“WHAT IS HE TRYING TO DO TO YOU?!” the stallion demanded the moment he was free.
“He is still your king Disc...” Tia tried to bring out her beloved’s loyalty to the monarch, but his frustration prevailed in repelling the attempt.
“Tia!” His eyes frosted over with Tia as he stood there. “What’s happening?!” His voice cracked, as he fell into silence. Tia gazed at the stallion she loved, she barely ever saw him cry, only twice: When his father abandoned his mother just before Disc came to Canterlot, and when his mother died. The alicorn mare couldn’t help but feel a sense of honour, knowing she meant so much to bring a tear to the pony’s eye.
“Ascension,” she began. “Is the final stage of an alicorn’s corporeal life.” Though he understood the words, Disc couldn’t understand what Tia was talking about. Before he could question his beloved Tia, she continued. “An alicorn is born, as an earth pony, they then develop the wings of a Pegasus as they grow older. You know this.” Disc nodded, remembering how they had met, when the princess had only her wings, and her horn had not yet grown. That seemed like... a lifetime ago. Maybe because it almost was for him, he was no longer the stallion he was back then. He remembered how helpless she had been, how he had charged in and saved her, back when she had needed him. Why couldn’t he save her now?
“Ascension is when, one alicorn –my father in this case- uses the majority of his power, and transmits it into another alicorn.” Tia continued. Disc stared through his dripping eyes, his jaw beginning to gape as he listened. But nothing could have prepared him for what Tia said next as she looked at him with sorrowful eyes. “The resulting power the second alicorn receives destroys their physical form, and we become a spectral being, both singular and universal.”
Disc stood stunned, his legs began to shake, eventually giving out and bringing him tumbling to his knees. “Y-your physical form...destroyed?” Tia... would be gone? Forever? How could the king, any father! Do something like that to their own child? Tia’s heart broke at the sight of her stunned lover.
“Our bodies are designed for this eventual build up of magic. We are, as a race, the only creatures able to do so and break apart into the next form.” She explained miserably.
“B-but... why? Why? WHY DO YOU HAVE TO GO?” Disc pleaded, bitter tears now streaming down his face as he begged the mare he loved to answer him.
Tia’s gaze dropped to the floor, no longer able to look him in the eye for causing him such pain. “My mother, she went before me, and her mother and father before her. Once I’m gone, Luna will grow up and have children of her own, then my father will ascend and join me and my mother. And then the cycle will repeat itself.” A hard pounding noise shook Tia into looking at Disc on the floor.
His hoof was against the ground, beneath it a small crack in the wooden floorboard proved that he had just punched it in frustration. “But, why can’t he- your father...” The question hung the air unfinished, waiting for Tia to answer.
“Because, he needs to live to teach Luna how it’s done.”
“But can’t he teach you how to do it?” Disc asked miserably, still with his head and hoof to the ground in sorrow.
“No, I’m solar. Only lunar alicorn’s can ascend other alicorns.”
“That’s stupid!” Disc shouted suddenly. He slammed his hoof down again causing the crack to grow slightly beneath his strike.
With every second that passed by, Disc’s heart grew more fractured, at any moment it would threaten to shatter completely. How could Tia do this? How could she leave? And be so matter of fact about it! “I-I didn’t tell you because...” the princess began, “B-because I hoped, that if I didn’t mention it, it would never come, maybe it would just keep being put off and I could stay here...with you.” Disc shuddered at his love’s words. They hurt far more than anything he had experienced in his life. Knowing she felt this way, and that she was still going to go through with it!
Disc stared at the wooden panel beneath him, his tears cascaded down to the ground and splashed back up at his nose. “Why?” he asked again. “Why? What’s the point of being immortal if you’re just going to die anyway!”
“We don’t die Disc. We simply break away from the physical realm and become one with the magic in the world”-
“AND HOW IS THAT ANY DIFFERENT?!” Disc screamed, his head snapped up, revealing his bloodshot eyes. “HOW IS IT ANY DIFFERENT?” he demanded again. “You’ll still be gone! I won’t... I wouldn’t be able to... I’d never...” in his hysteria the stallion couldn’t finish any of his reasons. He bolted to his hooves and rushed towards her.
“Come away with me!” He smiled encouragingly his eyes still streaming. “Come away, to a place where... we can be together! Just live with each other, we don’t need to be here!” Tia’s heart sank even more at Disc’s actions. Inside, her heart felt like it was made of lead; it pulled hard, weighing her down in everything she thought and said.
“Don’t ask me to do that Disc...” She begged, her eyes brimming with newfound tears of heartbreak.
“Why not?” Disc clung to the idea as though it were all that kept him from drowning in a sea of misery. “We can go, over the seas, to the other lands, we can go and find a place no one knows us!”
“Disc...” Tia wept. “I-I can’t, it’s what’s expected of me! It’s what my father wants; it’s what... it’s what... it’s what I want!”
Disc’s body sagged at her words. “You don’t mean that!” He persisted. Tia closed her eyes, flinging her head away from him as far as she could, still held by his outstretched hooves. “Tia...” The stallion whispered.
“I’m sorry!” she cried, then sprang ahead, breaking his hold on her hooves as she did. She began to canter out of the room, swinging the door open with her magic and slamming it behind her.
“TIA NOOO!” Discord cried, he charged after her, knowing in his heart it was too late. By the time he opened the door and ran back into the hall, he saw her beautiful flowing tail whip around the door of the throne room and slam the door behind her.
“TIA!” The stallion cried, charging to the door. He slammed it hard with his shoulder, yet the panel didn’t budge an inch! “Tia!” He cried again, his voice distraught as he knew what would happen on the other side of the sheet of wood at any moment. The stallion fell to his knees and gazed through the keyhole set in the bras handle. He saw her, she had stopped running now the door separated the two f them, and was now slowly making her way back to her waiting father.
Disc slammed his hooves on the door, pummelling it with all his might, he put his lips to the open hole in the wood and called to her. “Tia don’t do it! Please! DON’T DO IT!” He could tell she could hear him, the way she kept her head hung low, stopping the temptation to look back. “Tia! PLEASE... I LOVE YOU!”
Inside the throne room, Tia froze unable to believe what Disc had done. They had told each other they loved them, but only in secret, and in the solitude of their secret meetings. Now Disc was shouting it out for the whole castle to hear! Her head snapped up to stare at her father just ahead. The king didn’t even look shocked in the slightest possible way.
Tia couldn’t move her hooves, she had thought she had been prepared for whatever Disc could throw at her. She had deluded herself into thinking nothing could shock her, but now Disc stood mere feet away, screaming his love for her, and that made her unable to move. The thought of leaving him tore her heart in two, but she also knew that this was what awaited all alicorn’s and it was all as painful for them as it was for her.
“Celestia.” said the deep voice of the lunar king. Tia focused on her father, who began to move towards her, his horn beginning to emit its vibrant green glow. “My dear daughter, we must do this now, before he gets in again.” Obeying her father without question as she always had. Tia took a deep breath, and with a heavy heart, stood tall awaiting her father’s magic. Closing her eyes, she focused only on the voice of her beloved, she envisioned his face determined that he would the last thought this body would ever think of!
Disc watched the king beginning to make his way to Tia. The stallion recognised the blue sparks that shot up the monarch’s horn, and knew that it would soon all be over! “SIRE!” He tried to protest, but the king continued to move forward, unperturbed by the captain’s cries.
Disc’s chest was heaving in panic, what could he do? He watched as the magic built up until the king’s power began to pulsate with streaks of blue against its bright green surface. The king stopped several feet away from his daughter, he lowered his head until the tip pointed at a perfect parallel to the ground. “For Equestria!” the king cried. Tia’s eyes opened, she looked over her shoulder, and to the door where Disc knelt just beyond.
“For Equestria.” she echoed hollowly.
Realising this was the end, Disc screamed, not a word but a simple beast like scream. His chest felt like it exploded at the sight of his love stood ready to leave! He wouldn’t let this happen! But how could he stop it? He slammed against the door again, but it didn’t move. He sprang to his hooves and tried again. He found the seam between the panels; he backed up then jumped into it. The doors parted slightly for a second. Revealing Tia, slowly being lifted into the air by the glow of the king’s green magic.
The ball of green seemed to compact, growing smaller and smaller, condensing itself. Disc’s blue bloodshot eyes watched as, the ball suddenly blinked out of existence. For a wild moment Disc thought the attempt had failed, his heart soared, Tia was going to stay! Then, from where the ball had been, shot a beam, one single continuous beam of green flowing magic. The stream of green energy struck Tia in the chest, she didn’t cry out. She didn’t scream or squirm in pain. She simply hung in the air, her wings unfurled and spread wide as she floated there.
“NOOOO!” Disc ran from the door, heading to the furthest point from across the hallway. He turned, and without hesitation, just like all those years before. He charged with the single intent, of saving her! The grand double doors rushed to meet him, the stallion lowered his head, and prepared for the pain. Surely enough it came in waves as his shoulder exploded in protest as he slammed into the door’s causing them to burst open.
Not waiting for even a second, Disc charge towards the two alicorns. Tia was beginning to shimmer with a green tinted glow. Was it nearly over? Not caring for his own safety, he reached the two of them. The king –unable to stop the spell at this stage- stared in horror as the stallion approached from the side. Only an instant before he did it, did the king realise what the stallion would do!
Disc bent his legs as he ran, hugging the ground as he sped onwards. With all his strength, as he reached the point of no return, the captain jumped. The stallion sailed through the air. Tia’s eyes opened, just in time to see him sail into view. Tia opened her mouth, trying to call out to him, to somehow stop before it was too late. The grey furred pony closed his eyes, unsure of what would come next.
But she was safe now, Tia would be safe. That was all that mattered!
The stallion began to fall back to the ground, arching through the air, and in what seemed like in slow-motion for the two witnesses, passed into the beam of magical energy.