Avatar: The Last Alicorn. Book 4: Alicorn

by Jeweled Pen

Avatar shorty 6: From day to night

Twilight sighed as she looked at the great arid plains. The Badlands, a place of mystery that very few ponies dared to traverse. Aside from those who had been born here. Many tribes of ponies, supposedly. But there were so many others, all those different types of creatures had come from here. Born and raised in this strange land and separate from the four nations.

She stepped forward and felt a shudder run through her as she moved from the Fire Tribe lands into the Badlands. Physically there was almost no difference. Both were dry and inhospitable to a pony that didn't know how to survive them. In fact, the only reason she could tell where one ended and the other began was because of the few small fragments that remained of the once great wall Discord had made. Most of it had disappeared with him, though some had not.

She shook her head and pushed the thoughts aside. There was nothing here, it was just a land like any other. But she couldn't shake that chill, that little bit of worry that flowed through her. She was only a few feet in and she was already glancing back. Maybe this was a bad idea. She'd heard stories, about how the weather was strange, with monsters and wild plants that tried to eat you. Maybe she should go home. Return to Harmony and spend the rest of her days maintaining and guiding the city.

She shook her head and turned back ahead. There was no point. The city was fine. It had metal benders, water benders and then the Shadowbolts. A council made up of some of the smartest ponies she knew, as well as non-ponies. Rainbow was a Wonderbolt with a family, Fluttershy ran an orphanage, Pinkie brought happiness to all over the countries (and had a family of such size that Twilight wondered if she was running an orphanage as well), Applejack and her family were spreading the skill of metal bending as quickly as they could, Rarity had begun the next stages of raising her family and was running a peaceful, happy nation and Spike was bringing the dragons back from the brink.

Harmony had been difficult, but with so many ponies coming together, it had worked. It had succeeded. She'd thought it would take decades to get in order, but it hadn't. It had taken... time. Lots of time. But not as long as she'd thought it would. It hadn't even taken her most of her life. Now though... now she was starting to feel useless again. A part of her felt like she didn't belong anymore, like she was a relic of a hundred years ago. She'd helped to fix the world, but now that she'd done that, it was time she disappeared. The next Avatar would grow up in this world, be a part of it from the get-go.

It wouldn't be an easy world, either. So many of her tools that had made the journey possible were now gone. There were no more Elements of Harmony, no Alicorn Amulet, just her bending. The world was recovering from the war, but the pieces were in place to have it recover. Now there was only one last thing for her to do. She put a hoof to her head and rubbed where the Element had once lay. It would be a brand new world for the next Avatar. All the tools that had been lost and destroyed in her wake were her responsibility. She didn't know if it was likely, or even if it was possible, but perhaps there would be a way to restore the Elements. If there was, she knew the Alicorn Amulet would be the key. Maybe somehow she could find it.

She took another step into the Badlands and let out a soft sigh. She could do this. She would do this. She was the Avatar, well over a hundred years old and one of the most powerful benders in existence. Even if her friends weren't with her physically, they were with her in spirit. Besides, she'd had dozens of reports of the Badlands from Harmony's many guests. She'd seen maps and other things. She doubted there could be another pony that could traverse it half as well as she could.

Even if the weather did have an odd habit of changing rapidly. She frowned as it began to rain on her, then let out an annoyed sigh as it turned to snow. She was beginning to understand why it was that ponies didn't like coming to such a strange place. She looked back towards the wall, or rather the remains. To her amazement, she couldn't see it anymore. Had she gone so far already? Or were these strange lands just that... strange?

She shook her head and turned back. She had a mission to do, a duty. She broke the Elements, the least she could do was give the tools to the next generation to face whatever showed its face.

The hail turned back to steamy sun soon enough and the arid land became dry once again. She could feel it in the air, though. A tingling. A strangeness that seemed to flow all around her, from every side and push down on her. It took her a while to realize what it was.

She felt like she was back in the spirit realm. A small orb of fire formed on the tip of her horn and she let out a sigh of relief. No, she was still there, still held her bending. But the world still felt ill at ease. A tingling in the air, much like what had flowed through the spirit world. Everything just felt... off.

It all looked normal enough, though. There was a path to follow, though it was narrow it had obviously been well traveled. Deep hoof prints were embedded within. She even passed a small group of four ponies, two unicorns, an earth pony and a pegasus, though they only gave her a cursory glance. There were no monsters, no spirits, no great behemoths of destruction. Even the weather never got worse than a stinging hail. All in all, it was an almost pleasant trip. The feeling of unease began to waiver as well. Things just felt... different here. Not the same as in other places, but different. Less filled with life. She considered jumping into the spirit world, taking a peep around but decided against it. Trixie had so many years ahead of her that she couldn't waste any time.

Trixie. She let out another soft sigh. To think that she would be pursuing the very mare that had haunted her for so long. That pawn of Discord that was used again and again to nearly kill them. She wondered if the mare was suffering, if she was frightened, scared and alone.

She couldn't help but feel a small flicker of pity for the mare. What had it been like, growing up under the rule of Nightmare Moon? She knew not everypony in the Water Nation was evil, in fact there were many good ones. If things had been different, what would Trixie have become? A friend? An ally? Perhaps even one of the Elements? Would she have still been one of Discord's pawns? Would she have helped oppose him? What if Trixie had been born a fire bender instead of a water bender? What if she had been in the place of Blueblood? Would they have still fought? Would the fire benders have been more open? Less open? Would she have died then? Would her friends?

She'd seen so many ponies, their actions and decisions tainted by that foul corruption. By the Water Nation. By Discord. It would have been so easy to just hate Trixie. To despise that mare for all she'd cost them. It would have been the easiest thing in the world and a part of her wanted to do just that.

But she couldn't. Not now. Not ever again. She thought about those times she'd let anger and hate take over. When she'd abandoned her kindness. Pushed away her loyalty. Refused to laugh. Showed no generosity. Lied to herself. The things she'd done. The things she'd almost done. If it hadn't been for her friends, would she and Trixie have really been so different? When the time came, would she have chosen to just destroy, to just end everything? To let the pain and suffering overwhelm her and wipe out the Water Nation until nothing but a few pebbles remained? To destroy all those who opposed her?

She knew when the time came, she might have to kill Trixie. It would hardly be the first time she'd had to do it. But she didn't want to. She hoped there was still some part of that mare, some part that was still good, some part that could grow and be saved. Because the stars knew that Twilight, of all ponies, had been saved more times than she could count.

Comments

[eric-emanwu]

Oh, so Twilight DID manage to fulfill Starswirl's wish to travel on again! But...as a business trip? Ugh. Still never resting. (Yeah, talk about a workaholic.) By the way pinkie, are all those kids biologically yours, or just adopted? (Well, my body couldn't handle itself if I had like 30 foals over the years, so what do you think?) Eh, makes sense to me.

Anyways, so Twilight was swooping into the badlands, on the search for Trixie. Wanting to retrieve the amulet, see if there was any way to reconnect with Harmony through it. And more importantly, to find out if Trixie can be saved, just as she was so many times.

It wasn't easy, as the trek through the badlands was...disorienting to say the least. No doubt due to operating on the same logics that Everfree does. But the search begins, and perhaps even the tree of harmony/the rainbow power chest awaits. For the next avatar to solve, since inevitably, Twilight's bound to die with at least 1 regret.

Whatever the case, things were going well with her teams. Harmony had "the council" up and running, so she didn't need to lead it the same way anymore. RD had a family as a career soldier, Shy had moved away from teaching healing to take over helping children, Pinkie had a ginormous family spreading joy all over the world, AJ and her family was spreading Metalbending worldwide, Rarity had her foal with blueblood, and Spike was still the dragon master. The world was A-OK. So Twilight now had free time to go on one last business trip. One that might kill her going forward, but nonetheless, she went out, seeking a soul to save, becasue she knows she could easily have been corrupted several times, so she's going to try helping again.

Well, looks like we're nearing the end of The Last Alicorn.

[GMZ_Casper]

I hope Twilight get through to Trixie, though I got a feeling it won't be easy. Especially considering her role with Discord.

C&Cs will be PM.