rampant, is everything what it first appears?

Princess Twilight Sparkle writes letters to her former mentor.
Her friend, Spike, would rather she didn't.

What if Twilight Sparkle hadn't been such a pushover in The Ticket Master? What if she had been just a little bit more...spiteful?

Remember S1E3: The Ticket Master? It bothered the hell out of me that Twilight just let her so-called friends walk all over her like that, so...call this a dark humor catharsis fic.

EDIT: Featured on 08/14/2020 - Thank you so much!

Twilight Sparkle’s own body has betrayed her. Her life hangs by a thread, and her only hope of survival is a vital organ transplant. But when the sole possible donor turns out to be a young, healthy, and honourable pony, Celestia proves just how far she is willing to go to save her student.

In the decision to trade one life for another, the most serious casualty may be everypony’s ethics.

Shining Armor goes to sleep one night and wakes up in the future, having been resurrected by his wife Princess Cadance for the fourth time. All of his memories of the past century are missing, and his kingdom is nearly unrecognizable.

As Shining struggles to make sense of the new world around him, he begins to suspect there's more to the story he isn't being told...

Written for The Writeoff Association's "All the Time in the World" contest.

This story is a sequel to Pulse

Celestia betrayed Twilight's trust. Even after begging and demanding Celestia to kill her, Celestia stole Twilight's mortality from her again. Forced to stay alive, and a student under her unwilling tutelage, how will Twilight cope with watching her world die again?

Thanks to SpiritOfDancingFlames for making the cover art, and for helping me in editing the remaster of this fic.