Destiny

by Blue Blaze {COMET}

Star of Dawn

I was dying.

I knelt there in the light of the glowing pink portal, and I was dying. There was an immense stabbing pain that grasped my right side, and while my left hand grabbed it beneath my arm I could feel warmth soak into my ripped white shirt and flow between my fingers. My heart was throbbing, and with every pounding beat an ache ran though my skull front to back like a carving knife. My left eye has stopped stinging from the blood that had entered it after I got a cut across my forehead. There was a coldness creeping over my body that steadily was soothing all pain into a chilled nothingness of numbed limbs.

It was hard to breathe. My chest contracted and heaved against a broken rib or two, and I had already considered it lucky that it hadn’t punctured a lung. Coughing was a problem though, and as my body forcefully ejected fluid from beneath my skin the strong taste of iron ran over my tongue and between my teeth. My knees ached with soreness from use and strain, and gravity began to crush my body slowly in its grasp around the rotating planet.

I absent-mindedly looked up. The sky was violet, almost magenta as stars twinkled in the distance inside the swirling spiral of clouds that was circling above the portal. Lights shined in the far off corners of the universe, and even under the intense illumination coming from the interdimensional doorway I could spot the entrails of galaxies paint the deep black canvas of space. Red and blue mixed with pure milky white, spinning cosmos churning moon dust and radical energies, there were many things out there. I realized that I would probably never get to go stargazing ever again, and briefly wondered if my home was out there, somewhere, among the midst of planets and spherical masses that traversed the never ending starscape.

Around me was desolation and death. The grass had been burned down to the soil, completely destroyed by the portal’s initial existence. Trees were bare, brown and rotting, as if they had aged a thousand years in the blink of an eye with only the trunks proof that they were ever there in the first place. The rolling hills around me were painted with a strange pink hue, tainted by an unnatural effect of nature and magic. There were dark clouds over above the exotic forest over in the distance to my left, and I could only imagine what kind of chaos and evil was brewing over there. A tiny town sat behind me, its peace violently interrupted briefly by the monsters that ran out of the portal as soon as it appeared, its fate held by the gaping hole of energy in front of me.

I gasped, my eyes bulging as smell, taste and touch failed me. There was something inherently wrong with the portal. You could feel an aura of perversion and corruption emanating from it, its power beckoning you to approach and fall through, speaking to your base needs of lust and strength as the rest of your mind fights back with reason and overwhelming waves of fright. When it appeared it killed everything nearby and everything that has come out of it came into Equestria with the intent to kill. It radiated something that barred life, that took everything that was life and made life and smothered it all in an instant with burning emotions. The portal was anti-life, anti-living. The portal was something of death itself, and kneeling so close to it, only moments away, I could feel my life energy get sucked out of me and into the maw of the storm, and my survival instincts peeling away trying to get my injured, dying body to safety.

I winced. A hiccup grew in my chest that turned into a violent barrage of bloody coughs. I almost fell onto my side, my sight getting skewed as the world around me rolled and bounced around like a ball in a pinball machine, dizziness swimming in my vision. I barely could keep myself straight, and I leaned forward putting my right hand on the ground to stabilize. My breathing became heavy despite the problems in my lungs and everything on the ground became blurry. I could vaguely make out the outline of my hand against the ruined soil, my digits forming a five-pointed star against the pink display. There was a red jewel that was pinned against the earth and my hand. I remembered that it was vaguely heart-shaped and had a purple starburst inside the gem. It was a little bit smaller than the size of my palm, and I dared not let go of it in any circumstance.

“Daniel!”

I heard voices cry out for me in the distance. Gathering my strength, I sat up and swiveled my hips, sitting on my calves and ignoring the resulting pain crying out from the ligaments of my legs. Approaching from the distance were several coloured figures, galloping up the soft slope of the hill. They called my name again, and this there were several voices that rang out in the night. I could make out their legs rapidly moving in a blur, desperately dashing up towards me. My eyes uselessly tried to focus on their bodies, on their moving figures as I tried to remember who they were. Their voices sounded so familiar. I remembered that I had heard them speak before, and that they spoke to me in a friendly manner, as if we were friends.

Friends.

That was the key word that stuck out in my mind, and I almost doubled over and propelled the contents of what was left of my stomach fluids all over the ground below me. My vision won its battle and I was granted blissful sight for another minute or two. The figures were getting near. I realized that they have been fairly close all along, except that my sight was so disfigured that I had lost concept of distance. They passed by a mound against the dirt, getting closer still.

Then I remembered that the mount was not a simple mount as the details of the lump were revealed to me. Four equine legs jutted out beneath it with a human’s upper body sticking out where the horse’s neck would be. Its back was muscular, toned and set the framework for the rest of its buffed limbs. Its forearms were as large and wide as fire hydrants and it could have probably benched a truck if it tried. Its coat on its lower body was brown, scarred with burns of ashes and fire. The skin on its upper body was stained completely black, like coal at the bottom of an enraged inferno. I briefly recalled its eyes being startling red, glowing scorn like pools of blood and malevolence. I spotted a smaller bump against the background and the memory of its undying smoldering face was engraved into my head before I walloped its head off with the swing of my short sword, its ichor burning off the legendary silver steel of the blade like acid. I couldn’t remember where the blade was now.

There were five of them. Five tiny figures approached my position. They finally slowed down to a halt, their breath weary and strained as they arrived two dozen feet before me.

The one in the front was a deep purple. She fluttered the wings on her back for a moment before gathering enough breath to speak. I remembered her name was Twilight. Yes, that is what it was.

“Daniel.” she greeted.

“We’ve come to rescue your sorry butt and drag you back to the infirmary!” the orange one with the ripped hat stated. I couldn’t exactly remember her face. There were too many things floating in and out in front of me. My brain couldn’t organize it all fast enough.

“Man, it looks like a Manticore ran you over. Did you kill that thing back there?” the bright blue one asked, her voice raspy and strangely familiar. She gestured over her shoulder to the carcass that rotted against the Equestrian earth. I noticed her wings were pinned to her back by bandages and she had a makeshift eye patch consisting of a piece of paper and tape over one eye.

“Why, you simply look dreadful!” a semi white, semi brown, semi crimson one stated. There was a dark pink pony with a straight mane lying across the back of a yellow one who said nothing, her gaze hidden in her long mangled hair.

“Twilight?” I managed to mutter between my lips.

“Daniel!” she answered, stepping forward. I realized she had a golden crown and purples glass shoes on her hooves. “We’re going to retreat! The portal is too strong and I couldn’t think up a solution on how to close it before Ponyville got attacked! We need to head back!”

I grunted, shuffling on my feet trying to get the rest of my body to face her. I could feel the cold touch of death roll over the skin of my arms. “I don’t think I’ll be going anywhere anytime soon, Twilight.”

“What?” she said. “What do you mean?” I lifted off my left hand off of the wound I had received, showing them the blood on my hand and trying my best to give them a smile. I’m not certain if my face muscles cooperated or not. They all gasped.

“I can’t say that I didn’t see this coming.” I stated, averting my gaze.

I heard Twilight take a few steps forward over the roar of the portal. “I’ll carry you with Rainbow Dash and Applejack! We can get you to the hospital and get you treated! It won’t have to end like this!”

“You girls are too small.” I answered. “I know you’re all tough as nails, but the fact is, I’m more than twice your size, and you all look pretty winded from battle. I don’t know how you’re going to carry me all the way back down the hill and back into Ponyville.”

“What’s wrong with you, Dan? It might take a while, but we could do it! Ya’ll are talkin’ crazy!” the cowgirl said.

“Look at this.” I asked of them, and opened up my other hand to reveal the treasure in inside. They were all speechless, their eyes as big as dinner plates.

“Is… is that?” Twilight began, words failing her.

I nodded at the red crystal in my possession. “Yeah. The Heart of Stars.”

Twilight would have jumped up for joy if she wasn’t as battle tired as she seemed. “You found it! This is great! Now all we have to do is get it back to Ponyville so I can study it and maybe find a way to close the portal.

I shook my head. “No, Twilight. It’s not that simple. I didn’t just find it. It fell out of me.”

Everypony was in disbelief. “It what?” they all exclaimed.

“It fell out of my side when I got wounded.” I explained. “I just appeared out of my side and fell on the ground. I swear it wasn’t there before, and it’s not like I felt it inside of me before or anything. And it fell out after I defeated the Portal Guardian.”

Rainbow glanced back to where the rotting carcass was. Twilight was shivering, with sweat glistening on the sides of her face. “T-T-That doesn’t matter! W-We can just take that at face value and continue with the study anyways! We just need you to come with us!” said Twilight.

I sauntered backwards at a snail’s pace, taking care not to fall down flat on my butt from the world tilting so harshly. “I think I know how to close the portal, Twilight.” I whispered barely loud enough for the rest to hear.

“Y-You do?” she asked. “T-T-That’s great!”

“The Heart of Stars is an anomaly, right?” I began, continuing my route backwards. “It came out of a portal just like this one. You told us after you read that old book of yours. And I’m an anomaly too, right? I’m not from Equestria. I came from Earth. I’m alien to the planet.”

Twilight looked frightened. “Daniel, what are you…?”

I kept moving. “So if the portal is alien, and the Heart of Stars is alien and I’m alien, if I put the Heart of Stars back to where it came from, then the portal might close.”

“Dan, that’s just downright crazy!” the one with the hat shouted. “Eur not even certain that’ll work!”

That wasn’t true. I had a vision when the Heart of Stars fell out of me. When the ruby hit the ground from my wound, I had seen it. The Heart of Stars gave me, no, granted me, a vision. I saw for a split second of my life right before my eyes a bipedal figure walking through the portal with a red glowing stone in its hand. It had to have been me, there was no mistaking it. I couldn’t throw it, no. The figure in the vision did not throw it into the portal. The man stepped into the portal with strength and certainty. That had to have been me.

“Yeah!” The rainbow one agreed. “What in the world are you thinking, Dan?”

“Daniel, please!” Twilight yelled, taking another step forward.

“Don’t come any closer. The portal will kill you. I’ve seen it kill everything that gets near it that’s from this world, and I think the only reason I can get so close is because I’m not Equestrian.”

“Dan, just let me–” Twilight said as her horn lit up with magic. I felt her arcane energies try to wrap around me, grabbing me in a hold before slipping off entirely.

“Just let me…” she said, as she failed again.

“Let me…” she said, her grasp not able to find purchase.

“Twilight,” I started. “You know magic doesn’t work on me.”

“Let…” she squeaked, as her spell faltered one final time. “Let me help you!”

I tried to lick my lips, only to find that the inside of my mouth was steadily drying up. It was getting harder and harder to speak. I could feel the scream of null and void looming over me. “I think I know how to close the portal. But only I can do it.”

“No!” Twilight screamed. There were tears trailing out of the bottom of her eyes. She took another step before the orange one pulled her back by the tail.

“Dan, are you insane?” the blue one inquired. “We could find another way! You just gotta cooperate with us! Come on!”

“Please, be reasonable!” the white one begged.

“No… Please…” the yellow one muttered.

I shook my head. “You girls deserve better. You, Twilight, deserve better. You have a whole life ahead of you with your and your friends. I’m not going to keep that from you.”

“Who says you don’t have a life too?” Twilight questioned, struggling against the one with the hat. “You can have a life with us! You’ve been with us for so long! Everypony in Ponyville accepts you now! We worked so hard for that!”

“This isn’t my life, Twilight. I’m not from here, and I never belonged here in the first place. I can’t fit in. I’m the last and the only of my kind on this planet. I will never feel the love of anyone my species ever again. I’m alone, Twilight. I’m alone.”

Twilight flapped her wings, threatening to break loose from her friend holding her in place. The look in her friend’s eyes appeared as if she was considering letting go for my sake too. “That’s not true! You have us! You have friends, Daniel!”

I took one last step. I knew just from feeling that I was a foot away from the opening of the portal. I could feel the strands of death lick at my heels, trying to pull me closer by one last step to embrace me in a cold, painless kiss. I was losing feeling of my body. I didn’t know how much longer I could stand, much less hold the ruby in my right hand before it slipped between my fingers. My vision started to tunnel, and everything was beginning to turn black. The pains I had before were far off in the distant, no longer alerting my brain of potential permanent damage every waking moment. As I fell asleep, so did my inhibitions.

“Twilight. You girls. I…”

I looked at them. I looked at them and stared, for it would be the last thing I have ever looked at. They were all there, all six of them, looking worse for wear as the stood, sad and longing at my company. The sounds around me became muted, and I was surrounded by silence. The blue one hopped on the spot, anxious and shouting out something to me. The orange one dug her hooves deep into the ground, keeping Twilight in check, her eyes closed shut and her ears folded back in willing deafness. The white one leaned forward, mascara running down her face, barking orders and demands at me. The yellow one looked absolutely broken, and had sat on the ground, gazing unbelieving at me with the pink one rolled off of her back to the ground behind her.

And Twilight. Twilight was mortified.

Her mane was messy and out of place, her normally pristine tail was bent out of shape, her shoes fell out of her hooves and flew through the air in various directions as she accidentally threw them off while trying to shrug her friend’s hold on her. Her pupils were enlarged with many tears falling down her cheeks as she screamed my name in the distant background. Her wings were spread and threatening, feathers floating down to the ground in her chaotic movements. She roughly landed on the ground as the orange one gave an extra strong pull, and Twilight decided not to get back up in the air again. There was such a look of longing, of concern and grave worry in her eyes.

I was approaching blind now. I stopped breathing, and my brain didn’t force me to take a breath. It didn’t care anymore. I didn’t care anymore, and I didn’t feel more asphyxiated than I did on my last day on planet Earth. The last image I could clearly see was Twilight and her five friends all around her in a manner of different position, calling out my name, trying to get me to change my mind.

And in that instant, I realized why Twilight Sparkle was what she was.

All of them, standing near each other, one by one around their leader, I knew.

I knew. I absolutely knew the truth.

I had been angry at Twilight. I had been selfish and angry at her when she first ascended to an Alicorn. I was confused and frustrated and smoldering as the months went by. The first day she turned, I thought she died. Myself and the other five friends she had were standing in the room where she exploded in a white light after the elements were used on her, and all that was left was a singed black spot on the Ponyville Library floor. That is what all that was left.

I thought she died. We all though she had died, and we all had panicked in our own ways. Most of the others stayed in Ponyville, but I had already ran off out of town, taking the train south in search of an object of myth I had found while reading old books in the library. I was looking for a way to bring her back, looking, searching for a way to revert Twilight’s death and put her back in the living world. Little did I know, a dozen hours later, Twilight would reappear in her library, good as new with a little bit of added height, a longer horn and two fluffy wings attached to her back.

When I returned to Ponyville, crushed that I actually couldn’t find the item I was looking for and that the item of myth from old outdated books didn’t actually exist, I learned of Twilight’s fate.

And I was absolutely furious.

She had died. She had died right in front of our own eyes. And then she came back, better than before? Where did she get this power from? Since when did she get the right to become a demi-god, adorning the power to move masses such as the sun and moon? How did she get back, and what did she do while she was gone? Why was this allowed to happen to her? Why did it happen to her?

It seemed like a dream come true to her. She had just became the ultimate being, had grown into a species with almost unlimited power at her disposal. She could do whatever she wanted, and she could do it with ease.

She also became an official Equestrian Princess later in the week, with all the pros and entitlements that it comes with. If she needed a laboratory with new equipment, she would get it. If she wanted to expand her library to unimaginable sizes, she could. If she wanted a personal guard that would track her every movement and keep her safe, she would. She had a blank check, and more arcane power than she knew what to do with.

It was absolutely disgusting. I felt as if it came so easily to her too.

Why did it have to happen to her? Why did good things always have to happen to her?

Why couldn’t good things happen to me?

Why couldn’t I get sent back home?

That was really all I wanted, really. To be sent back home to Earth where all the other humans were would be a far cry in heaven that would make me weep for days to come.

But if Twilight could become a god, than why couldn’t I get sent back home?

What made her so special?

I was jealous. I was pissed off. And I hated her.

I hated the first friend I had ever met in Equestria. And, I had made sure that she knew it too.

But now, after seeing all six of them in a group together, I finally know why she was chosen for the mantle.

Now I know why she was so special.

Now I know why she is the Princess of Magic.

She deserves it.

She deserves it, and nothing less. With all the great things she has done for Ponyville and Equestria, she deserves nothing less. All the research she has done, all the advancements in arcane science she has provided through study and experiments, all the ponies she has brought together through her lessons on friendship and the everlasting friendships she would have with her five friends until the end of time. She had bonds with ponies that would never break, never weaken and never cease to be magical. She could see the good in all ponies, and not only try and push the good out of all of them but give them all the chance to shine in their own moments. She opened up to me on day one and she has been my best friend ever since. Not to mention, she has saved Equestria from certain doom on several occasions with the help of her friends.

She was a nation hero, a pony for all to look up for and strive to be. She was the perfect example of what a pony should be.

She deserved it.

And I didn’t.

I was still, and will always be, an impatient, jealous little scumbag that throws his friends under the bus.

I hated that mare.

I hated Twilight Sparkle.

How could I have hated the mare that gave me a second lease on life?

I closed my eyes and smiled.

I finally lost my balance and felt my knees fail me as I brought up my hands over my chest. I could feel the heat of the Heart of Stars against my palm, and I tried my best to squeeze my grip around the enchanted jewel.

I fell backwards into the portal, all senses and feeling disappearing in a moment as the world of Equestria fell away.

And then there was nothing.