Lives Long Past
Google Drive Link - https://docs.google.com/document/d/17f_oakyHYL2dU-k4KeitQzQs9nTH4ldne45kNBEJweM/edit
Deviantart - http://ghostwriter95.deviantart.com/art/Lives-long-Lost-333351207
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For nearly a century Ponyville, and indeed most of Equestria had been in a state of almost permanent sadness following the disappearance of the fabled six mares, who on numerous occasions saved the world. It seemed to all the ponies that the six mares had been running happily around Ponyville and laughing as they shared stories of their growing children.
These six ponies, Rainbow Dash, Twilight Sparkle, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Applejack, and Rarity were better friends than anybody ever imagined, and had managed to save the world multiple times with the strength of their friendships. They did this using now long gone relics called the elements of harmony, which disappeared following the disappearance of Princess Celestia. Following the loss of the elements, the ponies returned with empty hearts to their hometown of Ponyville and settled down.
Eventually they all had children, and lived normal lives of ponies. However, exactly a decade after the disappearance of Celestia, the six mares disappeared without a trace, as well as Princess Luna. Stricken with grief of losing their heroes, the ponies of Equestria went into a seemingly never-ending state of sadness.
Except one mare who began to wonder exactly what happened, and why it only happened to those that has helped Equestria from evil.
---------
The town of Ponyville lay silent under a cover of clouds. Not clouds in a normal sense, but a cloud of sadness. Midnight Sparkle, granddaughter of Twilight Sparkle was sulking quietly through to quiet streets heading back to her home. Midnight had a dark blue coat, with a purple mane similar in color to her grandmothers coat; her eyes were the same color as her mothers, who in turn had the same eye color as Twilight.
She looked slowly from side to side as she tried to imagine what the small town must have been long ago in the times of her grandmother. She stopped as she passed the tree her grandmother once lived in. Ever since her disappearance, a magic aura had surrounded it mysteriously, and had managed to preserved itself, seemingly not aging one day since Twilight’s disappearance. For many years, ponies tried to bypass the magic in hopes of finding clues as to their heroes whereabouts. The magic however was too strong, and they eventually gave up.
She perked up a tiny bit as she thought she saw the movement of a pony inside. With a sigh, she passed it off as her mind wandering again. With a tear sliding down her cheek, she imagined her grandmother hugging her friends in a way that was depicted on the photo hung upon her wall. That picture was the last remaining depiction or mention that remained of any of the six mares. Slowly the relics that depicted or even mentioned the two princesses or the mares started disappearing much like the ponies themselves following the years after the mares disappearances.
She sighed as she started making her way to the Everfree forest, glimpsing once more at the treehouse. As she walked down the street, she saw familiar, but sad faces of the other ponies of the town as they did their daily task. Sure, they conversed normally, but happiness seemed an impossible achievement. It was as if the happiness had disappeared along with the once great heroes, leaving only a sadness that could never be lifted.
Her hooves continued down the street in an almost trancelike state as she looked around at the sadness that surrounded her. What could cause a disappearance of ponies and any mention of them? What could cause the disappearance of any mention of those now long lost ponies? And most importantly, what could remove the ability to be happy from the world entirely? Hopefully these questions would be answered when she arrived at her destination. Her destination was the place that her ancestor had first realized that her friends were the most important thing ever; the place that it all began. Her destination was an ancient castle deep in the everfree Forrest.
She paused once more as she passed the place one of Twilight’s friends once lived and worked. It was called Sugar Cube Corner. It was perhaps the only place left that seemed to have any happiness about it. Of course, entrance was impossible. When somepony tried to open it, the door would stay stuck as if a force was pulling on it from the other side, and the windows all seemed to be stuck shut. When ponies where near it, they claimed to have heard what sounded like laughter coming from inside, but that was entirely impossible. She gasped as she saw movement in the upper window, but sighed as she realized it was just three balloons, two blue with yellow string, and one yellow with a blue string.
She felt another tear slowly sliding down her cheek as she slowly continued towards the Forrest. As she walked away, she could have sworn she heard something whisper to her from the building. It sounded sad, but… Strangely, it seemed to not be part of her imagination. She kept the words fresh on her mind.
“She… She’s gone. It’s time we hang up -“
The voice faded away before it could even finish the sentence. She turned back once more to look at the building to make sure she didn’t overhear a conversation, but realized she was completely alone on the street. The voice had to have come from the building itself, but that was impossible.
Right?
The forest loomed over her as she neared it. She was honestly scared of entering the forest, but she was more scared of living her entire life without even questioning what happened to the ones that brought happiness to the world. She took a deep breath and resumed walking towards the forest, stopping only to stare through her window of her house that stood right on the edge of the town. From where she stood, she could easily see the picture of the six friends hanging on her wall. But… Something was wrong. The smiles that once sat on the faces of the six ponies… They were now replaced with blank expressions.
Quickly, she ran into her home; her heart beating as she hoped that she was only seeing things. She stopped right in front of the picture of the last known smiles in the land, which were now gone. Surely enough, the smiles had somehow changed from smiles to blank expressions, all except for Pinkie. For on her face, was a sad look, and a tear right under her left eye. She watched as she saw the image of her grandmother slowly begin to fade off the picture. It was as if she was being completely removed from existence. She quickly took the picture off the wall and placed her hood to her the picture as her grandmother slowly faded away. At the rate she was disappearing, she would be gone from the picture by sundown.
She also noticed that slowly, tears were slowly somehow coming out of the other four ponies eyes. The picture was changing right in front of her, yet she still didn’t believe it was happening. She slapped herself hoping to wake up, but gave up when she realized that she was in fact awake. She gasped as she heard another voice speak out, this time appearing to come from the picture itself.
“The elements are gone… Just like…”
“The princess.”
The voices once again trailed off, and the picture once again changed. The ponies were all now crying, and their eyes were closed. Once more, she hung the picture on the wall and vowed to herself to find what happened all those years ago, even if it meant she would never return from the forest. Her door closed behind her as she made her way to the forest. As she walked, she questioned herself with questions she hoped to never find the answer to. What would happen if the last memory of the mares disappeared? Would all happiness permanently leave the world if that picture disappeared? And the hardest questions; what if the depictions of them were actually their life-forces, and if they disappeared, they would…
She shook the thought from her head as she passed another home of her grandmothers’ friends. It was the last building before entering the forest, and belonged to the one named Fluttershy. Just like the previous two homes, it was un-enterable. When an attempt was made, unbreakable vines would engulf the entire house, barring any hope of entrance until the ponies were past the small bridge entering the yard. The only life that seemed to ever be around here was three small pink butterflies that always flew in a group. As she passed it, the voices once again whispered out, this time coming from the small cottage.
“Luna is now gone, and I suspect that we… That we will be…”
“Don’t say it sugar cube… Please…”
“I’m sorry Applejack, but… We’re next.”
Tears swelled up in her eyes as she realized what she was hearing. Somehow, someway, she was hearing the conversations of her grandmother amongst her friends. But why was she hearing this now? She had passed by these houses multiple times and never heard anything before. Could it have something to do with her picture beginning to disappear? More importantly, what did it mean? Did it have something to do with her being a descendant of Twilight? As far as she knew, she was the only one that remained with a bloodline related to any of the ponies that disappeared. All the other had been friends of her mother, and her mother was the only one related to the six mares that had a child of her own.
She shook the thoughts from her head as she made her way to the edge of the forest. She would be the first pony or zebra to step into the forest since the disappearances of the Princesses, and honestly, she was scared.
Her first hoof landed inside the border of the Everfree Forest, followed slowly by the rest of her body. She felt a slight feeling of fear flow over her as she stepped out of the sun into the tree cover of the forest. She also felt something else, but couldn’t quite put her finger on it. The forest seemed to have not been effected in the slightest by the disappearances, but then again it didn’t seem to follow any rules of nature at all. One thing however did remain the inability to smile or laugh remained strong.
She paused as she heard the snap of a trig near her, and turned to see a very old looking zebra barely standing in front of her. Slowly, the zebra’s voice rasped out.
“Granddaughter of Twilight, name of midnight.”
She stared wide-eyed as this zebra she had never met before mentioned her name and who she was. She went to speak up before the zebra held her hoof up and spoke up again.
“Disappearances of six mares, a trouble of which the whole world cares.” The zebra paused to cough and wheeze for air.
“East is your goal, through the forest you must stroll.”
The zebra nodded to her, then turned around and disappeared into the woods. Midnight began to follow the mysterious zebra. She followed her until they reached a small hut in which the zebra entered. As soon as she did, the lights in the hut went off, and stayed off. Midnight walked over to the window and looked inside to see a sad sight.
The zebra was sitting in a rocking chair, not moving; sitting on her lap was a picture of a small filly with a yellow coat and a red mane and tail. There was also something else on the picture that made her gasp. She wasn’t sure, so we walked over to the door and knocked hoping to wake the zebra. The door creaked open, and she stepped in. She walked silently over to the zebra, and spoke up with her kind voice. Many times she had been told she had sounded exactly like her grandmother, but she never believed it.
“Um… Excuse me? How do you know who I am?” She stopped talking and waited politely for an answer. When she didn’t get one she neared even closer to the zebra, and looked down at the picture. What she had seen outside hadn’t been a hallucination. Behind the bright face of the filly, was one of Twilights friends. She believed her name had been Applejack. She stopped and looked around as she heard the whispers start out again, this time echoing out throughout the entire hut.
“Zecora… Isn’t there anything you could do for us?”
“The only thing that will help is time. That’s all I’ll reveal in this rhyme.”
“Let’s go Twilight, Zecora can’t help us…”
“Midnight Sparkle is your hope. Until that time, you must cope.”
The voices trailed off once more. The voice of this Zecora was familiar to Midnight, because she had just heard it moments ago. She looked down at the photo of Applejack as the smile began to disappear from Applejack’s face; tears forming in Midnight and Applejack’s eyes.
“Did you know this was going to happen Zecora?” There was no answer, and she already knew why. Zecora was no longer of this world; she had passed peacefully after speaking to Midnight. She was in a better place now; perhaps she could finally smile again. Perhaps she was with her friends from so long ago that were taken from her. Zecora could finally rest after being forced to live so long in a world where she wasn’t allowed to be happy, just so she could give a message to the granddaughter of one of her long lost friends.
She looked down once more as the image of Applejack slowly faded all the way away. Midnight couldn’t help but wonder if Applejack was gone from the picture in her house, but somehow she felt she wasn’t. It was as if she could feel the ponies fading, and just knew none of them had faded completely. She also felt as if she could feel the pain of the ponies as they watched their friend pass away, but she knew that was impossible. The six mares were gone from this planet, along with the princesses. But… She still felt as if she had to keep going, but for the first time she didn’t feel as if she needed to do it for her.
She needed to do it for Twilight and her friends.
She looked once more at Zecora, then exited the hut closing the door behind her forever. Zecora had said to head east, so she did just that. She walked for about ten minutes before she found herself at a cliff. A section of it looked as if it had been broken off, and sure enough she could see it down at the bottom of the drop. When she looked over the edge she heard a voice whisper out.
“What I’m telling you is the honest truth. Let go, and I promise you’ll be safe.”
She recognized the voice as Applejacks. For a split second, she could have sworn she saw Applejack holding Twilight on the cliff below, right where another small chip in on the cliff below sat. The image was most likely just a figment of her imagination however, so she simply ignored it and slid down the side of the cliff.
She continued on further until she reached an area which had mysterious claw marks in the ground. As she passed the area, she heard another whisper, this one kind.
“Sometimes we all need to show a little kindness.”
Midnight stopped and looked around. When she did, she saw another brief hallucination of ponies. This time, all of them were in a group, with the exception of Fluttershy shy was being licked by a large creature. Just like the last one, this one went away. Was she going crazy? Why was she seeing images of her grandmother and her friends? She hoped the questions would be answered when she arrived at her destination, which was growing ever so closer.
Midnight continued along the path with questions filling her mind, none of which she knew the answer too, and half of which she never wanted to know the answer to. Despite that, she knew deep in her heart that when she reached the castle, she would find something. The path eventually went through a small clearing with tree all around. These trees were strangely red as opposed to the normal dark brown. As she passed through the clearing, she heard instead of a whisper, a giggle.
Right after the giggle, she saw images of the mares flash before her eyes again. This time they were all huddled together with scared expressions on their faces. All except for Pinkie Pie who was laughing at a tree.
She shook the image away from her mind and continued back along the path. As she walked again, she couldn’t help but hear the giggle over and over again. Was that what happiness sounded like? For a moment there, when she heard it, she almost felt as if she might be able to giggle. But that went away faster than the hallucination itself. She looked ahead at a small river which she needed to cross to continue along.
Before she did, something caught her attention; a single faded purpled scale sitting aside. Midnight had heard of dragons before, but had never actually seen one or their scales. Normally she wasn’t interested in stuff like that, but she couldn’t help but go over and touch it. When she did she heard another whisper.
“I simply cannot let this crime against fabulosity go uncorrected!”
She looked up from the scale to see all the ponies looking at who she assumed was Rarity lifting her dismembered tail to a serpents face. This one seemed to last about two seconds instead of the usual one, which worried her a bit. It either meant she was going crazy, something bad was going to happen, or she was nearing the end of her journey. Either way, she was too close to stop now, so she crossed the river and continued along the path.
She now saw the castle looming in the distance, and just had one patch of forest to pass through. She continued through the small patch of forest, all the while pondering on the hallucinations and whispers she heard. Were these Twilights memories she was seeing? And if so, why was she seeing them? She began to think back to Zecora mentioning her to Twilight, even though she had not even been born yet.
Her train of thought was interrupted a final time as she neared a large ravine. This ravine stood right in front a large castle that loomed far above her. She had never seen anything like it, and knew that if there were answers to anything, then they would be in there. She neared the bridge, and in the corner of her eye caught a glimpse of a sparkle of light in the highest tower. As she crossed the bridge, she heard another whisper.
“I’d never leave my friends hanging!”
She looked behind herself at the group of ponies all standing around staring across the bridge; smiles on all their faces. Once again, she shook the image away from her head and made her way inside the large castle. Once inside she began to feel a sorrow unlike anything she had ever felt before. She felt as if she had just watched all of her friends pass away at the same time, and could do nothing about it.
She knew she was running out of time.
With tears in her eyes, she rushed up to the highest tower where she saw a pedestal which she recognized as the original holder of the elements of harmony. But… They weren’t there. Nothing was here, the place was empty. She honestly didn’t know what she was expecting to find, but she wanted to find something. In defeat, she began to walk out, before she saw the same sparkle of light she saw earlier.
She turned around to see something she knew was a sign.
Twilight and her friends were all floating in the air wearing what she presumed to be the elements of harmony. She knew it was another hallucination, but this one didn’t seem to go away. The ponies just sat there in the air, not moving, but each had a smile on their face as they stared at the other side of the room. She walked to where they were all looking and stared at her grandmother.
“What am I supposed to do…” She felt tears running down her cheek again. The ponies all floating in the air began to fade away, and as they did their smiles slowly began to change to ones expressions of sadness. Before they disappeared, she watched in awe as each landed on the ground and began to walk towards her. They disappeared the second they touched her, saying only one word.
“Honesty.”
“Kindness.”
“Laughter.”
“Generosity.”
“Loyalty.”
She stared into her grandmother eyes as she neared her. For a moment it looked as if Twilight was going to stand there and not fade away, but she eventually started walking towards her.
“The spark, that resides in the heart of us all, it creates the sixth element: the element of... magic!"
She stood there and watched as Twilight walked towards her, a single tear falling down her cheek as she walked into Midnight. The second she did, she knew what she had to do, and knew that when she did it, the world would return to normal. But… At a high cost. She walked to the pedestal in which the Elements once sat.
Her horn glowed as she touched the pedestal, and when she did, a blinding light filled the entire castle. Immediately she felt a presence around her, and turned around to see the six mares, the two princesses, and the elements behind her. Twilight walked up to her and nodded to her granddaughter.
When Twilight passed through her, she realized what had happened all those years ago. It came to her in a final whisper after she passed through her.
“The elements… They… they were never meant to be used.”
“They were never… What do you mean sugar cube?”
“Yeah, what gives egghead?”
“Tell use please, we won’t be mad.”
“Darling, we simply must know…”
“Never meant to be used? OOH! I like secrets, tell me why Twi!”
“They… When they were used by the princesses a power in them was activated which was supposed to make them disappear. Along with the people that had used them, and the emotion that the users felt the most when they used them. But… When Celestia banished Luna, the curse of the elements broke, and they simply stayed normal… Until… Until we used them.”
“You mean…”
“Yes, we… we reactivated the curse. The princesses were the first to use them, but Luna had been away so… So she counted as using them along with us. Celestia however… She was sent away first, to the afterlife.”
“You mean… She died?”
“Yes… And… We’re next. The only hope for the curse to be broken is to break the elements, but… They’re gone. And… Even if we did destroy them, it would just stop the elements from taking the emotion from Equestria.”
“Twi… You’re… You’re fading…”
“It’s happening. You all are fading too. See you all… On the other side. You all are my best friends, and always will be…”
Twilight nodded sadly to Midnight who moved carefully towards the Elements. She was going to destroy them, but… She needed to use them to summon the final element of magic, which meant that she would fade along with the elements. But… she had to do it. Not for her, but for Equestria. She alone now carried all the elements inside of her, and had to use that power for the good of Equestria.
She walked up to the elements and began to cast her magic at the elements. When she did, the final element of magic appeared on the pedestal behind her. With a single tear sliding down her cheek, she gathered all the elements together.
And crushed them.
The second she did, she was surrounded with a cloud of white light. When the light faded away, she found herself in Ponyville.
“You ready Midnight?”
She turned around to see the two princesses and the six mares smiling at her. As she looked around she saw all the ponies of Ponyville smiling and going about their days much like they would have many years ago. The curse was broken, but she wasn’t allowed to live in this world anymore.
“Yes.” She touched Twilight’s hoof as they all began to slowly ascend into the sky. As they floated up she looked down to see Twilight’s house disappear, followed by all the houses of the six mares. The ponies below started to gather around to marvel at the houses that were now randomly disappearing. She looked down at her house as it slowly began to fade away. Soon nothing would remain of her, and the world would not know the kindness she did for it. And… She wouldn’t have it any other way. She looked at her new-found friends. She also noticed someone standing behind one of the princesses, a zebra.
“It’s alright. You’re home now, with friends. We are best friends forever now.”
For the first time in her life, Midnight looked at Twilight.
And Smiled.