Chapter XXXX: Let's Go
The reign of peace over the three kingdoms did not last, nor did the kingdoms themselves. As the years passed, history brought about the disintegration of the realm.
Sapphire inherited the throne of a devastated kingdom. The escaped hordes that slipped past the solders and guards around Mount Dechrau wreaked havoc upon Drakonia, decimating the population and tearing apart the mountainous landscape. Through the sheer force of their numbers, they destroyed the infrastructure built into the Gwyrdd and Glas Mountains. They poisoned the rivers with the filth of their bodies. They also robbed the dragons of their food, which went with them when they were sucked back into Tartarus.
The Arglwydd had his share of the work, as he, on his own, turned Mount Inferno into rubble. After flooding the halls and rooms with white fire, he repeatedly coiled and constricted his body around vital structural points of the mountain to crush them and bring the whole mountain down. He killed every senator inside, along with their families and their slaves.
Queen Sapphire had a terrible burden on her claws and she wondered whether Drakonia could ever recover from the devastation. With the advice of her siblings, she decided to take a truly drastic measure. The dragons needed to find a new home.
Under her leadership, the dragons abandoned Drakonia and migrated far to the West, beyond the Sea and the Uruhu Forest. Some dragons, seeing Sapphire to be unfit to bear the responsibilities of the crown, betrayed their bonds of loyalty and left on their own to find a new home, free from the laws placed by the Drakonian Senate and royal family.
The dragons who stayed with Queen Sapphire discovered a beautiful, lush land beyond the reach of the three kingdoms. At first they attempted to settle in this land, but the natives saw them as demons and fought against them. Unable to bear more violence after the Five-Hundred Year War, Sapphire decided not to confront the natives of the new land and led her dragons further West, beyond any place even the camels could reach.
The migration took its toll on the dragons, as exhaustion, strange weather and foreign diseases took many lives. Through the journey, more dragons still abandoned Sapphire, confident in their ability to find their own homes by themselves.
After five long years of searching, Queen Sapphire and her dragons finally find a suitable home in a volcanic mountain range. A sign that the Dragon Queen found to indicate that this place was meant to be their home was the vast forest to the East where phoenixes thrived. Here they had abundant raw untouched resources from which they rebuilt their kingdom, though it was little more than a shadow of their former glory. One generation later, Sapphire's successor, King Hammerhead, began a tradition in which the dragons made a pilgrimage their former home in Old Drakonia during the first month of Spring every other year. This tradition continues on in the present day, over two-thousand years later.
The new Drakonia prospered for a while, but soon newer generations of dragons, unexposed to the traditions that were attached with Old Drakonia, succumbed to a dragon's most primal and powerful vice: Greed. The power of the royal family began to wane and more and more dragons disregarded the laws that limited their ownership of material possessions. These lawless dragons grew larger than the rest and came to dominate society. By the year 1000 A.E, the members of the royal family were no more than figureheads to create the illusion of rightful monarchial rule, while the true power lied with the wealthiest and biggest dragons.
~~~~~
Hoofrica had fortunately remained beyond the reach of the hordes, as they were forced back into Tartarus before they could spread past Drakonia. The root of the kingdom's demise was Emperor Bluehorn's successor. After Bluehorn's funeral, the Baraza za Wawakilishi, a council of representatives from all over Hoofrica, gathered to choose a successor, as the late Emperor had no wife or children.
The Baraza chose his cousin, Dewdrops, for her mild manner, which seemed suitable for a time of peace. At first, she was a calm and fair ruler, but after a month on the throne, power unleashed an unseen and unpleasant side of the new Empress. The spark was the kingdom's treasury. The sight of gold stirred the greed hidden inside her heart and her lust for money became insatiable.
Dewdrops put Hoofrica's efforts and resources into every method of generating money, whether it was mining, lumber, the farming of cash crops, economic reforms and establishing stronger trade ties with the camels. For a while, her work solved the financial problems and made Hoofrica prosper, but still the Empress was not satisfied. Once the increase of income came to a standstill, Dewdrops raised taxes. As her greed grew, so did the taxes, and as the taxes rose, so did poverty and squalor. The vast majority of the wealth came to be owned by the Empress and a few nobles, while the rest of the population had close to nothing.
This economic stratification came in terrible timing with the hatching of a scientific abomination. Golden Lead and Pyro created eggs of hybridized creatures in their laboratory and, under the orders of Emperor Bluehorn, dumped the eggs into the Sea. In the eighth year of Dewdrops' reign, those eggs hatched and there rose an enormous swarm of shape-shifting creatures, which came to be known as Changelings.
The Changeling swarm swept Southward from the Sea and into Hoofrica. They infiltrated nearly every village, town and city in the Northern half of the kingdom, taking the places of the already impoverished Hoofricans, feeding off of their love and proceeding to breed. As they multiplied, they spread across the land like an unseen plague.
After a year, the Changelings were discovered and chaos ensued. The discovery of the truth behind the changeling in each household tore each family apart as the true Hoofricans fled their homes out of fear and searched for their real loved ones. Those who heard of the Changelings grew suspicious of everyone around them and the feeling of trust among all the poor disintegrated. In every part of the kingdom where Empress Dewdrops failed to exert her power, what little law and social order crumbled as the Hoofricans turned to crime and other lawless means to survive.
Even the Empress did not remain untouched by the swarm. She met a young and wealthy noble rhino. She took a liking for this noble and the two began a courtship, which over the course of five months led to their engagement and marriage. The truth, however, was that this noble did not exist at all. He was a changeling. When Dewdrops discovered this, she was infuriated and killed him. She then set out on a mission to kill every changeling in Hoofrica, a task made complicated by the fact that the targets looked like her own subjects.
Dewdrops did not care for this, however, and she ordered the death of any Hoofrican who behaved suspiciously. Her drastic actions led to further chaos and destruction, as countless innocent lives were taken, until all of Hoofrican society collapsed. The Empress was driven into insanity and her tyranny was only ended when her own Guard conspired and murdered her in 31 B.E.
The kingdom fell into anarchy and Hoofrica lost any trace of civility. The cities were abandoned and became hives for the Changelings. Those who wished to escape the chaos fled into the Uruhu Forest and a few dared to cross the deepest parts to reach the exotic land beyond. Those who stayed reduced to wild uncivilized barbarians. By the year 400 A.E, Hoofrica was forgotten, completely erased from the memories of the rhinos, gazelle, zebras and warthogs. What was once a great kingdom became a wasteland infested by bandits and changelings.
~~~~~
Ponytopia also remained untouched by Tartarus, but with the fall of King Concordius and Princess Sidera came the end of the line of alicorns. And it was the power of the alicorns that held the kingdom together.
Starswirl the Bearded and Commander Rainbow Sword returned to a Ponytopia with no ruler. The commotion amongst the earth ponies over the state of the sky had reached a boiling point and the kingdom was on the brink of revolution. Meanwhile, the pegasi exerted their independence from Equites by abandoning their military posts and remaining in the Sunrise Mountains.
The throne rightfully went to Concordius' youngest daughter, Princess Amicitia, but she was much too young to take on the responsibility and the late king did not have a chance to transform her into an alicorn before the Master brought about his demise. The Council of Nobles gathered in the Clear-Glass Dome and decreed that Starswirl was to become regent and rule in Amicitia's place until she came of age.
The Council, however, also made another more serious decision. The nobles knew that the earth ponies and pegasi would never follow a unicorn monarch. They only had respect for the authority of the alicorns. If they attempted to force the leadership of a unicorn upon them, the result would surely have been civil war. So the Council decided to split apart the kingdom and allow the three tribes to govern themselves independently of each other.
As the regent, Starswirl first needed to address the issue of the sky. With the Sun, Moon and stars in disarray, the cycles of life would be disrupted. So as his first action, he poured the kingdoms resources into researching the magic of the sky, bringing together every sorcerer and scholar in the whole of Ponytopia. After a month of relentless exploration into this magic, a way for unicorns to control the Sun and Moon was finally formulated. Ten elite sorcerers, chosen by Starswirl, learned the powerful spell and together with Starswirl, put the sky back in proper order in according with the calendar.
Starswirl's next concern was the division of the three pony tribes. He wished to reunite them, as he knew what consequences would come from the hatred that was festering. The only way to do so was to restore the alicorn line. Starswirl needed to transform the young Queen Amicitia into an alicorn. Starswirl put all of his heart and soul in the two tasks of governing the unicorns and creating the transformation spell.
In 29 B.E, Amicitia, at the age of eighteen years, finally took on her responsibilities as the Queen of the Unicorns. Three years later, she married Lord Titanium, and the next year, they had their first child, Princess Platinum.
Shortly after the birth of Princess Platinum, old age took its toll on Starswirl the Bearded. He weakened and grew too frail to continue his work on the spell for transforming a unicorn into an alicorn. To make matters worse, the fact that he could not continue his work emotionally agonized the old sorcerer, until he passed away in the year 24 B.E. Queen Amicitia chose Starswirl's former apprentice, who was now himself a proper sorcerer, Clover, to be the new High Sorcerer, and she gave him the name Clover the Clever for his sharp wit and foresight.
Commander Rainbow Sword's story was less tragic.
After the Council of Nobles decided to divide the three pony tribes, Sword returned to Pegasparta. Distraught by the division of the kingdom, he first made the decision to resign from his position as Commander of the Pegasi. To choose a new Commander, Pegasparta gathered together all the pegasi of the Sunrise Mountains and held a tournament to test the strength, agility, endurance and cunning of the best of the best. The champion was a young pegasus who was rapidly rising up the ranks of Pegasparta's military. His name was Hurricane. As it had always been, the new commander would hold his position for life or until his resignation.
Despite Commander Hurricane's prowess as a warrior, he was utterly submissive to his mother, who insisted that he give his little sister a position in the military. His little sister, Pansy, was his complete opposite. She was weak and cowardly, but pure of heart. Hurricane knew Pansy would never survive for long in the military, so he gave her the lowest position his mother would allow, that of a private.
After his resignation, Rainbow Sword married his beloved, Dr. Sweet Sting. The couple separated from the Bolts, moved away from Pegasparta and made their new life in Sword's home city, Irida. They built a house by the edge of a cliff with a beautiful view of the landscape that stretched far off to the horizon.
Sweet Sting established herself as the city's most skilled doctor, quickly overshadowing the other doctors because of her experience with the worst of maladies during the war.
Sword pursued his childhood dream. He became a weather pegasus and created artwork out of the clouds.
The two had three colts and one filly, all born in Irida. One colt inherited Sword's rainbow mane. He was named Rainbow Streak.
In the year 4 B.E, Sword passed away from old age and his wife followed shortly afterwards.
The decision of the Council of Nobles placed the Earth Ponies in a dilemma. They had close to no knowledge of government, as the vast majority of earth ponies were soldiers, farmers, artisans and merchants. The last time the Earth Ponies were an independent tribe was before the reign of Lux and Nox, over two-thousand years ago. The history of how the tribes governed themselves then was almost completely unknown.
In the midst of the uncertainty, one pony, Quick Quill, a learned mare and bookseller, proposed a revolutionary idea which she encountered on a few rare occasions in her books: the common Earth Ponies should choose their leader through an election. At first the idea met great opposition, but it gained support when everypony realized that it would spite the Unicorn and Pegasi, who believed that the idea of commoners deciding on who receives power and thus having some power themselves was absolutely absurd.
Soon Quick Quill's proposition was put to action and in 41 B.E. all the countryside farmers and urban ponies gathered outside the walls of the city of Equites to formulate the details of their new government and hold their first election. The Earth Ponies gathered in such great numbers that it intimidated the Unicorns and Pegasi, who dared not try to stop them.
The elected leader, which they called the Chancellor, was to hold his or her position for ten years, and every ten years, the ponies would gather to hold elections to choose a new leader or give the previous Chancellor another term.
Quick Quill was elected as the first Chancellor of the Earth Ponies. She held office for one term and retired to spend the rest of her years with her family and her books. In 11 B.E, the ponies elected their third Chancellor, Sugar Cookie. Unfortunately, Sugar Cookie fell victim to a terrible illness and perished on the sixth year of her term.
After Sugar Cookie's death in 5 B.E, the Earth Ponies quickly gathered to elect a new Chancellor. The two primary contestants were Sugar Cookie's daughter, Smart Cookie, and a popular dessert chef, Puddinghead.
Puddinghead was elected, as the ponies did not want any successor to be a direct descendant of the predecessor. They refused to follow the path of monarchy which the Unicorns followed. So, Smart Cookie instead took a position as Chancellor Puddinghead's secretary.
The three pony tribes lived with each other uneasily. Each tribe distrusted the others and did anything simply to spite them. All three competed for dominance over the former kingdom of Ponytopia.
The enmity between the three tribes festered for decades until their cold hatred manifested itself in a physical form: the Windigoes.
~~~~~
As Clover the Clever approached old age, he recalled all his adventures and the adventures of his mentor, Starswirl. He remembered one of Starswirl's stories that stuck with him the most through the years, the story of the opening of Tartarus. He pondered on it and decided that such a tale ought to be put into writing.
While much of the details were vague in his memory, he still remembered the main events. He remembered his mentor's sleep-vision, the arrival of the Doctor and the six mares of a distant land, the schemes of Tympanus, the journey through the Great Northern Desert, the passage into the Great Unknown and the battle at the Gates of Tartarus.
He took a quill and paper and wrote down the story, giving it the name, "The Legend of the Blue Box." He tried with all him might to remember the names of the six mares, but was forced to use the best guesses he could make: Midnight Sparkle, Apple Track, Rainstorm Flash, Scarcity, Flutter-n-Fly and Pink Sky.
There was one more mare in the company, but he could not in any way recall it, as it was a truly ridiculous name. He knew the sacrifice that she made and knew that he had to either give her a name that did justice to her actions or give her no name at all. In the end, he chose the latter.
In the year 11 A.E. Clover completed The Legend of the Blue Box and gave it a place in a section named after his mentor in a new library, which was part of a brand new and magnificent city built onto the side of a mountain, Canterlot.
~~~~~
In the year 96 A.E. a massive earthquake shook the now near-empty lands of the former three kingdoms. It was caused by a disturbance in the Rift that cut across part of the Great Northern Desert. The source of this was the use of the Void Sphere to pass through the Fourth Wall in 42 B.E. and its effects passed through time to emerge over a century later.
The Rift greatly imbalanced the tectonic forces holding the landscape in its current form and brought about drastic changes. The canyon caused by the Rift spread out and broke open vast areas of land, allowing everything below access open space. The underworld that now had room to expand did so with great rapidity. The earth shifted and quickly rose up to fill the gap caused by the canyon, bringing with it the incredible city of Utopia.
The Utopians met a world finally free of the vices which they hid underground to avoid. In this new world, they were free to breath open air, feel the warmth of the Day and bask in the beauty of the Night for the first time in hundreds of years. And with nopony in their way but a few remaining camel tribes, as the majority left the desert to find new trade routes, and petty Hoofrican barbarians, the Utopians were also free to expand.
Not all seemed to be good news for citizens of Utopia however. The increased activity of the Rift also accelerated the rate of the spread of the so-called diseased that the Utopians still feared after many years: the crystallization of ponies. The quarantined section of the city had been expanded continuously through the centuries as the number of affected ponies multiplied. Now it spread beyond the quarantined zone and faster than the Prime Minister could handle. The spread of the crystallization worsened more and more until finally, the Utopians began to flee the city out of fear. When the Prime Minister decreed it no longer safe to remain in the city, the unaffected populace of dragons, rhinos, zebras, gazelle, camels and warthogs evacuated and went on a mass exodus across the Great Northern Desert. The merciless landscape, however, showed the fleeing Utopians no hospitality, and they all perished in the burning sands.
The crystallized ponies were the only remaining Utopians, and they took their position to their advantage. Unlike the others, they recognized that their condition in fact did not affect their health in any negative way. They took over the abandoned city and established their presence in the middle of the desert. Using the advanced alien technology available to them, they altered the harsh landscape to meet their needs. They turned the sand into soil and hydrated the area to make an island of green. This island spread the next century until it nearly encompassed the whole desert.
The last of the camel tribes saw the transformation of the desert as a threat to their traditional way of life. A few accepted it and integrated themselves into the new society, but most resisted and tried to stop Utopia's expansion. When they realized that their efforts were of no use, they left to find the other camels who likely found a new desert across the Sea to trade in.
Since Utopia had been rapidly elevated by the earthquake, it had gone beyond the reach of the field in which the Rift deposited debris. While the city still felt many of the Rift's effects, such as crystallization and the energy of the Time Vortex, it no longer encountered the myriad of technology and aliens that came out to their side of the wormhole. Over time, the Utopians slowly began to lose their technological superiority, as the technology fell to disuse due to the city's great prosperity or became dysfunctional from lack of proper maintenance. Eventually, the Utopians stopped using alien technology altogether and only used that which was native to Earth. Nevertheless, they still maintained their superiority in the realm through the sheer scale of their power.
The Utopians were now the sole masters of the former Great Northern Desert and they decided that they needed a new name. Utopia was appropriate when the city was in hiding and was meant to be "no place," but now it grew into a vast empire revered by all lesser factions. Given the nature of the city and the ponies who populated it, they gave their civilization the name, "Crystal Empire."
~~~~~
In the year 0 A.E, a powerful tremor reverberated through the world, one of great magic. It was caused by a great surge of friendship and harmony, the kind found when enemies join together in mutual amity and create an era of peace. It originated from the reunification of the three pony tribes and the foundation of Equestria.
This magic had such penetrating power that it reached past the Gates of Tartarus and entered the great abyss itself, where there resided the Elements of Harmony. It stirred something deep inside the Elements and they began to glow once more through the eternal darkness. Laughter, Loyalty and Magic glowed, not in their respective colors, but in pink, while Generosity, Honesty and Kindness glowed blue. Countless little strings of lights of those colors emerged from the Elements and formed themselves into the shape of two ponies.
These two ponies born from the Elements of Harmony were a pair of fillies. The first one to fully form was a white alicorn with a bright flowing pink mane and a cutie mark of the Sun. She opened her magnificent magenta eyes and spread out her grand wings. Her mane gave off a bright glow like that of sunlight.
Shortly afterwards, the second filly came into being. She was a dark blue alicorn with a graceful elegant light blue mane and a cutie mark of the Moon against a splotch of black. She too parted her eyelids to reveal her beautiful cyan eyes and opened out her wings. Her mane gave off a subtle glitter, like starlight.
The two alicorn fillies looked to each other and smiled as if they recognized each other. Then they reached their heads out and nuzzled each other.
The blue alicorn asked, "Big sister, who are we?"
The white alicorn answered, "I am the Day and thou art the Night."
"I knoweth what we are... but who are we?"
"... I know not."
The two looked down at something in front of them, a yellow-maned grey pegasus lying completely still on the ground. They cocked their heads curiously and the blue one dared to poke her, only to receive no reaction. They then observed their surroundings, the darkness that enveloped everything around them. The little alicorns knew they had to leave Tartarus.
The fillies picked up the Elements of Harmony using their magic and put them on. When the blue alicorn placed Generosity, Honesty and Kindness by her neck, they reshaped themselves such that all three fit perfectly together around her neck and chest. The same happened with the white alicorn as she put on Laughter, Loyalty and Magic.
They looked to each other and nodded. They put all their concentration into activating the magic of the Elements. Random lights flashed and electricity crackled in the empty space in front of the two until the darkness was ripped open. In front of the two alicorns was now a round portal. Through the portal they could see a green plateau surrounded by many others like it. There was a sky bearing a brilliant spectrum of pink to dark violet as the morning twilight passed and the Sun was fast approaching.
The two alicorns levitated the grey pegasus and brought her with them as they used their wings for the first time to fly through the portal and out into the beautiful outside world. As soon as they came out, they closed the portal behind them. Looking back, they saw a great metal wall standing tall built into a rock outcropping.
The fillies carefully descended and set their hooves on the jade floor of the plateau, gently laying the grey pegasus down in front of them. They faced the East and watched the Sun rise up from the horizon.
The white alicorn felt a connection with this great yellow disk in the sky and dared to explore that connection. She used magic again, making her horn light up golden, and aimed her energy at the Sun. As she was doing this, she watched the Sun to see if she was affecting it, and suddenly she saw a small twinkle on the edge that was just a little brighter than the Sun itself. She smiled in delight as she saw the results, but then she began to worry.
Out of the twinkle came a tiny green dot that streaked through the colorful sky. As it got farther away from the Sun, it formed a bright fiery tail. The two alicorns flew away, bringing the pegasus with them, when they saw that the green object was rapidly flying towards them, burning across the sky. It came closer and closer, lighting up the area with its burning light, and then smashed into the center of the plateau, creating a huge explosion and sending debris high into the air and out across the surrounding mountain range. The green object destroyed the plateau it crashed into, leaving a huge crater in front of the Gates of Tartarus.
The two little alicorns, leaving the grey pegasus behind on a nearby plateau, flew towards the crash site and landed on the edge of the crater, flinching at the heat of the ground they stepped on.
They waited for the thick billowing smoke to disperse enough to reveal the crashed object and they saw an emerald sphere on the center of the crater. From the sphere came a crackling sound as it began to break apart, little by little. The cracks spread out from the top until one great crack lined all the way across and the sphere broke in half. At that moment, a ripple of magic of the most malicious sort passed through the pillar of smoke and turned it pink.
From inside the sphere, a small creature began to emerge. First came a little eagle talon, grasping the cracked edge. Then came a lion's paw and both pulled with all their strength to bring up the rest of the body. A pair of horns, one a goat's horn and the other a deer antler, rose up, followed by a pony's head. The creature had wide yellow eyes with red irises and out his mouth jutted a single fang. He opened his mouth to yawn and stretched out his forked tongue. He was not much bigger than the alicorns themselves.
He looked out at the world around him and then tried to remember his name, "C-con Concor... No... Discord."
~~~~~
The Doctor opened the TARDIS doors out to a rain-soaked town in 21st century Equestria. He parked his box by the door to a library built into a huge tree. He walked out and gestured for Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Fluttershy and Rarity to come out. He solemnly looked at the peacefulness around him, not minding the rain that soaked his mane. The six quickly galloped through the door to the library, seeking refuge from the downpour.
The Doctor looked in through the door and watched them shake the water off their coats. He remembered Derpy shaking herself dry after he pulled her out of the ocean and back onto a pirate that was under attack from a Leviathan. He then looked back into the TARDIS and stared into the emptiness inside. He thought that it was fortunate for him that it was raining, that way nopony could see that he was crying.
Twilight walked to the door and spoke with him. "Doctor, you should come inside."
"No, no. Thank you, though."
"It's been a rough time. You deserve at least to have a dry place to rest in. Come on, Pinkie said she'll make us a cake for dinner."
"I'd like to but I really should go... I have to keep on moving."
Twilight sensed what was on the Doctor's mind and tried to console him, "I am really sorry, Doctor. Truly. I can't even begin to imagine that kind of loss."
The Doctor turned and took a step into the TARDIS. He leaned against one of the open doors as he replied, "And hopefully you never will, Twilight."
"Is there anything we can do?"
"I would ask you to travel with me, but your timelines are riddled with too many fixed points. I have to leave you to find your own destinies."
"Then at least have dinner with us. Nothing helps more than spending time with friends."
"Sorry, Twilight. Maybe that works for you, but not for me. The more I delay, the more it'll just hurt." He paused to wipe his eyes and sniffed. "I've brought enough ponies to their dooms. I've lost enough. I have had enough... From now on it's best that I just travel on my own."
The Doctor turned around and was about to close the door behind him when Twilight said one last thing. "Doctor. We'll never forget you, and we'll never forget Derpy. When it gets dark and the stars come out, we'll look up at the sky and at those stars. And every time we look, we'll think of you and of Derpy. And if this'll be my last chance to say it: Thank you."
The Doctor briefly glanced back and gave Twilight a nod before shutting the doors. He walked over to his console and pulled a lever to send TARDIS into space to drift freely for a while. He looked to his left and saw a stack of papers, half of which contained drawings of muffins. He reached out and grabbed a blank sheet. Then he took out a pen and began writing a letter.
"Dear Tia,
It's been a while since I last wrote to you. I'm writing in 2012 right now, so it's been eighty-three years since the last letter. For me, it has been around thirteen, but that time was from the celebration of your defeat of Discord.
I'm writing, naturally, to tell you about what I learned on friendship in these past few years. To put it simply, I learned over and over again how much it hurts. I first learned this lesson from Rose. Then Octavia. And most recently from Derpy. They were truly the greatest friends a pony can ask for, and yet, through my own fault, I lost them all. And with each loss, part of me just gets torn apart like a soggy piece of paper. On that note, my apologies if this letter is soaked when it reaches you.
In my experience, friendship is the most difficult of all endeavors as it has only ever ended in tragedy. As another centuries-old pony among ponies who live such short lives, you can relate. Ultimately, this is the nature of friendship for everypony, no matter how long their lifespans. No matter what, everypony will always lose their friends eventually. The average pony simply has the fortune enough to not have to live with the aftermath for too long.
After all this, I end up asking myself, 'Why? Why do I always make myself suffer like this? Why do I keep trying to gain friends when I know that in the end I only lose them and I'm left alone all over again?' I realize now that the answer is because I'm an emotional fool who lets his selfish loneliness get the better of him. The more I think of it, the more I find that I've become so tired. I'm tired of the struggle. I'm tired of losing everypony that matters to me. I'm tired of watching everything turn to dust.
I've learned that for somepony like me, it's best not to pursue friendship at all. I am a curse, a curse to myself and to anypony whom I make friends with. The kind of life I live is not one that allows for friendship. It only allows loneliness. And for the sake of everypony else, it's best that I remain lonely. After nine-hundred years, it's time that I stop thinking of myself and take into account what's best for others. I suppose this end to my egotism is another lesson Derpy taught me. I have decided to travel alone from now on. I will no longer put any more lives in danger to satisfy my need for companionship. I am giving up friendship.
This news will probably upset you, but I know that this is for the best. You can rest easy knowing I won't endanger the lives of any of your subjects. If you want to see me, I'll be at Donut Joe's in Canterlot this coming Friday afternoon having some hot chocolate.
Your old friend,
The Doctor"
The old Time Stallion blew on the ink to help it dry and rolled it up, tying it closed with a piece of string. He then manned the console and drove the TARDIS to Canterlot. He opened the doors and saw the magnificent doors to Princess Celestia's palace, with a bewildered guard next to it. He took a step out and gave the guard his letter, asking him to deliver it to the Princess.
The Doctor shut the doors and piloted the TARDIS to another destination. The place was Donut Joe's cafe. The time was 2:30 PM on Friday of the same week. When the TARDIS materialized, the smell of fresh donuts, energizing coffee and hot chocolate penetrated the walls. The Doctor exited and found himself outside the cafe, amidst the outdoor tables and under a sunny afternoon sky. He looked to his left and saw the Princess of the Day sitting at a table while having tea and a glazed donut. Opposite of the table from the Princess was an empty chair and cup of hot chocolate.
"Long time, no see," Celestia said right before taking a sip from her teacup.
The Doctor sat down with her and silently drank the hot chocolate.
"I never knew this was what soothes you."
"Normally, I'd have a banana bread muffin," he replied, "But... I can't right now."
Celestia put her tea down and tried to look the Doctor in the eye, though he faced down at his chocolate, and said, "Loss is an inevitable part of life, Doctor. You and I know that better than most. Everything dies, in the end. Ponies are born and then pass away. Mighty civilizations rise and then fall. Planets, stars and galaxies come into being and then vanish away into the depths of space."
The Doctor nodded and took a long sip, breathing in the aromatic steam from his cup.
The Princess continued, "Nevertheless the Universe moves on, and as it moves, so must we, no matter the hardship or the suffering or the agony. If we were so quick to succumb to the pains of life, what would that make us? What kind of a world would we be left with if good ponies stopped what they were doing because they could not handle the misfortunes that befall them? Are we to define ourselves by our weakness at the face of suffering, or by strength to endure it?"
"Tia, you don't understand. Nopony has had the misfortune of suffering what I've suffered, or lost what I've lost. What I've been through, it's-"
"Doctor, don't speak as if I never banished my own sister to the Moon for a thousand years after I watched hatred consume her soul. Don't speak as if I never helplessly watched Cadance, under King Sombra's curse, completely forget her identity as the Crystal Princess for a thousand years. Don't speak as if for the thousand years before that, Luna and I faced what seemed like an endless struggle against Discord's tyranny. Don't speak as if I never befriended mortal ponies, only to see them age, wither and die. I've had my share of suffering, Doctor, and I do not doubt that there is more to come. And yet, I kept on going. Do you know why?"
The Doctor did not answer. He simply stared at the marshmallows floating in his drink.
"Friendship," Celestia continued, "I carried on because of friendship. It's the purest thing in the Universe. It's beautiful, dependable, joyful, loving, unfaltering and powerful. And most of all, it's worth the pain."
The Doctor remained silent and finished off the last of his hot chocolate, gulping down the marshmallows with it. He wiped his mouth and then stood up. He gave Celestia a nod and was about to turn around when she stopped him, saying, "I have something to show you. If you come with me to the palace, I assure you it will be worth your time."
The Time Stallion looked directly at the Sun Princess. He narrowed his eyes, unsure of what she had in mind, before answering, "Alright."
Celestia lit up her horn and cast a spell to teleport herself and the Doctor to the throne room in the palace. Luna was there, looking out the window. When she heard the noise caused by teleportation spells, she turned around to see her sister with the Doctor. She looked at his face and sensed that he had been through much pain, and she knew from the letter he wrote that Celestia brought him here for one purpose.
"Is it time, sister?" Luna asked.
"Indeed."
Luna went over and joined her sister as the two walked side by side out of the throne room and down a hallway, with the Doctor following close behind. They took a turn halfway down the hall to stairway, through which they descended several flights. They went so far down that they must have even been below the dungeons. They stopped when the stairs finally ended. They were at the lowest part of the palace.
In front of the stairs was a steel door, which had a faint glow from a spell that sealed it shut. On the door were two round deep holes.
"We knew that one day, you would suffer a loss so great that you would choose to give up friendship altogether," Celestia began to explain, "And for you, Doctor, such a thing cannot be allowed."
"You are a hero of the Universe," Luna joined, "But you cannot be a hero on your own. Friendship is the essence of all that is good, and 'tis necessary to have it in order to be good. We have seen what you can become when you are lonely, and 'good' is not a word to describe it."
"Two thousand years ago, we discovered one thing that can convince you not to abandon the path of friendship and we have dedicated ourselves to keeping her safe until it was time for her to be released."
The two princesses stood before the door and lowered their heads. They inserted their horns into the holes and simultaneously recited an ancient incantation, "Claustrum patefacio." Their horns lit up and jingled as they broke the magical seal on the door. Together they reached out with one hoof and pushed the door open, parting it down the center. Fog emerged from behind the door as the warmer air outside met the frigid air inside.
Beyond the steel door was a plain room, carved into the mountain itself. The walls were covered in frost and the ceiling decorated with icicles. At the center of the room was an enormous hunk of ice.
Princess Celestia made her horn shine with brilliantly with hot sunlight and the focused it onto the whole breadth of the ice, making it melt. As the ice deformed and liquefied, a figure in the block became somewhat discernible, though mostly blurred. After a few more moments, the Doctor could tell that this figure was a pony.
As the water level rose in the room from the melting ice, Princess Luna cast a spell on the surrounding stone floor and walls, allowing them to absorb the water. With the abundance of moisture, she was able to perform another spell, making a thin layer of fresh green moss grow on the rocky surroundings.
When much of the ice had been melted away, the Doctor saw the pony encased in the block. It was Derpy. He gasped and quickly went over to help Celestia, using his sonic screwdriver to send high-focus sound waves at the block, making it crack until it broke apart, freeing the grey pegasus inside.
Derpy fell over to her side, and the Doctor caught her in his hooves. He scanned her with his screwdriver, listened for her breath and checked her pulse to find something that brought a wide smile to his face. She was alive. The Doctor began crying tears of joy and gave hera kiss on the forehead.
"She shall be unconscious for quite some time," Luna said.
"That's an understatement," the Doctor replied, "She'll be in a coma for a few days if she's been in that ice for as long as I think she was."
"In which case," Celestia joined, "We'll leave her in your care. Just be sure to remember what you've learned about friendship today."
"It'll be centuries before I forget. Thank you, Your Highnesses."
The Doctor stood and lifted Derpy up with his head to carry her on his back. He listened to her faint and quiet breathing. Before he ascended the stairs and made his way back to the TARDIS, he whispered, "Let's go, Derpy. Allons-y."
THE END