The Eternity of Twilight Sparkle

by zzCiver


Laughter

"Hard to believe she made it through" the doctor Gently Done said as he looked over the charts detailing Pinkie Pie's condition, while a second doctor examined the old pony, ensuring she would not get any worse for the time being.

Tourniquet, content that Pinkie's health was no longer critical, turned to tell his friend, "Well she's not great. We still don't even know what caused her heart to go frantic like like that, and she still hasn't woken up since we saved her. Still, we managed to stabilize her, and at her age that's the best we can really hope for"

"I guess. Still wish there was more to do" the first unicorn admitted in frustration.

"GD, the best thing we can do now is to let her rest" the brown unicorn told him, "Earth Ponies are tough, I've never heard of one dying from a weak heart alone"

"True. But uh, what about her Tourq?" he said, nodding to the lavender alicorn who'd been sitting silently in the corner during this exchange, Her eyes staring blankly across the room at Pinkie's motionless body.

Tourniquet pulled Gently close and whispered low to his friend, "Her Highness showed up at the hospital after Miss Pie had her scare. Didn't sign in, hasn't even said a word since she got here, just walked right into the room with her bag and sat herself down. She's taking this kind of hard, I figured it'd be best to let her be"

Unconvinced, Gently walked over to her and stood right in her thousand yard stare. With a single cough to try get her attention he said "You know Princess, it's getting fairly late. If you want we could find an empty room for you. There you'd probably be mo-"

"Saved" Twilight said, cutting off the white doctor. Without breaking her endless stare, she said grimly, "Doctors don't save anypony, they can't save anypony. All you do is buy ponies time, but there's never enough time"

More than a bit unsettled by the princess's speech Gently backed away and resided to offer, "Well I suppose I'll just let you do you Princess. Just remember that if you need anything all you have to do is ask"

With that, the two doctors left the room, leaving Twilight with her thoughts. As the day came to a close, a constant stream of medical professionals came in and out of the room to check on Pinkie Pie. At first many tried to help Twilight, but they could not get through to her, and they too learned it was best to just leave her be.

Night fell and the daytime doctors went home, and the few night doctors arrived to take their place. A new set of doctors and a new stream of ponies offering her help. She knew though that as much as they tried, there was nothing they could do to help. Twilight knew her friend was close to death, and whether these doctors were too young to understand, or too experienced to be effected, nopony would come up and tell her straight that what was happening to her friend was inevitable. That there was nothing anypony in the building who could bring Pinkie Pie back to how she was before.

Including Twilight feared, herself. Despite weeks of dedicated practice and experimentation on animals and prisoners alike, she was no closer to preforming the immortality spell than she was when she turned her back on Sombra. As much as it pained her to accept, she found the old king was right once again. By her own might, she was yet unable to successfully cast the one spell which could end both her and Pinkie's suffering.

She knew it would be so easy, to take the Amulet from her bag and use it's power to save the pony he held most dear. Every failure in her dungeon, a threat of what could be if she did not don the Amulet. Yet even now, face to face with pony she had no way to save, she could not bring herself to risk the consequences of what that would bring. Just as it was weeks ago in Sombra's cave she felt herself torn holding Pinkie Pie's fate in her hooves.

Hours passed like this, Twilight going back and forth between her decisions, before finally realizing that Pinkie would not be helped by inaction. Twilight stood up from her seat and approached her comatose friend.

"Pinkie" she muttered, using all her might to keep her composure, "I'm making you a Pinkie Promise, that what I'm about to do will make you better. That I'm not going to lose you once I cast this spell." Slowly, she preformed the hoof signs solidifying her promise to assure her friend, "That way you know that this can only end well for us, because no one ever breaks a Pinkie Promise"

She took one last long look to her bag and thought of the item inside. All the power she would need, at the cost of giving up who she is. But the princess's mind was made up. She snapped her neck back to Pinkie and blocked the doubt from her mind. Sadness, fear, pain. I feel these emotions because I might lose my friend. I embrace them because acting on them my will to save her is strongest. And from that drive I can command dark magic to bend her life into eternity.

Twilight's horn and eyes lit up with bubbling purple and pink magic, enveloping Pinkie in the same as the alicorn prepared the spell. She reached deep with her magic, isolating the frail life force that was her friend. With a dedicated command she made it shatter. With the expertise of practicing the on so many ponies before her, the fractured life instantaneously began being repaired. Arcs of magic formed across the pink pony's body as the life and death spells carefully countered each other.

Now Twilight prepared herself to enact the step dozens of trials had yet to perfect, the recursion. Around the magic harming and healing her friend, Twilight wove intricate patterns of spells, combining them, feeding them off each other, twisting them around one another until the conglomerate of magic acted nearly as one.

She momentarily released her active use of life and death to ensure her spell was properly crafted. For the first time, the recursion succeeded in holding together to conflicting forces acting on the pony's life without falling out of sync or accelerating. However her work was far from done. As she tested the security of her spell, Twilight encountered an issue she had not had the fortune to experience. The mass of magic keeping her friend alive was still dependent on Twilight's will through her active use of dark magic.

As she racked her brain trying to find what went wrong her magic wavered. Not enough to disrupt the spell, but such that it nearly sent Twilight into panic. With a level head she maintained the spell, while trying to remember anything that would help her.

Lastly, you must enchant the magic itself to preform the previous steps autonomously, forever. She heard her former teacher say, as memories of her lesson echoed in her mind.

Autonomously, is that where the issue comes from? My magic is not strong enough to force the spell to work on it's own? She reasoned, trying to keep the spell under control. With that in mind she began working on a solution to hold her work, and her friend's life together.

For at least ten minutes she sat there by her friend's side, attempting solution after solution to keep the magic intact. Many failed, ending up being little more than workarounds lessening the effects of the problem, but not solving the issue at the source. But at long last she found a method that showed promise of having the desired effect.

Twilight had isolated the ethereal stream linking the magic pouring from her horn and her friend, and managed to pass it through her recursive spell itself. With great precision she began linking the stream with the mobile magic in the spell, feeding the spell back into its own source. Doing so however only caused Twilight problems. Each second as more and more of the spell became fed off its own existence Twilight found she had to impart more and more of her own power in to keep it going.

Despite this difficulty she was not swayed. This action had made the magic begin to seep into Pinkie's body just as it happened with Sombra and his birds. Likewise as much difficulty she felt keeping the magic going, the recursive elements of the spell were working together, without Twilight's direct involvement willing them to continue, allowing her to impart her will on solely the fading connection.

As the last fringes of the recursive spell retreated into the pink pony's form, Twilight's magic gave out. In an instant her horn and eyes lost their glow leaving the princess there to stare longingly at her friend, who lay motionlessly with not a trace of dark magic to be seen.

The initial lack of movement caused Twilight to assume the worst, and she hung her head down, resting her horn against the bed, silently crying at her perceived failure. Ever so slightly though, Pinkie Pie's eyes began to open and she let out a surprised sigh. "Twi-light?" she eked out weakly.

At the sound of her friend's voice Twilight was overcome with relief. She picked herself up and saw the earth pony awake and alert, much to her own surprise. "Oh Pinkie! It worked! After all this time my spell finally worked!" Twilight cheered with relief as she picked up Pinkie in a hug.

Still getting her bearings, Pinkie said softly, "A spell? Twilight I've been under all kinds of different spells recently and nothing's made me feel like this. What's so different now?"

Setting her back down in her bed, Twilight told her, "It's a long story Pinkie, but all you need to know for now is that I was able to keep you from dying, forever."

"Oh," Pinkie sighed, "Twilight you shouldn't have"

"Oh but I did. Don't you see Pinkie, now you can live forever, just like me. Now we can go on, throwing parties, having fun, and never have to worry about losing each other"

"No, I mean you reeeeally shouldn't have." She lamented, bringing Twilight out of her joy. She explained, "My hooves, they don't feel like they're alive, they feel like they're chipping away. And it hurts Twilight, really really bad."

"What?!" Twilight screamed, "Oh no. No no no no no no no. If you're feeling pain like that it means my spell isn't holding." Twilight's horn and eyes light up faintly with dark magic as she tried to sense her spell operating within her friend. "If I don't find a way to fix this, you could die at any moment"

Pinkie's body was once again surrounded by the dark pink glow as Twilight tried desperately to remedy the situation. However, Twilight found her control over her magic clumsy, unresponsive, and most importantly weak. Her mind cried out for the magic to regain control over the spell at work on her friend's body, but she found herself much in a similar situation as her second lesson. All she could tell was Pinkie's life was falling apart faster then it was being pieced back together.

A gentile touch on the shoulder was all that was needed to snap Twilight out of her concentration. Pinkie Pie, looking deep into her friend's eyes with a smile from ear to ear, told her, "It's okay that your spell didn't work Twilight, it doesn't have to. I am happy. I am so happy"

"But you're going to die Pinkie. Even after everything I've done I'll still lose you."

"Of course I'm gonna die silly. It's okay though, if I don't die, everything I ever did my life wouldn't have made it worth living" Pinkie tried to keep her spirits high for her friend, but her fading strength started proving too much. The chipping pain in her shoulder caused her leg to fall limp off Twilight's shoulder, and back to her side.

Doing her best to hide the pain, she continued, "A looooooong long time ago I realized that life itself is the greatest joke we ponies know, and death is the punchline that makes it all worth while. Without the punchline this joke becomes meaningless, and without that joke there would be nothing else to laugh at. I know you mean well Twilight, but I could never be immortal like you are. Not knowing I could never laugh with everypony else at the great joke of life."

A tear welled up in Twilight's eye, as the scene of her last of her best friends dying before her eyes. As touching as Pinkie's words were, Twilight could not sit by any longer, knowing that this tragedy could still be prevented.

"That's very brave of you Pinkie, but I'm afraid bravery just won't cut it" she told her friend as her mind became made up about what she had to do. "I made you a Pinkie Promise that I would make things better and you would live. And I'm not about to break that promise, not when I still have the power to save you"

The Alicorn Amulet. It. Saves. Pinkie Pie. She thought as she turned to go over to her saddlebag. After all this time, it comes down to this. My choice, her life. Life or death. She opened the bag without hesitation and gazed upon the relic inside. Just as every other time she saw it, a tidal wave of conflicting emotions overtook her mind, threatening to freeze her in place as she considered them.

But for the first time none of that mattered to her. I choose life she decided with conviction, secure in the knowledge that right now her friend would certainly die without this power. She grabbed the Amulet in her hoof and began walking back to her friend. Still caught in its gaze, Twilight said aloud, "Pinkie I want you to know that what I am about to do, I'm doing for you. And no matter what happens afterwards we will be able to be together...."

But she was unable to complete her sentence. By the time she got back to her friend's side it was too late. Pinkie Pie lay motionless in her bed, eyes closed, skin becoming pale as the blood drained her veins. The pink party pony extraordinaire, last mortal bearer of the Elements of Harmony, lay in her deathbed with a smile drawn across her face.

Twilight did not know how to respond. After each of her other friends died she knew how she was effected. Rarity changed everything for her. Her death sent her spiraling down alone until she found Sombra, and hope for the future. Applejack's death was a shock, a sudden reminder that she could not afford to waste time learning the spell. Rainbow's death had nearly caused Twilight to lose confidence in herself. Made her believe that she was not capable of saving anyone. And Fluttershy, her death made Twilight question just how far she'd gone for those she loved.

Under Sombra she could find her pain, find her sadness and learn to find ways to use that to better herself. Each death became a lesson, and a step to saving the ones she loved. But now with her final friend laying before her beyond her help, and all her heartache resolved by the king, Twilight found she had nothing left in her heart to feel.

She expected tears, but none came. She expected anger at herself for holding back, but felt no flame. Thoughts of Celestia, Sombra, Spike, and so many others crossed her mind for just fleeting moment, coming and going from her mind, leaving no impact on her state. In that moment all emotions, from sorrow to hate to joy became the same in that they were nothing.

'Forever', she wanted to say, to do justice to her actions that would have saved Pinkie's life, but no words came. There were no words to be said, for none existed that could make what her eyes saw untrue. All she could do was stand there, empty and alone as time ticked away. Eventually bringing dawn with it, as well as the doctors tending to the old mare they presumed to have died peacefully in her sleep.


Pinkamena "Pinkie"
Dianne Pie
"Always the life of the party"

As the sun set over the horizon on the day of the funeral, Twilight stood over her friend's grave, long past all others had gone. Even still she did not cry. Despite her unending sadness she shed not a single tear since that painful night where she lost the last of the first true friends she ever had.

Without the pink pony, Twilight could not find meaning in any parts of her life. She saw in her future, meeting ponies, caring about them and having to watch them die, over and over again just like now. Her past all but gone now with only a few ponies still alive who knew her before she became princess. And her present, years of secret meetings, living a second life, learning forbidden magics, all amounting to nothing in the end.

As she stood there, contemplating where her life had brought her, a thought rang through her memory. Words from her former master she had long tried to ignore came full force to her conscious, a thought unable to be ignored any longer. Deep down you'll know that it was all your fault. You'll spend eternity knowing that this was your chance to save her, and you said no.

It pained her to think it, but knew in her heart it to be true. If I had just put on the Alicorn Amulet, this wouldn't have happened, you'd still be here with me. Unable to ignore that thought any longer, her mind played through that night, and all she did, and did not do bring Pinkie where she was now. This drew the princess to a horrifying conclusion. One so horrifying she could not help but admit it aloud.

"I killed you" she confessed to the headstone, as if it were the pony beneath, "I tried to save you on my own and I killed you. I knew I didn't have the power to save you, I knew I needed to use the Amulet, but I didn't listen. And now you're dead, all because I wouldn't admit I was too weak to do it on my own."

Again, Sombra's words returned to her, To let anypony, even yourself call you weak is intolerable.

"But I am though!" she shouted back at the memory. "You knew it, I knew it, and now Pinkie knows it too. All because I was either too proud or too afraid to accept that I needed this stupid Amulet" she concluded, taking it out of her bag to examine it yet again.

Caught in the thoughts of what it is and represents she found her gaze drawn to the center jewel as it reflected the world around it. As Twilight thought back on her life, she saw reflected in each of the gem's five sides, the smiling faces of her lost friends. Not old and feeble as they had become, but young and lively as they day they first met. Seeing them reminded Twilight of how simple it all seemed back then. Before she was a princess, before every day made them weaker while she persisted.

Unable to bear the memories of her past life any longer, she turned the amulet around to its back side, only to be struck by the image reflecting off the polished silver. For the first time in over fifty years Twilight took a good look at her own reflection, only to find that she did not truly recognize the pony staring back.

Her face was long and narrow, with features dwarfed by the long pointed horn spiraling out tall from her forehead. Her slender neck and legs gave her a posture only now did she realize towered over a normal pony. Most striking however was her mane. A cascade of star-like twinkles poured our from her head in an ethereal nebula which faded from purple to pink. Both her mane and tail radiated like this, flowing on their own accord, independent of the wind.

She studied this new creature trying to understand what it was looking back at her. Twilight froze as she came to the terrifying conclusion, that without even realizing it, she had become the spitting image of Princess Celestia. In her shock she dropped the Alicorn Amulet to the ground and began pacing back and forth before Pinkie's grave, experiencing emotions from joy to hatred as she tried to grasp the consequences of her newly discovered form.

"How could I have been so blind?" she asked herself, "I'm not some little unicorn anymore, I'm not even a little princess anymore. I am an Alicorn Princess, a Ruler of Equestria, just like Celestia or Luna"

Twilight gritted between her teeth in anger as she compared herself to the other princesses, "And yet, even with me wearing her own face Celestia doesn't treat me like an equal. Because no matter what I do, to her I will always be her precious little student"

Twilight turned her head slowly to look at the grave and vented to it as if it would offer some response, "I lived my whole life trying to please her, and now what do I have to show for it? Four dead friends I was left helpless to save, and you, who I refused to save thinking it would mean going against her word"

"Even as a princess I've lived in her shadow for fifty three years. Following her, loving her, fearing her, all for what? So that I could go on playing student forever? Sitting obediently by while Celestia treats me like a foal, deciding for me what I'm allowed do?" She picked the Alicorn Amulet back up of the ground and levitated it just in front of herself "Well, if that's the pony I've become following her, then maybe it's time to make my own path. I have been an all-powerful Alicorn Princess for almost my entire life, it's time I start deciding for myself what that means."

Slowly Twilight brought the amulet closer and closer to her neck, as she confirmed her actions with words, "No more fearing power, no more fearing Celestia. I have let her hold me back for the last time." And just like that she secured the Alicorn Amulet tight around her neck.

Twilight held still as waves of power coursed through her body from the amulet. Fantasies flashed before her eyes as her mind tried to comprehend the magic effecting her body. Images of mountains being uprooted, seas sucked dry, not simply the sun and moon, but whole cosmos moving in sync to her command were but the tip of the iceberg of what she was led to believe she could do. Her eyes and magic flashed back and forth between purple and red as the native and foreign magics combined, ever increasing her power.

After what seemed like an eternity of being flooded with power, the rush died down and Twilight was able to regain her composure. While her eyes returned to purple, her natural magic, still active on her horn, shone in a bright red, indicative of her new power.

The first thing she saw was her saddle bag, sitting lazily in the grass. A relic of my former life she thought, and with a bright flash of red light, vaporized it on the spot. Her gaze then fell on her friend's gravestone. The friend she was unable to save. The friend she killed.

"I'm sorry Pinkie Pie," she said coldly with her head held high, "That the Unicorn Twilight Sparkle was unable to save you. She feared Celestia far too much to take the measures necessary for you. I will not make the same mistake."

With a new appreciation for her body, Princess Twilight opened her wings up wide and took off into the sky, leaving the graveyard behind. But not before leaving a single mark on the site. Just above the ground the alicorn carved a new name into the marble plaque.

Twilight Sparkle, Unicorn


A bolt of lightning shook Sombra awake in his bed of straw. A storm raged outside his hideout, which had rolled in over the forest since he went to bed. Normally this would have meant a stream running down the length of his cave he'd have to deal with, but much to the king's surprise his home remained dry.

As he groggily looked around pondering this anomaly a second strike silhouetted a figure standing silently in the mouth of the cave. Even without the light to properly see who it was, he knew beyond a doubt the identity of his late night guest. Power radiated from within her, evaporating the rain as it came down around her, and what little light there was shined brilliantly against the center gem of her necklace.

With a devious smile Sombra rose from his bed and lit the fire pit, illuminating the cave. Gracefully he greeted his visitor, "A pleasure to see you again Princess Twilight. I see you deiced to trust in my wisdom after all. A wise decision, the Amulet looks marvelous on you"

In a puff of dark magic Twilight teleported from the mouth of the cave to within inches of the king's face. From her newly appreciated stature she looked down at the stallion and demanded, "I need to learn more about dark magic," horn and eyes still aglow with reddish pink power.

"And what, pray tell, would you like you learn?" Sombra quipped to his eager student.

"Everything"