"And now my dear student, I must wish you goodbye. Forever"
Some secrets should not be shared, Some risks too great. The consequences would just be too dire. So after Twilight asks her Mentor an innocent question, with a startling answer, the young Mare realises that some secrets are just too dangerous to be shared.
The summer breeze whispered through the cold stone walls of Canterlot Castle, making the two guards shiver slightly. There thoughts were their own though, as to why the Princess talked to her Student in private, especially after the infamous Smarty Pant's epidemic that went through Ponyville, and caused Twilight to break down quite spectacularly.
The Student herself was in the royal suite along with Princess Celestia, and Princess Luna, and they were quite happily chatting about the wedding that had just gone by, with Luna doting on her fellow princess, Celestia chatting about her Captain, and Twilight about both of them. Admittedly, the conversation was growing slightly boring, there's only so much that you can say about a newly wedded couple, and they were running out of them, fast. Although, after all avenues of thought had been searched, and Luna had retired to bed, Twilight spoke up: "Did you ever get married Princess Celestia?" Such an innocent question, and the Sun princess only had to think for a moment until she replied. She'd have to be careful here though. There was too much at stake for loose tongues. Celestia spoke "Once, yes, a long time ago, just after I became a princess in fact. His name was Midnight Star, and I loved him with all my heart."
Twilight looked interested, and at the mention of a the pony himself, she became puzzled, eventually voicing her thought about the ordeal. "But, that must have been a humongous announcement, I should have at least seen a footnote about it somewhere if You had married another pony, unless you didn't keep books that long ago." A shiver accompanied this, as if she could no more imagine the world without her magic, than a world without books. Celestia looked slightly sheepish after that, and her words betrayed her guilt of her action. "Well, actually, the record was made, a very long time ago yes, but it was made." She could see Twilight pondering this for a moment, dreading the question that was sure to come. And her faithful student didn't disappoint her. "Yes but it's not there, it must have been wiped off the register by somepony." "Bingo"
Twilight looked at Celestia with a new interest in her eyes: "You wiped your own marriage records? but why would you do that, it's not like he turned out to be the leader of the changelings" she said jokily, but her smile froze when she saw the look on her Mentors' face. It was one of resignation and regret. "Nope, much worse." The Princess's flat voice was like ice, concealing a bitter fury against something, Twilight assumed the aforementioned Midnight. She continued: "He caused everything. Discord, The Changeling's, even the nightmare that took over my sister was created by that pony." Something struck a cell somewhere in Twilights sleep deprived brain as she tried to figure out what was wrong with what Celestia had just said, something about Nightmare moon... Aha, she had it. "But Celestia, I thought you said that you met him quite early during your promotion to princess." Celestia waited for her student to continue. "That must have been many millennia ago, something like 10,000 years ago, yet Nightmare Moon only came into existence at tops 1,000 years ago. Meaning that this pony is supposedly supernatural to the point of living for more than 9000 years, he must be little more than ash right now"
Celestia turned to her star pupil and looked her in the eye. "No, he isn't, in fact, he's still alive and kicking." Twilight reeled at this, and tried to process this new piece of information, finally arriving at the only viable conclusion: "But that must meant that he's an alicorn... but, how, the only way to become an alicorn is to either get picked by destiny or to get the gift from a current alicorn, which -" Twilight tailed off as realisation dawned in her, letting out a small "oh."
"Yes... Oh." The princess replied, the same flat tone of voice making Twilight slightly worried at her Mentor's apparent lack of emotion. Then Celestia's body language stiffened up, and her voice taking a slightly sad tone. "I'm sorry Twilight. What was said in this room can never been told to anypony... ever. the consequences could be in the best case damaging to my reputation." Twilight was getting more and more nervy by the second. "Ok, so I won't talk about what was said in this room at all." Celestia thought for a few seconds, then slowly shook her head. "Not good enough, you could spill it somehow, people would kill for this secret if they knew it existed." "Wha- What do you mean Princess?" Twilight's voice starting to tremble slightly, her hyperactive imagination playing horrible tricks on her.
Celestia, Her closest friend through most of her life, stood up tall and spoke in an emotionless monotone that chilled Twilight to the bone. "Twilight Sparkle, I hereby banish you to the moon until I myself see fit to release you." Twilight was dumbstruck. She could hardly even protest as Celestia's horn drew in a dark string of magic, much reminiscent of Luna's own slice of night in her mane, and as the horn was covered in shifting shadows, and it was slowly lowered to her, Twilight had finally gained control of her vocal functions, and as the writhing shadows split, one rocketing towards the full moon that Luna had provided for Equestria, and another towards Twilight, she had time to scream one last word, but Celestia knew that that word would keep her awake at night for a fair few nights to come. "Why?"
Twilight woke up to a peculiar sound, or rather, the lack of it. Opening her heavy eyes, Twilight looked around her, and was startled at the results. She'd honestly thought that she'd dreamt the whole ordeal, what with Celestia banishing Twilight, Her star student and Protégée at Canterlot, to the Moon. Twilight was... calm... surely, it was all just a misunderstanding, and she'd be brought back to Equestria sooner or later. It was probably just the stress of the wedding that had finally taken it's toll upon the alicorn.
To clear her head of the whole situation, she began to wonder why she was still alive. She knew her basic science, she should have died the moment she appeared on the moon. Vacuums are apparently quite unforgiving. Twilight reasoned that Celestia had created a little bubble of air for Twilight, which sparked further questions. 'Is the air supply going to last?' 'If it doesn't, how long will I have?' 'Will anypony notice if I die up here?'. To which she mentally gave herself a shake, and decided to have a look around her temporary home. Ten minutes later, she had done so, and found out that the moon is actually quite a monotonous and sad place to be. Twilight smiled as the thought of Pinkie Pie seeing this landscape and having one of her 'decorating parties', Which pretty much summed up pinkie, a pony with a party for any occasion. This did get her to thinking though, what if the princess forgot about her, here upon the moon, and she was here for ever...
Her thoughts, already running rampant, gave her the rope, then watched as she hung herself from it. How would Dash react, she'd think that I was disloyal, and had run away from it all, AppleJack, who would assume that I'd lied to her about coming to her Birthday, which was tomorrow night. Even Fluttershy, Rarity and Pinkie Pie would wonder, they would hate her, probably assuming that she'd abandoned them. She could see each of their faces.
Pinkie Pie, her bubblegum pink hair flat and lifeless as she stared right through her.
Rarity, giving her a look of disgust, disgust as how she just up and left the baby dragon with no rhyme or reason.
Fluttershy. That was a difficult reaction to think about. but the image came up anyway, the meek pegasus crying into her hooves.
AppleJack, who wouldn't even look at Twilight in the eye, she probably couldn't bare to look at my shame.
There was no rainbow coloured mane though, no cyan pegasus who always seemed to have a comeback, and a way to raise her mood. Go figure. Disloyal friend, disloyal imaginary friend. She wished, at that moment then, that there was at least somepony else to talk to, not having someone there could be disastrous for Twilight, and just as her imagination jumped to take the lead, Twilight caught it, then removed that particular train of thought from her mind... best not to dwell. Then, deciding to take action, her horn burst into indigo aura's and shapes, and then there they were. Her best friends. Twilight paused a moment to take stock of her creations, then froze in shock. Her friends were there, they were all standing up, facing the unicorn. Yet there was something wrong. The eyes were glassy, and the jaw was too stiff, even the hair looked fake.
After a moments hesitation, Twilight started forwards to inspect the very still creation that was Rarity. She stood in front of the impeccably groomed pony, and waved a hand in front of her face, there was no response whatsoever. Twilight sighed, and turned away, only to spin round, waving and screaming at her friend. Who didn't even bat an eyelash. Intrigued by this failure of a spell, twilight went around the other ponys and attempted the same routine again and again, with the same results. The joke was beginning to wear thin on Twilight, and in her frustration at the unfairness of it all, she kicked the immobile unicorn in the back of the flank. Hard.
Feeling immediately sorry for the display of violence towards her friend, she turned back to apologise, and her jaw dropped. Rarity was floating slightly, caught in the rays of the sun, creating a magnificent picture in space. But that wasn't what had caused Twilight to gasp. On the flank that Twilight had kicked her, Rarity now sported a cut, no a rip, and as she looked closer, the droplets that were coming out of the rip were actually white, and seemed quite fluffy. Much like cotton wool. Using her horn to gather the Rarity... thing. and the white stuff that had leaked around the low gravity of the moon, she placed Rarity on the ground where she once was, and put the white stuff inside the cut, making sure to seal it when there were no more pieces of fluff to be found anywhere.
Twilight turned towards her new audience and said in a loud, sing-song voice: "Who wants to play Hangman?"
As everyone looked up at Luna's moon, basking in the glory of it, not one of them could see the solitary purple unicorn who was desperately trying to so something to make herself seen. She'd tried to magic out a sentence on the moon, perhaps to alert somepony down below that she was there. But even as she began to write out the huge words, the moon shifted slightly, and filled in the hole that had just been left by Twilight. Even her attempts at summoning a scroll were useless. She supposed that her supplies were simply too far away. Although, this was not for the lack of trying. After the 5th attempt, Twilight was a disturbing shade of blue, and she was exhausted, all the while thinking about how her friends must hate her now that she had just disappeared without so much as a goodbye.
Those particular ponies in fact, were on there way to Canterlot castle, after receiving a message from Princess Celestia. Thankfully Spike had stayed with the others when Twilight went to talk to the Princesses, so they were able to receive the message without much hassle. As the 5 of them wandered towards the castle, there thoughts turned to the note, and the only sentence that was upon it.
"Twilight Sparkle is in danger, you are needed at the Castle at once, all of you."
Celestia
This had certainly had an effect on them all, as they scrambled out of the coffee shop that they'd been occupying for the last 3 or 4 hours, and as they sprinted towards the castle, they started to wonder what had got her friend into so much danger that not even the Princess, the most powerful pony in Equestria, could save her. They all gave up after a few minutes, the horrors were just too intense for them to imagine.
As they reached the gate to the castle, the guards opened the gate when the ponies got within a few steps, then closed it behind them, one of them helpfully telling Applejack the way to where the Princess was waiting for them. They all ran off to where the guard had described, crashing through the correct door after another half a minute, they looked around in panic, expecting to see Twilight, almost dead on a hospital bed. And because that was what they wanted. Celestia made it so.
The image of their friend was so realistic, that even Applejack, the hardest pony to pull a prank on, couldn't see that this was only an illusion. The Twilight in the bed was not so much lavender any more, as grey. Her friends all recoiled at the sight, they couldn't even bear to look at her. Even Pinkie was immobile, with her mouth open, and her hair twisting madly before falling flat against her head. The only pony not to give any noticeable reaction was Rainbow Dash, but then, Celestia had thought that that would happen. She was the spirit of Loyalty after all, and it made everything so predictable, so easy. Rainbow Dash approached the side of the bed, and whispered quietly. "Twilight?" Celestia could see that everything could work out oh so well if she pulled the strings at exactly the right time. So saying, there was a grunt from the bed-ridden unicorn as she partially opened her shadowed eyes. This did cause Rainbow Dash to squeak in surprise, but she hid that well. The others, well. Put it this way, how would you react, if your friends eyes had gone from there usual purple shade, to completely black. She didn't even seem to see Rainbow Dash, who was stood literally right in front of her eyes. The rest of the elements took one look at Twilight, then the combination of weirdness, shock, and exhaustion caused Rarity and Fluttershy to faint, Applejack to stick her head out of the window and begin heaving, and Pinkie to close her jaw, lie down and cry quietly.
They all knew what they saw, even Rainbow, who wasn't exactly the medical expert of the 5 saw the signs.
Gray skin
Discoloured eyes
Lack of a sense.
All of the symptoms matched, just as planned. And the ponies all knew what it meant. They called it the Lunar Bug. It was what happened when an asteroid came down from the sky, and a pony went and had a look around it. Hell, Twilight had even told them about the lunar bug earlier today, after all, she did study the stars like a lunatic, and had a book on all of the known medical diseases that came from space. Every single pony in that room remembered her words from earlier: "The Lunar Bug is fascinating. It only needs to touch the animal to spread its' poison. Turning it's victim completely grey, and has even been known in some cases to completely remove one of the 5 sensory functions. If I ever met one of these, I'd be doomed from the off, there's absolutely no cure whatsoever."
Rainbow could feel the tears forming on her stricken face as she remembered the Unicorns next words, after being asked by Fluttershy how long it would take until the poor victim was dead. "an hour."
By this time, Applejack was looking slightly less green but was still staying away from the sightless ghost of Twilight. Celestia decided that it was time to take control of the situation. She walked in through the doors and took in the sight before her. Both Fluttershy and Rarity were dead to the world, while Pinkie was now sat with her back to the room, still crying. Applejack was still a sickly shade of green, and Rainbow was now hugging her best friend and sobbing uncontrollably. With a small exertion of her will, Celestia gave Twilights friends their consciousness back. Fluttershy and Rarity both getting up from the floor, and Pinkies hair now looking like there were a few fans in there blowing the party ponies hair around her head. Applejack and Rainbow she left however. She needed to make sure that they all saw what happened next.She began.
"My Little Ponies. I'm glad you've come. I know what you're thinking. Not even I can get rid of this horrible disease, it has no cure whatsoever, magical or physical. Our only hope are the Elements of Harmony to save her. They're right over he--" But they never heard where the elements were, because Rainbow was now screaming at Twilight, screaming her name. Willing for her to wake up, to do something, anything. Celestia granted that. The last death rattle shaking through her ex-students' body. Now the remainder of the Mane 6 were gathered around Twilights death bed, all crying and calling her name, trying to rouse the dead pony to no avail. Rainbow was cradling the dead Ponies head in her forelegs. The princess allowed herself a small smile at that, it had been an act of genius to borrow a body from the morgue, and to then cast a simple illusion spell over it, to make it appear to look like Twilight, and was still able to be held with no adverse affects.
The Princess started to listen to what the Ponies were actually saying now. Pinkie was sobbing. "B - but you and I were going to make cupcakes tomorrow." Fluttershy wasn't saying anything, and the grieving mare was only supported by Rarity, who had allowed her mane to be ruined by the tears, even as she stood dumbstruck by this turn of events. Applejack spoke quietly to Twilight. "Twi... I didn't mean it. when I told you that you were a bookworm. I'm sorry Twi." And finally Rainbow Dash. who seemed to have run out of tears, spoke softly. "I was going to tell you Twilight, tomorrow at AJ's party... I was going to tell you that I loved you." The fight seemed to go out of the cyan pegasus when she finally admitted it. Something in the pegasus broke, and she simply sat back down, and wept.
Celestia smiled at her ingenuity. Now no-one would be suspicious of her student's disappearance. After all, her 5 best friends in the whole world had just seen her die.
And life continued. The funeral was packed, all with people who had come to pay their respects to the Unicorn who had saved their lives, their hearts, and their minds. After the ceremony, all of them came to the coffin, and laid an item next to the deceased unicorn. Applejack laid an apple next to her head. Pinkie laid a few balloons inside, their bright cheerfulness somewhat diminished by the sombre mood. Rarity laid an amethyst circlet, the most elegant and intricate accessory that she'd ever made, around her head, and stepped away to admire the profile of her finest work. Fluttershy brought the first animal that she met when she fell into Ponyville. An old butterfly that had kept her company when things had looked bleak. Rainbow Dash took off after a further moment, the tear tracks still visible on her face, as she looped around and performed a rainboom for her friend, the colours all shades of Violet as far as the eye could see, brilliant shades of colour against the setting sun. And people left the funeral, confident that she'd received the send off that she deserved.
Meanwhile, the pony in question was now sinking into despair. Her friends would never forgive her. Her mentor had betrayed her. It was pretty damning that she was erased from her life as quickly as that. Would anyone even notice that she'd gone? Twilight doubted it. After all, what kind of friend would just disappear? She had no illusions that Celestia would have covered her tracks, after all, Twilight doubted that she was the first pony that had quietly disappeared. And she doubted even more that she'd be the last if Celestia's reign went unchecked. And she sat there, contemplating her situation, and trying not to focus on the elephant in the closet... It was a losing battle.
As the moon moved around the lone planet, Twilight started looking for any landmasses that she could recognise, looking for some small comfort that Ponyville was still there, and people were still alive. She could already see Hoofdale and just about see the spires of Canterlot from her current position. Sooner or later, she'd be able to see the small town of her own, and gain some small comfort from that. Then. What was that?
A steady circle of Violet light rippled outwards from somewhere over the next hill, and a heavy finality befell Twilight. She knew what laid over the other side of that hill. She'd been there enough times, just revelling in the quiet of the dead. She went there occasionally to clear her head after some of her more stressful times, and whenever she wanted to get away from Pinkie. Not even Pinkie disturbed the dead, for which Twilight had been thankful. It had been a place of sanity for her in some of her darker times, and she now knew how Celestia had made sure that her friends wouldn't suspect anything. After all, who would worry about a dead pony?
She watched the colours for a while, it was obvious that Rainbow had given her a rainboom as a send off. A special rainboom, made up of all shades of purple and violet, streaking across the moonlit ground. It may have looked beautiful from down on the ground, but it looked spectacular from up in the stars. She could feel the tears in the corner of her eyes, just beginning to form as she watched her own farewell from one of her closest friends.
Luna watched the spectacle from her room in Canterlot castle, yet she did not cry. A princess of the moon who had survived a millennia on the moon was made of sterner stuff than that. Nevertheless, the sadness at the loss of her first real friend in Ponyville was a shock to her. Even her moon seemed to weep at the loss. Wait, celestial bodies don't weep, especially when the liquid was not ice, and was in fact tears. Luna gathered up the night around her horn, and prepared to visit her old prison to find out who the new resident was.
Twilight let the tears flow, and watched passively as they floated around her in the semi-gravity of the moon, forming their own solar systems and galaxies in the darkness of space. Looking into one of them, Twilight could even imagine that life formed within them, in the form of a dark sphere of night, rapidly expanding. That was when Twilight felt the first signs of unease, it was expanding at ridiculous speeds, and she realised, wasn’t actually an apparition inside one of her tears, but was a slice of night heading right for the moon, and more worryingly, her. There was a thud behind her, and a pony as dark as night stood, waiting for the dust to settle, before walking towards the startled pony. Of course both who knew the other was. They were just too startled to say anything.
It was Twilight who broke the silence. “Luna?” “Twilight.” No-pony was giving ground, but both of them were on the lookout for answers. Eventually, Luna couldn’t take the suspense anymore and simply asked: “Erm, Twilight, aren’t you supposed to be dead?” “I’m not too sure myself Princess.” Which was accompanied by a new tone. Twilight’s voice had taken a darker edge. Betraying cool anger and mistrust underneath the collected exterior. Luna was bewildered, what had she done to upset the unicorn so, in fact, she should be the upset one, after all, Twilight was trespassing on her Moon, never mind how on earth she got up to there in the first place. "Twilight, why are you mad with me?" Subtlety had never been her strong point. A hint of hope flashed across Twilights stolid expression, but she contained it well. She wasn't going to get her hopes up anymore. She'd been stranded on the moon for days, although. Having thought about it, it could have just as easily been hours, for she felt no need for hunger whatsoever. This didn't do much to improve her outlook on life. She wanted to believe that Luna had no part in her banishment, and wasn't just there to oversee her punishment. But she dared not raise the subject, fearful of the lunar pony. So she replied: "Celestia banished me to the moon." This caused Twilight to swear quite colourfully. Apparently subtlety wasn't one of her strong points either. But at least she had her answer. She watched Luna carefully now, looking for the first sign of malice or glee. But finding laughter there instead, indeed, Luna didn't even attempt to hide it. Now the unicorn wanted more than ever for the princess to leave her along in her own sorrow.
Luna took some time to get control of her laughter, and even then, the mirth was just waiting below the surface. So she spoke to Twilight quickly, before she gave in to the fits of giggles again. "Yeah, sure Twilight, Celly would never do that. Not to anypony, and especially not to you. You are her own student. I shall not listen to what is obviously a lie, after all, why would she banish you, then give you immortality. I know my own sister... and myself. And giving a banished pony immortality will just come around to haunt you at one time or another." This sobered her up quite effectively as she straightened up and continued. "I will just have to assume that you wanted to come up here for some alone time, and to gain a better view of the stars, to which I am flattered. I'll be sure to tell your friends that you needed some time alone to contemplate things. See you later Twilight Sparkle." Luna ended her speech and took flight again before Twilight could even think of telling her own side of the story, and before long, she was left to the cold and the silence of the Moon.
But that conversation did have it's bonus's. At least she knew that she wasn't going to die up here. Not from hunger, lack of air, or even old age. Sadly, that did leave quite a damning downside to things. After all, what do you do for eternity when your friends don't know you're alive, and you've been abandoned on the moon by your closest ally. Eternity didn't look like such a good prospect when you faced it on your own. Just thinking about it made all new thoughts enter the Mares head. She'd outlive her friends first, She would have to simply stand by and watch as her friends all gave up the fight and left the world. Then she may even outlive the princesses, after all, everypony knew that the Alicorns were only there for a limited time, that they would only remain as long as peace and harmony were conserved. That would leave her with all the time in the world up on the moon. Maybe she could even tap into the magic so that she would give herself just enough for a boost. A boost to get her back home.
She clung to this idea like it was her only hope, and started reaching out around her with her magic, and already feeling the strong mind that controlled the moon and it's rise and fall. She looked at the magical grasp, looking for an opening that she could leech off, but finding none, she screeched in desperation and watched the planet below turn slowly, Ponyville and her friends getting further away by the moment. She still held some hope that her friends wouldn't forget her. After all, the princess was going to go and tell them that she'd seen her, and that she had wanted time away from Equestria. Twilight had to re-examine that thought, and realised that the connotations would be quite clear that she was at least in the spirit world. After all, no-one alive was truly immortal. Ah well, It had given her some hope at least that her friends would realise that she was still alive.
As the moon rotated further around Equestia, Twilight became aware that the magic on the moon was changing. She could feel less and less of Luna's guiding hood, and could slowly feel that someone else had taken control of the moon, and this one had left a breach in his magic, a tiny pinprick that would only allow a trickle of magic out at any one time. But it was magic, and it was usable.
She'd finally done it! she'd finally gained enough power to teleport from the moon to the planet below. It had just taken her a little longer than she'd thought it would have. 10 years to be precise.
Not much had changed about the purple unicorn in appearance. She was still a magenta mare, albeit a bit more dusty thanks to all that time on the moon. Yet even Twilight had to admit that she hadn't given herself a proper once-over in, well, a decade. But she didn't have time to dwell on her appearance. She had to get back to Ponyville and seek out her friends to explain everything. She hadn't been able to shake the nagging doubt that something had happened to Luna to prevent her from delivering the message to her friends full stop. And she waited until the opportune moment, the moment when she could time her teleport so perfectly that she would land back in her old library. She saw her goal... and. BOOM.
To a casual observer, looking up from the town of Ponyville, they would have seen a glowing sphere of. Something. Appearing on the surface of the moon, and exploding, creating a small crater in the moon. But of course, nopony looked up, nopony ever looked up any-more...
She landed in the library with nothing more than a small thud, yet Twilight was experiencing the worst migraine she'd ever felt. Her head felt like it was on fire, and she could hardly open her eyes without letting out a strained grunt as the harsh sunlight beamed down into them. Wait, Sunlight?
Twilight sat up violently, and cringed, as the action set off another set of pain receptors that Twilight didn't even know she had. But she still steadied herself, and fought to get her body back under her control. She looked around, at her surroundings. She was in her library. That was true. What was also true was that there were no more books in the library, and there was an inch thick layer of dust on the bookshelves. Yet even through all of this mess, Twilight could tell that it was still her library, even though her memories were faded. She knew her own organised chaos anywhere. The remnants of said chaos were still on the desk, and scattered around the floor.
As she looked around, she started to see that this was no-longer a place of reading and study. It had become a museum, an artefact, hidden and locked away behind the faded door, and boarded up windows. She was hard pressed to say that she'd once lived in here. But still, nothing that a little magic couldn't fix. Soon, the room was glowing a brilliant purple as all the dust disappeared into the void, and everything was tidied up. And yet.
An empty library by any-pony's standards is an empty library. Useless.
Twilight decided to look around the old tree, checking the basement first, and finding all of her previous experiments gone. Just gone, no note, not a single piece of equipment left behind. Everything had been taken. She couldn't really blame them though. She had been gone for 10 years, in fact, someone else may have lived there, and decided that they didn't like the basement decorum. See, an explanation that fits. Well, apart from the obvious disuse that the place has suffered.
Her next stop was her bedroom as she decided that the best thing for her at the moment was a long sleep. She couldn't remember the last time she'd slept, or eaten for that matter. Immortality had that effect on a pony she assumed. She opened the door to her bedroom, and all thoughts of sleep were banished from her mind.
On the bed, there was a small purple and green shape. It wasn't moving. It would never move.
Twilight was there for a VERY long time. So long that the sun was setting before anything happened that could snap the uncorn out of her stupor. The door to the library clicked open, and the grieving unicorn barely noticed it, one ear flicking as if registering the sound and filing it away for later observation.
No, what snapped her out of her stupor was the immense pain that had suddenly blossomed in the small of her back as some-pony bucked her as hard as they could. It was pure instinct as the magic took over, seizing her attacker, and dragging them into the air so that Twilight could give them her full attention.
As she turned around though, she couldn't suppress a small chuckle at her would-be assailants expression, even going so far as to add a snarky comment of "What's up AJ, never seen your friend before?"
The pallid face in question became even lighter as she tried to process all of the new information that she was getting. Twilight was dead. But she's standing right in front of me. I was at the funeral. So what does that make her, a Zombie pony?
She was distracted from her musings as a hoof gently shook her shoulders, clearing her mind, and replacing all of the confusion with a new emotion. One that the Earth pony could use, and had been storing for a very long time. 10 years to be exact. Rage.
Twilight's concentration was interrupted by a solid hoof to the face, causing her to drop the spell that she was holding on Applejack, in favour of nursing her aching jaw. "What the Hay was that for?" Applejack drew back slightly at the retort, but followed it with one of her own: "what'd ya think I did that for? Y'all abandoned us! 10 YEARS WE'VE MOURNED YOU. WE LOST OUR FRIENDSHIPS, OUR FAMILIES AND SPIKE!" By this time the volume could easily be measured from two streets away, but Applejack didn't care. All she cared about was taking her revenge on the pony that had caused her so much strife and worry. Twilight Sparkle.
Twilight on the other hand, was hard pressed to keep her own temper simmered down, she'd had ten whole years to refine her anger, to shape it and nurture it. And it was now being overturned by her old friend, if she was even that anymore. When she spoke, her voice was cold and magical enough that the air in front of her frosted over, and ice began to form on the surface of her desk. "I abandoned you? I ABANDONED YOU? I've been stuck on the moon FOR 10 YEARS, WITH NOTHING TO COMFORT ME BAR MY THOUGHTS. YOU FORGOT ABOUT ME APPLEJACK, YOU LEFT ME TO ROT ON THE MOON!"
Twilight took a moment to breathe and looked around at the sudden silence. It appeared her magic was less stable than she'd originally thought, as she looked at the ice sculpture of Applejack cowering in the corner of the room. Shook her head slightly, and thawed the Earth pony out, drying her off and warming her up in the process. In the silence that followed, you could have heard a pin drop, but eventually, Twilight asked the question which had been playing around her lips ever since she'd got back to Ponyville. "What happened?"
The defiant expression on Applejacks face dropped as she considered the question, finally speaking. "Well, I suppose I'd better start from the beginning then. Where is the beginning for you?" "I don't know, how long since I disappeared, or haven’t been quite myself?" "You mean how long ago did you die?" This caused Twilight some shock, she'd guessed that she must have been given a legitimate reason why she no longer saw her friends, she'd even speculated on the reason. And not once had the thought of her being dead as the excuse, and she mentally kicked herself for it. It was after all a low maintenance excuse for Twilight not being around anymore. But just because it was logical, didn't mean that it didn't hurt. "Yeah, lets go with that."
Applejack let out a small sigh, then, with a few pauses here and there, began to speak, her accent was strangely absent, and she seemed emotionally detached from the conversation at hand. Twilight not daring to interrupt her in case she missed anything important, making sure to keep her face very straight.
"It must have been ten years ago to this day, it would have been your brother's 10th anniversary, had he not split up with Cadence after two years, but that's not what matters at the moment. You'd just gone to talk to the princess after we'd all been to Joe's for doughnuts, and around three hours later, Celestia sent a scroll through Spike, telling us that you were in danger. Telling us all to come."
Applejack paused for a moment, as if trying to remember something, then abruptly winced as she remembered just what she'd wanted to forget. "You were ill Twi, really ill. You had that lunar bug thingy that you were on about. We'd barely arrived before you… before you.. Died." Applejack took a breath and continued. "Everyone was distraught, After your funeral the next day, we all sort of, drifted apart. Fluttershy became a recluse, only ever coming out of her house if she needed to, and even then. That was only to pick up the deliveries of food and water that were taken to her cottage. Rarity upped and left, she had nothing left in Ponyville, she only ever stayed because of us, not to mention that the amethyst circlet which she gave you attracted a lot of attention up in Canterlot. She moved there to get more orders, and to be closer to the high-society. Pinkie… Pinkie, well, Pinkie died too, in a way. She lost a lot of her energy, and the parties became fewer and further between. They stopped completely seven years ago. So by that time, there was nothing left to keep us connected. Pinkie just sits and cries in her room at Sugarcube corner now. Nothing changes that. We tried everything."
"Spike decided that life wasn't worth living I suppose, it must have been a year after Pinkie stopped the parties. In hindsight, those parties were the only thing that Spike lived for then, I suppose they gave him something to hold onto. After that, well, I think you can figure out the facts for yourself. He just gave up on life, he had nothing worth living for anymore. His closest friend was dead. The love of his life was far, far away. And we just, well, stopped caring about it. I told the others, and they just didn't care anymore. 'Not our problem,' It's like they've all been taken over by discord again, but this time, we couldn't do anything about it. I can't spare the money to give him a funeral, so I left him here, where he had the happiest memories."
"I don't know what happened to Rainbow, she performed that Rainboom, and flew off into the sunset so to speak. We never saw her again, not even a whisper of a rumour as to where she is. I'll give her that, she knows how to disappear from the public eye. She loved you Twi, she always did. It must have destroyed her, you died literally the day before she was going to tell you. I'll grant you that Twi, you managed what three years in flight school could never do to her. You broke her. You broke her heart, and her spirit." To which Applejack let out a short, sharp laugh, which sounded more like a sob at the end.
Twilight spoke, being careful to keep her voice level, and monotone. "And yourself Applejack, I notice that you have left out what became of you." It wasn't that Twilight was being insensitive, she just had more important things to think about, and she needed to gather the facts about what happened, before she started to worry about some crush that one of her friends had had on her a long time ago.
"That's because I have nothing to tell anymore. I have no-one. The harvest went bad during year five. Apple rot, anyone who'd eaten a pure apple had died. Luckily it was the cider season, and no-one got infected with the lethal side of it, plenty of people were ill though, and our reputation was down the drain. I haven't sold a single apple since then. Then again, that's the crux of the whole thing. There's just me left, Granny Smith died to old age, Big Mac died after bucking a tree too hard, the tree broke his spine, and his skull. Applebloom, Sweetie belle, and Scootaloo all ate a tainted apple. They always were too curious. Now there's just me. Living in that dusty old house in Sweet apple acres. I sometimes come here to talk, to vent my feelings, and to let out my guilt. And that's how it's been for the past five years. None of us have even spoken to each other since then, I haven't even seen Rarity after the incident with her sister. Too many bad memories I suppose."
Twilight almost felt sorry for her old friend, but her years on the moon had toughened her up, given her an emotional detachment to everything which was proving very useful at the moment. "And what became of the elements of harmony?"
"They died. They all died. We were given them after your funeral, and over time, they've just faded, I still have mine here" To which she produced a silvery necklace that held an apple-shaped stone. Not even crystal, or a slightly shiny stone. Just a plain old pebble that happened to look like an apple. Twilight's shock must have been evident, because Applejack continued: "You think this is bad, Pinkie's element shattered completely, the element of laughter, forgetting how to laugh, I'll bet that did it." "And where is my tiara, where's the element of Magic?" "Rarity took it, she wanted to use it for something. If you want to find wherever your element went, you'd be better off asking her. For whatever good it'll do you."
"And what's that supposed to mean?" Twilight snapped. "The elements only work when all six are present, and all six bearers are united in their cause, don't you remember that from when we faced Discord all those years ago? Or did the moon scramble your brain as well?" Applejack retorted. The temperature of the room suddenly dropped by a good ten degrees as the unicorn narrowed her eyes at the offending pony. "And what's that supposed to mean?" Applejack laughed, a cruel, harsh laugh. "hmm, let me see, Fluttershy can't stand the sight of any of us anymore, Pinkie is so deep into depression that she's forgotten how to laugh, Rarity and I will probably never get along again, I did effectively kill her sister you remember, and Rainbow hasn't been seen anywhere in Equestria since the funeral, I wouldn't be surprised if she'd died in the wilderness somewhere. If you manage to get all of us in the same room, with a common purpose, and our elements restored, then I might believe you."
Twilight left the library after that with purpose in her eyes, and fire in her heart.
It was after a good five minutes before she actually started thinking about the task ahead of her. Somehow, she needed to find all five of her estranged friends, convince them to come to a common meeting ground with a common purpose, repair their friendship so that the elements would work again, then go and confront the princess about what had happened, oh, and picking her element up somewhere along the way. Suddenly, what she'd set out to do seemed to be as far away as the moon was now. What was her plan? She always had a plan, but then again, her only plan on the moon had been to get back into Ponyville, and then plan from there. That kind of went out the window when she had found Spike.
Spike.
The shock of the last hour suddenly caught up with her. She was back, yes, but she was alone, with not a single friend, or advisor. Her number one assistant was gone. Her mentor was apparently evil, and her friends were refusing to call themselves her friends anymore. Everything just kept getting better didn't it. She let a dark laugh pass her lips, and started thinking of the logical way to do things, it seemed that not even a decade on the moon could alter her organisational talents.
Firstly, she'd start with Pinkie, that seemed like the most pressing case to resolve, and she could really do with cheering up at the moment. Although she had no idea about how to reform the element, but she had a nagging thought that she should try to cheer up the pink party pony first, that was what AJ had said after all, that Pinkie had forgotten how to laugh.
Next on her list would be Fluttershy. That should be relatively easy all considering, in fact, the pegasus would most likely be ecstatic with seeing her alive and well, that the only problem would be getting away from her onto the next pony.
Rarity. And from that, she'd have to do numerous things, mainly, find out where Rarity had put the element of magic. Although, while she was there, she might as well try to persuade her to forgive AppleJack for something that was out of her control, but again, that was a secondary objective. The primary one, being convincing Rarity to come back to Ponyville to talk to her old friends and try to fix the current mess that they were all in. But then again, that was Rarity, always overcomplicating everything, even indirectly.
That just left Rainbow, and if Twilight was honest, she had no idea where to start with that particular time bomb, for one thing, she had no idea where to find her. She could easily remember what happened to Rainbow those long years ago when she'd lost her element before, and had shunned everypony. It had taken every member of the other 4 to take care of her that time, and Twilight was under no illusions that it would probably take another intervention to take care of her this time. Then she could take care of AppleJack, and start laying out a plan for talking to the Princesses, and in particular, how far they would have to run in order to be rid of her.
Finally pleased that something had order on the planet now, she started towards Sugarcube corner to talk to the Pink Party pony who had lost so much.
The shop was closed, that was the first thing that was wrong. The shop was never shut when the sun was up, she could remember the cakes motto like it had been told to her yesterday. 'As long as there's a pony with a sweet tooth, Sugarcube corner will be open, ready and waiting to serve said sweet tooth.'
The shop itself looked like it had seen better days. The windows were boarded up from the inside, refusing to allow anypony to glance in from outside. And the door had rusted on it's hinges so that it sat crooked in it's frame, and upon closer inspection, she found that it was connected even less than she thought as she breathed upon it lightly, and it simply fell into the shop, spraying up a sheet of dust into the sunlight which was pouring through the derelict shop.
The counters were empty. Where once there had been a selection of baked delicacies, there was now an empty space, giving the shop a much more eerie feel than the appearance would have merited. And yet, what made the shop truly scary was not the cobwebs hanging from the ceiling, nor was it the various creaks and groans from the floorboards beneath her. No, what made it scary was the absence of the pony that ran the shop, Twilight hadn't realised how much character Pinkie had, or indeed, how much the shop didn't have. It made her feel truly alone, in one of the places where she had ever felt happy.
Twilight went into the back room, and saw the stairs, each with a perfect layer of unbroken dust on them. It looked like Pinkie had been in her imposed isolation up here for a while, it even had the obligatory flickering light bulb at the top of the stairs, giving the stairs a much more sinister appearance. So much for a cheerful welcome.
At the top of the stairs, there was the familiar landing of the house, with the upstairs storage room on the left, the cake's foals bedroom directly opposite the stairs, and Pinkie's room on the right. Deciding to look around the house first, she opened the left door, and looked at the completely empty room within. Even the shelves were gone, and all that was left inside the room was the other side of another boarded up window to the outside world. Twilight remembered the Pinkie Party incident ten years ago, and wondered how badly Pinkie had taken the news. Obviously pretty badly by the current state of things.
The next room along kept the same theme of being completely empty, all bar the dust that had steadily accumulated over the long years, Twilight remembered the two foals that had shared the room, Pumpkin, and Pound, both of whom would have just celebrated their 10th birthdays, that is, if they were even still around. 10 years is a long time for anything to happen, and it would have explained the steady decline in the amount of parties that the shop had played host to.
The last room was now before her, and she could hear the steady noise of breathing from the keyhole, meaning that Pinkie must be there. She turned the handle, and pushed the door. And walked straight into the face of the ex-Party Pony herself.
To say that Pinkie had changed was a minor understatement. Her formerly cotton candy pink hair was now straight, and a dull shade of grey. Her coat was tufted in places, and worn in others, also bearing that same shade of grey as her hair. In fact, the only colour that was on Pinkie at the moment, were here sky blue eyes, and they were staring daggers into Twilight, daring her to make the first move.
Twilight complied uncertainly. "Pinkie..?" The party pony raised an eyebrow momentarily, but quickly went back to starting straight into Twilights soul. It was quite uncomfortable truth be told. "It's your friend, Twilight Sparkle?" She attempted to jog the Pony's memories, and even succeeded… sort of. "You're not my friend Twilight Sparkle." The shadow's voice was just that, a shadow of it's former self. There was no hint of humour about it, or any emotion whatsoever, instead there seemed to be a sense of finality about the words, making sure that they were understood, and an understanding could be reached as to not bother trying to change her mind. Twilight remembered a lesson that her mentor had once taught her before all this. 'A simple question unlocks best.' "Why?"
It certainly gave a response from Pinkie, sadly, the response was quite negative, and involved a lot of shouting. "You ABANDONED us, you LEFT us here on our own without so much as a by-your-leave. YOU made my friends not be my friends anymore, YOU made Rarity abandon us, YOU made Fluttershy the pony she is today, YOU even managed to make Dashie truly sad. YOU. UPSET. DASHIE. THAT'S EVEN WORSE THAN BREAKING A PINKIE PROMISE, AND NOW YOU'RE JUST STANDING THERE, ASKING WHY WE AREN'T FRIENDS ANYMORE!?" Well, that certainly cleared a few things up, although it did leave her with a very mad Pinkie to deal with, and that wasn't something that she wanted to deal with in the first place. She desperately tried to think of a way to get Pinkie back to being Pinkie, and to step into the light for once in a while. Wait, maybe that was what she needed, a reminder of the real world.
"I can understand why you hate me Pinkie" At which point the Pony scoffed, but the unicorn continued in steady tones, and an even voice. "But just let me finish. You may be angry at me, but what was the reason you stopped your parties, what made you close the shop, for heavens sake Pinkie, how in Equestria did you forget how to laugh."
Twilight had raised her voice steadily throughout that last sentence, increasing the volume slightly each time as she ticked off each individual point on her internal checklist, until she'd checked off every single one of her items and she resumed gazing at the pony in question, who was now quivering slightly. Giving off a single sign every few seconds. Namely, her whole body seemed to vibrate on the spot for a few seconds until she became still again for a few seconds, until the trembles took her again. It had been so long since Twilight had even considered Pinkie's 'Pinkie sense' that she'd forgotten the individual combos that they all formed. All she hoped was that it was going to end up well for her.
Pinkie had paused to contemplate her question, even while the jitters were continuing, the pony looked thoughtful, until finally the pony spoke again. "I Stopped partying because there was no longer anypony to throw a party for, even at the parties that I threw, all the other ponies were no longer happy, they weren't laughing or smiling, and it made me too sad to continue. The shop is shut because the Cakes moved away around 4 years ago, when I stopped throwing parties I suppose, they simply upped and left one morning, with both the foals, and train tickets to Canterlot. It seemed that somepony had finally talked to them about setting up a business deal after the stir that the MMM caused in Canterlot a long time ago. They left, saying that I had free reign of the shop until they came the next year. They never came back. They simply stayed in Canterlot, they forgot about me, and I suppose that's sort of how I forgot to laugh, everypony forgot about me, and I found that I had no reason to cheer up those people who didn't notice me, which, between one thing and another leads to this situation here."
Twilight waited for a moment or two to make sure that her friend had truly finished speaking, and then began to speak herself again. "But obviously not everypony had forgotten you, or else how do you thing I got here. I need you Pinkie, I need you back as an element of harmony, as the element of laughter. Could you do that for me Pinkie, could you be my guide through the dark times ahead?" Her speech had seemed much more effective in her head, but nevertheless, it seemed to have done it's job adequately. Well, sort of.
Pinkie's face lifted slightly, the ghost of a ghost of a smile playing around her lips, before her eyes narrowed again, and she resumed her glare into Twilight. "Prove to me that you mean what you said. Make me believe that you really want me back." Twilight let out a small sigh, she'd guessed that thing's wouldn't have been this easy, and had had a number of back-ups in waiting for if this particular episode didn't go down well. Still, could be worse, all she'd have to do would be to remind Pinkie about who she was, make Pinkie remember how to smile.
Sadly, it didn't look like Pinkie was going to let her anywhere near her for her to perform her memory spell, so it looked like it was going to have to be a matter of making the Pony laugh. One way or another.
To say that the hours trudged by would be a gross understatement, joke after joke Twilight attempted, and not a one produced a single smirk from the Pony in front of her. But then again, maybe what Pinkie needed wasn't a good laugh, maybe it was simply cheering up that she needed. Twilight recalled the old story that Pinkie had told them all long ago, about how she'd discovered her cutie mark, and what make her the happiest Pony around. Then again, it was going to have to be an uber surprise to make up for lost time, and to prove to Pinkie that she was back.
Preparing for the event was easy, it seemed that Pinkie had kept her normal supplies locked in the basement, which was now full of a multitude of flour, eggs (all be it slightly suspect eggs), and a whole host of party supplies. A whole corner was taken up by the infamous party cannon, and various pranking equipment littered the floor everywhere. Twilight breathed a heavy sigh, and got to work.
It worked in the end. The party was small, and the only food there was a burnt cake, and some water. But there were balloons, streamers, and guests, which apparently counted as a party in Pinkies books. The moment Pinkie saw the 'party' that Twilight had prepared, her hair had poofed up halfway, so that the top of her head was covered in straight hair, while every other part of her hair was now curly, airy, and Pink again. The real change came when she saw the cake, and Twilight could see that it wouldn't have mattered if she'd burnt the cake to cinders, Pinkie would have still been touched by the thought, and would probably be doing exactly the same thing.
Slowly, her coat was returning to it's usual pink colour, her mane and tail were now fully poofy, and were almost free-standing, but most importantly, she was smiling. Pinkie was smiling, Pinkie was laughing, Pinkie was happy, Pinkie was pointing a cannon at her.
Wait. What?
The force from the party cannon knocked her backwards into the balloons, to a cacophony of bangs and crashes, while all the while, the element of laughter made up for lost time. It could have been Twilight's imagination, but the Party Pony seemed to be glowing slightly as she went around the house causing various whirlwinds, and leaving a streak of memories in their wake. The whole store was free of dust in two minutes, and everything was back in its rightful place within a further 3.
But then, Pinkie just froze in place, and truly began to shine. Her four hooves were lifted clear from the ground, and her eyes were shining an opaque sky blue, as the dust that had once littered the floor began to reform itself around Pinkie, creating a necklace. First, the ornamental golden chain, and then onto the jewel within. And throughout this, Pinkie laughed. Pinkie laughed loud and long, fulfilling her element to the fullest extent, until finally, the glow subsided, and Pinkie was back on solid ground, plus one new pendant around her neck.
"So you'll help me?" Twilight asked tentatively. "aha!" Came the reply, as Pinkie started bouncing again. Up and down and up and down and up and down and. Twilight shook herself, trying and failing to not get distracted with her constant bouncing. "Thank you Pinkie, I'll meet you and the girls in the Library in 24 hours." "Okie Doki Loki." And with that, things were back to normal on the Pinkie front. One down, Three to go.
I needed an easy ride after that fiasco, and as I ticked off Pinkie from my earlier list, I was rewarded by seeing who was next in line for a visit. Fluttershy would never be mad at me, and her element couldn't be that hard to fix. I was in no doubt that Fluttershy was still the kindest pony around, it was probably something to do with the six friends splitting up which had caused her element to go dark.
Boy was I wrong.
But from looking at me that day, you couldn't have guessed it, I had a spring in my step, and I whistled happily, still in ecstasy from recovering the first of 5 elements and regaining a friend in the hostile environment. It was definitely a step in the right direction. But of course, I was practically crying out for a slice of reality courtesy of the universe, and it was waiting for me inside the cottage before me.
The cottage looked much the same as it had done the last time that I had been there. The same thatched roof and circular building, the same Everfree forest which bordered the house, albeit the trees seemed to have advanced slightly and still remained eerily quiet.
This last thought took a moment to sink in before I realised something, Fluttershys' house was never quiet, there was always one little animal or other making a racquet, and to have the house devoid of that was definitely worrying, Fluttershy would never throw out an animal in need after all… or even if it wasn't in need, but I knew that she wouldn't get anywhere by simply pondering about it on the path, and what was the worst that could have befallen the sweet, timid pegasus that I remembered from all those years ago?
Those were the questions swimming around my mind as I approached the door, yet not one of my assurances to myself could dissuade me entirely from thinking about what could have changed the poor pegasus within the lonely cottage. A memory came back to me, washed up by my thoughts of Fluttershy. The memory was of a list, one with numerous checkpoints and scribbles dotted around the parchment. With no small amount of glee, I had mentally ticked off an entry which could have said 'Be assertive', or could have said something else entirely. All that mattered was that I was taking things into my own hooves now.
I walked up the path towards the cottage, trying to peek into the windows on my way to the door to no avail. All the windows were curtained, the cover, black, made sure that nopony could see inside and see the wreck of a mare that AppleJack assured me lived here. I knocked on the door. When no reply came, I tried knocking again, louder this time. This at least got an effect… just not one I'd like to hear. Ever. "Go Away!" came the cry from within the cottage, the force of the voice very nearly encouraging her to do just that. But she would see this through. If just to shut AppleJack up about abandonment. What did she know about it. Still, it worried her that Fluttershy would raise her voice so towards passers-by and lone callers.
My second attempt to talk to her was more successful. I walked up to the door again, and knocked, this time calling out to Fluttershy as I did so. "Fluttershy, it's me, Twilight! Can't you please let me in?"
This certainly got a response. Sadly, it was undeniably negative as could probably be gathered by the door to the cottage opening to reveal… a pony. Her coat was a lacklustre grey which matched her hair, longer than both Pinkies and Applejacks manes. The only colour I could find were the twin pools of ice which went for eyes it seemed. She did not smile to me, nor did she come and try to hug me. She simply stayed there and watched me, pure unbridled loathing emanated from her, giving her an appropriately seething appearance that didn't exactly instil me with the confidence that Fluttershy was in a good mood.
"Erm… Fluttershy?" A welcome home hug… did not occur. Fluttershy did not suddenly undergo a colourful transformation. The door swung shut in my face.
"Well that went well." I muttered to myself, looking around for a moment. I doubted that Fluttershy would let me back into her house of her own accord, but I also knew that Fluttershy needed help to regain her element. Not that it would make facing Fluttershy as she was any easier, but it was the only plan I had. Being a unicorn, I had always had the option to just teleport inside other ponies houses, except it was generally frowned on for a pony to invade another's privacy like that. Things were beyond desperate though, so I charged her horn once more, and teleported through the wall.
The room on the other side was as empty and lifeless as the mare within it was colourless. There were no small animals running to and fro about the place, not even her pet rabbit, whatever his name was, was around. Then again, he was probably dead by now. Bunnies were not known for their longevity after all.
Fluttershy was standing in the middle of the room, yet she wasn't looking at me, it was as if she'd frozen when I'd entered the room. She was simply watching the corner of the room which was darkened to the point that I couldn't see whatever it was she was staring at. I walked up beside her, for she was facing the far corner of the room, and tried to see what she was looking at, the odds of her starting a friendly conversation at the moment were slim at best. Yet still, the corner of the room was still shrouded in darkness and the object of Fluttershy's attention was hidden.
I started forwards, entering her field of view as I walked towards that darkened corner. She offered no response as I drew closer and closer to her point of interest, and continued her indifference when I lit my horn, allowing a shaft of light to pierce the darkened corner and to reveal the contents within. It revealed something white and furry, with two long ears and four white paws.
I knew what Fluttershy was going through… I think. I guessed that she was having trouble moving on. I expect I would have had the same feelings if I hadn't been estranged from Spike for a decade. I'd had a small enough dose as it was and I could relate to her loss. Except this was Fluttershy, kindest soul around. I guess this was what happened to her when she lost somepony, or somebunny in this case, close to her.
I found myself hoping that Fluttershy would be the first to leave the world; I doubt she would survive one of her closest friends dying.
With my association with her feelings came the answer of how to give her that bit of closure she needed. To close the book of her dear departed rabbit. She teleported out of the house, leaving the frozen mare behind her, still staring at the point where Angel, that was his name, lay in peace.
Five minutes later, I reappeared in the house of the mourning Pegasus with a small pile of twigs held in my magic which I quickly assembled into a small pile on the bare floor of the cottage a few metres in front of Fluttershy. From there I levitated the dead bunny onto the makeshift pyre and arranged him into the position of a sleeping bunny. I stood back and said all I needed to. "To Angel. A friend to the end."
Then I lit the fire.
And a tear rolled down Fluttershy's cheek. Her complexion gaining colour as she wept for the bunny she'd cared for since she first moved to Ponyville, and a pink light emerged within the ashes of the burning pyre until a pink butterfly lay in the middle of the remains of her poor Angel.
Fluttershy went forwards and picked up the necklace, not noticing me until she had secured the jewel around her neck and had murmured something into the ashes. She turned to me and simply said "Thank you."
And that was all.
A/N: I LIVE! Well, the fic does anyway, hopefully the updates will come a bit faster than the last gap I made people endure... maybe.
I stayed with Fluttershy for another five minutes, telling her to meet at the library tomorrow. She still wasn't speaking, but at least she seemed to have a bit more life in her than she did not half an hour ago. Sadly, I needed to track down the other two ponies, and as luck would have it, opened the door to one of them. It was Rarity.
Rarity was as elegant as ever, mane expertly curled and face subtly garnished with make-up. After registering her appearance in my head, I realised something else. Rarity was still her regal-coloured self, and still possessed the colours of her mane and tail. At the sound of the door opening, she looked at me and smiled.
"Ah, hello there madam, may I enquire as to where Fluttershy is? She still lives here, correct?" This caused me to re-evaluate her recognition of me into another explanation. Namely the one where Rarity obviously didn't recognise me as the pony from ten years ago. Mutely, I nodded to her questions, yet I did not step aside, wondering how long it would take before she'd realise who she was talking to.
As it turned out, it was going to be a long wait. No spark of recognition flashed in her eyes, nor did she lean in to get a closer look at me. There wasn't even the vaguest flash of knowing the pony in front of her at all, not that I couldn't blame her, ten years had taken their toll on my looks. But I was still basically Twilight Sparkle. Same coat colour, same cutie mark, and same tick in my eye which was now deigning to show itself.
"You- you don't recognise me?" I asked tentatively, unsure whether I was holding back sadness or anger at this and with no strong desires to find out which one. Emotional stability had a very… interesting effect on the magic of a unicorn. "Should I? I'm afraid I've never met you before in my life darling." Came her reply. Give her credit, she didn't sound like she was lying, expressing genuine concern to my comment and probably driving through her memory reserves, searching for any instance of meeting me.
I decided there was nothing for it, I needed her to remember me. 'Soonest said leaves time for mental scarring clean-up later,' I now said. "It's me, Twilight Sparkle." Her reaction was… interesting. It looked for a moment like she recognised me, just for an instant of an instant, but then it was gone. Leaving her with a slightly perplexed expression and a statement "Sorry, it doesn't ring any bells. Maybe you're thinking of my sister Sweetie Belle."
I think this hurt me more than anything else, that she'd completely forgotten me, that not even my name stirred a single memory of myself… except it did, there was that moment of recognition that said otherwise. I wondered just what Rarity had forced upon herself, what would cause her memory to shut out all thoughts of me save for one or two which went under the radar it seemed. That was the answer right there, she'd buried her memories of me, that seemed like the only solution to the question at hand, that Rarity had repressed all memories of me… that was worrying in itself, that I'd caused enough trauma to make the overly-dramatic unicorn skip the drama.
I was going to hate myself for this, but it was the only way. I'd have to somehow break down the barriers that Rarity had erected in her mind, my memory spell would do the trick, it would just take some time dealing with the emotional fallout afterwards… joys.
"Rarity, it's you that I mean, you know me, your memory must have been a bit jumbled. I can give you back your memories of me now though, I just need to cast my memory spell on you." This was met with a less than enthusiastic reaction "You want me to let you cast a spell on me, you'll excuse me dear if I treat that with more than a little amount of suspicion." "It's the only way for you to remember" I took a step forward at this and she took a step back, I think that if I had been thinking clearly, I would have told her to come in and confirm with Fluttershy that I was a pony to be trusted, but my mental state was already questionable enough as it was, so my next move might have seemed a little… open to interpretation.
After muttering an apology to Rarity under my breath, I used my magic to bind her where she stood. This… did not go down well with her, the scream a moment later a testament to that. Panicking, I conjured a zipper that affixed itself to her mouth and shut it. After breathing a sigh of relief, I stood up straighter and said "I'm not going to hurt you, really. It's just a simple memory spell." Her reply, muffled as it was, was less than gracious… much less so. I can't really say that I expected anything else with her current position but honestly, if I wanted to harm her, I could have done so from five streets away five minutes ago. Amazingly, when I told her so it didn't really assuage her doubts… well, from what I made out from behind the zipper it was either her politely telling me that this wasn't helping, or something a bit more… direct.
When I moved forward, my horn pointed towards her chest, I found my way blocked by an ice blue barrier, slightly translucent and shimmering slightly against the poor light of the evening. "Oh real mature." I muttered under my breath, I could see Rarity, a small smirk on her face but with a sheen of sweat also covering her. It wouldn't take much force to remove the barrier, in fact it would only take a small prod there to do it. Said prod did the job, removing the barrier that had been hastily erected and also sending a very small amount of feedback magic to the sender. Size had nothing to do with it though, any magical feedback was immensely painful as I knew well enough from previous trial and errors.
Muttering yet another apology to Rarity, I quickly lit my horn and filled my mind with memories the two of us shared together, sparse as they were, they would have to do. Moving in again, this time I managed to place my horn firmly against Rarities chest and release the spell, removing all other enchantments while I was there. There was a pulse of magic, a flash of light, and a hoof to the face from an alabaster mare.
Working on instinct, I immediately recast the binding spell and stepped away again. That wasn't the reaction I'd hoped for, but it had been the one I was expecting. "Good to see you too Rarity." "You have the gall to come here? After ten years, you only just remember us?" "Long story short. Been locked on the moon for a little while." I replied brightly, not missing the look of barely restrained rage coursing through Rarities eyes. Wonderful. "A likely story. I can see just how trapped you are now, wandering around Ponyville with not a care in the world. What have you done with Fluttershy?" The change in tone halfway through boded well for me… well for the current story of my deceased whereabouts anyway. "I simply reminded her of who I was and who she needed to be, just like I'm doing with you right now." I remained calm, if there's one thing I learned after having a friend like Rarity, it didn't matter how much I raised my voice and shouted, a pony like her would just get worse and worse.
"And what is that, Twilight Sparkle?" She spat the name at me, like it was poison on her tongue. "An element of harmony. That's all." "And of course you know what happened to the elements? Burnt out and gone since you left you know. Even this piece of junk here." And though it obviously cost her, she levitated a grey diamond in a golden chain from her saddlebags and threw it towards me, aiming at my face. I caught it with my own magic in mid air, examined it for a moment, then laid it on the ground. "So all I ask is for you to be generous enough to forgive me." I kept each word measured, each syllable rang with an identical tone, and the whole sentence, simple. "Forgiveness? You don't deserve it. For what you did to Dash. What you did to Pinkie, and what you did to my coat!" I briefly wondered what on earth she was talking about, but stopped as she continued. "No. I'm going to be the bigger pony here. I may hate your guts for what you've done, what you're doing now. But I will do this, I forgive you Twilight."
This time, there was no venom in her speech, only the cold, hard facts that needed to be said. I nodded my gratitude, and became aware of a slight dripping noise, I looked back up at Rarity to notice that her mane seemed to be melting. There were drops, each as big as spikes fist and the colour of deep purple, falling from her mane to the ground, leaving great splotches of grey and colourless hair behind. At least I knew what I had done to her now… I think.
Listlessly, I glanced downwards, and did a double take. The drops and splodges of hair dye were levitating in the air, growing bigger the more dye was added and attracting the colour like a magnet from her tail too. When Rarity was completely stripped of colour, the ball of dye sloshed over a rock attached to a golden chain and filled it. That's the best description I have for it. The mixture drained out of the spherical hold and rushed down to the pendant, filling it with colour until it was the colour of the mare now standing above it, her colours restored to her just as they were the element.
I let go of the field and allowed her to step forwards and claim her element. She looked over it in wonder before clipping it around her neck and admiring the colour which had returned to her.
"One other thing Rarity." "Yes dear?" "I heard that you had my element, the element of magic, what did you do with it?" "Ah, yes. I remember that I may have given it a once over and just maybe left it as a burial gift." "Maybe…" "Well… yes. I did leave it as a burial gift, it's the whole reason I work in Canterlot now. Because of that gem I got more business than ever before. Slightly morbid, but I'm not really picky about the whole thing.
I nodded my thanks to her, told her to meet with myself and the others tomorrow at the library, and started on my way to the Ponyville cemetery. Rarity's voice following me as I walked. "You know though, your element never once lost its colour, it always remained the colour that it always was. I suppose that was a damn good clue if nothing else that you were alive. Good luck for when you meet Dash by the way, I doubt you'll like what you find."
Those words did more to chill me than the night air, now swirling restlessly about me, did.
I walked into Ponyville Cemetery as the dusk came down around me, thankful for the respite from the heat of the sun that it brought. That being said though, there's something about a graveyard in the evening that just sets your nerves on edge, no matter if it's brightly lit or otherwise. Must be the décor. One thing that I had noticed now was that I had absolutely no idea where I was buried, whether I was in a coffin or a tomb, in Ponyville or Canterlot. I hoped it was Ponyville.
It was hard to hold onto that hope though as I wandered around and between the gravestones, marking a number of bodies of which none of them bore my name. I slowly walked from left to right amongst the dead, not one of them shared my name although I did find a much weathered stone bearing the inscription, Midnight Sparkle. I resolved to ask my parents about it if I got the chance.
If I ever got the chance… I doubted that things would ever be exactly the same again, that my friends would always look at me in a different light than before. I wondered whether my parents would even recognise me as I was now. I may not have changed physically, but being on the moon had done more to me than simply age me… I suspected that I had lost what remained of my innocence against the world, that good ponies would be rewarded and the bad punished. Gone was the pony that once thought that, now I remained.
And I had reached the end of the line, no more gravestones past that point. Save for the tombs that is, reserved for only the noblest of ponies and the bravest of all. My cynical side took great pains in questioning who decided what bravery was.
Yet I still took a wander down between the rows of tombs. It brought back memories, a decade past, when I once walked down these same rows, between Bright Star and Last Loyal. When I walked down the paths guarded by Gleaming Hope and Final Defence and Resilience. Thinking of how these brave ponies had stood up for what they believed in, protected all others above themselves and never backing down. How brave ponies like Sharp Wit and Cunning Wit, brothers, had once brought down a kingdom at war with Equestria with their namesakes. And how Twilight Sparkle and Starswirl the Bearded had defended Equestria on a number of occasions.
I walked to the next tomb, belonging to New Design, an inventor of many things, before I realised what I'd just read. I backtracked to where I'd seen the name, finding the tomb opposite one of my greatest role models.
It is an odd feeling, when you stand over what once was your life, to me it felt as if someone had just walked over my grave… current situation withstanding, and inscribed the words onto a golden plaque, still gleaming:
Twilight Sparkle 24th June 984 AN - 15th December 1001 AN 'Never give up, never back down' Loved by one, remembered by all
It almost brought a tear to my eye. I wondered who had chosen out the lines that went on my grave, the former had the ring of my brother about it, it had become one of his favourite quotes from the guards training manual long ago… a different time and a different place. The latter was more interesting; maybe it referred to One as in Equestria as a whole, or maybe just a single pony. I'd ask Rarity or someone when I arrived at the library tomorrow. For now, I had work to do.
I paused a moment before I charged up my horn. Did it count as graverobbing if it was your own grave you were robbing? I doubted that the law could give any good advice here in any case, not that I was going to go and inform them of my activities. Either way, it didn't matter here, now. For now was when I let loose my magic and dissolved the stone into particles to be borne away on the still air, it was after all just a rearrangement. Beyond the stone cover, there lay a dark hole, paved with marble and with an icy breeze which wafted up from within. I drew in the air through my nose, smelling the chilly air, dry and uninviting.
I entered my tomb.
--
Cold, dark, dry. The tomb was all three of these, two of which I could do something about. I lit my horn, wrapping a simple cover of magic around myself to insulate me against the cold while my horn flared and cast a glow around the room I was in. An antechamber for the moment with a door at the other end. I hastened through.
This chamber was bigger than the one before, the ceiling twice as high as the room as ornate as it could be with several pillars rising from the floor to hold the roof as high as it did. Ornate carvings covered every wall, each depicting something I'd done, and the two paintings that I knew and one that I didn't, all occupied the space.
From left to right, there was a carving with me and the other five elements of harmony, all focussing our attentions upon Nightmare Moon. The central mural showed the six of us again, this time against what could only be Discord. The final one was new; I suspected that it was of the queen of the Changelings and the part that I had to play in that particular event.
But the prize was in the centre of the room, a simple coffin of mahogany wood, inlaid with marble and ivory decals, all of which convened into the centre of the coffin where a six-pointed star, amethyst, was surrounded by the stars which made up my cutie mark. It was the work of a master craftpony, to see such a simple coffin which was crafted so beautifully that it made opening it, a hit to looks and styles everywhere. It was what had to be done though, and the resounding crack that my horn caused, echoed that sentiment. And amongst the bones and flesh that must have remained of the stand in, there lay a tiara of gleaming gold and with a star of deep purples and light pinks.
There was no dust upon the crown as I lifted it up and saw not a mote of dust anywhere. Almost vainly, I lifted the tiara up to my head, as if to check that it still fit me, lowering it onto my head as I reconnected with the element of magic again, it had never left me really. It was enough to cause me to let go of the magic that I held to keep the darkness and cold at bay though, forcing me to dispel both or risk my magic losing control in this enclosed space. But it was not darkness that greeted me when the spells were removed.
It was a shining light, bright as the stars above, coming from the corner of the room. It belonged to a necklace of gold and ruby, fastened around a cyan neck with a rainbow mane. It was worn by Rainbow Dash, half-starved and freezing, lying on the floor of my tomb. It still had the ruby red colour from a decade past, and it reflected in the rose eyes of the pony watching me now.
Neither of us moved, we both regarded each other by the eyes we stared into, staying like that for an amount of time that passed like an instant yet lasted hours. She was the first one to break the silence. "You're alive."
It wasn't a question, it was simply a statement, and she didn't try to argue the fact, just accepting it. It was something I liked about Rainbow, she didn't beat around the bush like other ponies, she got straight to the matter at hoof. Maybe if it was another time, a different place, things could have been different… No. That wasn't a path I wanted to follow for the moment. I simply replied to her. "And you are stupid." I didn't raise my voice, that would have just sent the wrong signals, I simply stated the fact and continued with the facts.
"You're starving, frozen and tired. Just how long have you been down here Rainbow, and why?" I think I saw something go out of her, and the little strength she seemed to have possessed seconds before dissipated into the air. "A week, I think. I stopped keeping count after the fifth time I slept." Her voice was weak, strained and wavering. If I was who I was ten years ago, I wouldn't have hesitated to go down to her aid, to help her somehow. It seemed my stronger heart had other plans. "And the why?"
She coughed against the floor, unable to move with her own strength it seemed, yet she still answered. "Why do you think?" A rasping cough. "Oh wait, you never knew, did you?" Her dry chuckle almost grating against my ears, begging me to at least give her some water. "You never knew what I truly thought about you. You never knew that I loved you." And that was where she stopped talking again, laying her head against her hooves, her raspy breath clearly audible now as she fought to draw breath into her lungs.
The next thing that Rainbow saw was me above her, holding some water I'd conjured, pure as crystal, and the antidote for Dash at the moment. I lowered the sphere of water over to her mouth, allowing her to drink deeply from it, which she did happily, whether or not it was her body forcing her to drink the vital liquid, or because she wanted to continue living, I didn't know. After letting her slurp noisily at the water for a bit, I drifted it away from her mouth, allowing her to breath and stating. "That doesn't explain why you're here now."
She laughed again, her voice slightly less a coherent crackle, and sounding more and more like a voice that Twilight could almost remember. "You don't get it, do you? I never gave up on you Twi, I never really believed that you were gone for good. I knew that if there was one mare who would be able to outdo Death, it would be you. I suppose I stayed loyal to you, that's why my element here is still alive and kicking I think. I never gave up waiting for you."
"So you waited in my tomb this week, what have you done for the last ten years?" This caused Rainbow to smile a weary smile with fiery eyes. "I travelled across Equestria, looking for a way to help you come back. I looked for a way to bring you back. I travelled from here to Manehatten, looking for something to do with science. I didn't find it. I went to the zebras to look for something religious, but found nothing. I went to Canterlot to find something magical, where there was no solution. I've travelled the world for you Twi, to look for a cure to death."
Maybe some emotion flickered in me for an instant, maybe I felt honoured that somepony would go to such lengths to save me, and maybe none of that happened and I replied "So why here, why now?"
"Because I promised myself that I would never let you go alone again, I intended to keep that promise, no matter what."
The silence returned again, not really an awkward one, just one where no-pony had anything else to fill it with. I had deduced what Rainbow meant easily enough, not that I liked it, but I still understood it. It seemed to fuel some part of me that I hadn't even realised was running on empty. Loyalty indeed. There was at least one good thought going through my mind though, 'I had found all five of my estranged friends.'
I just had to get them to talk to one another now.