At Ponyville
Applejack was the first one to regain her posture: “Princess Celestia, please allow me to say this.”
Celestia perked up. “What's wrong, Applejack?”
“Well, princess... I've decided…” Applejack’s voice was shaky, since she wasn’t sure about how to continue. She decided to make the upcoming revelation as short and painless as possible.
“I want to give up my Element of Harmony!” she blurted out.
All ponies in the room widened their eyes in surprise at Applejack's words.
“Are-are you joking, AJ?” Rainbow Dash stammered.
“How could I be joking, in a situation like this?” Applejacks voice deepened. “No, Rainbow, it is true. I don't want to be the carrier of the Element Of Honesty anymore, and neither do I deserve it.” Applejack had spoken in a firm voice, leaving no doubts about how serious she was.
“B-b-but why!? The Elements are the only thing that unites us all, the only thing that connects us with Twilight! They are our only chance to find and fix her, why would you give up on yours?” Rainbow Dash’s expression changed from surprised to angry. “If you abandon it, if we abandon them, then we will also abandon Twilight!” By the time she had spoken these words, Rainbow flew in front of Applejack with an angry look on her face.
“Rainbow is right, Applejack. I know you are all heartbroken, just like me. But now, only the Elements of Harmony can help us heal Twilight. They are our only hope to find her, and without them, we might never be able to free her of the curse. So we can't just give up on that hope, do you understand, Applejack?“ Princess Celestial spoke the last two sentences with a new found energy, to motivate herself and the others to not give up that easily.
“I certainly understand that, princess. But I have to say, we all know that the Elements of Harmony can't help us fix everything. And this time they can't help us fix Twilight either, because the other Elements won't work without the Element of Magic.”
“And even if they do work… I don't think they can help us cure Twilight. Because after what we know, the Elements of Harmony can only drive out the darkness born of negative emotions in a creature’s heart... But what about Twilight? If what Princess Cadence has told us is true, Twilight's heart will have gained nothing but emptiness, and certainly no negative emotions. And if it doesn't contain any negative emotions to purify, we might turn Twilight into stone, just like Discord. And is that so much better than how she currently is? If she doesn’t hurt anyone, I don’t think so,” Applejack sadly explained.
Applejack didn't really want to believe this either, but she had learned that even if the truth can bring a lot of pain, one has to accept it. Because every lie, no matter how beautiful, promising or comforting, will always be an illusionary mist and will only make you more lost.
“B-But... Even if so, we don't have to give up. Who knows, if we keep on hoping, the Elements might make an exception!” At that point Rainbow was desperate, she had lost a friend, she didn't want to lose any more friends and so she hold on to that last straw of hope.
“No, Rainbow... You have to accept the fact that the Elements won't be able to help us this time.”
“But... But...” Rainbow faltered. Deep in her heart she knew that Applejack was correct. But she could not accept that all hope of saving Twilight was disappearing, there had to be something! Some new way of using the Elements, or maybe some spell.
Applejack raised her voice: “Princesses, friends... Just like the Element of Magic is the center of the connection between the other elements, Twilight is the pony that unites us all, she's the reason we became the owners of the Elements... And now, this bond has been broken by us, the bearers themselves, causing Twilight to lose her own heart! Is there any reason to continue bearing the Elements?” Applejack looked at the ponies in the room, seeing nothing but sadness and tears in their faces.
Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie, no, they all frowned at Applejack's question. They all realized that because of Twilight, they became the bearers of the Elements of Harmony. And now, when Twilight had disappeared, the Element Of Magic had withered, there was not a single reason to continue to be the heroes of Equestria. How could they protect Equestria, if they could not even protect their best friend?
Finally, after a moment of silence, Rainbow Dash walked towards Princess Celestia and raised her head, with a determined expression on her face: “AJ is right! Twilight is our best friend, the pony that connects us all. If she gives up on being the owner of her Element, so will I. Because if we don’t do this together, we might as well not do this at all. If I have to choose between being a hero of Equestria and my friends, there’s only one correct answer, my friends!”
“I will also abandon the Element Of Generosity. Even if it is a shame to give up such beautiful accessoires, they aren’t as unique as my friends.” Rarity stepped up to stand with Rainbow Dash.
“Me too!” Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie spoke in unison, while walking towards Rainbow Dash and Rarity.
Applejack looked towards her friends and smiled, then she completed the line between Rainbow and Rarity.
“Princess, we will give up the Elements of Harmony. However, we are never going to give up on Twilight, even without the Elements of Harmony helping, we won’t let her down. We promise, we will definitely find Twilight, ” they said.
Princess Celestia, Shining Armor and Princess Cadence were surprised by the drastic change of behavior of the Main Five. 5 minutes ago they had been weeping, now their voices were full of determination and strength.
“I understand and respect your decision, and I myself will not give up, I will not rest until I find my faithful student!”
Inside the ancient ruins
Twilight was sleeping on the grass beside the lake in nearly complete silence. There was no noise except the wind. This was her first peaceful sleep, because now that her emotions had disappeared and her heart became empty, her dreams vanished with them.
Inside Twilight's dream
Twilight was standing in the middle of an empty, dark void, surrounded by nothing but endless darkness. “What is this place?”
A dark gray flame appeared in front of her and suddenly spoke: “We are inside your heart, my master.”
Twilight looked at the gray flames floating in front of her: “Is that you, Death?”
“Yes and no. This is my soul form. Since you and I have become one, you can see my soul as well as I can appear inside your heart. ”
“Hum... So this is my heart after I became the Lord Of Death? A void, filled with endless darkness?” Twilight asked, with an expression of curiosity on her face.
“Yes, my master. The heart of every creature in the universe is its own space and all their personalities, dreams and emotions are expressed within it, so you could say this is a reflection of your soul. However, now that you are Lord Of Death, all your emotions have disappeared, so now your heart has nothing in it and became empty”
“Um... I get it. But won’t Princess Luna find me? She has the ability to go into everypony's dreams and locate them. ” Twilight asked.
“I understand your concerns, my lord. But I can assure you that this is not going to happen. Things like dreams or ambitions come from the heart, so the so-called dream space is actually the space of the heart, and every heart space has a door to it. These doors are linked to a place called the ‘corridor of dreams’. And there are also some creatures capable of entering the dream corridor and with that the heart spaces of other creatures. Princess Luna is a pony with such an ability. ”
Twilight wasn’t convinced by these words at all, but then Death began speaking again.
“However, this ability has its limits, the dream corridor is endless, and Luna can only find the dream doors of creatures within her reach. So if you are beyond her limit, she will not be able to find your dream. And because you're now in an relic space and thus completely separate from the real world, she won't be able to find your dream. And even if she sees it, she can't go inside your heart space without your permission. ”
“Thank you, now I get it. So when will I start training with my new power? ” Twilight asked.
“As soon as you wake up, my master,” Death answered.
Inside the ancient ruins (again)
Twilight eyes slowly opened, glowing icy blue. Twilight stood up, the power of Death radiating from her body. A dark gray flame enveloped her, and when the flame disappeared, her body was covered with a black armor, and her mane and tail sparkled like a galaxy.
She wore a gray helmet with black paddings, covering the space from the top of her head to her neck, a black chestplate encased her chest and abdomen, three sharp black spines growing in the middle of it, with two longer and pointed spines curving backwards. Small spikes sprouted behind her heels and at her front legs’ joints were two long, slightly pointed back spines. Her curved and black horn didn’t change, but now she was enveloped in her dark gray magic aura. She grinned.
“Let’s get the show on the road.”