The Problem with the Princess of Magic

by Feedbacker

Immortal

"The Princess of Magic."

Twilight's formal title had been bestowed upon her innumerable years ago, when she was formally bound to a patron. Like Celestia to the sun and Luna to the moon, Twilight was intrinsically linked with magic, becoming a part of the concept itself. In a sense, she had become magic.

There is not a single decision that anypony has regretted more.

If only she and Celestia had thought it through. If only they had considered the final outcome. If only she had thought it through.

She should have known, all those years ago, when she asked Celestia what her change meant for her lifespan. She had guessed the answer already - If magic stopped existing, so would she. But she hadn't thought it out, hadn't considered all the implications.

It wasn't the fact that her friends died first. That was one of the most horrible times in her life, but she had gotten through with the help of Celestia. It started with her brother, and ended twelve years later with Fluttershy. She still remembered embracing Cadence, tears hot and wet and hollow like the loss she was feeling for the first time. At the time, she thought that would be the worst feeling she would ever have.

Now, she pleaded to have that feeling again. It would be like pure joy compared to her current life.

Ten years after the last of the elements of harmony was laid to her final resting place, the hollowness started to go away. Twilight felt alive again. Yes, her friends were gone, but she could cherish the memories. Besides, she would see them again someday. Or so she thought.

Twilight went about her life, studying spells and magic. Spike was her constant companion, although he soon got big enough that she only saw him occasionally. While the death of a student or friend was never easy, Twilight managed to cope. The other princesses played no small part in this, and were always there to lend a hoof or a shoulder to cry on. Although she still sometimes missed her old friends, she found her relationships with Luna, Celestia, and Cadence growing until they were just as strong as the bond she had shared with the other elements.

Spike died a few thousand years after Fluttershy, leaving Twilight feeling hollow again for a year or so. With the death of her faithful assistant, her last tie to her pre-princess life vanished. It felt like she had lost a part of herself.

Still, life moved on. Twilight took on her own apprentices in her studies, although none ever achieved anything high enough that she could bestow immortality on them. She never married. The world around her grew and changed as technology improved, thanks in no small part to Twilight's studies. She found herself growing wise, becoming calmer and more articulate. She learned to accept the deaths of mortals, even if she could not entirely remove the pain. Things, for her, were looking up.

Until Celestia's mane turned red.

Nopony expected it to happen. Nopony expected to see the sun slowly creep toward Equestria, Celestia powerless to stop it. Nopony expected to die of dehydration or heatsroke as Celestia's patron slowly expanded into a red giant.

For the immortals, they didn't expect the heat. The burning.

Luna and Cadence were lucky. The moon was quickly disintegrated in the midst of the red giant, taking Luna with it. Cadence managed to live slightly longer, as all three of the remaining beings tried to focus on their friendship to escape the horrible things that were happening to their bodies. But, unable to die and swimming in plasma, one's mind eventually fills with nothing but the thought of agony, leaving no room for love.

Twilight and Celestia still lived. According to her estimates, they lived for a hundred years before they finally escaped. It took all of Twilight's years of training to get them out of the red giant, then far enough away that they could no longer burn. From there, it took even their immortal bodies a few decades to recover to the point where they could talk.

Twilight still remembered those years, encased in a bubble of magic, looking on at the distant star. Just her and Celestia. They mourned the loss of the others, but simultaneously envied them for their fate. They had gotten to go on while Twilight and Celestia remained stuck in the land of the living. They spent countless years there, talking, thinking, sleeping. Twilight used dream spells she had learned to keep them mildly entertained, but one runs out of ideas eventually.

Celestia didn't go suddenly, but slowly faded as the sun became a nebula. She admitted being excited about the prospect to Twilight, excited about her escape. Twilight agreed with her, assuming that she would die with Celestia. Not knowing her true fate.

It had taken years to sink in. Years for the horror of her eternity to fully manifest itself in her mind.

Her patron was magic.

She was magic.

As long as something with magic existed, she would exist. As long as she existed, something with magic existed.

She was a self-perpetuating immortal. No matter what happened to her, no matter what horrors she underwent, no matter how long she waited, she would live.

She was adrift in empty, suffocating space, with nopony to talk to, nothing to think about. The wonders of the universe eventually blurred in her mind, as did her own concept of time.

She wanted to die. It was all she wanted. Everybody else had gone already, so why couldn't she? Why couldn't the world just let her stop being, let her stop existing, let her rest, let her stop, let her end-

But it wouldn't happen. It couldn't.

She wanted to go insane. Her body might not die, but Twilight Sparkle might be able to. She could be reduced to a lunatic with no concept of self. Years ago, the prospect would have seemed horrifying. Now, she begged for it.

That showed no signs of happening. Be it due to her princesshood or some cruel joke of the universe, she was as sharp as ever. As aware as ever of the crushing emptiness of her existence.

The universe slowly spread apart. Planets and stars and asteroids slowly drifting away from one another as the universe expanded. Eventually, there was billions of light years between any two atoms. Existence itself was dead.

Sitting in the middle of it was a purple unicorn. A unicorn who could never die.

A unicorn in hell.

Forever.

Author's Note:

An idea I had late at night. Probably not very good, but I enjoyed the concept.

Hopefully it's not cheesy.

Comments

[Field_Marshal_Luna]

I LOVE it.......but....The FEELS:
I think you could also make a sequel to this where Twilight re-creates existence again idk mate

[Feedbacker]

2139950
Glad you liked it!

[jim150454]

Jesus...

This was a really great concept, and one that was executed perfectly. Seriously, it gave me chills.

[NeonFire]

Excellent fic, I took one read of this and knew I had to do a reading. Fantastic idea that was fantastically executed. My question though is will there be an alternate ending? One with a big crunch at the end of the universe?

[silvadel]

She has to give up or completely expend her magic.

[Feedbacker]

2156977
This was a one-shot that I quite literally wrote at midnight. As such, I am not planning on expanding it.

In my mind, though, the Universe eventually experienced some sort of fundamental decay of time and space, freeing Twilight from her prison.

That's not really "canon," though.

[Crazy]

One does wonder to whatever happen to Discord, though. Probably surfing with asteroids!

[Cynewulf]

Well holy shit.

[Iron Nebula]

Wow, super dark. Awesome. Kinda want a chapter from all her friends, or at least the Princess' view, from after their deaths when they have to watch in horror as poor Twilight has to continue existing forever.

[the_sane_maniac]

2383088 could not have phrased it better

shit, i was just looking for a story where i could write the comment : "oh how lonely they must be, those who may not join the dance macabre"

and then i get this.

i need kitty therapy ASAP

[Arck1334]

I like it but I will never read it again. Thank you.

[lolitsjack]

Interesting

[Bulletrun]

Wow. So many feels. And kind of scary too. Great job!

[Kagji5]

This is fantastically horrifying. I love it. I was going to use a similar concept in my story, though, and now I can't do so. Oh well, I'll figure something out.

[Feedbacker]

2622945
Use it! I re-read this, and my execution was horrible. I'd love to see others' takes on it.

[Kagji5]

2626506 I don't like using things i have already seen before. It just doesn't feel right. I have a lot of work to do on my story before i can do the next chapter, so it will be a while before i get to the point that i was going to use this anyway. I'll figure something else out by then. Thanks, though.

[Oddboy]

...Yikes. Holy shit. That's... pretty horrifying.

I'm going to assume that she somehow learns how to use magic to recreate the universe as it was or travel into the afterlife without actually dying. Because that's waaaay preferable to the alternative of existing eternally in an empty void.

Dude. Just... Dude. Don't ever do this again. You'll give someone nigthmares.

[That's not to say that this was a bad story, just an emotionally heartbreaking one]

[DarthMalentai]

2772334
I found this quite interesting to think about. Not really sad as more a logical and scary idea that some things can never die.

[Exaecatio]

This story is one of those that have ideas that I find hard to accept. I've always disliked the idea of being alive in space, as you couldn't remain in one piece, though in this case, I guess Twilight is somehow held together by magic. The reason why I think that this doesn't make can be explained with Celestia. We've saw her get defeated by Chrysalis, so I think that it's safe assume that even if she can't die of old age, she could die from a sword to the face, for example.
Also, when you are working with large-scale things such as this, where things happen over thousands and millions of years, it's easy to forget just how weak a mind is. It doesn't take a long time to go insane, it's something that happens much quicker than a year. Even if Twilight is a strong character, it shouldn't take her much longer to go insane.
I understand that this criticism is mostly useless, as it is mainly me disliking the concept, but hey, I'm just giving you my thoughts.

[Crystal Static]

Well that really sucks ass for Twilight, but couldn't she re-create the universe with her magic and give herself a reason to continue? I mean she is magic, so she is literally a literal god.

~Crystalline Electrostatic~

[jaroslav]

Twilight is element of magic. She could create dimensional gate and travel to dimension where are all ponies still alive. Or she could simply travel to afterlife dimension. She doesn't have to die to be with dead.

[dragonjek]

Use magic to give shape and energy to the post-heat death universe, wrapping reforming it into matter and higher forms of energy until you have collected every single anything that exists; take all of this to form an inconceivably massive rune array to:
A.) Cause a new Big Bang, shaped according to her rules of what reality is, possibly making her de facto impossible, causing her to unexist
B.) Use half of her magic to create anti-magic particles exactly equal to the amount of magic within her
C.) Make a portal to another reality
D.) Form a higher state of existence originally composed of magic, which she will then devote all of her magic into; as it isn't technically magic anymore, she could die
E.) Send herself indelibly insane
F.) Recreate Discord
G.) Change herself into some other, more mortal sort of being--perhaps not possible with lesser power, but wielding the entire universe?

[Fluid Apple]

I would say that I spent forever looking for this fic, but there's no justice in that statement.

[Protopony350]

Gah, the realization hit me like a brick. Bravo!

[Cursed Quill]

Unfortunately, the concept arriving requires stupidity for the sake of plot. I rarely like that. But, that aside, well-executed.

6150736
The simple option of "erase own mind" is also available: immortality does not entail eternal continuity of consciousness, but she does seem to have sufficient regeneration to possibly negate this. She could even just erase her memories of Equestria and all its inhabitants. (No, this is not supposed to be an easy-to-stomach idea.) But, as a self-perpetuator…she should realize what, scientifically, that means: infinite energy, and entropy need not win.

H. Realize that friendship is magic, and die along with Cadence.
Hii. Be ashamed as a scientist for not escaping the planet over the (b/)millions of years for Celestia to go red giant.
I. Exhaust own power in useless way (hornlight).
Ia) if possible, Hell is over!
Ib) if impossible, see above options and begin Universe 2.0.
Ibi. Alter gravitational constant to sufficient to precipitate Big Crunch. (Alter reverse-gravity spell from S3) Do not forget precautions to not be incapacitated.
J) create new time travel magic to prevent her binding to magic, or at least include escape clause H.

[deathtap]

Methinks you forgot about the other absolute immortal. Discord. Using your logic, chaos would be just as enduring, if not moreso, than magic.

[Nova Star Sparkle]

The idea might be kind of dark and I personly never was someone for dark content or immortality as a bad thing. But holy, this was good

Liked it, it's a good thought and even makes a lot of sence

[Okie Brony]

Well, that was depressing. It was exceptionally well-written! Seems to me that after eons of drifting through space, Twi should've found at least one inhabitable planet, or she could've gathered enough asteroids and gasses to create one. Just a few thoughts.

For anyone else who finds this story, I'd recommend three similar ones, Twilight is Annoyed, Out of Light Cometh Darkness, and It Doesn't Matter Now. That last one has Pinkie as the last surviving pony.