Cry for Eternity

by asylum1388


Prologue (rewritten)

Well, here it is. After a long, arduous summer, my editors and I finally managed to scrape something together. What follows is a much improved version of this story's prologue. The original version has been taken down, but will still be available on my dA page.


Editor: Pissfer
Pre-readers: PiquoPie, and f0xhole.


Cry- v. (krī) - 1. To shed tears, esp. as an expression of distress or pain. 2. To shout, scream, or call out in fear, pain, grief, or defiance


"GET OUT OF MY BUCKING WAY!"

On any other day, Twilight Sparkle would never have dared to shout so rudely at anypony, and she definitely would never, ever have used such coarse language. Today, however, wasn't any other day.

She couldn't remember how she had gotten to Canterlot. Nor could she, for the life of her, feel any patience for the ponies in the street. She needed to be at Canterlot General Hospital now.

She wanted to just teleport; no, she needed to just teleport to the hospital, but it was far too dangerous. She couldn’t see her destination, and she couldn’t risk teleporting into something, or worse, somepony; the results of such a thing would be disastrous.

It wasn’t even possible for her to teleport short distances down the crowded street. The traffic was just too thick with ponies making their way home after work, but the sight of the desperate and frantic unicorn was enough to push the crowd into creating a path. It was slow going, but it was better than nothing.

The journey through Canterlot took hours. Or only five minutes according to the clock she spotted in the store window. She couldn’t really tell. Her sense of time was only one of many things lost to her one driving thought. But she got there all the same.

Shoving her way through the building’s massive doors, she bolted to the front desk, interrupting the pony behind it before the receptionist could even get a word out, "Where is she?!"

The confused mare simply blinked at her in reply.

"The Princess! What room is she in?"

The receptionist gave her a disapproving frown and returned her gaze to the book she was reading. "The Princess is not to be bothered, you'd best be on your way, miss."

A violet glow surrounded the book as it was forcefully hurled across the room. "Tell me where she is! Now!" Twilight screamed back, as she began to scramble over the counter.

"T-top floor, the intensive care suite, room 523..." the receptionist stuttered.

Twilight was off before anypony in the lobby could regain their wits and attempt to stop her. The elevator wasn't at the bottom floor, so she crashed through the door to the emergency stairwell, the angry shouts of the hospital's security echoing after her.

She climbed. One flight, two, then a security guard appeared, blocking the landing ahead of her. He had barely even stepped forward to bar her way before she had already teleported behind him and continued.

Three.

Four.

Five.

As she hurtled through the doorway and immediately skidded to a stop. In front of the Princess' room were a dozen of the Elite Royal Guard; the best soldiers Equestria had to offer, with the sole purpose of defending the Royal Sisters at any and all costs.

She charged. The best of the best or not, nopony was going to keep her from reaching her goal; she was the Princess’ protege and had been chosen by fate to wield the Element of Magic, the very embodiment of magic itself. They advanced on her menacingly, but she was ready. She charged up her spell, waiting for the perfect moment to teleport around them. The Guards dove at her, and she released her magic just before they hit.

Magical feedback screamed into her mind as she hit an invisible spell ward. She was overwhelmed by the mental agony; couldn’t see, couldn’t hear... couldn’t think. There was no time! She had to go on. Just had to focus...

Her vision slowly faded back in and she found herself lying on the floor, being held down by a pair of guards. She struggled to worm her way out of their grasp, but her efforts were in vain, the stallions were just too strong. Screaming in anger, she tried to teleport again, only for her magic to crash down around her.

It was hopeless; she had been caught. She strained one final time, trying to tug herself out from under them, before giving up with a sob. She began to weep on the floor as one of the guards shouted, “Captain, we’ve caught the intruder!”

The clop of hooves on the tile floor alerted Twilight that several ponies were approaching and she heard a gasp as one of the guards was shoved off of her. “Intruder? That’s my little sister, you lunkhead!”

“Your sis-sister? As in your sister, Twilight Sparkle, Princess Celestia’s protege?” the offending guard stammered. “Oh... Oh horseapples! I’m sorry!”

An older sergeant stomped over to the cowering pony, growling, “Corporal, as much as Lady Twilight appreciates your apology, I’m sure she’d appreciate it more if you got the buck off of her.”

Without a moments hesitation, the corporal hurled himself off of Twilight, wheezing panickedly. “I’m sorry, Captain! I didn’t recognize her!”

“Obviously. We’ll talk about this later; in the meantime, go watch the lobby!” Shining Armor snarled at the younger solder before quietly stepping up to the sobbing Twilight. “Twilight...? Twiley, it’s me. Are you okay? They didn’t hurt you, did they?”

Twilight choked back tears and shook her head as Shining helped her to her hooves. “W-what happened? I-I got a letter telling me to come to Canterlot, but all it said was that Princess Celestia was in the hospital.”

“I... I don’t know, Twilight,” Shining whispered apologetically and pulling her into a hug. “She called me into her room and then she just collapsed. Everypony’s been asking her what’s wrong, but she won’t tell me anything. She just keeps asking for you.”

“For— for me? She wants to see me?” Breathless, Twilight stepped past him. “The room at the end of the hall, right?”

Shining Armor nodded grimly and led her to the door, pushed it open and gestured for her to enter.

Quivering, Twilight stepped through the door and found herself in a sterile-white hospital room, the steady beeping of a heart monitor ringing out softly. She fixed her eyes on the bed in the center, refusing to believe what she saw.

It was impossible! That was the only word for it. She was going to turn around and her mentor wouldn’t be laying there. It would be some other pony... Or she would wake up and write to Princess Celestia about this silly nightmare and they would both laugh at the utter absurdity!

She grit her teeth and forced herself to turn around and gave a despaired squeak. She wanted to run — to be as far away from here as possible — but she found herself stepping quietly over to the bedside. It didn’t make any sense; nothing made any sense. Princess Celestia — the wise and ageless ruler of Equestria, who had personally taught Twilight nearly everything the young unicorn knew— now lay in a hospital bed, as frail and decrepit as a fallen tree.

Twilight grimaced and leaned over the mare. Everything inside of her told her to run, to get as far away from there as possible, but she forced herself to look; she had to know for certain, to see it with her own eyes.

Her breath stopped at the sight, her mind shattering at the scene before her. Celestia’s shimmering, pure-white coat was now a pale sickly gray, and her vibrant mane, which normally flowed and ebbed with raw magic, lay around her, dull and lifeless.

As if sensing her protege’s presence, Princess Celestia’s eyes fluttered open, her focus falling on the unicorn. She let out a pained gasp and a grin of unbridled happiness appeared on her gaunt face. “Twilight...? Twilight! You’ve arrived.” She reached up and pulled Twilight onto the bed, cradling the unicorn into her chest. “I... I feared that you wouldn’t make it in time; that I wouldn’t be able to hold on long enough...”

"I-I'm here, Princess. Please, I want to help, please, just tell me what to do." Twilight begged, barely holding back another round of sobs.

“Nothing more can be done, Twilight,” Celestia sighed sadly. “But this... seeing you here has made it all worthwhile."

“No, that’s not true!” Twilight croaked, unable to speak above a whisper. “We can fix this if you just tell me what’s wrong. I-I can find a way, I know it!”

“Please, Twilight, take care of Luna for me. She is still vulnerable, and I couldn’t bear for her to suffer any more than she has; consider this my final request,” Celestia murmured contently, as if ignoring Twilight’s words. "I'm so proud of you, Twilight. You're going to make me proud..."

"Princess..?" Twilight choked out, her eyes blurring with tears once more.

"I've always been proud of you," Celestia whispered with a smile that was barely more than a smirk, yet still radiated untold joy. She glanced at Twilight once more before closing her eyes. "You've always made me so proud."

"Princess?"

Twilight prodded her mentor gently with her hoof.

"Princess Celestia?"

The ancient alicorn didn't respond. Her face remained still, the small smile plastered across her features. As the slow rhythm of the heart monitor dulled to a monotone whine, Twilight, unable to bear it any longer, broke down. She buried her face into the bedsheets, crying harder than she ever had before. "Celestia, no! Celestia! Please don't leave me..."