The Potion

by CoverArt

The Consequences

The others stared at her for a moment before bursting into laughter. This caught Twilight by surprise to say the least. She was telling them huge news and they were laughing.

“Oh Twilight, darling, that was a wonderful joke, but seriously what did you decide?” Rarity asked taking a breath from laughing to hard. Twilight tilted her head as she stared at her.

“What do you mean? I put the potion in all of your drinks, just like I just said, it was the most logical course of action.”

The others looked at her in confusion, all except for Pinkie Pie.

“So you mean we are all immortal and we can never die no matter what we doooooo?”

“Well yes and no Pinkie,” Twilight explained smiling, happy that someone seemed liked the idea, “You are all immortal and anything natural can’t kill you. However, if it is unnatural like a boulder or a lightning strike then yes, it will kill you. You’re only immune to old age and illness.”

“Ooooooooooooooh,” Pinkie smiled widely and starts to sing a song about the wonders of being immortal. The others just stared at Twilight, a mix of confusion and anger on their faces. Applejack raised her eyebrow and was the first of the others to speak.

“So what yer sayin is that ya asked us all our opinions and then completely ignored us, yer friends, and made us immortal when none of us wanted it and specifically told ya we didn’t want to be immortal if we had the choice.”

“W-well when you put it that way… it sounds kind of… inconsiderate of me,” Twilight said looking down, her ears dropping against her head. However, she then looked up at Applejack, “But you have to understand, this is was the most logical course to take! If I didn’t drink the potion then the magic of friendship will be lost when I die! But if I drink the potion then I’ll be able to teach the magic of friendship but I won’t be able to have you all as my friends because you’ll all die eventually and I’ll have to be there through it all and watch all of you die! I couldn’t do it! I just couldn’t! This way everypony here will be alive with me forever!”

Twilight teared up as she went on her rant, enough so that the others looked sorry for being angry with her. Rarity trotted over and put a foreleg on Twilights back, rubbing it a bit.

“Darling I understand why you decided to do what you did,” She took her foreleg off of Twilights back and walked in front of her with an angry look on her face, “But understand you had NO right to make this decision for us. We all could have figured out something together, I assure you.”

With that Rarity made her way over to stand next to Applejack. Applejack sighed, “Twi ah know you had the best intentions but… we just didn’t want this. Now ah don’t know about you girls but ah need to go and think about all this…” Applejack and Rarity started to trot out of the room before Applejack glanced back over her shoulder, “Twi ah know you’ll come to yer senses and fix this but until then ah think ah speak for all of us when ah say just leave us alone to our thoughts.”

With that Applejack and Rarity left, Twilight stared at where her friends, or was it former friends, stood moments before. She then looked to the three others in the room.

“Rainbow, Fluttershy, you guys understand right, you wont leave me right?”

“Twilight, I’ll be honest,” Rainbow started, “This was extremely uncool, I have to agree with Applejack and Rares here, this was completely uncalled for.”

With that Rainbow Dash flew down the hall with Fluttershy and Pinkie in pursuit. Twilight sat on her haunches and studied her hooves. Tears fall to the floor from her face. Twilight sat there trying to figure out where everything went wrong. She knew that they were right but she also thought she had their best interests at heart. Though she was starting to doubt herself on that. Thoughts started pouring into her mind: What if they hate her forever? Of course they’ll hate her forever! No they love her, they’re just mad now. Right? All of these thoughts and more made Twilight start to softly sob, she didn’t even notice the soft sounds of hooves on tile enter the room.

“And how are my litt- Twilight?” Celestia trotted over to her fellow princess and student, “What’s wrong Twilight?”

“P-princess? I- I just did what I thought was right, but they got mad because of it,” Twilight sniffed.

“What was it that you did Twilight?”

“I put some of the potion into their drinks, so they could b-“

“You did what?” Celestia cut Twilight off, “Twilight, only alicorns are able to survive with that potion, it is toxic to any of the other races!”

“You mean that I…could have… killed them by trying to save them? Wait, why didn’t you tell me this earlier when I asked why you didn’t give the potion to everypony?” Twilight suddenly felt very woozy but stayed standing.

“Well we didn’t expect you to do something like this Twilight. You need to get all of them back here while Luna, Cadence, and I create an antidote,” Celestia got up and started to move out of the room before Twilight spoke up.

“Princess… does an antidote even exist for this?”

Celestia sighed and looked down a bit, not even turning around as she answered, “Yes, your friends aren’t the first mortals to drink the immortal potion, it’s just also extremely hard to make.”

With that Celestia left the room, Twilight started towards the door that her friends left out of, glancing briefly at a clock seeing that she was in the room for about an hour. Twilight thought about how far they could have gotten in that time; Ten minutes to walk to the train station, unless they caught a cab, an hour to get back to Ponyville, unless they took the Express train, then they’d be there and in their homes already. Either way Twilight would have to fly back to Ponyville, there weren’t any more trains scheduled today and it would take her about an hour and a half to fly down the mountain. So that’s what she did, she started down the mountain, hoping that it wasn’t too late to save her friends.

---

Twilight got back to Ponyville two hours later, the winds and a flight of very angry ducks made sure she was a tad late for her arrival. She had told one of the palace guards to put Spike in her old room, he would be comfortable there until Twilight could get the other girls back to Canterlot. She raced for the closest place her friends would be, Sugarcube Corner. She opened the doors and saw Mr. and Mrs. Cake behind the counter taking orders from Lyra and Bon Bon. Surprising since Bon Bon owned her own candy shop. But Twilight couldn’t worry about semantics now; she had to save her friends.

“Mr. Cake, have you seen Pinkie today?” Twilight asked as she walked up to the counter.

“Well yes Princess, she went upstairs when she got home, she said she had a stomach ache.”

“Oh no! That means its already taking effect!” Twilight said running up the stairs, ignoring Mr. Cake’s pleas for an explanation. She opened the door with her magic and went into the room where Pinkie laid on her bed looking quite down.

“Oh, hey Twilight, you got an antidote already? I’d throw an ‘Antidote Party’ but I got a tummy ache right now,” Pinkie said as she noticed Twilight.

“Pinkie I’m so sorry about all of this but I need you to come with me, it’s a matter of life or death, literally. We need to get the other girls, now.”

“Ok Twilight, I’ll get Rarity and we’ll meet you over at Applejacks place,” Pinkie shakily got to her hooves.

“No Pinkie, I want you to get Fluttershy, then go and get Rainbow. I need to apologize to Rarity and Applejack, and I’d rather do it face to face. Meet us at the train station,” Twilight instructed as they both walked down the stairs and out the front door.

“Okie doki loki Twilight,” Pinkie trotted towards Fluttershy’s house as best she could. It was obvious the potion was having drastically ill effects. Twilight watched her go with sad eyes before turning towards Carousel Boutique. It wasn’t a terribly long distance away, just on the other side of the town proper. She opened the door to the building and looked for Rarity.

“Rarity are you here?” She called out, “It’s important I talk to you.”

“In the kitchen Twilight,” came a voice all too high to be Rarity’s. Twilight walked into the kitchen to see Sweetie Belle, Rarity’s little sister, carrying a try with soup on it.

“Sweetie, where’s Rarity? I need to talk to her.”

“She’s upstairs, but she isn’t feeling well, so I’m making her soup to help her feel better.”

“Hmm, here let me take it up to her,” Twilight took the tray in her magic, “I’ll let her know you made it for her.”

“Alright Twilight. Oh and tell her I’m going out with Scootaloo and Apple Bloom.”

“Will do Sweetie, have fun,” Twilight said as she headed upstairs. She looked into the master bedroom and saw that Rarity wasn’t on the bed, but did see the light to the master bathroom was on. She trotted into the room and placed the tray of soup on the bed and went over to look in the bathroom. Rarity was in there, sitting on the floor in front of the toilet, she had a slight tint of green on her skin.

“Rarity are you ok?”

“Twilight? What are you doing here? I haven’t been feeling well since I came back from Canterlot. I think I might have had an allergic reaction to whatever that potion was.”

“It’s worse then that Rarity, and I’m so, so sorry for it. I need you to come with me to Canterlot or some bad things could happen.”

“Bad things? What bad things? I don’t how this could get much worse. I mean just look at me! Green! Err a shade of green but still,” Rarity threw her hooves up.

“Rarity if we don’t get you an antidote soon, you… you’re going to die.”

“Die? As in… die?”

Twilight nodded, “I’m so sorry Rarity, you can ye- Rarity! We don’t have time for you fainting!”

Rarity stopped half way through her monologue about how this is the worst possible thing and looked at Twilight, “I guess you’re right, where to now?”

“We need to get Applejack then meet Pinkie and the others at the train station,” Twilight said as they went downstairs. They made it to the door when all of a sudden a ball of darkness appeared in front of them. Before either mare could even raise an eyebrow, the ball imploded and produced a sealed scroll dropped down. Twilight went over and picked it up and looked at the seal.

“It’s from Princess Luna, it has to be something about the antidote.”

“Well don’t keep us waiting, open it then.”

Twilight broke the seal and used her magic to open the scroll.

---

Dear Twilight Sparkle,

I trust this letter has gotten to you safely. If so then know my sister and I have created a potion that should save your friends for the time being. It isn’t a one hundred percent cure, that will require more of our time and energy then can be afforded at the present time. Get your friends to the palace as soon as possible. I also apologize for the means of sending the letter, your dragon friend was sleeping by the time this information became available for you.

Princess Luna

---

“Great,” Twilight smiled at Rarity, “The princesses made a potion to cure all of you for the time being.”

“For the time being? What does that mean?”

“Well, the immortal potion took one hundred moons to make, I can only imagine how long a cure for it would take. But what’s important is that you’ll live.”

“Well then lets get the others and get the potion in us before we drop like rocks.”

“You mean like Tom?” Twilight asked trying to joke.

“I said never to mention that again Twilight,” Rarity said seriously, “And you are not in a good position to be joking right now”

“Sorry… let’s just get to the farm,” Twilight said, finding her feet very interesting as they walked out.

They made their way down to the Apple family farm. It took them about a half hour to get there. Rarity getting sick and having to duck behind a bush as well as them meeting up with Pinkie and the others saw fit that they got to the farm later then they would have liked. However, they made it to the farm to see Applejack…working in the field like nothing was wrong.

“Applejack? Are you ok?” Twilight asked as her and Rarity trotted up.

The Stetson wearing pony looked up from the tree she was about to buck, “Yea ahm alright, why wouldn’t ah be? Did ya find a cure already?”

Twilight and Rarity looked at the orange pony like she grew a second head.

“You mean you don’t feel sick at all or weak?” Rarity asked.

“Well a bit, but the work has to be done, and it’s not enough fer me ta slack off so.”

“That’s good at least,” Twilight sighed, “Applejack I’m so sorry for everything, including this… the potion I game you is slowly killing you… I need you to come with me to Canterlot to get the cure for all of you.”

Applejack raised one of her eyebrows, “So yer sayin that the immortal potion, a potion designed to turn the pony who drinks it immortal, is killin us since we drank it?”

“Well only you girls, it apparently only works on alicorns.”

“And… why didn’t Princess Celestia tell you this?”

“Because who would have thought I would have been an idiot and put my friends at risk for my own selfish reasons.”

“Now that’s what ah wanted to hear, ah’ll go tell granny ah have to go with you girls.”

“Umm that went better the expected,” Twilight looked at Rarity. Applejack went to the farmhouse and came back ready to go. They started walking back towards the train station, Twilight couldn’t help but ask Applejack the question that was on both hers and Rarity’s mind.

“Why was it so easy for you to just accept all this Applejack?”

“Twi, ah know that you didn’t mean to do this to any of us. Ah’m still mad at you fer putting us in this position to begin with but ah see ya learned yer lesson. Even though you think you know what’s best fer yer friends, it might not actually be what’s best fer them.”

“Yea, I understand that now. I’m just sorry it took nearly killing my friends for me to learn that.”

“If I may be so bold to say,” Rarity chimed in, “ but we haven’t received the potion yet, it might be hard to hear but one of us might actually die if we don’t get to Canterlot quickly.”

“You’re right… I have an idea, it will require a lot of my magic but I can do a group teleport for all of us. It should bring us right to the castle. If we wait for the train something might happen and we’d never get there,” Twilight said doing the planning already in her head. They made their way to the train station where they saw the others. They didn’t look too great, Twilight knew they needed that antidote and they needed it now.

“Ok everypony, brace yourselves, I’m going to teleport us to the castle.”

The rest of them nodded. Twilight closed her eyes and activated the spell. For a second she didn’t think she could do it, but knowing her friends lives were at stake, she doubled her efforts and the spell came to fruition and they were all instantaneously teleported to the front of Canterlot castle.

The group was quickly met by four guards pointing spears at them, but as soon as they saw an alicorn amongst the group the guards went back to their original positions. The group made their way into the main meeting hall where they saw Princess Cadence and Princess Luna. The two princesses looked towards Twilight and her friends as they walked up and smiled in relief.

“Twilight Sparkle, thank the stars that you got them here as fast as you did, my sister is currently working on the actual cure but we managed to make this,” Luna motioned to a cart with five glasses filled with a black liquid, “this potion will cure your friends of most of the effects of the immortal potion. The only problem is that in order for it to be a permanent solution they’d need to drink it every twenty four hours.”

“What’s the problem in that Princess Luna?” Fluttershy asked.

“Well the ingredients used to make that potion are extremely rare, we only have enough for a week for each of you. That should be more then enough time for my sister and I to finish the actual cure though.”

“Well why don’t we drink it then so we don’t…. you know…die,” Rainbow pointed out. The rest of the five nodded and they each, sans Twilight, took up a glass and downed its contents. Almost immediately the antidote took effect, Pinkie, Rainbow, Fluttershy, and Rarity all looked a lot better then they did before and even Applejack’s coat looked a bit brighter.

“Thank you Princess Luna,” Twilight smiled at Luna.

“I hope you learned your lesson Twilight Sparkle.”

“Trust me princess, I did.”

“It almost makes sense for you to do this though, Celestia’s other protégé did it too, maybe you heard of him, Starswirl the Bearded,” Luna smiled knowingly.

Twilight’s jaw dropped, “Starswirl the Bearded made this mistake too?”

“Yes, he tried to use it on his wife, that is how we know of this cure, but enough of the past, the cure should be ready in a few days if I get back to Tia soon, you should enjoy your time with your friends in the castle while you wait for it.”

“Ok Princess Luna, thank you,” and with that Twilight left with her friends to go to their rooms in the castle to enjoy the rest of the day.

Author's Note:

Hey, I finally finished this. I'm not entirely sure how to feel about it. This last chapter took me so long to come up with and even now I have second thoughts about certain parts. However, I will let you guys tell me what I should have done and what I did terribly.