//------------------------------//
// Chapter 4. 
// Story: A New Purpose 
// by Sparky Brony 
//------------------------------//

***Twilight Sparkle***

Nick, dead?

I shake my head, no, that's impossible. I look at my friend, at the tears running down her cheeks. She certainly believes it to be true. I nod to one of the nurses, it's nice to be in Canterlot castle, staff always at your beck and call. She comes up and stays near my foals as I walk out of the room.

"Twilight?" Rainbow Dash asks as she follows me slowly.

I ignore her, I'm not trying to be mean, I'm broken. I shamble slowly down the hall. My mind is reeling. I'm completely on autopilot. I finally end up in the observatory that I've spent most of my young life in. I feel my magic, my friend squawks as she is unceremoniously picked up and shoved out the door and the door seals in front of her. I can hear her desperate pounding on the door in a distant fashion.

I look at all the books on astronomy around me. I normally feel comforted by them. Not this time.

"Nick can't be dead," I say, barely above a whisper. I feel a surge of my magic, I don't care.

"Nick can't be dead," I say again, a little louder. My magic surges further, I can see all of the books floating around me. I don't care.

I collapse to the floor, tears are falling from my eyes. "Nick can't be dead," I moan. I can't think anything past that. For a very long time I lay there and sob.

Finally I slam a hoof into the floor, not noticing that I leave a deep impression in the marble cracks radiating from the imprint. "No, he can't be dead," I scream into the empty room. My wings spread and I'm airborne in the room, I land on the balcony. I can feel the magic surging inside of me. I feel the massive amount of power, it feels like when I had Celestia, Luna, and Cadence's magic inside me. The power crackles down my horn, it envelops me. I can feel the warmth that I feel when my eyes glow bright. I scream. I can feel power radiating from my body, I can feel glass shattering from my power. Lightning shoots into the sky from my body. I can't control this power. My vision turns white.

I'm hovering, I can feel I'm not in my body. I don't know where I am. Where I am is dark. I see a body lying in front of me, a pegasus pony. The features are indistinct. My vision clears slowly, I can see the pegasus is brown,  laying on his side, and the wing that I can see is singed, nearly burned to a crisp. His mane is red and orange, like flames. I feel a surge of happiness, it's Nick. I see him groan, and his body shift, he's in pain. I hear him moan, but I can't get to him. I'm stuck above him, I'm ethereal. "Nick!" I scream, but he doesn't move. He can't hear me. I see a glimpse of purple as I feel a hoof on my shoulder.

"Twilight." I hear Celestia's voice. I feel my hooves settle to the cracked marble. I come out of it, whatever trance  was in. I look around. The observatory is ruined. The ceiling is gone. The telescope is a mangled mess. Every book is a pile of charred ashes. Oh no. I press my head into Celestia's side.

"I'm so sorry, Princess."

I feel her wing fold around me.

"He's alive," I mumble into her chest.

"Oh, child, I wish that were true." She squeezes me hard with her wing.

***

Celestia holds me for what seems likes hours. Finally I'm able to control myself and pull away.

"Why me?" I ask through my tears.

"I'm sorry?"

I trot in a circle around the solar princess. "I mean, when something goes wrong, call Twilight." I stop and face her, slamming a hoof onto the marble. "Why me?"

Celestia looks unsure, that produces chills in my chest. I never have seen her unsure. She stands there for a long while.

"Princess, why me?"

She lowers her head and her ears splay to the sides. "Because you are the only one who can."

Huh?

"I don't understand, Princess. You are an alicorn, with unparalleled power. You raise the sun for hoofs sake."

"The sun." She smiles, looking out the window at the sun heading towards the western horizon. "I have had a special relationship with the sun. The sun isn't pulled across the sky by magical power, it resonates with me, and I use it's magic to bring it where it wants to go. I don't have nearly as much power as you may think."

I furrow my brow. "But when I moved the sun, when I had your magic, it took so much strength."

She smiles sadly. "Because the sun did not recognize you as its mistress. It fought you. It doesn't fight me."

"Really?"

She nods. "When I saw you, when you lost control during your test to join my school. Do you remember what I told you?"

I take a moment to remember. "You said you had never found a unicorn with my raw ability."

She beams at me. "Yes, and since you have ascended, your abilities have been multiplied."

I know I have gained in power since I was a unicorn. What are my abilities now? I don't know.

Celestia continues. "When you ended up with Princess Luna, Princess Cadance, and my magic, do you know why you were the one to take that power?"

I look down. "I do not."

"Because the amount of power involved would have killed me, and any other alicorn but you. You truly are the most powerful alicorn in existence."

I'm floored, I don’t know what to say.

Celestia moves towards me, her wings spread. "When I asked you to be my student, I had multiple reasons in mind. You are not my first personal protégée, you know that Twilight."

I nod slowly. What is she telling me? "I know you had Sunset Shimmer."

She smiles sadly at the loss. "Yes, among others. But what I have been looking for, for centuries now, is a warrior princess. Somepony to do the fighting that I can no longer do." She sighs, and looks about ready to cry. "The changeling queen, Chrysalis, she was able to defeat me."

"Oh Princess, that was with the addition of my brother's love."

She slams a hoof on the floor. "Hers plus twice that amount of love would not have been enough to overwhelm me even a few centuries ago."

My ears fold flat. "Princess Celestia, are you dying?"

"All life must end in its own time, but no, my time is not yet."

I breathe a sigh of relief. "So, as alicorns, we are not immortal?"

She shakes her head slowly. "No. Our lifespan is greatly increased. But there is a sunset to every pony's life. I have centuries left, perhaps millennia, but eventually the sun will set on my last day."

I look down. "And me?"

"You have a very long time before your cup runs dry, Twilight."

"And my friends?"

"Your friends are connected to you by the Elements of Harmony, even though you gave them up, you still have a connection to them, and that connection runs deeply into your friends. You will not outlive your friends."

"And Nick?"

She looks sad. "His time has already passed, Rainbow Dash told me what happened. And Princess Luna confirmed it."

I look at her. "They are wrong, Nick is alive."

She sits on her haunches, she's not willing to fight that point. "If Nick is somehow alive, he will live the normal lifespan for a pegasus pony, more than your typical unicorn, and less than your typical earth pony."

I look down, I feel tears threaten to overwhelm me again.

I feel her come up next to me. "Your children will also have a normal lifespan for their tribe." I see tears in her eyes. "Over the years, I have had children of my own, every single one of them is dead now. Of old age." I feel her wing fold over my body. "I have more descendants across Equestria than I can count, and each and every one of them has no idea that I'm related to them."

"But I will lose Nick?"

She nods sadly. "Cherish the time you spend with that human turned pony, Twilight. He loves you, you love him. That will have to be enough. Your children will be his legacy to you. And their children, and the cycle continues."

I feel tears start to fall. "I'm going to get him back."

"If you feel you can find him, even if it is simply his body, do what you must. Manehattan is lost to us, Equestria's Warrior Princess must be ready, both physically and mentally."

I snort. "I am ready, and whomever took the pony I love will pay the price."  I feel my magic, nopony will stand in my way.