Princess Day
It's Princess Day!
Princess Day is the best day ever, because we all get to meet the Princess of Friendship! It only happens in Ponyville, and it always happens on the first day of school after Winter Wrap-Up, but only if you just started school. You get to meet Princess Twilight and talk to her all alone, and it's really special and it's finally here!
My big brother Oaks tells me when you meet the Princess, she casts some funny spell on you to see if you're gonna get your cutie mark extra early, like when you're still five. Most ponies never met anypony who got a cutie mark that early, but my brother did! He was special so she had to cast another spell where she got to see the future through his eyes, just far enough to see what his cutie mark would look like! It's kind of embarrassing because she sees all the weird and bad stuff you do too, like going to the bathroom. But you have to do it because she's a princess. If you're sick or something she'll come to your house and you can do it there. I get sick a lot, so I thought that might happen, but I'm okay today. I was sick over most of the Winter but I got better on Tuesday.
You always get to meet the Princess no matter what, even if you're too old for her to cast the spell. She only needs to do it if you're still five when you start school, but that means she has to do it to me because I'm still five, like most foals in Grade One. I used to be scared about meeting the princess, because even though nopony gets a cutie mark as quick as my brother, what if I'm like my brother because he's my brother? Then she might have to see all the weird stuff I do. But my brother says he's not the only pony who had the special spell cast because a few other ponies got their cutie marks early too. My brother's eight years older than me, so he knows about a bunch of stuff. He says the Princess does it for the see-cure-tee of Equestria because she's worried about something secret. I'd be worried about lots of things if I was a Princess, so I guess that's okay.
I'm sitting here in class and I'm real excited when it's my turn! A filly nopony talks to much because she's shy comes back from meeting the Princess and it looks like she's cried maybe, but she's also smiling so I bet it was still good. Teacher calls my name and I race right into the room faster than she can!
Inside the room it's Princess Twilight! She's talking to an old unicorn lady in a nice dress who is taking notes on some papers. I'm standing right there in the room and watching.
"Put her down for a possible, threat rating two. No cause for alarm," says the princess. I don't get it, but she has a nice voice. She kinda sounds like me I think, even though I'm a colt, but I'm young so my voice is still kinda girly.
"Prophecy or not, there's never been cause, darling," says the old lady.
"Hopefully it will happen long after your time, old friend," says the Princess, and she rubs the lady on the cheek with her hoof for some reason. Maybe she had a smudge on her cheek, but it makes her cheek turn a little red.
"Twilight, please. You know these old bones would stand with you in a heartbeat if any threat to Equest—"
"I'm sorry Princess, he got away from me!" says my teacher, cause she just got to the doorway. I'm really fast for an earth pony, but I'm not s'posed to run a lot because I can't breathe so good all the time.
Both ladies stop talking and see me. I'm standing real still because I forgot what I was gonna say! My mouth is open and I'm just staring at the Princess and how big and pretty she is! Her mane is waving like there's wind even though there isn't any wind, and it sparkles like nighttime. Even the old lady is pretty too, for being an old mare I mean. I bet being pretty is part of your job if you work for a princess.
"Please, call me Twilight," she says to my teacher, and she smiles real nice like Mommy. Then she looks right at me! "You can call me Twilight, too," she says, and smiles again. Now I know I was worried for no reason, cause princesses are super nice.
"We'll be fine," says the old lady, and my teacher nods and shuts the door so we're all alone.
There's a little chair, just for me I bet, but I'm too excited to sit. "P-Princess Twilight, I mean Twilight, hi my name is Daylily and I'm a colt and I'm almost six years old and you're both really pretty," I say really fast. I start to gasp so I pull my Special Buddy out of my saddlebags I gotta wear and I squeeze him and take a deep breath from him.
The old unicorn lady sits next to me and reaches around me with a leg. "Are you okay, dear?" she asks real soft.
"Yeah I just can't breathe good when I'm excited and she's a princess," I whisper but I bet Twilight can hear me because she's a princess, and I didn't say it real soft either.
"It's okay. I'm pleased to meet you, Daylily," she says my name and everything, and she reaches out and I shake her hoof. She's not wearing shoes like the princesses in picture books but I don't care.
The old lady still has her leg around me and she smells nice like flowers. "You know, I have a friend who uses an inhaler too," she says to me, and I don't get it but she points at my Special Buddy and then I do.
"Oh wow!" I say. "Really?"
She smiles at me again. "Yes. She's my niece, and she is a darling young mare," she says.
"Do you like foals?" I ask. While I'm talking, Twilight (the princess) is looking at some papers.
The old lady laughs. "I do! Though back when I was a young mare, I didn't used to like being around colts and fillies at all. However, I had a very close friend who did, and after spending some time with her foals I discovered what I was missing," she says. Then she says something else that I think is really smart, "Friends and family are what make life full, and worth living."
I nod because I already ran out of words, and then Twilight looks at me again. "Alrighty," she says, which doesn't sound like a princess word, but she is a princess. "I'm going to cast a spell now to see if you're really close to getting your cutie mark."
"Like how close?" I ask.
"Before you turn six!" she says.
I giggle. "Like my brother!"
"Really? Maybe you'll get lucky then," she says.
Then Princess Twilight's horn glows a really bright pink, and then everything glows pink, and then the glow goes away and she nods to the other mare.
"Very well, then," says the old mare. "It looks like you're in luck! According to the spell Twilight just cast, you're due to get your cutie mark extra early. Now, do you know what this means?"
"It means she gotsta look into my future, right? My brother did it too," I say. "That was a loooooong time ago."
"That's right. Now, don't worry, it won't hurt," says the lady. "You wouldn't even know we were doing it if we didn't tell you, but you have a right to know, even though you're very young."
"That's right. I'm going to get to see private things from your life, because I'll be seeing things through your eyes in the future," says Princess Twilight. "But it's okay, because I promise never to tell anypony anything embarrassing I see, and everypony has embarrassing things happen to them, even me. I just want a peek at the moment you get your cutie mark, and that's all I need to see. Are you ready?"
"I guess. What do I do?" I ask.
"Just sit back and relax. You won't even feel anything," says the Princess, motioning to the chair. I go over and sit up in the chair and try to relax but I'm real nervous so it's hard.
Then her horn glows pink again and a spot above my eyebrows glows pink too I think, and Princess Twilight's eyes glow white. Princesses can make a lot of stuff glow.
"He's close to six already, so I'll start by moving forward by one week at a time," says Twilight. "Once I overshoot, I'll do a binary search to find the exact moment he gets it."
"Let me know when you see it," says the unicorn lady.
Suddenly, the princess gasps and her mouth opens real wide and she shivers in place.
"Twilight? Darling, is everything alright?" says the unicorn lady. She sounds worried, and I'm worried too. She stands in front of the princess and waves her hoof in front of her face but Twilight keeps staring like she's looking all the way through her and then right through me and maybe right through the floor too.
But the Princess doesn't say anything, and then she starts to drool a little bit. The old lady starts getting upset probably because if you're a princess you're not supposed to drool, but I wasn't gonna tell anypony.
"Twilight! Come back to me," says the lady, and she starts shaking the Princess by her shoulders. Her neck wobbles back and forth but her horn and her eyes keep glowing anyway, and so does that spot I can barely see over my eyes. Finally, she slaps Princess Twilight really hard on the horn! The pink glow goes away and Twilight falls to the floor. She holds her hooves to her mouth and it sounds like she is screaming but she does it with her hooves over her mouth and nose so you can't hear it hardly, and that's good because I'm scared somepony would think I did something bad.
"Did I do something bad?" I say.
"No," says the unicorn lady. "Twilight, what is it?"
Twilight lays on the floor panting and staring at nothing for what seems like forever, but it was probably only a minute. I'm way too scared to say anything.
"I... I slipped past the threshold," she says, as her front hooves rattle against the flooring.
"What thresh—oh no. The poor dear, you don't mean?"
The princess nods without looking up.
"But then why..."
Twilight looks up at her friend. There are tears running down her cheeks and she looks like she just saw a real scary movie, like I saw a scary movie with my brother once but this must've been scarier because I didn't even cry that much. She and the lady keep talking while I don't move or say nothing no more.
"I can't cast this spell ever again. I can't risk a repeat experience."
"The prophecy?"
"It doesn't matter. I can't do it. I can't. I can't."
"I don't understand, dear." The older lady leans down to nuzzle at Twilight's cheek kinda like Mommy does. I wonder if she's the Princess's Mommy but I don't think she is.
"It was horrible," she whispers. "So cold, so painfully empty. Not like darkness or real cold, though. It... it was unbeing. Emptiness as a concept, a thing beyond reason, but horribly, terribly real. Disconnected from everything, even from the sensation of being disconnected."
"It's just the spell, Twilight. I'm sure it has to have some way to work when you cross a line like that."
"No. It was real, more real than joy or pain or friendship. It was too real. I could tell."
"Twilight, what are you saying?"
"It's worse than Tartarus. It's worse than the mind can imagine. It's impossibly horrible. You can't die, Rarity. Nopony can die." Princess Twilight is shivering like it's really cold inside but it isn't, and she's looking up and down really fast.
"Well... everypony dies, darling."
And then the Princess screams real loud.
That was the last Princess Day ever. The other kids think I did something bad even though the teacher told them I didn't and it wasn't my fault. But it's okay, because I'm sick a lot so I don't go to class anymore. My parents talked to the nice lady and they got sad but they gave me lots of ice cream later. I eat ice cream almost every day now!
I don't know why they stopped Princess Day, but at least I'll get my cutie mark real soon.
My birthday's in just two weeks!
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Oh that is creepy. If she only went a week at a time....the poor colt doesn’t know the truth. Bravo for blindsiding me on where the horror element comes in and why.
So...is it the end of the world in two weeks and she found out there's nothing after death or something?
But, isn't Daylily a girl's name?
8974394
The colt is dying, Twilight accidentally tried to observe him while he was dead.
8974428
Ah, yeah, that makes more sense in context. Guess the whole prophecy thing was just a red herring that kept me thinking it was something more earth shattering.
Well done! Very foreboding. I'm left wondering what Twilight's rationale is behind what she is doing—aside from what's written—but otherwise I was pretty shaken. Both elements in this story give it kind of a distinct dystopian feeling.
Excellent story, leaving all the horror to the reader's imagination. Have a Fav!
8974394
The thing Twilight's looking for isn't related to the outcome of her scan of Daylily—he wasn't who she was looking for. He just happened to be close to death when she scanned his memories.
poor twilight.. seeing him get his mark when he dies...
That was as frightening as any Rod Serling Twilight Zone episode.
Sometimes we can learn too much!
It kinda sound like "good thing you'll die soon".
Can she erase part of her memory or trick another unicorn into casting the spell instead of herself?
It may be a good time to start fixing this.
So, if Twilight was going to take 1 week steps and then binary search, then his birthday most likely was almost exactly 3 weeks after Princess Day. And she's found out after first iteration. Is it happening today?
It's not like the dead are sentient to experience it the way Twilight was, so no trauma for them. Twilight's just being a wimp :P
8974664
If it was simple cessation, then the vision would probably just end or she would continue seeing a corpse. I believe the implication is that the emptiness is a real place where ponies go and what they experience after they die.
8974697
That's practically nonsensical. They have no brain but are still conscious? You might as well agonize over the consciousness of rocks. I think Twilight was traumatized because she IS sentient; the non-sentient corpse doesn't feel anything. She states that she's not describing any place or anything, but just non-existence.
I agree it was probably nothingness after death. Why would that be a surprise? That's just how it (probably) goes.
An interesting story, but I sorta feel it wasn't really long enough to get the full effect
Oh. Oh.
8974608
so THAT'S what it was implying!
oh
THAT'S what it was implying...
uh...
oh my...
8974876
yea, remember- twilight said she was going 1 week at a time. then reread her description of what she experienced. the colt lived another 2 weeks at most
oh......... okay then........ that happened.
Holy hell that was a blindside. That was great, keep it up!
Oh shit... that ending is actually quite dark. Now, what did I do with that flashlight?
I've always been a fan of horror told through the eyes of children because there's always an element of innocence to it that makes the horror elements all the more striking. This story is a wonderful example of that and overall an excellent read. Probably one of the best horror oneshots I've ever read on this site.
8975221
Very good story!
The feels are there, and I was caught of guard by the ending.
Well done!
Also, since Twilight said she was never going to cast the spell again, isn't it possible that the prophecy is going to come true, and NO OTHER PONY has a future beyond two weeks?
My favourite thing is to not look at tags. If it is M rated I just check for things in the description for fetishes and check red tags to make sure it isn't some edgy shit.
This really blindsided me, but I can easily look back on the story and see the clues leading up to it. You did a great job!
and then twilight began her crusade against death
Oh, Twilight, you just didn't go far enough to find this cozy place.
vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/darksouls/images/e/e2/Theabyss.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20130720063207
Also...
Fear not, the dark, my friend.
And let the feast begin.
8976071
I read the tag on stories and this still tripped me up, but probably just because I'm super tired. This was really good short story :D
8974412
I don’t want to put words in Trick’s mouth, but I reckon that the name comes from lilies’ common association with funerals and death.
I know part of the magic of the story is leaving the mystery for the reader to ponder but damn it I wanna know just how deep this horror goes... I mean the story image is what looks like the event horizon of a black hole. I gotta know!
8974542
Then who was she looking for?
"And that's why Grand Empress Twilight Sparkle researched Dark Magic heavily and granted all who live the gift of Eternal Life."
8974745
Agreed. Leaving a little mystery can be okay, but there's got to be more to it than unresolved / unexplained plot hooks.
It's a great scrap, though.
8976924
Twilight used a spell to see into the colt's future through his eyes in one-week intervals, going up to his birthday. His birthday was in two weeks. The "threshold" she crossed was the time of his death, meaning that he's going to die sometime in the next two weeks. What she saw seems to have led her to believe that you simply cease to exist after death.
Maybe she saw the dead are aware after death. Imagine being aware and stuck in your dead body, either in agony if you are cremated or decomposing in a coffin in the dark forever.
Okay....This story allows me to gauge something. Is everyone here an atheist? I mean, this whole thing of non-existence after death and people just accepting it around here with no objections is starting to look scary for different reasons...
8978540
Firstly, I got the opposite impression from this fic.
“You can’t die, Rarity. Nopony can die.” Makes it sound like she saw that ponies were still conscious after death, like an eternal purgatory rather than unexistence.
Secondly, being an aetheist does not mean you don’t believe in an afterlife. It just means you don’t believe in conscious higher powers.
Well this was a horribly dark take on the afterlife. But it gives me a story idea, so thanks!
8978648
Your response is one nil towards my belief that a lot of people on here are atheists. Not to mention I'd bet other disturbing aspects as well, like believing that communism is an actual solution to economic problems in the US...
Real shit, a black hole is a cosmic construct that defies nature as we know it. Everything breaks down, and these things are such paragons of unspeakable horror that you DO NOT want to DIE even NEAR one. Black holes are the type of thing where your whole body becomes a new universe and 500 planet earths simultaneously. Its where you live 12 lives all in sequence at once, all while feeling hellfire pain in each lifetime. Black holes are without form or substance. To even die near one ensures even horror in death. DO NOT joke around about these things.
8977322
Hmmm... not as much as I was hoping. That's kind of my outlook for death in real life anyway.
8978788
Wat
8978755
Good thing there's nothing wrong with being an athiest then. And literally no one here is suggesting communism as a fix to anything. Literally no one. Why did you even bring it up in the first place?
Good story, but a little too short for me to get into.
8978540
You're basing this observation off a story with 42-ish comments, and a fan base that is general more accepting of others than any other fanbase?
I'm religious and believe in an afterlife. However, that doesn't mean I can't read and enjoy another's point of view. For example, reincarnation would be cool. If there is nothing after death, then cool. Not going to give myself a hernia over worrying about it or arguing about it though.
I'm curious, would you be expecting religious people or those who believe in an afterlife downvote this thing or crusade through the comments ranting against the author's belief? This isn't deviantart...
Still featured? Good job.
8978788
uhhhh...
I assume you believe differently about black holes?
Black holes are objects with very high density, so much so that not even light can escape. If you wanted a black hole the mass of Earth, it would have to be the size of a golf ball. Anyways, they don't defy nature. We just don't know what is past the event horizon. Also, they have a form. It's called a sphere.
We cannot tell what the substance would be, due to, I don't know, the fact that not even light can escape the black hole?
Also, why do you assume we ALL are atheists? I don't believe in or follow a religion, but that doesn't mean I don't think there is an afterlife. There HAS to be something after death. What it is is that Twilight was basically looking through death. She was seeing through a dead filly's eyes.
Anyways, please stop these rage-hate comments. They are ruining your reputation.
(if you have/had one that I didn't know about)
Wait wait wait. Dear author, can you explain something to me? Is this the first time she has ever come across a child that died during the search period? Is this a case of “unreliable narrator“ since the kid is only five years old and the story is told from his point of you? Because Twilight, while understandably shaken, should not be surprised at this outcome.
Also, if this is a “everybody dies“ prophecy, she definitely should’ve been on the lookout for something like this to happen.
8979102
Yes to the first question. The odds of finding a foal who gets their cutie mark so early combined with the odds they die right after getting their mark are very low.
8978788
Ok, as funny as this post is, you can stop making random shit up about black holes. We actually know a decent bit about them. What we don't know for certain, we can speculate to a (most likely) reasonable degree of accuracy about, and every single thing you said about them is complete nonsense. We have science for a reason.
Aside from that, this fic has nothing at all to do with black holes, so I'm fuzzy on why you even brought them up.
Cripes! Well done both in concept and execution!