Twilight’s eyes fluttered open. She couldn’t remember much except that it had been a long night, and now her body slightly ached. She was still tired, but decided to force herself to get out of bed anyway. She sat up on the bed, rubbed her eyes, and looked around. Everything looked the same in the library but, for some reason, it all felt… different. She looked out the window and saw that the sky was a very strange color, much like a sunset, but with more pink. Twilight was too groggy for this to have any impact on her, however, and hopped down onto the floor. She walked downstairs to make breakfast, but was surprised to find that the clock read 8:00 PM.
“Spike!” she called, planning to ask her assistant why she had been asleep for so long and why he hadn’t woken her up. Alas, there was no reply. “Spike!” she called again at a slightly increased volume. Still no one answered. A few moments later a strange ball of slightly blue light floated in through the window.
“Good Morning,” it said in a robotic voice, “you have been in suspension for: 12 days.”
“Twelve days!” Twilight screamed, “That’s more than a week! I haven’t sent a letter to the Princess! I haven’t talked to my friends! I haven’t done anything for twelve days!”
“That is correct,” the light replied in the same robotic voice, “this completes both the physical and cognitive portions of the examination. You may now return to suspension.”
“What are you talking abou-” Twilight started to say, confused, but was stopped and fell to the floor unconscious.
She woke up in the same condition she had woken up in previously. The clock again read 8:00 PM, but the sky was now a simple lighter shade of blue that one would expect to see on a cloudless afternoon. Everything below the sky, however, seemed to be just barely illuminated as though it were night. Twilight also noticed that there was no sun. Her library was a complete mess; it looked like a tornado had come through it
“Good morning,” said a familiar robotic voice. Twilight turned around and saw the same ball of light she had before. It said, “You have been in suspension for: 9… 9… 9… 9… 9… this is a recording.”
“Oh no,” Twilight said. She ran outside and found Ponyville to be even more disastrous than her library had been. “This can’t be happening,” she said, “this isn’t happening!” She ran all around Ponyville looking for somepony she could ask about what had happened. Everywhere she looked, things were just as horrifyingly terrible as everything else and equally, if not more so, unsettlingly quiet and deserted. She rushed back to the library.
“How long did you say I was… in suspension for?” Twilight asked the orb.
The strange light replied once again in its strange, robotic voice, “You have been in suspension for 9… 9… 9… 9… 9…” The ball’s robotic voice “shorted out”, and then said, “Length of time incomputable.”
“What?” Twilight said. She fell back as she tried to comprehend what this thing had just told her.
Suddenly, in an all too familiar voice, the ball floated above her and said, “Did you miss me Princess Sparkle? I know I’ve missed you.”
“Discord,” Twilight said angrily, “What have you done to Ponyville!”
“Ponyville?” the light said in Discord’s voice, “Twilight Sparkle, you insult me. I’ve spread this fabulous new look all across Equestria! It’s quite the rage nowadays.” Twilight’s mouth dropped. “What’s wrong Miss Sparkle?” the orb said, “Are you upset by my new chaos apocalypse inspired style? All the other ponies seemed to like it. Well then again I didn’t really get the chance to ask them in their screams of terror all those millennia ago. Ah, C’est la guerre.”
“All those,” Twilight gulped, “millennia ago?”
“Yes,” the orb replied still in Discord’s voice, “didn’t you hear my friend here?”
“Indeed,” the orb said, now in its old robotic voice, “didn’t you hear me? Ha… ha… ha… ha…”
“Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha…” The voice of both Discord and the robot were laughing now.
Twilight closed her eyes as tears started streaming down her face.
The sound of the robot slowly laughing in the distance could still be heard, and the last thing Twilight heard before she fell asleep once more was the voice of Discord saying, “Welcome to immortality.”
Twilight woke up in her room at the castle in the Crystal Empire. She rubbed her eyes and got out of bed. Spike was asleep in his basket in the corner. Twilight kicked the bedframe to figure out if she was still dreaming. Unfortunately, she wasn't, and when she kicked the bed, she let out a small yelp of pain.
As she sat there, clutching her leg, she heard a voice from outside, “Everything all right in there?”
“Yes, I’m fine,” said Twilight. She gradually stood up on her injured leg and limped out the door. Outside her room she found The Doctor sitting next to the TARDIS and reading the newspaper. “It’s one thirty,” Twilight said, “What are you doing up?”
“First,” said The Doctor, not looking up from his paper, “I’m supposed to be guarding you. Second, I don’t really sleep that often. And third, I’d ask you the same question.”
“Well,” said Twilight. She yawned. “I just had the weirdest dream.”
“Did it involve Princess Luna, a burning house, and lemons?” The Doctor said, still refusing to look away from his paper.
“Well, no,” Twilight began, “but-”
“Then it wasn’t the weirdest dream,” The Doctor said.
“Whatever,” Twilight said, “but I have a question for you.”
“Alright,” The Doctor said, “but nothing about the future. I’m not really supposed to tell you that kind of stuff.”
“What’s it like being immortal?” Twilight said. The Doctor remained silent, but finally looked up at Twilight with an inquisitive expression like he was trying to read her mind. He looked back down at the newspaper he was holding.
“It’s… alright I suppose. Why do you ask?” He said.
“It has to do with my dream,” Twilight said looking down,“I’ve been thinking about immortality and what it must be like. I know that some things about it must be hard, but it can’t be all bad, right?”
"Well," said The Doctor, "If you'd like a second opinion, you could always ask one of the Princesses."
Twilight looked up. She'd been a bit too tired to really think about this much, and hadn't considered talking to anypony else other than the stallion who happened to be just outside her door.
"That's a great idea!" she said, "Have you seen either of them recently?"
"Luna asked to go in the TARDIS a few minutes ago," The Doctor said, "though I can't imagine why." Twilight thought for a moment and then walked into the TARDIS.
When she got in she was surprised and slightly creeped out to find that the lights had been dimmed, and slow, smooth jazz was coming from an unknown source.
"Surprise," said a seductive female voice. Luna walked out from behind a corner wearing dark blue socks decorated with stars. "Oh," she said, blushing when she saw Twilight, "I'm sorry, I was expecting someone else."
"I would hope so," Twilight said as she watched Luna walk up to the main control panel and push a button. The jazz music stopped.
"What do you want?" asked Luna trying to hide her embarrassment.
"I had a few questions for you," Twilight said, struggling to put two and two together in her tired condition.
"And what might these questions be related to?" Luna asked as she slipped off the socks.
"Immortality," Twilight said, “I’ve been wondering about what it’s like.”
“Well,” Luna said, leaning against the main control panel, “I suppose you could call it a blessing and a curse. While living forever might be nice, and you get to see all that happens, watch empires rise and fall, you also are forced to sit back and look on helplessly as your friends and family age to dust in what feels like seconds to an immortal, while your skin barely wrinkles.” Luna was looking off into space as she said this. Her eyes were tearing up, and her face held a mixture of sadness and rage. The way she told her story, combined with her tears and her face, it was enough to make a full grown burst into tears.
“I’m… I’m so sorry,” Twilight said.
“Oh it’s all right,” Luna said, brushing away tears and sniffling, “if one is lucky, one finds other immortals to spend their time with.”
“Well, um,” Twilight said, “I guess I’ll see you later.” She started for the door.
“Oh, and Twilight,” Luna said. Twilight stopped and turned around. “Don’t tell anyone about this, especially not…” she blushed, “him.” Twilight nodded, exited the TARDIS, and went back to bed. Just before she fell asleep, her brain finally made a connection.
“Wait, what?”