Cycles Never Change

by TheGreatEater

Rejection

When Twilight found the Holosieve it was by accident. She had been looking at the older section of the Royal Archives when she saw the book Theories and Practical Applications to the Diversified Unified Particle String of the Lambda Polynomial Matrix of Hyper Nodes in a Stable Geosynchronous Fractalized Ritual A book from it’s title alone was so dense and boring sounding that Twilight felt as if the eyes in her head would fall out and she would turn to stone on the spot.

But where others would turn away from the physical revulsion and raw boredom the book generated. Twilight felt an orgasmic glee at conquering the depths of the lofty tome. Just like an adventurer slaying a mighty dragon for it’s treasure, or a mountaineer dominating a dangerous mountain. Wedging the morsels of knowledge from a book that would have a high probability of slaying her peers from boredom, and proving that she bested it. Was something that always gave her an intellectual high.

Imagine her disappointment when the book turned out to be a secret lever, with a quick magic scan showed to be laced with boredom enchantments, and wards to cause physical and emotional aversion to those who looked at the key. With a sigh, she walked down the stairs that formed near her when the lever was activated and went to see if what was hidden was worth the large sense of disappointment she felt.

At the bottom of the staircase that felt like it took hours to travel down, even with her flying from time to time. She reached a dark, slightly moldy stone room. In the center was a crystal tablet, and surrounding it various doodads, and knickknacks of undesernable origin. While they were odd looking, the crystal tablet drew her in almost as if calling out to her.

And as she touched it, she felt herself pulled down into thousands of years of memories that she never wanted to see, and emotions that felt like tar dripping upon her soul. After she saw everything the tablet offered, she did the only thing she could think of before blacking out from shock. And that was to teleport her and the tablet home and tell the others.

Twilight swam through the thick swirling darkness of her dreamscape, as her mind started to analyze and put together the various ways that her past battles as an element bearer were won by sheer luck and just how easily her and her friends could’ve all died, or worse. Been enslaved or corrupted and enslaved by the various pieces of nightmare fuel they just barely defeated.

She saw their battle with Nightmare Moon, all it would’ve taken was her sending an updraft catching the pegasi off guard for a split second, or them not being as luck as they were when facing an apex predator before Fluttershy solved the problem. Heck even after all of that, when the stones were shattered, and Twilight faced Nightmare Moon, holding her friends off for not even ten more seconds, or her friends not being incredibly lucky on finding her in time. And all would’ve been lost.

And what was she told about the whole incident for the eight years of solid study under Celestia’s roof? Nada. And what about a heads up, or prepare her for the fight? Nope that would’ve been too easy. Then there was the next horrible event.

Discord. She never told her friends this, while they all knew she never had friends, they never knew that she had a severe fear of losing them. Ever since day one she was waiting for them to see how boring, uncool, or just a total failure she felt that she was and would leave her. It was something Celestia never talked to her about, or Luna seeing her dreams said more than that she might want to share her fears with her friends, and her friends … she feared they’d leave her for that alone. A silly thing, as all fears are.

But Discord made it a reality. As for Discord, they were told nothing about him, not his powers, his personality, any intel that would’ve helped them. Buck! Even after hearing the riddle, Celestia just sat back and let Twilight and company deal with the God Level Reality Warper with a love of improbability generation, and spreading anarchy.

The psychological scars took months of healing for most of Equestria from Luna, but it didn’t help past Twilight’s neurotic tendencies when scared, depressed, or in the middle of an anxiety attack. Which led her thinking her friends dismissal of her fears as another form of abandonment. Just another “Twilight moment, nothing to see here.” Which led to the Smarty Pant’s incident.

Just as she was going to delve into the nightmare fuel that was Sombra, Luna appeared. Her eyes glowed white as she soaked up the root cause for the nightmare and saw all the memories that had forced their way into Twilight’s mind. As her eyes returned to normal she held Twilight, “Oh Twilight, nopony should witness the things that Celestia went through.”

“It’s not that, that’s the problem. Think about this. Tell me what you know of us, including the me before I ascended?”

“Well Applejack is a farmer and the Element of Honesty. Rainbow Dash is a pegasus that does lots of tricks, performed the Rainboom at Cadenza’s wedding, and is the Element of Loyalty. Pinkie Pie is a baker? Or something, and constantly breaks the laws of physics, nature, and causality. She’s the Element of Laughter. Fluttershy does something with animals, not quite sure about her, is the Element of Kindness, and has a powerful gaze attack.

“Rarity is a clothing designer, and the Element of Generosity. And you before becoming a Princess, were the Element of Magic, a most powerful unicorn, and my sister’s student.” Luna replied wanting to see the direction this talk was going to take.

“Right, so very little other than what everypony else knows. Answer me this, what combat training do we have? If you had to guess,” Twilight asked methodically.

“Well … some? I mean my sister wouldn’t just send six random ponies to their fate without some sort of preparation,” Luna replied. But at the look Twilight was giving her paled, “She had to have taught you something? I mean she had a thousand years to ready for my arrival. She would never do something as foolish as send you against Nightmare Moon without some training?”

“Nope. Sorry to disappoint Luna, but none of us have ever been given combat training. Sure the girls know some martial arts, but a guard could beat them … well other than Pinkie Pie, she might be a challenge. But still we were given less training to prepare for our battles than you can immagine.

“They are, and we all together were, ordinary ponies with slightly normal lives. Tossed into situations we weren’t told about, given no support, no resources, no intelligence, no nothing. They are easily killable, all of them.

“Especially with the likes of Tirek, Sombra, heck even Nightmare Moon, no offense Luna, could’ve easily killed us. All of us. And I can’t believe I didn’t see it till now. We were less than weapons. We are a renewable resource to power a weapon, and if they die. She’d just look for six other ponies to wield them.

“So let Celestia know that we bearers are done. We decide what to do with our lives now. No more manipulations, no more moving us like a chess piece in a game we can’t see. We are our own ponies,” Twilight stomped her forehooves angrily, “If a threat comes to Ponyville, I’ll protect my home and friends with every fiber of my being. But if Celestia wants the Elements to do something.

“She’s going to give me all the information she has, all the support and resources we could ask for, and will send somepony I trust to train the Element Bearers in combat and warfare on equal footing with the Royal Guards. Otherwise, the answer is no. We will still be the Elements, and if any major world destroying problem hits Ponyville eventually so we’ll face it then. But no more secrets, no more controlling our every move, no more whatever in the flying anus of Tartarus she was thinking. I’m waking up Luna. If you ever want to talk as friends, I’d love the company and I’m sure that there are at least two fillies who’d love to meet their favorite princess.” With that rant out of the way. Twilight woke up, and in a matter of moments had several letters magically sent to her friends requesting their presence.

Twilight was sitting in the throne room when Celestia came bursting in, followed shortly by Luna and her friends, “Hello Luna … Celestia. I’ll have Spike make more coffee for you two,” She greeted her peers in their little triumvirate before greeting her friends, “Hi girls. We have a lot to discuss, and with these two here they can counter or add whatever’s questions you all may have.”

Applejack looked at Twilight with a cock of her head and asked, “This isn’t another Smarty Pant’s level freakout is it?”

“No Applejack,” Twilight said calmly, “I just saw Celestia’s past, and it opened my eyes that she’s been sending us to what could’ve been quite easily been our deaths for the last five years. And after Luna was returned to her, would’ve easily moved on to another six ponies if we didn’t succeed.”

“Those are lies!” Celestia said in tone just short of a yell, but with enough weight it might as well have been spoken in the Royal Canterlot Voice.

“Really, tell me Celestia. What combat training do we have? And how does it compare to the Royal Equestrian Armed Forces?”

“Well that’s beside the point, I never planned on you girls dying,” Celestia said intimidatingly as she leaned forward aggressively. Even flaring her wings for emphasis.

“So you, who were easily defeated by Nightmare Moon. A deity who was the previous element of magic. With magical powers, flying speed, and strength far above a normal ponies. Expected six normal, easily killable ponies to survive Nightmare Moon unscathed? Not giving us a hint to just how powerful she was, or anything at all?” Twilight responded as she body movements mimicked Celestia’s

“You survived! What more can you ask for?”

“By pure bucking luck. I was going over our battles, and the only reason we survived was by pure luck. Buck I’m sure there are more timelines of our failures in the multiverse than our successes. What with how little we were prepared, and supported. What you did was pure nonsense and I’m not risking my friends lives like that again,” Twilight shouted.

“Well luckily it’s not your choice to make,” Celestia said sitting back finally with a smug grin on her face as if she was about to pull a hat trick.

Twilight looked at her friends and said, “That’s true. I told Luna that I was done, we were done, and I wanted to talk to you before hand. But I also said if they want our help, they need to send somepony over that I trust to train us in proper combat. Since a lot of times when we could’ve easily been defeated and just a little more knowledge would help.

“Then I’d want every bit of intelligence they have, I want every bit of resources and support we need. And when we are prepared for the fight. We can give it a facefull of friendship and rainbow blasts. Other than that. If a threat comes to Ponyville I’ll fight it with everything I have, but the Princesses can get off their flanks and deal with the rest. That’s my choice, my decision. And yes I can agree that after any non-Element threat happens, I’ll do my best to help pick up the pieces. But not at the risk of your lives.”

The other elements looked at her, saw that she had thought of this, and it was a logical rather than a fear based choice of hers. Well there was fear there, but it wasn’t a “I’ll stop time forever” type of fear. As much as a pony thinking of protecting their friends and family type.

Celestia looked at them uncomfortably as they stood by Twilight, Celestia shook her head at them, “You all are making a terrible mistake. The world needs the Elements, you can’t fight your destiny. Can’t you see that if you back out, there can only be more pain than if you just do what you were born to do?”

Luna looked at Celestia and hugged her before moving beside Twilight as well, “Sister. We used to believe in free will, we used to love our ponies, and stand up for them. You’ve lost your way, and you need to find it again.”

“I didn’t lose my way! I did what I had to do to save you Luna, can’t you see that? And everything I’ve done since then has been for you and Equestria,” Celestia replied frantically.

“No you’re not the Celestia I knew as a filly, you’re more like the nobility we detested. You aren’t a bad pony, but you’ve grown colder than the surface of the moon,” Luna replied, “I don’t agree to Twilight throwing everything away. But her reasoning is logical, and her terms for their help are something you should’ve done from the beginning.”

“I tried with Sunset Shimmer,” Celestia said softly, “I trained her in every subject, and gave her everything I could give. But it corrupted her. I couldn’t afford to make that same mistake with Twilight.”

Twilight almost wanted to hug Celestia but felt as if they weren’t going to get through to her that night, “Listen Celestia. Go, leave and think upon it. If you want our help, and it’s something only the Elements can deal with. We’ll deal with them. Otherwise, it’s been too long since you truly connected to your ponies. You’re so removed from what it means to be a pony that you’ve forgotten what it’s like and why I’m doing what I’m doing.”

Luna went over to her emotional sister and ushered her out, looking over her shoulder she said, “We have a lot to make up for. But we shall write soon.”

Author's Note:

The 3k fic challenge is over. I hope everypony likes how this fic ends.