//------------------------------// // (No Premise, 0 edits) I Could Do So Much More // Story: Homeward Bound // by The Collapsed Library //------------------------------// Twilight gasped for air. She could scarcely remember why she was so short of breath, the last three hours or so had been engulfed in a red haze. What she did remember however, left little need to retrace her steps. One could hardly blame her for flying into a rage when a giant red centaur reduced her home to rubble. Standing in the middle of their battlefield, Twilight had been outflanked. Tirek stood before her, using her captured friends as meat-shields, offering her a choice: Turn over her magic, or watch those she cared about suffer. Almost as soon as he finished giving his ultimatum, her friends began to object--their voices flowing together and merging into one incoherent stream of noise. She wouldn't have heard much anyways with the blood bounding in her ears. Although as the chaotic noise finally died down two voices eventually made themselves heard. "Don't do it Twilight!" Rainbow Dash shouted, the sorrowful look on her face etching itself into Twilight's memory. Oh how she'd miss seeing that face. "We're not worth it!" Fluttershy cried, tears streaming down her cheeks and pooling in the bottom of the bubble that held her. She would see those tears every night. "... You're right." The words she spoke were soft, so soft even Discord, with his superior hearing, couldn't quite make out what she said. "What was that Princess Twilight?" Tirek mocked, punctuating his words with laughter, "I couldn't quite hear you, maybe you should speak up!!!" "You're right, you aren't worth it." As she spoke, her eyes drifted to each of her friends, "It's not even that hard of a decision really," she reasoned, "six lives to save millions more, anyone would take that choice. I could end this fight right now, and history would most likely forget about your fate, about how I could've saved you. I could go on to do so much in your memory, striving to ensure future generations remember and learn the lessons your lives teach. I could lead Equestria into a golden age, the likes of which would never have be seen" Twilight's sight finally drifted across Discord, curled in on himself as the realization of what he'd done took it's tole. He was the newest member of her circle of friends, and despite everything that he'd done she still felt he was her friend. His mistakes were vast and varied, many came from the past few days, but he would learn from them. She felt the tears rise unbidden as she looked at his defeated form, waiting for execution. She wished she hadn't. "I COULD DO SO MUCH MORE!!!" She screamed, the suddenness of it startling her friends and even causing Discord to flinch. "SO MUCH MORE!!" She felt herself collapse to the dirt, tears obscuring the forms of her friends. There never was a choice, not really. "I guess we'll never find out." She stated as she wiped the tears from her eyes and looked at Tirek. She'd never be able to live with herself if they died. "Do it." She growled, the embers of her hatred for the centaur fanning in this last moment, as she ignored the pleas of her friends, as she ignored the future that might've been. She watched as Tirek activated his magic, she felt it as he lifted her into the air so he could look her eye-to-eye. Then he pulled. Celestia and Twilight had talked once about what it meant to be an alicorn, about how every alicorn exists as a representation of a concept, idea given form. They'd never figured out what hers was. They'd sat in the gardens of Canterlot Castle for hours theorizing about what she could represent, friendship was the likeliest answer they'd arrived at. But the other Alicorns had remained doubtful. Perhaps she represented knowledge, or somesuch thing Luna had said. While Cadence was still of the firm belief that she represented something far larger, far grander than anything they could possibly imagine. Twilight had kept her final guess to herself. In the moment that he began draining her magic, Tirek found out. She was magic. As he drew more of her magic out, there was always more to fill it's space. She was like a fountain, gushing magical energy and never running out. Or more precisely, an infinite magical battery. and anypony knew not to tamper with a battery. He looked in her eyes and saw that same steel from before, and in that moment he knew something was wrong. For one thing he couldn't turn the damned spell off. Another was that she was smirking. "What's the matter Tirek?" Twilight mocked her smirk growing even more as her coat began to change to a blinding white, "Can't you take it?" He tried to back away, her mane and tail caught fire. He tried to escape, she somehow became even brighter. Then the light disappeared, and quiet reigned once more in Equestria.