All students of magic know his name: Starswirl the Bearded, great prodigy of spellcasting and personal student to Princess Celestia. The academic community owes his legacy an enormous debt, as do all students of higher-level magic.
Very few ponies know that Starswirl the Bearded was also history's greatest and most important failure.
The so-called Destiny Spell was the culmination of Starswirl's entire life's work. It was the greatest spell that he ever cast--and it was also the last spell that he ever cast.
Warning, comments contain major spoilers.
Chapters (1)
3926015 Could ya spoiler that post? :)
i didnt get it
Fantastic! Here have this
So reading between the lines...
Yep. I can dig it. Absolutely.
Wait, that last bit...
huh, who would've thought? I always figured that little guy was special.
So you're not shipping Spike and Starswirl? 0/10 worst story ever.
Oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh
Possible Spoiler Warning
Okay, I love this story, but I have to ask:
Why is Starswirl's spell a failure? I mean, granted, he alienated himself from his family and friends and I can see how that could be deemed as a failure, but the spell did work. If I'm not mistaken, the purpose of the spell was to allow the power of Destiny to flow into the caster, and it accomplished its purpose. I realize that the wording of "failure" is not accidental here and there's a purpose for how it was used, I just don't know what that purpose is. It's something that's nagging my brain.
4141120
The spell isn't the failure, the spell worked perfectly. The failure was because his destiny had itself become failure.
4141120
4141319
He lost his chance at something much greater. And that chance was passed on to someone else.
I'm not sure that I fully understand the ending, but here's my take on it. What I'm getting here is that Starswirl wound up reincarnating as Spike. That's actually pretty fitting, since it would mean that while he lost his shot at becoming something far greater, his next life became intertwined with the one his destiny got passed along to. So much like the progression of the season 3 finale, it was a failure that was followed up with a chance to make the best of things. Twilight ultimately achieved her destiny, but she also had Spike to keep her on that path whenever she started to stray from it.
Now that ending... was unexpected and original. I'm not sure if I like it but it was original.
In general, this story was fairly as-expected. Starswirl being in many ways similar to Twilight but, having never really come to appreciate friendship or, possibly, having a harder and more monomaniac mind-set, having forced himself to set it aside in the name of his studies. Naturally, in the end, he was alone and had failed to achieve his destiny. I wonder if that final magical suicide was in some ways an apology to poor Bluebelle and his friends?
No wonder he's so fond of #25...
It's getting him closer to his destiny!
Wait a second, so this fanfic indirectly ships Rarity and Starswirl the Bearded? Huh.
Also, congratulations, this is the first time I've tried using the spoiler tag.
No beards, but have a mustache instead.
That ending. Nice
4142189
It took me longer than I care to admit to realize why you said that. In retrospect, this is a wasted opportunity on my part. I should've written Bluebelle to be similar to Rarity.
Interesting take, but while the reincarnation (?) kinda of resolves the story I don't really think it make much sense. It would have made more sense (to me at least) if when Twilight got her cutie mark, Starswirl fell out of the ether as a new foal with either a different cutie mark or as a blank flank with a different destiny. Granted that it depends on how you figure dragon reproduction works. Honestly I think of Spike as existing sort of in stasis before he hatched, and so Starswirl would have to push another soul out rather than filling an empty space or superimposing itself on another and forming a new thing.
In any case I'd like to think from your ending that someday Spike might remember who he used to be and at least be able to laugh a little at what destiny did to him and maybe let Celestia in on it. It just feels a little ridiculous to imply destruction of all that Starswirl was. Memory at least should be intact I'd think even if a baby dragon can't comprehend complex memories.
4142948
You should have.
So, he's Spike...
Very fitting since Spike still fails at life.
4142948 There's always alternate universe fanfictions for that.
, you probably thought that this spoiler was something dirty. Shame on you. And that's all I have to say on that subject. 
Judging by the following emoticons,
Why is it so many bronies assume Starswirl was Tia's student? I did the math, he predated her. He was quite possibly dead by the time she was born.
4144338
I like to think that celestia learnt from Starswirl, not the other way around.
So starswirl became spike? thats awesome
That's pretty clever... Nicely done.
4144338 Do you even read the comics? They blatantly say that Star Swirl and Celestia were friends.
4152258
Dragonlover's post allows for the possibility that they were contemporaries ("He was quite possibly dead by the time she was born"), but he's right that Starswirl would have had to predate the Princesses as rulers. His student, Clover the Clever, was one of the founders of Equestria from the Hearth's Warming story, and during the story the unicorns still controlled the sun and moon and were ruled by Princess Platinum.
Of course, the worldbuilding is pretty loose in MLP, so there's a lot of conflicting information. They tend to throw previously-established canon over the side to tell the story they're currently telling.
4146786 it makes sense.
Woah! Spectacular ending!
Uh...I am confused.
4528741
the story indicated that Starswirl the Bearded was reincarnated as Spike.
5927240 I read that story almost a year ago, but I think I didn't get that.
So yeah, thanks
5927410
no problem
I remember reading and upvoting this forever ago, before I had my upvote folder. Pleased to find it again.