Desolate
I got my wish.
I became the most powerful unicorn to have ever existed.
I even managed to become truly immortal.
So why doesn't it feel good? Where was the sense of triumph, the joy of accomplishment?
I knew all too well where that particular emotion was, and why it was all my fault.
How old was I now?
500,000 years old?
A million years old?
Did it even matter when it came down to it? I was the oldest living thing in the remnants of the planet that no-longer had a name. Well ok. I hoped that I still shared that particular achievement with another, but she had chosen her path long ago.
Just after 'it' happened to be precise, early in my life. I must have been 200 when everything went wrong. Well, even more wrong. The princesses died to be exact, minor factoid, Celestia wasn't creating the sun, she was holding it back, keeping it close enough to give heat and light, but far enough not to burn the world.
I'll let you guess what happened. Nothing? Well, let me put it simply.
The world burned.
The elements granted longevity, true.
All of my friends lived to that age of 200. Then didn't, not even the elements could save them.
Applejack,
Fluttershy,
Pinkie,
Rarity,
And Rainbow. No, not Rainbow. I did save her, sort of. Let's see, where did it all begin?
I suppose I'd better start from when I was 199. I'd just found the immortality spell. I'd found the spell that meant I could never age, and never die.
Even the alicorns had a way to die. It was just mind-bogglingly difficult to do. Suffice it to say that I was excited.
Exited at what my mentor, the princess would say when I'd found true immortality, but would she even believe me? Probably not. I knew the princess, and however much she doted on me, she still had her doubts about some of my experiments. I'd have to make her believe me.
One way or another.
The spell itself was incredibly complex, and a single wrong move would result in the caster, I.e. me, being fried to a crisp in 2 seconds flat. So it was of utmost importance that I did the spell safely, and well out of range of anything breakable.
So there I was, standing in the circle of levelled crops in an outlying field in the middle of nowhere, gathering my wits for what I was about to attempt. I started small, gathering some basic power and letting it saturate my horn, preparing for the big part.
An outsider would have seen the world explode, they probably would have felt it too, which was why she was doing this particular experiment here, out of harm’s way.
The earth cracked and split, the magic that was now fizzing noticeably in the air, rooting itself in anything and everything that it could. The ground turned to sand, the grass to feathers, and a tree simply got up and walked away. Soon enough, everything stopped, and all that was left was a slightly smoking me in the centre of the blast.
The experience was a bit different for myself though. Namely, it hurt. A lot. I kept the spell going though, through the pain, because the consequence of not doing so was unthinkable. The pain ended after what felt like a year, but was in fact only 38 seconds, and I had immediately blacked out from exertion.
When I came to, the world was better, I wasn't in pain, and I still had my magic, it was like it hadn't taken any strength to do that spell whatsoever. In fact, the only noticeable sign that anything had happened, was the massive crater made of sand and feathers that I now sat in.
It was quite a large crater. Quite a tall one too. And no noticeable drain on magic. Did it even work?
I teleported out, and misjudged things, it appeared that I was still a bit disorientated, as I fell through the 50 foot drop towards the ground, I had just enough time to pray to Celestia that my spell had had the desired effect, or had at least made my body drop-proof, before I hit the ground with a thump, and everything went black.
~*^*~
I woke up, so that was definitely a positive. Another positive being that I wasn't in pain and that I could stand up quite easily, nothing broken? Good.
I took a moment to realise what this meant. I had managed it, I had managed to create true immortality, I could not die, well, at least I couldn't die from falling from a great height.
I decided to test my current state further before I did something rash in front of the princess. I summoned a small knife in front of me, and carefully pressed it against my hoof, not deep enough to cause any problems if things went wrong, and yet, not soft enough so that it could just be my skin stopping the blade.
As it was, the skin did stop the blade; I was unable to push the blade into my fur, not even making an indentation in the hoof. This was certainly interesting. If a little freaky, but no matter, I had my proof, or at least, some more proof. I experimentally tapped the knife against my body, starting from my hooves to my head, no cuts were made, and although I could feel the knife as it pressed into my fur, I never felt the usual pain that accompanied that gesture. But the princess wouldn't believe something as small as that. No, it'd take a lot more convincing than a small bread knife could ever give, time to do something rash.
The teleport from that field to Canterlot barely drained me, when a day ago I would have been stumbling about for at least a minute. It appeared that my powers had gotten stronger, and so had my endurance, as I made my way up the stone steps to the Throne room, the princesses’ usual haunt for this time of day. I got to the door, and requested entry into the chamber, the guards were already opening the chamber as I spoke though, being the element of magic, and Celestia's personal student had its advantages.
Upon entering the throne room, I noted that all the other elements were there enjoying lunch, oh, that's right, I'd forgotten that we'd all planned a feast to mark the occasion. Namely, my 200th Birthday. The elements were to thank for that old age, thankfully they had granted longevity, and even youth, so all of us; Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie, Rainbow, Rarity and Myself all looked not a day over 25, and yet had experiences enough for 8 times that. The elements didn't protect us from injury though, that had been a lesson that Rainbow had soon found out the hard way. She had been grounded for a year while her wings were re-attached. All of us working overtime to convince Rainbow that she would fly again and that it wasn't the end of the world, I think that that was when I fell for her. I suppose she reminded me of myself, as She'd often said, I was the Rainbow Dash of Magic; I suppose the opposite was true of her. That was proved quite well with her freak-out in that year around 50 years ago.
Yeah, yeah, it's a bit of a long time to not act upon a crush, but I was nothing if not patient. I would ask Rainbow to a date after this 'not a surprise' surprise party that they'd planned for me, and I'd planned for everything, I'd found the perfect place where I could talk to her, the perfect date, all set up and waiting for the green light. But that wasn't my priority at the moment. No my priority was to talk to the princess and to share this new magic that I'd found. I saw her at the other end of the room, and teleported over there to save time, immediately garbling out a message somewhere along the lines of:
"I'vefoundtheanswertoimmortalityandnowi'mimmortalandicanproveit!"
Needless to say that I attracted some very bemused glances from my friends, and a smirk from the princess, who said.
"Could you please say that again, except perhaps, slower?"
I nodded giddily, re-arranging my thoughts before I launched into the explanation and the story of my fall and diamond hard skin.
I was met with a mixture of open mouths and sceptical expressions from my friends and my mentor. The latter started speaking:
"I think that you've spent a little too much time in that stuffy library Twilight, there is no such thing as a true immortality spell."
To avoid further explanation, I telekinetically grabbed hold of one of the soldiers’ swords, and shot it straight at my heart. Causing my friends and mentor to all cry out in unison at my apparent suicide attempt.
The sword bounced off.
Now everyone in the hall was staring at me with open mouths and some were even doing a very good impression of a fish.
I could see Pinkie, mid-bounce, comically frozen in mid-air as a result of the shock, Fluttershy's eyes filled up their sockets, and they were shinier than ever. Applejack was coughing slightly as the event caused her to swallow a whole apple, core and all. While Rarity and Rainbow simply sat there, stupefied and with mouths hanging open.
"Impressed?" I asked, smirking at their expressions.
Silence reigned supreme for another moment, until the soldier whose sword it had been hurried forward to retrieve said implement, however, upon reaching the sword, the princess spoke, her voice slightly strained.
"General Cautious, is the sword sharp?"
This caused me some confusion, of course it was sharp, it wasn't as if I'd blunted it on its path through the air, making it safe to hit me, then again, that might be a good spell to research if I ever got the time. I was struck out of my musing when there was a sharp intake of breath from the monarch in front of me. Turning around to see what the fuss was about, I was met with the sight of General Cautious who'd just attempted to prick himself with the sword, and I could clearly see the bulbous sphere of red that was already appearing through the wound.
Celestia was silent now, contemplating something. That was easy enough to see, the fact that she kept glancing at me gave away the subject of her contemplation too. However, the specifics were completely alien to me, I wasn't a mind reader. Yet.
Celestia got up and started pacing the room, much to the confusion of myself and the other guests. She kept pausing at the end of each length, looking around with wild eyes, then glancing at me, before resuming her pacing to and fro along the hall. She didn't stop, not for a second, not even when the clock struck. I attempted to share a look with the others, but none of them were in any fit state to offer any advice, if them gawking at me was anything to go by. I was beginning to regret my choice of entrance, as it seemed to have surprised them all to no small extent, even rendering Pinkie speechless, which was more or less impossible, believe me. But all the while, Celestia kept pacing, To and Fro, To and Fro. It was quite worrying.
I had just worked up the courage to talk to the Princess, when another pony entered through the door, surprising me, whilst Celestia seemed somewhat relieved at the sight of the Princess of the night, immediately turning and walking towards her, and then started conversing with her in rushed, quiet tones. Every so often, Luna would glance at me, her facial expression changing every time she did so. Firstly it was with disbelief, then confusion, and all the emotions between there and worry, finally leading up to a horrified expression as she looked at me. Although, by this time, I was getting quite annoyed, I had the right to know what was being said about me, it was after all, me.
They had been conversing for over a minute now, and I was really getting annoyed. Looking back at it now, I suppose that if it was a normal day, then I wouldn't have dared interrupt the princesses whilst they were having an urgent discussion, but then again, that day had been anything but normal, so I did. "Hello? It would be nice to know why you seem to be discussing me in great detail over there." I heard the words come out of my mouth, but I don't think that I actually recognised what I'd said at the time, after the event, I'd berated myself heavily on my lack of formality, and regretted what I said.
But at least it got their attention, and by happy coincidence, also snapped my friends out of their little trance, to guess their thought processes, I suppose they thought that I'd gone mad; I'd just interrupted the two most powerful ponies in existence. One of whom was my Mentor, who I'd worried would banish me to magic kindergarten again because I handed in a report late. To say the two events were complete parallels was an understatement, but nevertheless, Celestia and Luna both nodded at each other, and then turned towards me, and the other occupants of the room, then started to talk.
"I suppose I'd better start with the beginning of, well, everything. Both me and Luna are old, that's taken for granted, but what you don't realise is just how old we are. Luna was banished just under a thousand and one years ago. But we ruled for a long time before that, a very long time before that. Older that the old Hearth's Warming eve tale, older than the first tribes of ponies, so old that the landmasses were different, completely different. And that was where we were born, Twins, I was a Unicorn, and Luna, a Pegasus, a miracle when the whole family consisted of unicorns. And there we lived in happiness for the time being, ignorant of the world around us. Until that is, They arrived." At this, the Goddesses of both the Sun and the Moon both shuddered slightly, as if dredging up a memory that they would have rather kept buried.
"Back then, they were called the Star Keepers, the Ponies that kept the day, and the night. All 20 of them were unicorns, and all of them were incredibly powerful. But, alas they were old, and they knew that they did not have long left for the world. So they had travelled between the ponies of the land, looking for the one's that could succeed them, and continue the cycle of night and day for another few generations. Sadly, they had found no-pony; no-pony was anywhere near powerful enough to control the Sun or even the Moon. And we were their last resort. When they came looking for potential ponies to fill the duty, they stopped at us. Both me, and Luna possessed a latent ability for magic, even though Luna had no horn, she still equalled at least five of the Star Keepers members in dormant ability alone. While I, I had the ability to outmatch another ten of the Star Keepers at once."
"So they made a decision, they would cast a spell on both myself and Luna that would allow us to fulfil our true purposes, to control the Sun and the Moon respectively, until the time came that we were no-longer needed. What we are now is a direct result of that spell. I won't lie, growing wings hurt, so much that I can still remember the pain to this day, whilst I think that Luna will agree with me as her horn grew in." This was accompanied by the Night Princess nodding her head slowly, a pained expression on her face, and she continued for her sister.
"The pain was immeasurable, yet it only lasted for around 5 minutes, for both of us. Then there was the adjustment period. The Star Keepers gave us both 5 days to get used to our new abilities. Suffice it to say that we both found our new immortality quite quickly. But eventually, we did manage to control our abilities… well sort of anyway. Celly wouldn't crash into that many buildings anymore, and I usually managed to aim my magic at the less expensive things to repair. They came back, and they were pleased with what they saw. Celestia's power had increased so that she was the equal of all of them, and my power had also doubled, now able to match half of them. They were impressed with what they could see, and decided to give the power of the Sun to Celestia, whilst giving the beauty of the Moon to me, with the instructions, 'simply keep the stars where they are, and all will be well'."
And here, Celestia seamlessly picked up the story again. "They left soon after; once they were sure that we could take the strain of the Sun and the Moon easily enough, leaving us with one final piece of information. 'A Day and a Night after you meet the true eternal, the spell will fade, and your immortality will end.' This being the final prophecy of the Star Keepers, it was deliberated for a long time, but I think that me and Luna have managed to puzzle it out well enough. 24 hours after we meet the pony with true immortality, the spell over us will end, both myself and Luna will turn to dust, and our reign will end."
This did not do much to calm Twilight, but it did enough for her to ask the question that would mean everything.
"And what about me? If I am the last immortal, then what happens to me when you go?"
Celestia thought for a moment before replying. "Well, then you are the immortal pony of Equestria, you will walk across the planet’s surface never to age, and never to die. Seems pretty bleak now I think about it myself, certainly not a fate that I would have wished upon you, my faithful student. Now, if you'll excuse me and Luna, we both have just under 23 hours left to live, and we'd like to spend some time together." At which, the two Princesses of Equestria turned around, and left the room, side by side.
This of course, left me, the eternal pony of a prophecy thousands of years old, destined to notify the end of the princesses’ reign, alone with my friends, who were still having trouble with the information that I was now immortal. After another awkward 5 minutes of them staring glassily at me, I finally opted to break the silence.
"So…"
Yeah. I'm not the best at conversation starters at the best of times.
"So, when did you become immortal Twi? Was it today? Because we didn't see you today, and you weren't immortal yesterday unless you didn't want us to know that you were immortal yesterday in which case you were lying to us about not being immortal yesterday, which would be kind of hard because we didn't ask you if you were immortal yesterday and mph---"
Guess I should have figured that Pinkie would be the first one to regain her composure, and resume her million words a minute speed. Thankfully, the noise was now plugged with my hoof, and the others seemed to have regained a bit of their composure, thanks to Pinkie's outburst.
"Yes Pinkie, I suppose I became immortal earlier today, far from the outskirts of Ponyville, way, way, away from anything breakable. Thankfully."
'You know,' I thought to myself, 'I almost preferred them being stunned to this rampage of questions. Coming from every angle.' Rarity asking me about if my hair was indestructible, and if it would always stay that way. Fluttershy, asking me if I was sure I was ok, and if I needed a cup of tea. Pinkie Pie, asking me if she could be immortal too, (I would rather not dwell on my thought processes after that one was suggested, suffice it to say, it wasn't pretty.). Applejack, who also asked me if I was feeling ok, and if I needed any food or water or anything. And finally Rainbow Dash, who waited for everyone else to finish before stating flatly. "So, Immortality."
I guess, like a lot of things, I didn't think it through properly. I didn't think about how long I would actually live for, and what I would have to endure, as Rainbow put her hoof right on the issue. She would have to keep up the strong face as her friends left her, one by one, as they inevitably would. She would have to endure sleepless nights when their memories came back to haunt her, and she would have to do it alone eventually. Not even dragons were immortal, however long their lifespan was, and it would still be an infinitely small dot against her life. At that moment, immortality seemed like one of those very rash decisions. I didn't think that I'd be able to manage the infinite loneliness that came with the spell. But then again, maybe, I thought, Maybe, I didn't have to do it alone. I still had enough power, and the spell was probably much easier on another pony than on me. But, could I wish that same fate on another, make another pony walk the land with me through the tick and the tock of time?
I doubted it, I just wasn't that cruel. And yet, my brain still thought ahead for if it did come down to that. I would only have charge enough for one spell. The princesses were out of the question as I had no idea what effect it would have on an alicorn, and that made me choose between my friends, which was going to be a slow and painful process whichever way I looked at it.
There was Applejack, a hard-working farmer, and the element of Honesty.
Fluttershy, a gentle and sweet pony, and the element of Kindness.
Rarity, also gentle and kind, but representing the element of Generosity.
Pinkie, a fun and excitable mare, being the element of Laughter probably helped that.
And finally Rainbow, who would never leave a friend hanging, making the element of Loyalty, and completing the other 5 elements.
Sadly, choosing between them was going to be hard, but after a few moments thinking, I had a clear idea of who she could survive eternity without.
Pinkie would probably drive me mad within a few hundred years with the constant partying, and not to mention her Pinkie sense.
Rarity was one of the most dramatic of her friends, and would probably continue that streak tenfold into immortality, also resulting in my insanity.
Then the real selection had to happen, which it couldn't do if the ponies in question were anxiously trying to get my attention.
"Yes?" I asked curtly, annoyed at having my thoughts interrupted.
"Well. Um. You've been standing there for a while now, and, um, Applejack said to wake you up, that is, if you don't mind."
The quiet and meek voice was enough to stop any anger or annoyance towards my friends, honestly, you could never be mad at anypony if Fluttershy was around them.
"No, no, sorry, I was just thinking Fluttershy." I replied, trying to make the shy pegasus see that I wasn't angry with her.
"About eternity?" questioned Rainbow, damn it, she did have that ability to just cut through all the crap, and get to what was important. So, caught in the act, I nodded slowly.
This got me sympathetic smiles from the rest of the group. Even they knew that they could never hope to live to my age, and that I'd have to deal with each and every one of them dying sooner or later.
Applejack piped up, "Just remember sugarcube, we're all here for you if you need someone to talk to." and each mare in turn nodded their assent to that statement.
In hindsight, I don't think Applejack realised just how wrong she was. Funny that, being the element of honesty, and not even realising when you yourself told a lie. Still, it was the thought that counted.
"I know, let's have a Twilight is now immortal party!" came the input from Pinkie, I can't say that I expected anything else from that mare if I'm honest. "Except lets also mix it with her birthday party, so it can be her Twilight is now Immortal on her 200th Birthday party!" Quite honestly, I'm not sure where that mare gets those names from, wherever it is, I'm not sure that I want to go there.
Without waiting for an answer, Pinkie drew out her infamous party cannon from some unknown area beneath a table three times too small for it to fit, and set it off. The room changed with the retort from the cannon. Banners gained new writing, food was re-stocked, tables were re-laid with a slightly different shade of violet tablecloth, but somehow all the condiments managed to stay on top of the table. In the end, I just had to leave it as Pinkie being Pinkie, and therefore impossible.
And that's how we passed a good twelve hours, all of us partying the night away, and enjoying the forgetfulness that the heady mix of loud music, and good food could bring.
Sadly it was not to last. After the twelve hours of straight partying, we'd all felt so exhausted that we'd simply collapsed on the floor and left it at that, luckily for us, the throne room was never in use at that hour. I was the first one to wake, and I simply sat there for a while, just taking in the dawn air. Wait, dawn air, and if I made herself known to the Princess at twelve o'clock sharp, then that meant that I'd slept for at least seven hours, and that I had less than four hours until the Princesses were gone, and I was left as the true immortal. Less than four hours until the unknown started, and I still had to work on my backup plan of making one of my friends immortal.
Thankfully, I remembered that I'd managed to whittle down my choices to the final three. Applejack, Fluttershy and Rainbow. Now for the hard part.
Well, sort of, I sat there for a minute or so thinking, before mentally crossing Fluttershy off the list, I wasn't going to put Fluttershy through the emotional stress of outliving all of her animal friends, and her normal friends. It would break her poor heart too many times.
Well, three down, two to go.
And this was where the deliberation started. On one hand, she loved Rainbow, whilst on the other, she knew that if she made the wrong choice, or if Rainbow didn't feel the same towards her, then she'd still be spending eternity effectively alone. And the deliberation continued. Each good reason as to keeping Dash around, was met by a counter-argument, all provided by herself, usually depicting how sad Rainbow would be on her own.
Then again, I had completely managed to overlook what made her the element of Loyalty in the first place, and with that memory, it made the choice much easier, as I remembered Rainbow's clichéd words, "I'd never leave Ponyville hanging."
That was the solution, right there. Rainbow would never leave Ponyville, or her friends hanging. Even if there was only one friend left to hang for, Rainbow would never let me down; she would be able to deal with the loneliness of eternity the best out of all my friends.
Finally satisfied that I'd made the right decision, I checked the sun once more to see how much time there was until everything changed. Funny that, you'd have thought that I'd be mad with grief at the thought of losing the princesses, but no. No, I kept myself in check and everything normal. Shock is a strange thing. One hour to go.
And the Princesses of Equestria walked into the hall, silently, and both wearing expressions of resigned acceptance.
They walked through the residue of the party towards their thrones, and sat, neither of them even glancing at the various scenes of destruction around the room. I guess that the small things didn't seem to matter anymore, not in the grand scheme of things at any rate. I guess that the prospect of imminent death does that to you.
We talked for a spell, about nothing and everything. About eternity, and about living the moment. And about life, and death. Strange to think that to this day, I would come to crave the end, yet would never even have a glimpse at it.
The princesses had made arrangements over the past 23 hours. They had set up announcements for their 'departure', and how I would be taking care of everything now. No-one had argued with them, they had all just accepted it, strange that. Our two beloved rulers were about to step down, to die. And not a soul protested, not a word was said, and not a voice questioned it. But then, I doubt that the rulers were open to leeway at that current time.
10 minutes.
Strange how fast time goes when you wish to spend every last second wisely.
5 minutes.
I asked the Princesses if the pain ever got easier.
1 minute.
They said no.
And it ended.
The princesses glowed brightly for a second, then turned to ash and dust, scattering throughout the room, and filtering the sunlight, creating all different colours of the spectrum upon my blissfully unaware friends. I remember the sight, the last gift of the alicorn princesses, a sight of beauty that only I would ever see.
And then?
The world exploded.
It's strange how things play out in the end. Even when we were discussing things for the final hour, we never once touched on the problems of the Sun and the Moon. But then again, we never had needed to, I simply forgot, and I think that the Princesses were too weary to give it that much thought. But the outcome was still the same.
Remember what I said earlier about the Princesses keeping the sun held back from our planet?
That happened.
We didn't all die instantly though, it began with the warmth as the sun slowly found itself free to act upon our gravity. Degree by degree the temperature rose, and I was the only one to notice. Everyone else just assumed that it was a boiling summer’s day. Not a one of them even considered that the thing that gave them life, was about to take it away from them in one fell swoop. I could see that my time was running out, and I needed to act upon my contingency fast if I was going to survive the coming sun storm with my mind intact.
I won't go into the details of the spell, you've heard that once already. Through the heat I worked, and the flame of the coming Sun, finishing it with moments to spare. Sadly, testing to see whether it had worked or not became an impossibility when the sun hit.
All those years ago. Sometimes, I remember the Princesses, and their values, and just how powerful they were. I had attempted to prise the Sun away from the planet a long time ago, succeeding in lifting it only a hundred miles or so above the planet’s surface. But it was enough for the time being. Sometimes, I wonder what they would have done in this situation. They probably wouldn't have moped around for the millennia that I had endured. They would have found a way to fix things, and then fixed them. Something that I hadn't ever attempted to do.
But every hundred years or so, I do see something on this desolate landscape of dust. A hint of colour against the flames and the darkness.
A rainbow, just over the horizon.