Ringing. There was a boom, a bright flash, and then there was ringing. It wasn't deafening; it was more like the ringing one may experience in the middle of the day. There came a cough from somewhere. Twilight realized it was from herself. Had it really been so long that she'd been revived? Her eyelids fluttered open.
No. There on the floor lay her sister-in-law, her brother, her assistant, and the royal sisters. She heard a loud crack coming from beneath her. The floor gave little warning of its next action, and Twilight wasn't able to get out of its way in time. It crumbled, and the entire group fell to the lower floor a long twenty feet down. Thick dust filled their lungs instantly on impact with the hard, cobblestone floor. At that moment, there was a LOT of coughing as everypony got to his or her hooves (or feet, in Spike's case). Twilight turned her head up to see something she would soon wish she hadn't.
A painted mural on the black, brick wall, as opposed to a stained glass window like upstairs, depicted four alicorns and a fully grown dragon performing a ritual that looked very familiar. Perhaps the alicorns and the dragon didn't look like the ones in the group, but that didn't change the sense of uneasiness they'd all received. Well... more specifically, Shining Armor and Cadence felt uneasy. Twilight and her dragon assistant found that their temperatures had heightened. Their blood pumped quickly through their veins; steam (and smoke) streamed from their nostrils; their teeth clenched. "Celestia, I want an explanation." Twilight's voice rose above the normal level, and her wings spread out in a sense of authority as she marched to the white alicorn still lying on the floor and trying to get up.
"My greatest of *cough* all apologies goes to all of you," she answered, clambering up awkwardly and having a bit of trouble maintaining a standing position. Her sister had the same problem. Twilight noticed that Celestia's voice was raspy now - quite unlike how it was before the blast. "I had thought that perhaps including another of your bloodline may cancel the side effects of the spell. It would appear, as we are all alive now, that it only helped to further its punishment to another."
After hearing this, Shining Armor was more concerned than before. He wasn't quite... angry, but he wished to know what was going on. "What side effects? What happened to me?"
Luna took a deep breath to speak but ended up coughing instead. She took another breath. Her voice, too, was hoarse when she spoke. "We hadn't wished to have to tell you this. My sister and I only wanted our deaths to be together. Unfortunately, this didn't happen the way we wanted it to." A coughing fit from her began, and Celestia had to step in.
"The spell that we have just cast does wipe out life in Equestria, but it is at the cost of a great curse overtaking the spell's castors."
The dungeon-like enclosure spoke with long air drafts waving through what could only be the other part of what were assumed to be the catacombs of Canterlot Castle. Finally, somepony spoke. No... more like some dragon. "What's the c- curse?" Spike shivered, although it couldn't be determined whether it was the coldness of the catacombs causing this or fear.
"Immor- *cough* tality...." Luna finished her coughing fit.
"What my sister means is invulnerability."
Spike, Shining Armor, Cadence, and Twilight looked all around their own bodies, expecting some kind of change. They could find none.
"To be clear, you will still endure pain. That will not *cough* change..! What will change is that you will grow to the size of me and beyond, and you cannot-"
"Die?" Twilight asked with pleading eyes. This wasn't what she wanted; this was the complete OPPOSITE of what she wanted!
"Correct," Celestia nodded weakly, "you cannot *cough* die. As for my sister and I, the second time performing the ritual gives us a new curse; we can neither die nor live without feeling pain. Immortals in eternal sickness... we'll ask for death that never comes. There's only one way."
The two royal sisters lost their footing and fell. Celestia's coughing started up. It was Luna's turn to speak. "Please... *cough* we ask you to PLEASE take our powers, Twilight and Cadence. They will deem you two fit to rule Equestria, and they are all that keep us alive now. Take them... and let us rest. Please."
NOW Shining was mad. Maybe he wasn't before because he was unsure what the side effects entailed, but he was infuriated now that he understood. "Do you two think that you can be forgiven so easily after what you did..? Why should we help you after you NEVER told us what could have happened if you were wrong? I never asked for this curse! I wanted to live a full, happy life and die by the side of my wife, even if she wasn't going to join me! And now you up us both to being UNKILLABLE?! Do you know what you've done?! My parents... all the ponies of the Crystal Empire... and all of my squad friends... gone! How could you do this?"
All the sisters could do was look down at the ground in shame and cough some more. There was no response to give.
"You are NOT earning MY forgiveness," Shining finished, turning his back and beginning to march angrily to the nearest wall.
Twilight seemed to feel concerned about her brother's outburst, but Spike followed in his verbal hoofsteps. "Don't you two understand what you've done to ME? Shining may have the love of his life forever and ever, but mine is GONE, and I'll never be able to talk to her again! I won't be able to tell Rarity how much I love her! You don't DESERVE forgiveness." With that, he marched to the same wall and crossed his arms as he stood by Twilight's brother. He was crying now.
The coughing increased in volume and strength as each one resonated off the brick walls and spiraled upwards into the empty throne room above them. Twilight Sparkle considered what Shining had said about his parents and about what Spike had said about his love for Rarity. Perhaps now, Twilight would NEVER be able to really experience love for as long as Spike had, and she knew not whether that was a good thing or a bad thing, but she knew that the opportunity to know was gone. That was enough to make her give the royal sisters a sad look of disappointment before turning away and slowly approaching the stallion and the dragon by the wall. She spread out her wings. "Need a lift, Spike?"
Whatever Spike said was drowned out by a rough scream. "PLEASE!!" Luna shouted, "WE BEG YOU! LET US REST!" She fell back into her coughing fit along with her sister. The three at the wall turned to look at them.
Cadence, the only one who wasn't at the wall or on the floor coughing, knelt down in front of Luna and looked back at her husband. "I agree with you that they shouldn't be forgiven so quickly, but nopony deserves to live like this. If we could put the rest of Equestria to rest, whether they were good or evil, we should do the same for these two." Cadence's horn began to glow, and she looked at Luna... right into her eyes. "Power of love."
"Power of darkness," Luna whispered.
"I accept your power."
Luna's cutie mark was the first thing to fade. After that, her entire structure seemed to dissolve bit by bit. The magic worked slowly, and the fading princess of the night was able to say at least one more thing. "You are not only absorbing me, but you are absorbing my essence. In some time, I will be reborn from you as somepony not at all related to my sister's reincarnation. We both trust you will make the best of things and rule Equestria even better than we did."
"I understand."
"Thank you, Cadence. Take good care of me."
"I will, Princess Luna. I promise." The sparkle of Luna's eyes was the last thing to be seen before she completely vanished. On Cadence's flank, Luna's moon appeared as a transparent shape on top of the Crystal Heart. Cadence turned to Twilight and gave a small nod in Celestia's direction.
The purple alicorn pondered on how sadistic leaving somepony like this would be. Would she really be any better than somepony like Sombra if she took off now? She took a step towards the sick, coughing princess. No, I'd be worse, she decided. Twilight bent her head down.
"Power of magic."
Celestia's coughing stopped as she stared up into the deep, purple eyes she was so used to seeing now... just never quite in this way. "No, my faithful student... you're so much more. You're the power of friendship. I only hold the power of light...."
Twilight gave a smile and cupped Celestia's chin with her hoof. "I accept your power, Princess Celestia." Her horn lit up, and she gently touched it to Celestia's forehead. Memories rushed through both of their minds of all the teaching Celestia had done and all the listening Twilight had done. Now the roles would be reversed come Celestia's rebirth. They embraced each other while the spell took effect. "I love you," they said in soft, quiet unison. A new mark slowly appeared along with Twilight's first cutie mark. A small sun in the same design as Celestia, only much smaller, made itself known on Twilight's flank as seemingly just another star. A very special star. Celestia faded into Twilight's body, and Twilight could feel the spark inside her as Celestia became hers... to be reborn someday as an entirely new pony.
* * *
The new sun princess, Twilight Sparkle, laid silently on her own bed in her own castle. She was curled up with her head barely even being on the pillow. The day had been the hardest of her life. Not only did she have to help bury her friends, but her parents were even harder to say goodbye to.
Of course she was deeply upset, but she was more stunned that not one of her friends or her parents survived. At the very least, Rainbow Dash should've survived; that Element of Loyalty MUST have given her the edge she needed, right? Sadly, no. Not a single inhabitant besides the original six survived, and two of them were now resting in the wombs of the only other remaining females.
Twilight heard somepony walking over to the bed. She didn't care who it was; she wanted the company. A plop down on the bed followed by a pink hoof wrapping affectionately around her side let her know that it was Cadence.
"Are you doing okay, Twilight?"
"I just can't believe that everypony's gone. You, me, Shining, and Spike are all that's left. What are we going to do?"
"We seem to have two choices. Either we can raise Equestria from the ground up and start anew, or we can free ourselves of our magic somehow and..." Cadence trailed off. Twilight knew what she meant.
"How's Spike?"
"Not good... he won't get away from her; I think he actually thinks that she's really just asleep and that she'll wake up relatively soon. Every time I tell him otherwise, I feel like I'm telling a foal that they're crush moved away... but I know it's more than that to him. He really loved her, didn't he?"
"He did, and he'd give his life to see her again; I'm sure."
"I was just saying that it was an option. I didn't say it was a GOOD option."
"I'd only do it if Spike is.... I'm all he has. If he stays, I stay. If he goes, what is there for me here? Do we just continue on like the evil will never come back? Why go on in the first place then?"
"If that's really how you feel, Twilight, I understand. I won't hold you against that choice with the way things are now. I'm still so unsure about this myself. And now..." Cadence used her free hoof to pat her stomach, "for the princesses to be reincarnations inside us right now? They trusted us, before they disappeared, to rule Equestria better than they did. If nothing else, I'm staying because of that." The new princess of the night slowly rolled off of Twilight and got off the bed. She and Twilight looked up.
Shining Armor appeared at the door, and Spike followed alongside him. The small dragon's head was pointed sadly to the ground as he sniffed up what tears were left in his eyes. Twilight followed Cadence off the bed and toward Spike. His owner dropped to her knees in front of him and took him quickly into a strong hug. She couldn't begin to imagine what he was going through, and she knew that.
"Tw- Twilight... I wanna be with her so bad," he sniffed, hugging her back just as tight. His soft claws rubbed into Twilight's back with all the force he could muster.
"I know, Spike. I know."
Spike began to cry again.
"Shh... it's okay, Spike. We're going to find a way to be with her... somehow."
Shining turned to his wife and raised an eyebrow. "Is she... okay?"
"She wants to leave, honey," Cadence replied. "We should... give them some time alone."
Shining Armor took the opportunity while he had it to hug his sister. If he wouldn't see her again after today, then at least he would have that. He and Cadence left the room - and Cadence shut the door as they did so.
There the pair sat, neither of them saying anything, in Twilight's bedroom. A perfect silence filled the moment. Neither Spike nor Twilight wanted to ever let go. They both wanted death just as bad as the royal sisters had not four hours ago.
* * *
"...Power of magic," Twilight finally whispered.
"Twilight..?"
"I'll get to you somehow."
"...Power of... guidance."
The light of Twilight's horn illuminated Spike's face. "I... I accept your p-"
The door of the bedroom flung forward and hit the wall beside it as Shining Armor burst in. The light left Twilight's horn. "Twily! Do you know how you don't want to stay because the evil will come back someday? Well... what if we stay here, but we move Equestria to be rid of the evil in the rest of the land?"
Twilight tilted her head. "What do you mean? How would we do that?"
"It's a hypothetical my squad-mates and I threw together one day. If Equestria could be contained in a field of magic and be launched into the sky, where would it end up? Like I said, it was just a hypothetical question, but now that we have all the time in the world to find out... why don't we try it?"
"That sounds almost impossible, but... could we really do that?" Twilight asked.
"If we can end Equestria's life, we can take it somewhere else. And who knows, maybe another Rarity is out there somewhere!"
Spike's dragon ears perked up. Did he hear that right? "If there might be another Rarity out there, we have to do it!"
Shining Armor smiled; he knew it was a good idea. "I thought you might say that. Come on, you two. Cadence is already working on it."
* * *
Outside the castle, the air was clear and fresh. A new era was dawning and soon. For a long time, the group couldn't agree on where to end the line. They finally decided on encasing everything from the Crystal Empire down to Appleloosa and from Los Pegasus all the way over to Manehattan. Every major pony city would be brought with them. Streaks of magenta and light blue magic shot up into the sky, and they joined at a single point in the sky, where the magic slowly spread over Equestria at the requested areas until it sunk into the ground and formed an orb-shaped structure. The rest was fairly simple; the three ponies used their power to forcefully yank Equestria from the land, and - after a particularly draining spell, shot it upwards and into the upper atmosphere. As the stars twinkled brighter than Twilight had ever seen, she wondered if she had made the right choice.
"We'll make it work," Shining Armor stated loud and clear. "We have the sun; we have the moon; we have our lives." After that, he grabbed the three and brought himself and them together into a group hug."
"Yes," Twilight decided, "I made the right choice. I'll see you again someday, friends."
The sun set on Equestria, and the moon rose. A new day was to come, but for now? For now they could rest in each other's arms and hooves until that time came.