The Last Goodbye
Chapter 11: The Last Goodbye
With every step Lightning Dust took, Twilight raked her fore hooves along the shaft of the magical spear piercing her body, her rear legs flailing in spite of the pain that shook her body as her blood trickled out quicker than she thought possible.
Curiously, dying felt like the everyday momentary acceptance of sleep.
It was oddly peaceful... almost comforting.
“D-don’t!” Twilight spluttered as she clasped her hooves upon the magical weapon penetrating her, resisting the compelling urge to close her eyes. With a few seconds to ready herself, Twilight pulled herself up the shaft a mere few inches, releasing a howl of agony as she felt the spear slipping through her with each tug.
“Oh do shut up!” Lightning Dust took a moment to glance back to the impaled Princess, the sardonic expression and the roll of her eyes instigating a more desperate plea from the dying alicorn.
“I’ll… I’ll do anything!” Twilight screamed out.
“And what’s that, exactly?” Lightning Dust questioned as she turned about with a tilt of her brow. “Or are you simply begging for your friend’s lives? What could you possible offer off me, Twilight Sparkle?” The mare placed a hoof upon the Alicorn Amulet. “I have the power of a Princess around my neck. And you? You are going to be dead soon.”
“My power!” Twilight hissed as she pulled herself up the shaft of the weapon a couple more inches, gritting her bloodied teeth.
What are you doing?
I don’t know.
We are dying; we need to escape, flee, not exchange words!
I know what I am doing.
You are seeking to save them, even now?
THEY ARE MY FRIENDS!
Still with this nonsense? We are going to die!
I’ll distract Lightning Dust long enough to make sure they get away.
We, will, die!
I don’t care! I will not let them die here.
“I-if you spare their lives,” Twilight, weak from the blood loss and exhausted from the fighting felt her limbs fall limp to her sides, growing heavier and heavier as the seconds bled on, “I’ll give you my power… th-that way, you… you would become a-a Princess…”
Lightning Dust’s eyes widened. “I… I could become a Princess?” Her smile grew. “Really?” With her attention shifted once more, the mare trotted towards the Princess, and with a simple wave of her hoof the magical weapon dissipated, causing Twilight Sparkle to fall and hit the ground hard.
Belly down, Twilight painfully lifted up her head from the ground, struggling to form a smile.
“Y-yes… it is as you said… Alicorns can strip another Alicorn’s power away, but it takes certain parameters… like being near death… given, my current condition, I can give you mine before Luna comes to take it away… but in exchange, you have to spare my friends. You have to promise me, you’ll spare them…”
Lightning Dust ceased her steps when her forehooves were before the fallen Princess’s face, gazing down at her with excited eyes. “Then… then I can become a somepony… a somepony to be respected. Somepony to be worshipped, to be loved… Yes! I agree! Tell me what to do. If you do this, I will spare them,” Lightning Dust grinned, "I promise."
You lied to her.
Precisely, I don’t even know if I could give up my powers that way… not that she knows that.
And what exactly do you plan to do to save us?
That was never the plan.
“It… it will take time to charge the magical spell,” sucking in a deep breath. Satisfied that Lightning Dust was close enough, Twilight Sparkle slowly pushed herself up off of the ground, her legs trembling as they threatened to collapse below her. “I’m weak from blood loss… just give me a few minutes... it'll take time to charge.”
“We don’t have a few minutes, Twilight Sparkle! Luna will be here any moment to take your power for herself!” Lightning Dust stomped a hoof, drawing her muzzle close to the broken alicorn. “Hurry it up! If I can claim your power for myself; with the power of the Alicorn Amulet combined… I will become invincible! Nopony will dare challenge me again! I will rule everything; I will be the Princess—no… no… I will be something else; something more! Something new!”
She is just as easy to manipulate as Trixie was… the amulet is messing with her mind. Though I doubt I can pull the same trick twice and get her to remove it.
You mean it is interfering with her everything… such an artefact was locked away for a reason. Clearly her desire for vengeance and status has been amplified to an almost maddening degree.
Which is precisely why I am going to use that against her.
Lightning Dust lifted her eyes up to the sky, grinning maniacally as they became wide, her wings erect. “I will become Equestria’s one true Queen! Nopony will ever be able to deny me ever again!”
With a jerk of her head, Twilight reared up and plunged her horn into the side of Lightning Dust’s face, angling up through her muzzle until the tip resided within her left eye socket, rupturing the eye and causing the mare to fall backwards onto the ground screaming.
“M-MY EYE!” Lightning Dust howled as she held her hooves over her wounded face, thrashing violently on the ground as Twilight Sparkle summoned what little magic remained within her reserves to teleport herself in front of her two wounded friends.
“Th-there’s no time…” Twilight wheezed as she clenched her eyes shut, an aura consuming all three ponies.
“That has got to hurt.” Rainbow Dash made a face as she observed her agonized rival still rolling around on the floor. “So what now? We run?”
“Th’ mule deserved worse.” Applejack muttered, though far more concerned with Twilight’s injuries. “Twi’, are you gonna be okay?”
“We’ve got to get out of here and get you to a hospi—” Rainbow Dash did not have time to complete her sentence. One moment the cyan mare was there and then with a dazzling flash of lavender, and then the next, she was gone.
Twilight opened her eyes as she looked upon her remaining friend sadly, trying her best to smile, even as blood drooled past her lips. “I’ve teleported Rainbow deep into the Everfree… I’ll send you there too. Go to Zecora’s, a-as quickly as you can… b-before it gets too dark.”
Applejack did not take kindly to those words. Quickly, she shook her head, wincing as she took a few steps forward. “What are ya’ll sayin’ sugar? W-we’re gonna get out of ‘ere together, right?”
“T-tell the other girls I… I’ll always remember them… a-and…” Falling back onto her haunches, Twilight’s half-lidded eyes blinked, her only working eye releasing a stream of tears, sobbing weakly. “I-I’ll miss you… I don’t have enough energy to teleport us all away… just two of us…”
“No...” Applejack limped forward, her own tears falling. “Y-you can’t do that! Ah w-won’t allow it! Teleport yourself, sugar! Ah’ll stay behind! Ah won’t let you sacrifice yaself; let me stay behind!”
Twilight Sparkle shook her head. “I-I’ll never rest peacefully knowing I couldn’t d-do all that I could for my friends… y-you have a family to live for that d-depend on you. Goodbye, Applejack.”
Grief stricken, Applejack lifted a hoof to touch Twilight’s cheek. “Don’ do this! Please! W-we can make it out together! Ah love y—”
Applejack was gone in one final brilliance of lavender as Twilight’s horn dimmed, her body falling back to lie upon the grass as she moved a hoof to rest against the wound in her abdomen, pressing it as tight as she could with a pained hiss, as if it would stop her life from ending.
Through all the pain she had experienced up until now, Twilight finally felt numb to the world with only Lightning Dust’s agonized howls as a cruel backdrop to her oncoming oblivion.
A cold feeling trickled along her limbs as her eyelids closed; her mind wandered to a far more pleasant time in her life, with her friends around her, laughing and smiling. With Celestia at her side wearing the most loving of features she had hoped to one day witness upon the mare’s face.
“I… I love you, P-Princess.” Twilight whispered solemnly, spluttering blood. “I’m… coming to see you… I-I’m sorry, I… I’m late…”
With one final wheezed breath, she was finally at peace.
Her heart stopped.
_____________________
“NO! NO! LET GO OF ME!” Applejack thrashed against Rainbow Dash, her face screwed up into a desperation and despair she had only ever experienced once before. The death of her parents was a kind of feeling she could not quite explain, an agony of loss that forced a young mare to grow up far too quickly. But this? This was something completely different.
Applejack had accepted the passing of her parents, for she had seen their bodies sleeping peacefully within their coffins with her own eyes.
However, as far as she was concerned, Twilight Sparkle was alive.
She had to be.
“AH HAVE TO GO BACK! AH CAN STILL SAVE HER!”
Rainbow Dash kept her arms locked around Applejack’s neck, weighing her down against the ground as the mare struggled to get to her hooves. The cyan mare had no words of solace. She had realized what had happened the moment Applejack had arrived in such a state.
“Sh-she’s gone, Applejack!” Rainbow Dash sobbed, clinging tighter against Applejack as she buried her face in the mare’s mane. “S-she’s gone!”
Turning her body and ignoring the pain her broken leg wrought, Applejack shook her head from side to side as she smacked a hoof down against the top of Rainbow Dash’s head. “LET GO!”
The strikes against her were weak and feeble and those were attributes Rainbow Dash would never associate with Applejack. If it was not for her injuries, she was sure the mare would have run all the way back to Twilight, and Rainbow Dash would have been completely unable to stop her.
Rainbow Dash was not sure if she was thankful that Applejack’s blows barely registered, because at this point she wanted something—anything to hit her with enough force to wake her from this terrible dream, where two of her best friends had been cruelly taken from this world before their time.
Lifting up her gaze from Applejack’s mane as the mare slowed against her restraint, Rainbow Dash nuzzled her face into the crook of Applejack’s neck. “Oh… Fluttershy… Twilight,” she muttered, “how… why?”
“Ah-Ah loved her… Ah… Ah loved her…” Applejack wept. “Ah loved h-her an A-Ah abandoned her…”
“It’s… it’s not your fault, Applejack. Twilight she... she saved us.”
“Ah couldn’t do any—”
“Nopony could do a thing, Applejack. I couldn’t do anything… no matter how strong you were, or how quick I was… i-it didn’t matter because, Lightning Dust she was… she was stronger than us. That amulet… that damn, cursed amulet!”
Rainbow Dash released herself from Applejack and pushed herself to her hooves, wiping her eyes as she steeled her nerves. The Everfree Forest was bad enough as it is, but at night? Rainbow Dash did not want to even think about that.
They had to move.
“W-we have to get to Zecora’s. We’re in the Everfree by the looks of it, so we should eventually run into her hut if we keep walking. It’s safer than being in the middle of nowhere.”
Applejack simply stared into space.
“Come on, Applejack… w-we have to go,” Rainbow Dash curled an arm around the earth pony’s waist, attempting to drag the mare to her hooves, “come on, I’ll help you. We got to move before the wolves find us.”
“Ah… can’t…” Applejack’s voice cracked, her teeth gnawing at her bottom, quivering lip.
“You can!” Rainbow Dash snapped a little harsher than she had intended. “We are going to find Zecora’s hut and we are going to get ourselves patched up.”
“Th-then what…?” Applejack drew her helpless emerald eyes upon the cyan mare. “What’s the point? Fluttershy… and now Twilight...”
“We… I mean... I don’t know,” Rainbow Dash replied gently, her voice breaking into a sob, “I-I just don’t know.”
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Fuck you typos.
Corrected.
Oh. My. God.
MP, I have absolutely no words for this chapter. Other than......wow. Just...wow.
Poor AJ. She really is (was?) in love with Twilight, isn't she?
And you did kill Twilight. Well...damn.
5891652 Ah, yes, typos. The curse of all authors.
My sympathies, hon.
Damn, that chapter got depressing quick, though I am glad LD got what was coming to her.
5891652
I love dis.
Love it so much.
Now I'm going to pester you about many things...
To quote a league of legend character :"Death is only the beginning"
Plus , studies prove that a character who came back from death is 50 percent more violent , badass and cynical , so that's all good.
It's alive! *Squee*
You have all my yush.
The sad part is, this update took you so long i conpletly forgot what this story is about, now i have to re-read it all over agian for the new chapter to make sense.
5891665 I did indeed. To be honest, it wasn't my favorite chapter to write for, but I am glad you liked it.
5891988 Someone has to love it! And pester me? If you can get a hold of me, that is. Goddamn work.
5892158 Only 50%?! Mmmmmmmmmm...
5892367 I am alive! A shame that somepony else is not... *Weep*
5893017 For that I apologize, but getting into the "groove" of writing this thing was kind of hard to do. Sorry! Some times I just can't bring out the words for certain stories if I am not in the correct frame of mind.
Oh god yes! Sweet DSM update! This chapter is great and I can't wait to see what happens next!
Ouch. Well, look on the bright side, Lightning, now you get to wear a cool evil grimdark universe eyepatch.
Bah. 3:1 Lightning Dust defibrillates her so she can poke her eyes out. 5:1 Twilight becomes a necromancer. 10:1 Luna actually does show up. 30:1 it's all been a hallucination Twilight's having in the hospital from the assassination. 50:1 "her" meant Lightning and not Twilight. 500:1 the story's actually done and we've all been on a ruse cruise through the Caribbean.
5893073 Yup, ya did. And as much as I hated to see it happen (on account of poor AJ), sometimes this type of thing is necessary to move the story along.
And honestly, I've seen other stories where Twilight died (The Assassination of Twilight Sparkle, and its sequel, Aftermath of a Fallen Star by Rated Ponystar, being two of the best, imho). And while it does wrench the heart (especially if you're a serious Twilight fan), sometimes, as I said, it's necessary to move the story along.
Still, that said, my heart aches for her remaining friends, and most especially, for poor Applejack.
To lose your heart's love like that. It's horrible.
I'm wondering, though, if this isn't another of the red herrings that you're so masterfully adroit at throwing at us in your stories.
Probably not, so it's just a guess/supposition on my part there.
Anyway, onward with my comments:
Oh, really? Why's that?
Indeed I did (even though I was blubbering like a baby when I read it last night).
And I can't wait to see what you have in store for Twi's friends...and by extension, us...next.
Next chapter soon!
Please?
One more thing: am I alone in hoping that whoever is behind all this (Luna, or whoever) eventually gets what's coming to them at the end of this story, and this mess?
My god I only just found this story and it's amazing. I read this in one sitting. I never do that.
10/10, can't wait for more.
I had totally forgotten about this story. Awesome resurrection.
5893986
I hope Twi eats all their souls.
All of them.
...
Okay, maybe not all of them, but definitely the princesses/ponies/non-pony beings that are responsible for Fluttershy and Twi's death. You only get to die once, you know, and that looked like a far from pleasant experience.
5894988 Love that song.
5893125 Working on the next.
5894284 Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it
5893986 Something bout it that urks me.
5893318 Happy to see you didn't actually abandon the story!
5895548
That was a joke. Hence the hyperbolic "reported, downvoted, etc." It's quite common joke on Youtube when someone in a video does something incredibly minor (you forgot to reload in time? Downvoted, reported, and, unsubscribed!) as a way to parody the overzealous commentators.
5895505 You and me both, friend.
5895548 Oh, okay. I'll take that.
5895758 AH. I see! Lol. I avoid the youtube comment box as if I would catch the Bubonic Plague if I even looked at it. Lol. I feel suddenly very silly.
5895548 It seemed fitting, considering.
Eye socket rupturing is always fun.
What's the status of the next chapter?
6132086 One week from now.
So I'm guessing someone is trying to weaponize Twilight for some reason, perhaps in order to eliminate Luna as well.
When and how did Rainbow learn about Fluttershy?
About time I got around to finishing this.
Then back to masturbating.