The most common way ponies/other creatures in canon MLP verse seem to get to be immortal are

A) be a huge asshole 1,000 years ago and get locked away and never die, apparently

Or

B) Become an Alicorn

Since this group is about immortality ending happily, my question is this:

Through what other means could a pony experience immortality but still lead to a happy/fulfilling forever after?

Let's try to avoid the obvious ones, such as vampires or whatever. I'd like to think we're more creative than that.

Save the world a few dozen times and be bathed in the radiation of a friendship ray until the magic levels reach critical mass thus ensuring that the ponies' bodies would remain forever young?

5104155 "Undiluted rainbow. Spicy, I think you once called it. The truth is, rainbows burn away everything. Specifically, they burn away your mortal self. Some say that if a pony whose heart is pure, and whose spirit can only find peace in this world, were to bathe in the rainbow, the pony that emerged would be barred from Death's door forevermore."

5104155 ever read The Enchanted Libray ? Could become like Twilight. Not dead, but like and ethereal form or spirit

There is always "technical" immortality in which a pony is reborn and retains their memories and parts of their personality. Though they would be a bit different each time they were reborn.

5104202 so...basically reincarnation?

Yep, immortality of the soul rather than the body.

5104155 Age spells, as seen in Magic Duel.

If we take a second to glance into what immortality truly is, we can understand the pros and cons of it.

Many argue that the most basic meaning and "reality" of immortality that is "You live forever, and will never die" is both a pro and con in many cases.

Let's put some context and meaning to this belief.

Say you write up a character that has recently become immortal, but is in a situation where they wanted to die, or do not want to live forever (a good example are the immortal Twilight fics where Twilight either loses a very close friend of hers like Celestia or one of the Mane 6 ponies, and doesn't want to live further or bare the pain of living forever after that day). In this type of case, immortality is a con.

But now there's the pro to it. Say an author writes up a character that is courageous, mighty, and strong. This character fights in epic battles against the biggest evils, and becomes triumphant. But one day he meets his/her match (or he/she is overpowered by the enemy), and they have the chance to become immortal through some means (yes I realize this is a cheesy ass way to write out a story and do not encourage it, but it does exist) so the hero decides to take that opportunity. They live as they are now immortal and end up defeating the enemy, and everypony lives happily ever after. In this case it is indeed a pro, unless the author decides to take a turn with their story and make that main character grow to dislike their immortality.

Now onto the main point and topic of this thread (Sorry if I seemed to be off topic there, I just felt had to establish those two concepts of whether immortality is good or not). So what are some situations I personally feel a character would become immortal leading to a happy/fulfilling forever after? Here are some I will describe.

The main character saves the life of a close friend, girl/boyfriend, or family member that is about to die through them becoming immortal - This situation is one that I have seen a few times before, and almost always works perfectly, if not all the time. Especially when the main character saves their girlfriend or boyfriend. This situation will usually end in a happy/fulfilling forever after because all the main character cared about at the time was saving their close individual. Unless written otherwise, the character wouldn't be thinking, "Well, if I become immortal, I'll have to live forever and see everyone I know and my children's children's children die, so do I really want this?". In most cases, of course they won't be thinking that! They'll 99% of the time be thinking, "Oh my gosh I have the chance to save my best friend if I become immortal!" and proceed to become immortal without giving it a second thought. In the end, maybe they do turn out to dislike immortality, and in that case screw you writer! We don't want that! (Just kidding, if you write that situation out well then it will for sure be interesting and probably great) But in most cases the now immortal character will either hang out with their best friend they saved, get even closer together with their girl/boyfriend and maybe even marry, or become closer with their family member they saved. All these endings in this case lead to a happy/fulfilling forever after.

The main character has a personality/view on life that does not see/find immortality as a bad thing - That's pretty much the reason itself. The main character doesn't think/believe immortality is a negative or bad thing. Maybe they understand that everyone they know who are not immortal will die at one point and he/she will have to live through that, but it won't bind them to a recurring pain and suffering. There's a concept (maybe it isn't a concept if you think about it) out there that I love to incorporate into my writing, known by many as "Desensitization". A basic summary of this concept is that over time, things that you see and experience on a daily basis become normal and used to you. An example of something many people are desensitized to is death, ironically in this case. You probably hear stories every few days about someone who died somewhere. Do you sob and plan to attend the funeral of that person usually? No. That's because death is so extremely common in our day to day lives that we have just gotten used to the fact it exists and happens. (Now this isn't the case all the time, family members, friends, and people close to you are an exception) Applying this to fanfiction however, you could write your character out as if they were already desensitized to death, so that when close people died in that character's world, they did not become saddened or depressed by to it.

The main character becomes a new form/version/entity that is not bound to an external (or even internal) suffering/pain - Now I understand this situation is broad and open to interpretation. What exactly can a character become that is not negative in any way? I see you guys talking about radiation, spiritual reincarnation, and even rainbows! All of those forms of immortality could be written positively and lead to a happy/fulfilling forever after, but there are many more options than those. For example, the main character could drink a potion that gives them immortality, could cast an ancient spell that gives them immortality, or even transform in some way into a creature that is naturally immortal, like a Draconequus (aka the thing Discord is, which yes, is very much accepted to be an immortal being in the MLP Canon universe). All of these are examples of ways to become immortal that will most likely lead to a happy/fulfilling forever after. But the main thing to consider while writing is "Will this way of becoming immortal for this character be negative, and/or subject them to a sad and depressing life?" If the answer is yes, you'll want to consider a different way of making your character become immortal. Cause making them bound to an evil contract, a deal with an evil character, or them transforming into a creature/being that acts negatively towards others to live (like a creature that must kill to live) is not going to give your character a happy/fulfilling forever after.

Well, I think I've outlined most of the key factors/points/whatever the Tartarus you want to call them. I hope you found what I had to share useful, and have learned one or two things for your future writing. If you liked my response, and would like to talk to me more, just drop on by my account here! I'd appreciate it a lot to see you guys read my stories I've written so far, and get to know me more. I'm off to continue writing my next fic and editing my main fic now! See you all around!

5104155
Could have their soul linked to an object that's really hard to destroy, like a lich. And there's just constantly reusing youth spells.

5104155 Aren't we all immortal until we're proven wrong? Maybe you just have to be really, really bad at dying.

Kinda like those old ladies who keep saying 'don't be ridiculous. I'm too old to die'. Except they are. That'd be fun.

5104171

That is definitely a stretch haha. I know 'rainbow power' isn't ever really explained, but where would something like that even come from?

5104176

Interesting idea.

5104178

Well 'an ethereal form or spirit' seems to be something like a ghost. When I say 'immortal' I generally mesn still having a physical body, but I guess 'immortal' is subjective.

Also no, I haven't read that.

5104202

so something like avatar where the spirit is the same, but the person is different every time?

5104292

Can unicorns cast those on themselves, though? We've only ever seen them cast such spells on another pony.

5104883

your response definitely answers some questions, but it also raises a few. like what would qualify for a 'happy forever after'? Just the happiness of the character? Because if so, a character could be perfectly happy with killing things to survive.

5104925

Like voldemort in harry potter. Could be interesting.

5107472

Now imagining a fic where the pony doesn't even realize they're immortsl. Heh.

5107583 I don't trust immortality. You can never really prove it.

I mean, to observe something being immortal, you'd have to observe it... forever. Forever is a long time, guys.

5107583

Yep, that's right.

5107583 I guess that comes down to the writer. If you write a character in a way which ends with him/her killing others to survive, but they still are happy, then that situation for you as a writer would indeed be a happy/fulfilling forever after.

That's the great thing about fiction though. There are no predetermined or required rules. No one or thing is setting a specific set of guidelines in front of you that you must write by either. And that, in turn, is why fanfiction here on this website and even other websites, is so diverse and unique. If it wasn't this case, you'd see a lot of extremely bland and repetitive stories.

If it wasn't this case, you'd see a lot of extremely bland and repetitive stories.

But. There. Are?