Twilight's End

by MasterThief

The Last And First Problem

(((Twilight… please wake up. We need you.)))

Her name was Twilight Sparkle. She was an Alicorn Princess of Equestria. And all she knew was that she was supposed to be dead.

“My faithful student,” the Princess said. “You are dying. Your mind cannot maintain itself. You were given this image of me to ease your passage.”

“You did so so so so good,” Megan said, hugging Twilight close to her. “And all your friends are waiting too.”

(((Twilight… please… if you can hear me… wake up.)))

She tried to respond. But she felt something filling up her throat, making it impossible to speak. She knew her head, body, limbs, wings, even tail were all intact, but she could not move them. There was something hard covering her face and eyes, rigid tubes in her nostrils and throat, but… these went deeper than before.. More tubes went into her chest and abdomen, also reaching into deep places. The rest of her body floated in liquid, but she could not move. She felt a membrane around her, enclosing her, trapping her.

Her name was Twilight Sparkle. At least, this version of her.

She was a toy from a public domain children’s cartoon. She was broken. She was dead.

And yet she was not.

She had done a great deed. She had stopped a war. She had taught, and this time, this time, her lessons had stuck.

But she was dead.

Not… dead?

She breathed. She panicked. Unable to move, she simply twitched in what contained her, afraid and alone.

The unspeaking voice spoke to her again.

(((Twilight… It's OK. You’re OK. I’m here, Sugarcube. Just slow your breathing. You can speak to me.)))

Somehow, in some way, Twilight remembered. She, too, knew how to speak without speaking.

(((Applejack? Is that you? Please… I’m scared… what’s happening to me? Help me… get me out, get me out get me out get me out please get me out–)))

(((Shhh…. It’s OK, it’s OK. You’re fine. Just take slow, deep breaths, Twi. It’s AJ. It’s me. I’m here. It’s OK.)))

Applejack. She remembered. Honesty.

Applejack, too, should not be. One instance of her was a children’s story; the other a long-broken toy destroyed on impact of the UNSV Harmony,

And yet she, too, was not. She was…

(((...Am I dead?)))

(((Oh, Twilight, not at all! You’ve just… well, something wonderful has happened.))) Twilight could have sworn she heard more emotions in the unspeaking voice, joy, relief, wonderment, all together. (((I’m here for you. A lot of people are.)))

Twilight’s mind began to race. (((People? Humans? I’m back with humans?)))

(((Shhh….))) Applejack's calming voice, (((you’ll have all your answers soon. Remember, slow, deep breaths. Now, you’re gonna feel a little weird. We’re gonna bring you out of there, and then we’ll answer all your questions, OK?)))

Twilight instinctively nodded, though her body was still contained and the movement did not translate. But she still made herself understood.

The fluid drained, the membrane opened, her eyes were uncovered but unfocused. Twilight felt all the tubes being pulled out of her, from her sides, her face, her neck, everywhere. And she could hear AJ’s voice, clearly, with her own ears. “Now this last one’s gonna feel weird. I need ya to take a deep breath, and when you feel it tuggin’, just cough, like you just sucked in some dust in yer library, OK?”

Twilight nodded and felt her chest expand. These tubes were long, running deep down from her mouth into her chest. Removing them was painful, something tearing away inside. And after that, Twilight coughed up what looked like foamy blue gel.

“It’s OK, Sugarcube, we got ya, we got ya.” Applejack patted her back as Twilight threw up and gasped and struggled to breathe.

“Parameters are nominal. O2-CO2 cycle established,” came a new and mechanical and unfamiliar voice.

It took what felt like an eternity for Twilight (I don’t have an internal clock anymore, she realized), but she soon felt her breathing stabilize. Her chest moving in and out. She could move again. She felt her body with a gentle hoof. It felt warm. She pressed her chest, and instead of a hard plastic shell under canvas with polyester, she felt… real hair. Skin. Underneath… flesh?

She blinked, her eyes adjusting to light, color, shapes, stereoscopy. “I… I’m not a robot? Droid? Toy? What… what was I? What am I?”

“Not a robot…” Twilight heard that unfamiliar voice say. “Not… anymore.” She looked up searching for the source of the voice, and her eyes focused on… a su’ha’ya?

Impossible! They cannot speak to us! But she looked at the floating being, who was wearing some kind of sealed suit. With a clear visor. She could see the eyes inside, full of kindness.

“Your eyes… you’re happy to see me–” Twilight said, then stopped. “How do I know that? I don’t have any subroutines. What happened? What am I?”

“You will not need subroutines anymore. Su’ha’ya technology works differently. Organic body, organic logic.”

Su’ha’ya… Twilight thought. Memories came flooding back to her. “Su’ha’ya. That was what the aliens we found called themselves.”

“Yes. I am one of them.”

Twilight looked confused.

Then, sounds came from the helmet of its hard suit.

“Ti-Li. Zpa-ku.”

Twilight’s eyes lit up, and instantly filled with tears. “...Ocellus?”

The su’ha’ya nodded, as she had taught him.

She leapt into his six powerful appendages, pressing her body to his. “You remembered! You remembered! I told you you would remember!”

(((I could not forget first storyteller/friend mine,))) he said, and she heard him in her mind.

“You grew up,” Twilight whispered. “You got big.”

Twilight heard Applejack, half-laughing, half-crying. “We did it, Oci,” she said, gripping her red bandana with her hooves, “We did it!”

“How… are you here? What is this place?”

(((It is a human space station. It is called Concorde Station. We work with humans here. We share knowledge.)))

“Been here the whole time,” came a woman’s voice. Twilight heard the click of human shoes, and saw the woman, who had dark hair and kind eyes, dressed in a scientist’s lab coat of the kind she well remembered from the Harmony. “Ocellus is one of their best scientists. Su’ha’ya and humans are allies now. Among the first of many we’ve made. We’ve been trading and sharing knowledge and culture for more than 25 years now.”

“25 years… how… how long was I…”

The woman checked what looked like a handheld tablet. “27 years, four months, 22 days, six hours and change since your original body went offline.” She exhaled, and looked at Twilight, relief in the lines of her brow. “Honestly, we thought we’d never get you back. But Ocellus has some pull, and the Su’Ha’Ya insisted we try. And, well, when a good friend asks for your help, you help, right?”

“But… the Mindseeds? Their World-Tree? How…” A horrifying thought arose in her. “You’re all part of them now?” She felt her pulse (why do I have a pulse now?) racing, her breaths becoming faster and unsteady.

The woman looked puzzled, and then alarmed. “What? Oh! Oh, oh God no! We’re still all ourselves, you don’t have to worry about that!” The woman pulled up a lab stool, and sat down next to Ocellus and Twilight and Applejack, who had not left her friend’s side. She touched the fur of Twilight’s face, calming her. “The Su’ha’ya are a semi-autonomous collective gestalt consciousness. I… trust you know those words?”

Twilight nodded again, slowly calming herself and remembering. “One mind, one consciousness. Their larvae aren’t born as part of it. They… grow into it when they become adults. All life on their world does. Mindseeds, they call them. Spores. Integrated into their bodies. But it’s… it’s fatal to…”

The images of the dead children, Megan and Eun and Rajiv and Molly and Daniel and Pippa and Alexi and all of them, her friends. All flooded back into her. She hated those memories. She did not want to see them again. Even though she felt AJ’s hoof–a real hoof, as real as hers–stroking her back, the memories would not leave.

“They were fatal, but no longer,” the woman said. “The research from the UNSV Harmony that you completed and sent made it possible to develop a vaccine. Exposure to Mindseeds no longer means a fatal allergic reaction to us. It’s still not good for us long-term though. The spores are still highly toxic to all Terran life. Our biologies are just too different. Sadly, it means humans and su’ha’ya can’t share worlds, or space stations. But we haven’t let that stop us from communicating. We’ve just… learned to be careful, that’s all.” The woman looked at Ocellus, and smiled. Then she leaned in, closer, her comforting form hanging over Twilight. “It’s okay if you feel sad. We all do. But I don’t think the children of the Harmony would want you to be sad forever. Isn’t that right, Applejack?”

“The good Doc’s right, Twilight,” AJ concurred. “All that matters is now. And now is… well, pretty happy, I reckon.”

Twilight thought all this over, and she was, at least, able to put the sadness aside. “So… if you’re not working for the su’ha’ya…”

The woman extended her hand. “Doctor Larissa Chae. I lead our scientific exchange program with the Su’ha’ya Mind here. But my personal specialty is Integrated Intelligences.”

Twilight extended a cautious hoof, and greeted the Doctor. “Where’s… here,” she asked, nervously. “I know it’s a station…”

“Yep, In orbit of… well, we were going to call it the New Circe Colony,” Dr. Chae said. “But now, it’s s’Kas’am’T’iwi’ku’su–”

“–The Place of Harmony?” Twilight shocked even herself. She knew su’hay’an, and could speak it fluently too.

She looked up at Chae, who tapped a few commands on her tablet. A section of the wall changed, becoming a window. Through the window, a planet. Twilight gasped, and tried to fly to the window, but instead tumbled off of the table. So she just ran to it, hooves clattering on the floor. She pressed her face to the cold metal glass to see, to take it all in from above. Great seas and clouds, dry brown land spotted with verdant green, surface lights sparkling like solitary stars in the night as the planet slowly turned about its axis, night becoming day.

Twilight did not know she could cry. She did not remember crying in her old body. But now she could not stop herself, tears blurring her vision.. “It’s… it’s… so…”

And she could find no words to say. She felt Applejack embracing her tightly. Ocellus and Dr. Chae soon joined them, sitting down on the floor next to them. They sat there in silence for a very long time.

Finally, Twilight spoke. “What about the Harmony? All the crew, all the families…”

“The Harmony is still down there, where it crash-landed,” Dr. Chae said. “The bodies of the crew and their children could not be returned to Earth, so they were buried there. The su’ha’ya tend the place. It is a memorial for them as much as for us.” She stroked Twilight’s mane. “What you did… what you taught them… what you taught us… it was nothing short of a miracle. You have no idea just how special you are. To the su’ha’ya, and to us. So yeah, we had to bring you back. They wanted you back. So did we.”

A thought came to Twilight, and she spoke without thinking. “I have to be sure. I have to see. I need to see my old body.”

---

An hour later, Twilight was looking over her body. Her old, broken, electromechanical body, fake fur torn away, the gash in her chest, her bent wing and damaged hooves, wires running everywhere inside, the back half of her skull and her structural column opened to feed data cabling in. “They… saved it. The su'ha'ya. From the craft that picked us up.”

Ocellus trilled. "I shared what happened down there among us through the Greatmind when I received the Mind-seeds. It happens that we su’hay’ans had never heard stories before. And we like stories now. Very much. The humans.. took more time to be convinced."

“A children’s toy that stopped a war?” Chae said, shaking her head. “Who could have guessed?”

“A children’s toy.” Twilight repeated. “A toy. That’s all I was. That’s… all I still am. Oh Princesses, I’m just a… a…” She wobbled, and both Applejack and Dr. Chae had to steady their friend. “I’m not even real, none of this is real…” Twilight said, her vision fading and legs growing unsteady..

“‘Course you’re real!” AJ said. “I’m real too. Just because we’re like this now doesn’t mean we came from nowhere. We matter.”

Twilight shook her head. “How can you possibly be so calm about this?” she asked, gritting her teeth.

“When Ocellus and the Doc pulled me out of one of those shake-n’-bake bags last year, I went through everything you’re feelin’ right now. My friends, Granny, Applebloom, Big Mac and his family, even my Ma and Pa. All just stories? Never existed? So yeah, I freaked out. Real bad. Even worse’n you are now.”

Twilight saw a smile… a painful smile, on AJ’s face.

“Then… then Dr. Chae helped. I got my hooves on a copy of your memories, and the logs from the Harmony. Put a lot of things into perspective. It was all like that old Friendship journal we kept. ‘Cept this one, all the stuff you did, that we knew was real. And it mattered, a lot. And I figured if you could do all that with a body like that busted ol’ thing right there, and we’re gettin’ these top of the line ones? Might as well see what the future holds.”

Twilight said nothing, spoken or unspoken.

Applejack put a hoof around her friend. It felt warm and organic and natural and right.

“Think of it this way, sugarcube. Everything that was written for us to play out, it was all written for a purpose. We were made to help little kids learn how to be better people. Some folks I’ve met… I tell you what, they go their entire lives wondering what they were made to do, or why they were made at all. Us? We have purpose, day one. Yeah, they wrote us in a story, so what? It was an important story. Livin’ up to that story here, now, it’s even more important. And us Equisynths… well, I notice we like bein’ challenged with important stuff. Must be how we’re made.”

“Equisynths. Still not a fan of that name for you.” Dr. Chae said.

“Eh, it reminds us of what we are, and what we came from. Pony-droids? That was just… yecch.” Twilight saw AJ grin, and so did she. “That’s just mah opinion, though. And yes, we do get to have opinions, Twilight. We’re our own. No programming. We do get to share memories. We get some perks. But,” Applejack said, rubbing her friends back in a comforting way, “this was all you.”

“All you indeed.” This voice was new, different, male, older, but with a voice that seemed familiar.

Twilight turned around. He was indeed older, hair and mustache graying, wearing a military uniform piped in gold braid that showed high rank. “Admiral Raymundo Morales. I’m the Commander of Concorde Station. This station has become our main trading and scientific outreach center with the Su’ha’ya Mind.” He turned to the doctor. “I just got your message twenty minutes ago, Lari. Sorry about the delay. Was in the middle of a meet-and-greet with some Zanduuli diplomats just passing through. You know how much they love to talk, right?”

Larissa chuckled. “Yeah, I bet they talked. You get a straight opinion out of those fuzzsnakes on the Synthetics Treaty?”

“Well, I showed them some of your publicly released work. They seemed impressed. At least, I think they were…”

Twilight squinted, now able to place the voice. “Excuse me, I don’t mean to be rude, but I remember a Lieutenant Morales… telling me to get off the emergency channel.”

The admiral’s face flushed, briefly. “Ah, yes. You are correct, Miss Sparkle, that was… me. Back when I had fewer stripes and less sense.” Twilight heard an admiral exhale with relief, for the second time. “Thank you, for proving me wrong all those years ago. About a great many things.” He chuckled. “Though in fairness, you also showed up everyone in the Fourth Fleet, Admiral Ingram on down.”

Twilight remembered. And the memory made her smile.

“I was just telling Twilight,” Dr. Chae said, pointedly trying to change the subject, “that we got the full-core memory transfer to work.”

“All of it?”

Twilight nodded. “There’s… still chunks missing. I think I have most of the story. Of what happened. Not why I’m here now, though.”

Ocellus spoke up. (((We asked for you. And your friends. We shared technology with the UNE to make these Equisynth bodies possible. Do you hear me speaking in your mind?)))

(((Yes,))) Twilight said, speaking without speaking.

(((That is from our technology. We took Mindseeds, and sealed them in a chamber deep inside your body. Now you can communicate with us in the same way the su’ha’ya communicate among ourselves.)))

(((You thinkin’ what Ah’m thinkin’?)))

Twilight heard Applejack in her mind as well, and she could not help but laugh out loud, while Dr. Chae and Admiral Morales looked on, befuddled. The admiral coughed, and got Twilight’s attention.

“Sorry, Twilight said. Just testing something. You wanted to say something.”

“Just wanted to let you know that the gang’s been waiting for you,” he said, and tapped a button on his wrist. “Girls, I think she’s ready.”

Twilight heard the sound of hoofbeats running on the soft deck plating. Lots of them. Five more little ponies tumbled into the room, some running, two flying. And in an instant, she was bowled over into a pile with all of her friends. “Rainbow Dash! Fluttershy! Rarity! Starlight!”Twilight cried out.

“Aaaaand PINKIE PIE!” Twilight saw the pink mare jump up, and with a strange glow, fall down slowly in mid-air, landing right on top of the reunion pile.”

“I… I can’t believe it! You’re all here! They…”

“What good is the Princess of Friendship without all her friends?” Rarity asked. “Of course they brought us here.”

Rainbow Dash gave Twilight a gigantic hug from behind. “Gotta admit, not being in Equestria’s… kinda weird. But look! I still got it!” Dash extended her wings, which pulsed and hummed. With two flaps, she was off the ground and doing cartwheels in the air. “How awesome is that!”

“Sorry fer not tellin’ you right away, Twi,” AJ said. “Oci and the Doc wanted to give you time to get used to… well, bein’ alive an’ all.”

“When you are ready,” Ocellus said, audibly this time, “You have a great many beings who would like to meet all of you. To learn from you.”

Twilight reached up, and touched the face of her first su’hay’an pupil, now a professor and a scientist and a leader and the one who had given Twilight her mind and body back, and he trilled with contentment.

(((Yes,))) she said, just for him. (((I would like that, very much…)))

---

In the shade of the great World-Tree, the UNSV Harmony, and all the spirits around and within and inside kept watch over Twilight Sparkle and her friends.

Twilight looked out, upon the su’hay’an young assembled to hear her story, and then over at Ocellus, and then to her friends sitting next to her.

What adventures this world must hold, she thought, and the thought was indeed hers and she knew it would always be.

She cleared her throat, and she began to read.

“Once upon a different time, in the Land of Equestria, Princess Twilight Sparkle had a dream. And in that dream, she met some humans! Humans were strange creatures who walked on two legs. But somehow they knew all about Twilight Sparkle, and how she made friends. The humans, too, wanted to make friends. And they knew that Twilight could show them how. So they asked the Princess, and her friends, to come with them, on a ship called the Harmony, on a journey far beyond the stars…”

Comments

[FanOfMostEverything]

Brilliant work from start to finish, with well-paced waves of revelation and incredibly efficient world building. I love the overarcing theme of the power of fiction and storytelling, and the ongoing inner conflict in Twilight’s overstuffed head was fascinating to see unfold. Thank you for a great read, and best of luck in the judging.

[TCC56]

This was a delight. An excellent use of colored and non-standard text, too!

[Raugos]

Oh, this is really good!

Jam-packed to the gills with character, worldbuilding and sci-fi concepts. Well done!

[Lurks-no-More]

It's been a while since a story hit me in the feels as hard as this one, especially the fourth chapter. And it's well-written, quality SF too!

Good luck with the contest!