Promises

by Lynneth

Chapter Three

Promises

Chapter Three

Time passed and ponies enjoyed many activities, such as sightseeing in Canterlot or visiting Copper Gear’s latest airship prototype - without the engineer however, who was too busy with his next models. The days went by much more quickly than they all would’ve liked, but time is often enough inversely relative to the amount of fun one has. The more fun one had, the less one felt time pass.

On the second-to-last day, Rarity finally asked Twilight to gather the others. Some time in the evening all six friends were once more in the alicorn’s chambers. "Welcome back everypony. I believe Rarity wants to inform us of her decision now." The Fashionista nodded with a demure smile. "I shan’t keep you all for too long. After lengthy deliberation and a few short letters that I exchanged with Sweetie Belle - she is quite alright by the way, her tour currently is in Hoovesburg - I have decided that I will, after all,..." She made a deliberate pause, raising tension thusly, "not deny your request, Twilight dear. I shall participate."

Fluttershy spoke up momentarily. "Now that everypony else is coming for sure, I’ll be there, too. That was my condition for it, after all."

Twilight nodded gleefully in response, the relief evident in her mien. "Great! So we can enjoy today and tomorrow for now. I’ll tell you when I have everything prepared for the five-fold ritual. Considering the size, it might take a few weeks or even months to get everything into order and gather the ingredients."

Five ponies nodded and the six returned to enjoying their short vacation. On the seventh day, they parted with great smiles and well-wishes.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

In the following weeks, Twilight returned to her duties, but did many only half-heartedly. Many times, she was seen descending into the dungeons beneath her palace wing, which were used by her and sometimes friendly scholars for scientific experiments and research beyond the means of most universities. However, the great frequency with which she went down there and the strange ingredients that were bought unsettled a few concerned ponies, who brought this information before Celestia. Though the solar Princess would take some time to do more, she convened with her sister about the issue in her own chambers.

"Luna, reports have reached me that Twilight appears to have found another project that she seems a little obsessed about, though to a far lesser degree than the previous one."

Luna nodded slowly, "Does she eat regularly? Does she neglect her duties and friends in any way?"

Celestia shook her head gently. "Yes, she does eat. And... It depends on how you look at it. She performs her duties, though spending as little time as she can, it seems. It is not like her to shy away from work, at least not without reason."

The younger sister rolled her eyes. "’Tis not too unusual for her, I would dare say. Perhaps it is a quick thing she believes to be completed soon enough that she may return to her duties soon enough? As long as she holds court and eats without prodding, I would not worry too much, Celestia. Do not forget that she met her friends recently. It appears to me that she isn’t truly isolating herself in any way."

"Perhaps you are right, little sister, but I still worry. I don’t want her to do foolish things."

"The only ones a pony learns from reliably, big sister. You cannot, must not coddle her as you have done during her youth. She needs to make mistakes in order to learn from them."

"But-"

"Anything she would deem dangerous, she would speak about to either or both of us. She may not be the wisest of ponies, but Twilight knows her procedures and guidelines. You can of course talk to her about it, but I would not think it necessary."

Celestia sat still for a time, but finally nodded. "Perhaps you’re right, Luna. I suppose I shall think more on it before doing anything rash."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

A few months passed, during which Twilight’s preparations culminated in her procuring an artefact capable of holding the magical energies required for the ritual and delivering the power in an instant - a magical capacitor, if one wills. However, the crystals used to make such devices were rare, requiring the alicorn to spend far more than she had budgeted for on the ritual. This budgeting discrepancy lead to a very bureaucratic and thorough pony working for the crown’s treasury reporting this and everything else connected to the purchase to a superior of his. Bureaucracy was a slow animal however, and thus Twilight dismissed the report after she became aware of it. She figured that anything of note happening before the spell was complete was unlikely.

In the meantime, Twilight had a large, currently unused chamber of her wing converted for the ritual and later safekeeping of the ’results’. When she finally had knew when the preparations would be completed, she sent invitations to her five friends. Spike had by then been informed of everything, though an inconvenient diplomatic mission to the Zebra homelands prevented the multilingual dragon from participating. It was unfortunate, but he’d promised Twilight that he would be thinking of them all whenever he could.

Soon enough, the six were gathered in a room adjacent to the large chamber. "Alright, girls. Do you all have everything in order?"

One after another, they nodded in confirmation, though it was Fluttershy who spoke up first. "I gave the mayor my notice just a few days after our last meeting here. She was shocked that I’d retire so suddenly, but very understanding. And she was grateful that I gave her so much time to find a new keeper for Ponyville’s critters and the edges of Everfree. It wasn’t easy to find a qualified mare, but together, we did it. Everything’s good now, for me." She smiled daintily.

Next was Applejack. "Applebloom’s taken over the last duties on the farm on my request. I told her two weeks ago and together, we broke the news to the kids and whatnot. Can’t say any of them were happy or agreed with my decision, but I’m still the family’s matriarch ’till after the ritual. Then it’s all on AB." The farmer sighed. "I’m gonna miss them so much."

Pinkie nuzzled her orange friend’s neck, as always smiling. "We’ll miss them a lot and they’ll miss us a whole lot, too. But it’s alright, because we can always remember the fun times we had, AJ. As for me, I told my family that I’d go play a prank on death himself and let them interpret it as they liked. I only asked them to always remember the things I taught them." She nodded several times. "It was a bit somber, but they understood that even Granny Pie can’t be there forever~. Luckily I never Pinkie-Promised that to them, being there until ever is over." She giggled a little, by then having returned to her own seat.

Then it was Rainbow’s turn. "I just told them I’d leave in a while. Like Flutters, give them time to find a replacement even half as good as me. Last I heard, they got Spitfire and Soarin’ to come out of retirement because they just couldn’t find anypony who’d be a good enough coach. Scoots mentioned she’d try and help with that, too. Turns out I got really good at coaching, heh. I’m really hoping here that I didn’t screw the ’Bolts over there, that they’ll be able to keep flying and what. Ah well. They’ll recover soon enough. There’s plenty of good guys they have." Dash shrugged, though idly stroking an ancient Wonderbolts uniform with a hoof - the design the group had been wearing the day she’d originally joined the elite group of flyers. Nostalgia was powerful for some ponies.

Rarity was the last. Interestingly, she’d been wearing what looked like a clever disguise, concealing the true her underneath decidedly unfashionable clothing and wigs. Then she hovered a newspaper up, so the others could see the front page. "Officially, I died about a day ago, give or take some hours. I was on a cruise with some old friends when a typhoon hit our airship unexpectedly. As luck had it, the captain managed an emergency landing on an inhabited island after calling for help via radio. Unfortunately, Equestria’s greatest Fashionista was flung off the ship during the storm, presumed missing, likely dead."

She paused for a few dramatic moments. "Sweetie and those friends on the ship are aware, but nopony else. Not even my own... Oh, I do regret not saying proper goodbyes to my own children, but they’re not good enough actors to pull this off convincingly." She paused again, forcing a little smile. "Of course there’s no more paparazzi now, girls. No more intrusions into my life that I didn’t ask for. It’s such an incredibly heavy weight off my back, I can scarcely believe how good I feel now and how I lived the last decades." She leaned back.

"Of course I also made sure to open an account with the Central Bank of Equestria some months ago, under special conditions that it may only be opened or even touched with a special, secret spell, no matter what might happen to the owner. Of course the sum I ’donated’ to the Bank for this to happen could have bought a small kingdom, I’d wager. Goodness, what greedy ponies there are. Anyways, it was sufficient to convince them to sign the contract - magically enforced, I might add, that it cannot be broken even by future directors or whatnot. So I’m very much hoping that I’ll have access to it in the future... somewhat risky, I suppose, but worth it." She smiled and shrugged. "But that’s it. Everything’s been taken care of. I have nothing that I’d call a loose end."

Twilight nodded. "None of you do, it seems. That’s good. Now, girls," she hesitated for a few moments before continuing. "There’s of course a chance that I might never find a spell to do what I started all this for. It might be impossible to make any of you more than extraordinarily long-lived. I told you as much the last time we met, but I’m repeating it now. If any of you have second thoughts, this is the last time to back out." She looked at her friends for a time, but none seemed inclined to back out now. "Alright. Well, if there’s really no spell, I’ll use the counterspell on you all. What we do from then on I don’t know yet, but we’ll figure something out."

"You promise that, Twilight?"

She nodded. "I promise."

"Let’s get to it, then."

A few minutes later, they were in the ritual chamber. No servants were in sight and with how far along the preparations were, making the room’s use more evident, Twilight wouldn’t have wanted there to be any, regardless.

The room itself was more than large, with enough volume to house the tree-library four times over and still have plenty of space left over, though not quite as sizeable as the throne rooms. This chambers original intended use was to receive foreign dignitaries or host ’modest’ balls or galas. Not that it had even seen use as such since its construction. The floor was now covered in intricate runes, sigils and other shapes, candles here and there at major intersections of lines. Dried plants had been set down in some of the circles while five squares were aligned to form a simple pentagon, five-sided shape, the sigils within signifying the stasis spell. In the very centre of this formation was the magical capacitor, already hummling audibly with sheer energy.

"One into each of these squares please, girls. And try to position yourself as centred as you can." Twilight watched her friends heed the request, only moments later standing at their designated points. Luckily, there was no need to distinguish between any of them, as the ritual applied just as well whether or not it knew who or what the pony was. Twilight placed herself in a circle nearer to the edge of the arrangement from which the other lines and so on seemed to originate. Soon, every pony was in position.

"Alright girls, once I start the ritual, there’s no stopping it. The capacitor is fully powered and unless I made any mistakes even after quadruple-checking, the energies involved should be enough to keep you all in very slow stasis for several millennia if uninterrupted. That doesn’t mean that you can’t be moved or anything - in fact, there’s a good chance you’ll be revived in a place that looks very different to this room. Just keep that in mind, alright?"

The five ponies nodded, prompting Twilight to begin the ritual. "I’m starting now. Please try to stay silent unless it seems really important."

Her horn lit up, thin strands of magic quickly connecting to the chalk circle around herself. It spread quickly and within moments the entire chamber was bathed in the soothing purple light. In the span of a second, Twilight’s friends were tinted appropriately as the squares they stood in flared up in the same colour, then shooting thin strands at the artefact in the centre. From then on things became too fast for even a Pegasus’ trained eyes to follow. Magical lightning erupted from the artefact, striking first all candles with pinpoint precision and extinguishing them, in the fraction of a second jumping from these to the nearest pony within a square. Accompanied by a thunderclap beyond anything Twilight had heard before, the central crystal shattered utterly, releasing its accumulated power all in a single moment. Hearing this made her more than glad she’d chosen to soundproof this room, else half of Canterlot might have been brought awake.

Then, the chamber was bathed in white light for several moments, making it impossible to see anything. Time appeared to stand still, only resuming after what seemed to be hours, shattered crystal pieces raining harmlessly onto the ground, fine dust beginning to settle down even as it kept crackling with leftover magic. Carefully, Twilight opened her eyes again, looking over the result with great anxiety. The feeling vanished quickly upon seeing her friends coated with an orange sheen, frozen with open eyes, staring ahead. The five even looked a little serene like this, almost content with themselves.

Twilight dismissed the last remnants of magic in the room, trotting over to her friends. Tears blurred her sight, though the smiled with happiness, glad that the spell had worked perfectly. Still, she would miss her friends terribly, talking joking and adventuring with them. But they weren’t gone forever, and that gave her immeasurable strength.

Luckily the ritual hadn’t taken much out of her so that she wouldn’t need to rest. But after this she wanted to sleep for a time before concerning herself with moving her friends to a better, more suitable location. She turned towards the large main door to leave.

Comments

[Skeeter The Lurker]

So...

They ALL faked their deaths...

Wow... Once Celestia finds out, she'll be pissed.

~Skeeter The Lurker

[Skeeter The Lurker]

Approved for Twilight's Library.

I am just loving this too much.

~Skeeter The Lurker

[Europa]

Really can't wait to see how this turns out! Lovely take on immortal-Twilight-alone. Of course, she wouldn't just wait around for her friends to die and then go 'oh woe is me'. She's proactive

[John Tannius]

I would like to see things from the perspective of the frozen ponies. I imagine it would be much like the scene from 'The Time Machine' where he goes to the future.

Of course I'm expecting things to go horribly wrong any chapter now.

[Super]

This can only end really, really well.

[Xaldon Ajide]

Like next chapter when Celestia arrives.

[JustAnotherTimeLord]

Oh, this should be interesting. I remember seeing the story art used recently.

[Pyro The Reader]

3859613 More like a demi-god. It didn't take a 'snap of the hoof' to freeze her friends and she can't just force ascension to work on her friends either, so obviously she has limits a god wouldn't have, she isn't even a physical god either.

[SeiRyu]

I can't wait to see Celestia's reaction, although I suspect a significant time jump will happen in the story soon.

[DawnRose]

3855491 totally

~DawnRose~