• Published 16th Apr 2012
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Son of Eternity - Secrets and Lies



The life and legend of a naive and reluctant immortal in a new, beautiful world.

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A frosty, moonless night arrived silently into Equestria. The frigid wind stirred the clouds above which looked more like ink blots tattered across the sky. It was a starry night and the heavens shimmered and shined above, showing off their celestial beauty to whomever took the time to look up and admire them. Canterlot was asleep early, no pony wanted to be out in this darkened hour with a cold front like this blowing through. They were nestled inside their cottages and houses, snuggled up next to fires and under quilts. The busy town was finally at rest and those who worked during the day fell asleep the fastest.

Everything was calm, everything was quiet, but everything wasn’t right. Alone flew a silhouette of a small pegasus, flying abnormally fast for its size. Pegasus ponies weren’t suppose to fly at night; it wasn’t a law that was forced on them, but it was certainly frowned upon. It was dangerous to fly at night nonetheless. The dark figure soared silently above and around Canterlot, descending somewhere around the city’s outskirts.

The figure landed with a halting flap of its wings on the dew blanketed grass. The pegasus had arrived at a large, gated graveyard whose entrance was labeled by old, iron typography. It read, “The Necropolis of the First Royal Guardians”. The short statured pegasus pony began walking through the cemetery, admiring each headstone as she passed by. This strange equine was Pinkie Pie, or was once Pinkie Pie. She had taken the shape of an alicorn from taking a bite from an enchanted apple given to her by Starswirl’s Spirit. Starswirl himself now resided inside of her and controlled her like a puppet. Pinkie was still deep inside, but her mind was trapped in a mental cage which seemed like a dark pit to her–unable to break free, unable to escape. To her, it was dim and inescapable, she could see through her eyes if she wanted to, but she didn’t for a long time; too afraid to see what her body was doing without her control. So she lay dormant, her pity and failure tightly griping her heart. The possessed Pinkie Pie, who was more like Starswirl than herself at the moment, took in a deep breath. The crisp night air entering and exiting his new lungs.

He opened his eyes and talked as if someone was there listening to him, “I had forgotten the feeling of fresh air... I forgot the feeling of the grass when it touches my hooves... It’s good to be back in reality.”

He raised his alicorn horn high and it began to glow bright and blue, illuminating the graveyard. Dark storm clouds, as if from no where, rolled in over the mountains and above Canterlot. They glided swiftly and silently above while a blanket of fog began to flood the city. No one took notice of this, not yet. A mass of black clouds swirled above the graveyard and out from the heart of the whirl, a flash of green lightning crawled across the sky and connected to the alicorn’s horn. It stayed attached to the unicorn horn and the unnatural, green blaze shook the town from its sheer power. The Royal Guards atop Canterlot Castle’s walls looked towards the graveyard’s direction in utter shock. They couldn’t see the necropolis, it was on the other side of the city, but they could feel the shaking beneath their hooves.

This all happened for only a long moment, and then the lighting dissipated. Once it had vanished away, Starswirl lowered his head and out shot a small chain of emerald lightning throughout the yard, connecting with the headstones. The tombstones glowed with a phantasmic, green aura before the veil of electricity and magic sank beneath the soil.

Starswirl raised his head once more and laughed in a twisted and demonic Pinkie Pie voice, “It has been far too long, my warriors!”

At the foot of the graves, boned hooves clawed themselves out of the ground. They dug their way out to reveal their true forms. The soldiers of the first Royal Guard had been brought back into life as the living dead. Each was boned and adorned in decayed armor and weapons. There were all sorts of different types of guards, arranging from unicorns, pegasi and earth ponies. Their eyes glowed like emerald embers, giving off black smoke and burning into the night. The fifty aligned themselves in front of the bewitched filly as more arose from the ground in the distance; one stood out from the rest, a large earth pony with thick armor. He stood two head’s taller than Celestia and wielded a hammer larger than a regular earth pony. Starswirl approached the massive individual with a sneer across his filly face.

The large zombie pony spoke with a voice like scrapping gravel, “We sense you, Starswirl, conductor of the first brigade. Though your body is trapped inside this alicorn, we three hundred serve you still beyond death.”

“That is good to hear, Berick the Berserker. Follow me, we have much work to do.” Berick turned and threw his large and mighty hoof up into the air and the rest of his army did the same. The screams of the dead filled the brisk air with terror.

The shadows of the town cloaked their approach towards the castle, though they did not care if they were seen or not as they marched through the center of the city. The undead soldier’s beating march filled the dark town as Starswirl lead the army. Spotted ahead of the approaching forces, a small unit of Royal Guards came around the corner on their nightly patrol, unaware of the dangers near by. They stopped in their tracks in sudden terror seeing the strange and intimidating army proceeding slowly ahead. They soon focused on their duties and pointed their spears directly at Berick and not the possessed filly next to him. The alicorn’s horn glowed brightly and shot a beam of light at the closest guard. The beam seemed to burn right through the guard and the pony’s body disintegrated into flakes of blue and black ash. Before the other guards could react, Starswirl shot five more darts of light through them, dissolving the guards into soot. They proceeded onward without further delay.

They finally reached the entrance of the castle; guards surrounded the walls, they knew something wasn’t right and were prepared for whatever was coming their way. They saw the approaching army coming and Shining Armor stepped forward above the entrance to the castle wall.

“You may not proceed any further,” he shouted, but the armies of the dead and the alicorn marched closer as if there were no obstacles in front of them. “This is your last warning! Halt in the name of Celestia or we will attack!”

Starswirl turned towards Berick as they marched, “I need a distraction. Kill all that stand in your way.”

“Death has no bounds on us. We serve you with no end, my King.”

Starswirl’s horn gleamed with light and a ball of energy rocketed forward, demolishing the iron entrance with a great, magical explosion. The Royal Guards atop the wall flew in every direction into the court yards behind them as the armies of the dead rushed forward, screaming into the night. Starswirl teleported in a second before the explosion and Berick charged forward to begin his famed onslaught once more.

__________

The interior of the castle was rather quiet at the moment. Princess Celestia and Twilight Sparkle were having a late night lesson before heading off to bed in the throne room. On the other half of the room, Zack, Spike, and Celestia’s pet phoenix, Philomena, were passing a rubber ball three way. Zack was trying to read the latest installment of ‘Daring Do’ while glancing over at Spike, making sure he didn’t swallow the ball they were passing to each other. Spike would giggle and spit up a few green flames while rolling the ball as hard as he could at Zack, which wasn’t very hard or fast for a toddler dragon. Zack would then grab the ball and roll it towards Philomena, who would chirp and squawk in joy, grab the ball in her beak and lightly bounce it back towards Spike.

Sometimes she would get too excited and accidentally light the ball on fire; Zack would then have to get up and put out the flame. This happened quite frequently, so he had a bucket of water close by he could sprinkle the fireball wet. He would then have to go to the play bin and grab another rubber ball. This was pretty routine by now and was doing his job of watching the two trouble makers in the castle while Celestia taught Twilight. He couldn’t wait till Cadence got back from her vacation in Manehattan so that he could stop this babysitting business. Zack was bored out of his mind, but had nothing better to do at this hour anyways.

Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a green flash light as if from a lightning strike near by. He lowered his book and stood up to approach the window from where he thought he saw the flash from. The new rubber ball Spike had passed rolled passed the uncaring Zack and had broken Twilight’s concentration.

Celestia then looked over at Zack from across the room and asked, “What is it?”

Zack placed his hands up against the glass and replied, “I thought I saw lightning outside.”

Twilight turned, looked up at Celestia and questioned, “Didn’t the Weather Pegasi plan tonight to be a clear?”

The two looked out of the throne room windows over the broad and dark Equestrian countryside. Blackened clouds swirled above in a storm threatening manner. No strong gusts, rain, lighting or thunder came with the evil looking clouds, just its presence soared high and mischievously; which at first confused Celestia, but then a sudden horror befell her mind.

“What’s wrong, Miss Celestia,” asked Twilight with a tremble of uncertainty. Zack picked up Spike and walked over to the other ponies. Philomena swooped up and perched herself on Zack’s shoulder; she tried to nibble at Zack’s ear, but he turned and swatted at her.

“Get off me, Phil! Bad bird! Bad,” Zack denounced in a stern tone as the red bird flew off his shoulder and onto Celestia’s back.

Celestia turned towards her student and replied, “Twilight, tonight you will sleep in my bedroom. Go upstairs with Spike and Philomena and lock the door behind you. Don’t let anyone in unless you hear my voice.” Zack was caught off guard by this response as Twilight appeared to have a worried look on her face.

The purple unicorn implored, “What’s happening? What’s going on?”

She bent down with a smile on her face, “Please, just listen to me and do what I say. It’s going to be okay, I just have to have a little chat with an old friend, alone.”

Twilight’s expression changed to a certain satisfaction and complied. Zack sat Spike on her back and Philomena flew next to Twilight as she proceeded out of the room. Zack turned to look out the window again and into the dismal clouds outside.

He looked at Celestia and asked, “Those aren’t normal clouds, are they?

“Not at all... Go get The Ethereal Sabatons.”

Zack hurried out of the room with his mind racing once more. He had no idea what was happening or what was going to happen, but he followed Celestia’s orders and slipped the magical artifacts on his feet. Zack came back into the throne room where Celestia was and came to a standstill. Zack tried to find out what was going on.

“Can you please tell me what is about to happen?” She lowered her head and sighed.

She then returned her gaze up at Zack and replied, “Those clouds... they're from a spell that was suppose to be long forgotten. No unicorn knows it... that is, only one, the maker of the spe–”

The sound of an explosion shook the citadel, breaking Celestia's sentence. Something bad had happened, Zack was sure of it. Dust fell from the high ceilings of the room and sounds of screams and clashing metal could be heard in the distance.

“What was that,” cried Celestia.

“I’m not sure, but whatever it was, it wasn’t good. Let’s go!” As the two began to make their way towards the exit of the Throne Room, a voice overtook their attention from behind them.

“Not-so-fast...” The two turned to see Pinkie Pie slouching on Celestia’s throne. With her alicorn wings spread out, she gave a rakish look directed at Celestia.

“P-Pinkie Pie,” Zack yawped and stammered in disbelief. “What happen–, What are y–” Celestia spread her wing out in front of Zack to stop his approach towards the pink alicorn.

She turned her head towards him and said in a grave tone, “That’s... not... Pinkie Pie... ”

Zack looked back up at his pink friend. He could then tell besides the new, small alicorn body that her eyes burned with a yellow intensity.

The alicorn spoke with a twisted voice, “I’m glad someone here has the brains to see the real me through this foal’s body.” He turned his attention towards Zack, “What’s this? A new pet for Celestia to play with? How... interesting you are.” Zack stepped forward, even when Celestia had tried to stop him.

“What have you done to Pinkie Pie,” he demanded.

The alicorn smirked, “Oh, you know this filly? It’s a shame I had to use such a bright and happy pony such as this one to do my bidding. But the power she possesses, the raw energy and stamina I can exert from this tiny body, it is truly unbelievable.”

The alicorn floated in the air above the throne, holding his hooves in front of him, “To think an Element of Harmony would walk into the Mirror and release me from that prison. Oh, how fate has smiled upon me.”

Hearing that Pinkie Pie was an Element of Harmony would have surprised Zack, but his attention and his inability to believe what he was seeing at the moment made his astonishment sweep past him. Though Zack had came to another revelation. The Mirror he mentioned, the journal he read a few months ago, the pieces of the puzzle were coming together; Pinkie Pie was possessed by Starswirl the Bearded and he was back to claim his throne once more.

Starswirl saw the twinkle of insight in Zack’s eyes and commented, “You understand now, don’t you? You know who I am. You’ve heard of me.”

He hovered down in front of Celestia and drastically pointed a hoof in front of her face, “You! How come you didn’t look for me? I thought you loved me! While I was looking for immortality, you happened to never search for me? How could you?”

“We tried, Starswirl! We tried looking in the Mirror, but it appeared disenchanted... Then a few years later, the castle was raided and the mirror was gone–”

“You didn’t find my journal,” Starswirl shouted, irked and disbelieving.

“I couldn’t bare to bring back old feelings of you. My heart couldn’t take it, so I never looked in the Starswirl Wing of the library. I couldn’t enter that building for the life of me.” Celestia began to tear up while Starswirl’s anger boiled.

Zack stepped towards Starswirl once more in a threatening manner, “You better have not harmed Pinkie Pie you sorry piece of–” Zack was immediately thrown back by a blast of magical energy similar to the bolts of magic Starswirl used on the guards that disintegrated them. He slid across the tile floor lifelessly as Celestia gasped.

Starswirl chuckled, “Foolish creature... do you not know who your King is?” Starswirl’s eyes widened as he saw Zack slowly stand back up as if he wasn’t affected at all.

Zack laughed, “Is that the best you got?”

The alicorn couldn’t believe what he saw; and for a while, Celestia was speechless as well. Then she remembered from early studies of Zack, his body was different and that being from another dimension, he was unaffected by magic in this Universe.

Starswirl could now see that Zack was different and said aloud, “My my, you are special... I can now sense you are different than the rest of us... an energy field surrounds you.” He assured in a careless tone, “No matter, I don’t need to use energy magic to stop you for now... by the way, I see Celestia let you borrow my sabatons.”

His horn glowed with a sapphire tint and he shot a beam of magic directly at Zack’s sabatons. When the ray of magic hit his feet, a shell of thick ice crawled its way up Zack quickly. He tried to escape, but it was too late. His body was encased in a layer of ice and only his head was left unfrozen.

Celestia turned and her horn shined with a golden aura, ready to attack Starswirl. Starswirl merely glanced over at Celestia as if he thought of her as no threat and looked back towards Zack.

“I want you to watch as I annihilate your Princess... and I, being a merciful King, will gladly show her death when she begs for it.” He rotated in the air and his horn glowed as brightly as hers, ready to defend himself.

“I’ve had a lot of time to think to myself,” Starswirl said, his confident tone turned somber. “And I no longer love you, my dear. So you must be brought to an end.”

Zack yelled out, “Pinkie Pie! I know you’re still in there! Fight him! You can break free!” Deep inside the possessed alicorn, Pinkie did hear Zack and tried to speak and get herself known as hard as she could.

The pink filly blurted through the possessed body for a split second, “I’m trying, Zack! I’m trying!” This surprised everyone, even Starswirl. He pulsated a magical energy field around his form and it sealed Pinkie Pie deep back inside the alicorn body once more.

Hm,” Starswirl raised an eyebrow at Zack. “It seems I’ve underestimated her own will power... I’ll have to use a portion of my own magic to keep her inside still. Don’t think that this will weaken me drastically, I could still take control of Celestia... Watch me!”

He rapidly turned towards her and shot a beam of blue energy directly at her. Celestia reacted mere seconds before the beam was about to strike her; she shot a similar, yellow beam to deflect the magical attack from Starswirl. The magical streams of energy collided and each held back the other. Celestia focused intently on trying to overpower her foe and Starswirl did the same. The beams of magic created chains of lighting that connected to the ground, pillars, walls and ceilings of the castle, destroying chunks of tile and plaster. Sparks flew in every direction from the epicenter of the magical attacks.

Celestia broke free from the beam and Starswirl’s attack struck the throne behind her, obliterating it into rubble. Starswirl flapped his wings and sprung into the air. He created a swirling orb of purple energy at the tip of his horn and flung it at Celestia. She used her wings to boost her out of the way of the attack which zinged past her, out of the window and exploded on a distant hillside into a purple and red eruption. Celestia landed firmly and using her magic, pulled a large crystal shard out from underneath the castle floor; she broke it apart into tiny, sharp shards and fired them like shower of bullets at the pink alicorn. Starswirl raised his hoof and created a limpid shield of magic in front of him and as the shards passed through the veil, they turned into bits of sand around him.

He levitated the sand around him, lit them on fire and turned them into pieces of glass. He copied the same maneuver Celestia had done and she had to think of a counter attack quickly. She focused her magic and a gush of water from the fountain in the Royal Garden bursts through one of the stain glass windows. The water blanketed around her just in time and the glass shards stopped inside the layer of levitating liquid. Starswirl shot up into the air and held his hooves in front of him; he created two balls of levitating blue fire above his hooves and continually shot at open spots in Celestia’s water armor. As he flew around her and shot fireball after fireball, Celestia had to move around in her water vehicle as well, deflecting the blows. With each attack, she lost some water which turned into steam. The steam began to fill the room with a thick, white haze as the two continued to bout. Starswirl took in one large breath and like a dragon, breathed a startling explosion of fire. The water shield Celestia had created completely evaporated into steam and now the room was flooded in a mist.

Zack could no longer see what was going on, but could feel the ice around him melting. He tried once more to escape, but he stopped when a magical field enveloped around the ice and began levitating him upward. He was flung across the throne room and into the disorienting steam. He opened his eyes and saw that he was about to collide with Princess Celestia, she immediately grabbed Zack with her own magic aura in midair and held him in front of her.

She panted, “Sorry,” and flung Zack back to where he was. Once he hit the ground, the ice broke around him and his body rolled on the floor until he came to a halt.

The steam had exited the windows and Starswirl was dodging multiple attacks from Celestia. She was using the Castle’s tile floor to her advantage as she picked each one up, spun them in the air and hurled them at her opponent. Starswirl was eventually struck in the head, but little damage was done; though this was the first hit either of them did on each other. Starswirl refocused his magic and shot a bolt of energy at the base of a large, ivory pillar. A cloud of dust blanketed the base of the column and charging up his alicorn horn, he sliced the pillar into five layers. He pushed each, large slice of marble towards Celestia while she tried to maneuver around the large flying objects.

She cornered herself inside the throne room and saw that she had no where to turn to avoid the final layer of cut marble from the pillar. She raised her head high and as the piece of the pillar collided with her, she head-butted the stone, shattering it into a cloud of rubble and gray dust. Before she could recuperate, Starswirl flew through the cloud of smoke and punched Celestia in the jaw, sending her sliding across the damaged floor. Starswirl followed his rival and as she quickly looked up, the filly alicorn kicked her once more across the face, sending her to the other side of the broken floor again. He tried to pull off another attack in his chain of combos, but as he closed in on Celestia, she emitted a burst of golden light which halted his flight towards her. He was blinded by the light and he shielded his eyes.

While he was blinded, Celestia’s mane spread through the torrent of light and wrapped around Starswirl. She pulled him closer and slammed him again and again against the floor, creating a crater to where his body kept hitting the ground. Zack could only hope that this wouldn’t effect Pinkie’s body in anyway and if this was the best approach to saving her.

After several more poundings into the floor of the throne room, Celestia tossed him aside and into another pillar. The filly flew through the column as if it wasn’t even there, creating a hole in the marble structure. Celestia tried to catch her breath, she was running out of energy quickly and didn’t know how much longer she could keep this up. From the smoke emerged an enraged Starswirl. The frizzy hair of Pinkie's mane was mangled as bits of rocks and dust were found stuck inside of it. Her body was bruised pretty badly; her pink coat now showed purple and black bruises. She stood on her two hind legs, breathing heavily; still though, her eyes burned with a yellow tint through the ruin and smoke of the castle.

He pointed a hoof at Celestia and shouted, “You want to play rough? I’ll show you magic! I’ll make you wish you would have died sooner!”

His horn sparked furiously as bolts of blue and white lightning ricocheted off of their surroundings. The streaks of electricity flashed and filled the room with vibrant colors. A large stream of fire twisted around and enveloped the filly; the flames began to spread throughout the base of the room. From the pool of fire emerged a creature of flame, whose eyes burned yellow like his. The creature took the form of a large dragon and its roar shook the castle’s foundations. Celestia stepped back, terrified of what Starswirl had created. The dragon stepped forward, its body of flames filled the room with intense and painful heat. With each footstep it left smoldering, black prints in the tile floor. The dragon was almost as big as the room–its enormity pushed Celestia to the edge and almost out into the open air. The broken stain glass behind her was a drop off into the valley below. She didn’t know if she could fly away safely or not, she was so tired and weak from fighting that she didn’t know what to do. She focused the remaining energy inside of her and her horn glowed vibrantly yellow once more. The dragon took in a deep breath and blasted a stream of flames powerful enough to melt the castle walls. Celestia’s eyes flashed and a supreme beam of energy Zack had never seen her use yet flared from her alicorn horn. The beam imploded the oncoming burst of fire and struck the fire dragon’s head. It gave a loud, eardrum bursting scream of agony as it fell and filled the castle with a wave of black smoke. Celestia fell to her knees and then over to her side; Zack rushed over to her aid her.

He knelt down and shook her vigorously, “Celestia! Wake up! Princess Celestia!”

Out of the tar colored smoke arose Starswirl, heartily laughing; it was hard for Zack to panic or be afraid when he could only see his pink friend and not the monster that possessed her. He stepped in front of Celestia with his arms spread, trying to protect her from whatever Starswirl might do next.

He looked over at Zack and snickered, “Your Princess has failed you... Your friends have failed you... And you will fail.”

__________

The battle on the front courts of the castle engaged onward into the night. The war horn had been sounded and the Royal Guards awoke from their slumber to aid their allies in combat. The undead were trained very well; being the first of the Royal Guards themselves, they knew many tactics the current Royal Guard knew as well. It was especially hard to kill a zombie pony, they would refigure themselves even when they were decapitated or unable to move. After many casualties, the Guards realized that they had to eventually stomp and crush the bones so that their enemy ponies wouldn't put themselves back together.

The Royal Guards were running out of room in the court yard as the armies of the undead advanced. Shining Armor tried his best to fend off the greater skilled enemies and he was doing a great job he thought; but then one stood out from the invading forces and faced Shining Armor. A large, undead and heavily armored earth pony came charging towards the Captain of the Guard. At that moment, he wished Valiant Steed was there to fight him instead of himself. He was a decent warrior, but Valiant was the best the Royal Guard had to offer.

Berick the Berserker raised his hammer high and Shining Armor jumped out of the way. The hammer left a sizable indention in the ground at his feet. Berick turned and bucked Shining Armor, sending his body flying against the castle, cracking the stone wall behind him. Berick charged head first and rammed Shining Armor into the castle interior, the unicorn’s body smashed into a carved oak table as old as Canterlot itself.

Berick picked up his hammer and raised it above his head to smite Shining. The colt focused his magic and created a purple shield which deflected the blow, but shattered the makeshift shield in the process. Berick retaliated and flung his hammer down once more to be deflected again by the magic shields the unicorn kept creating. This went on and on as Berick continually stepped forward, trying to pin his foe against the wall.

Shining Armor was running out of strength as he found himself now against the wall as his enemy had planned. He looked up at the undead being as Berick snickered with delight. Shining Armor was desperate and needed to come up with an idea fast. He saw the broken table behind him and levitated it. Berick raised his hammer once more, but Shining slammed the thick, broken oak table behind him, knocking his grip on the hammer, which fell behind him with a thud. Shining Armor took his chance when he saw the opening. He ran underneath the giant’s legs and levitated the hammer next to him. Even when the colt used his magic to float the hammer in the air, it took much strength to do so. Berick turned and roared at Shining Armor, who spun the hammer rapidly before him. Berick charged and the unicorn swung his hammer, clocking Berick and sending him on the ground. With one final push of stamina, Shining Armor raised the hammer and crushed Berick’s skull into dust and bits of bone.

He dropped the hammer and as soon as he did, he heard a loud explosion coming from the throne room of the castle. Something was happening in the throne room and he raced to see what was going on.

__________

Starswirl slowly but surely approached Zack as he stood his ground. Zack was having a hard time figuring out if Starswirl was even phased by the amount of damage he had taken from Celestia. Even if he was injured, he was doing a great job at concealing it as he walked nearer.

“Don’t come any closer,” Zack commanded, thinking that maybe Starswirl would listen, but he just smiled as if he had made a baby laugh.

“I would like to see you stop me.” He fluttered in front of Zack at eye level, flapping his pink alicorn wings with a sly look upon his face. “Go ahead,” he insisted while tapping his face with one of his hooves, “attack me.” He knew Zack wouldn’t do it because he had feelings for the filly that Starswirl possessed. Zack knew this as well and didn’t move at all; his gaze was interlocked into those yellow, glowing eyes.

The alicorn shook his head and censured, “Your petty love for these creatures will be your downfall. I sense your power. It is amazing, truly. Once I have taken the throne, I will no longer use this body I have weakened, but I will use yours, for I feel eternity alive inside you.” He looked up at Zack, “Do you know how long I have been waiting for this?” He didn’t know what Starswirl was talking about, but stood silently with his arms still wide.

Starswirl demanded, “Stand aside, worm,” but Zack puffed out his chest and stood firmly in the way between Starswirl and the weakened Celestia. His horn began to glow brightly and he whispered, “So be it.”

Before Starswirl could attack Zack, a magic, purple sphere enveloped Zack and Celestia. He had no idea what was going on until he looked behind the filly alicorn to see Shining Armor mustering the last of his strength to create a shield around the two.

Starswirl turned to see the unicorn and complimented, “Is this your creation? I have to say, you did a fine job on this spell, young one.” Shining Armor just huffed through his snout and was ready to attack Starswirl. The alicorn saw this and charged another beam to fire at the colt. The unicorn created a small shield just in time to counteract the magic, blue disintegration beam, which exploded on impact with the magical barrier, hurling Shining Armor against the Throne Room wall. Zack knew he had time to do something and that Shining Armor didn’t create this shield for nothing, so he tried his hardest to communicate with Pinkie Pie.

He yelled, “Pinkie Pie! You can do it! You can break free! I believe in you!”

Starswirl had let his guard down and an outburst from the trapped Pinkie yelled back, “I’ve tried and I just can’t do it, I’m not strong like you are!”

Starswirl shook his head vigorously and shouted back, “Shut up! Silence, you imbecile! You have lost this fight!”

Zack ignored Starswirl and continued, “Listen to me! You have the power, just believe in your own strength!”

Deep inside of Pinkie’s body, her mind was still trapped in that dark pit Starswirl had thrown her into. She had tried so hard before to break free, but just couldn’t. She had given up hope, but after hearing Zack’s voice and realizing all that she had done to help him so far while in Equestria, her hope sky rocketed once more. With unforeseen strength, she began climbing out of the chasm. Starswirl could feel this and was trying his hardest to hold her back with his magic. She was struggling, but she continued upward; she aimed for the light at the top of the hole she had been thrown in and concentrated as hard as she could in every limb of her mental body to pull herself up. She had never fought so hard for something in her life, and it horrified Starswirl that he was failing.

He looked back at Zack and with a burst of magic destroyed the barrier, sending Zack and Celestia flying out of the far Throne Room window and into the valley. Zack was falling quickly toward his death and didn’t know what to do. His body whirled around in the air as he tried his hardest to stabilize himself, but just couldn’t do it. He then felt something grab his shoulders and he looked up to see Celestia with her strength back. She flung him around and onto her back as she flapped back up toward’s the castle.

Starswirl thought he had killed the two and laughed at first, then came to a sudden realization. He first wanted to become immortal not for the throne, but to stay with his lover, forever. He knelt down in the ruin of the castle Throne Room and began to sob.

“No... What have I done... My... my Celestia is gone... forever...”

He felt Pinkie Pie almost emerging from the pit he had thrown her in and held his head in agony, trying to hold her back with the remaining strength he had left. His outburst of emotions had let his power slip and Pinkie had almost taken control of her body again. He looked up and saw Zack and Celestia standing above him; his heart leapt for joy, but soon changed when he realized what situation he was in. Celestia magicked the filly’s body in the air and the body began to glow brightly. She seemed to be able to finally separate the two beings apart since Starswirl had lost most of his power. The immensity of the shining brightness filled the chamber and Starswirl finally gave up.

The body split in half and Pinkie Pie was restored, but her stamina was drained completely; she was on the verge of exhaustion as she collapsed to the floor. The other body that split from Pinkie was Starswirl himself in his younger form. Celestia was astonished, as was Zack. Starswirl didn’t attack them, but looked over his young body quickly, then looked back up at Celestia in amazement. The gray coated unicorn with black, curly hair took a step towards Celestia, but fell over. His mane and tail were slowly turning silver and his hooves and face began to wrinkle up. Time was finally catching up to him. Celestia bent down to Starswirl’s eye level and he looked up at her with tears in his eyes.

“I’m... sorry... Being trapped so long with yourself can sometimes delude your sense of why you even wanted to get away from the world. I know if I ask for forgiveness... I–, you can’t forgive me, I know. My actions are unforgivable and... I missed you... I missed you so much...”

Sadness overtook Celestia as she responded, “I forgive you, and I still love you... and always will. We’ll meet again soon, my Starswirl.”

He smiled back and the two ancient lovers nuzzled each other one last time. Parts of Starswirl’s body began fading like dust, and as he took one final breath, he concluded, “I will find you... in the Everlasting Lands... and we will be together... for eternity...”

With those final words, his body dissipated. The armies of the dead lost their magical life restoring energy and collapsed into piles of dust and bone in the court yards. The Royal Guards cheered and hollered in victory as they raised their weapons high in the rising morning sun. Shining Armor finally sat up and held his head in confusion as to what had just happened. The flood of morning light entered the Throne Room and strangely reflected off of the broken stain glass, filling the room with an odd color of arrangements. A warming morning air blew through and pushed away the dust and rubble as Zack walked over to the recovering Pinkie Pie.

She was sobbing quietly at first, but as soon as she sensed Zack close by, she wailed out, “I... I... I just wanted to be special! I didn’t want anyone to get hurt... I’m just so useless and my life is so stupid! Everything I do always ends up disappointing or hurting people’s feelings! I can’t do anything right!” She bent over and cried in Zack’s shoulder as he rubbed her back to pacify her. He pulled her out of his shoulder blade to make her look him in the eyes.

He tilted his head and said, “You are so special to me. You are one of a kind, my dear, sweet Pinkie Pie. I love you so much and you know that if anything was to ever happen to you, I would be heart broken. You don’t need pegasus wings or a unicorn horn to be special, you just need to be you. I love you just the way you are.”

He held her again, feeling the pressing warmth of her coat rub against him and her candy scented hair enter his nostrils. Zack loved Pinkie Pie more than life itself.

Author's Note:

Submitted September 2012 - Revised December 14th 2013