To save Twilight Sparkle

by TwiwnB

Friends and family

Spike had come in Canterlot not much later than Twilight had. He had seen all the guards in the streets, but discarded them as another problem that didn’t concern him. With him were the elements of harmony. All had come when, after a chain of events beginning with Rainbow Dash coming to Twilight’s place, they had heard about the situation.

They went to the Canterlot palace where the guards told them they couldn’t enter. So they waited there, certain that nothing bad could happen during a meeting between Twilight and princess Celestia. Then the latter appeared at the door and told them that they could come in and where Twilight was.

They entered, went to the balcony where she should have been, but didn’t find her. So they started searching the palace and quickly found her a bit further away. She was contemplating a stained glass depicting the windigos and their eternal winter.

“Twilight?” Spike called her out.

She turned to him and he didn’t need more than a look at her face to know that she wasn’t herself at that moment. She ran toward him, ignoring all of the others’ greetings, jumped on him and hugged him.

“Twilight.” She said with glee.

The others just didn’t know how to react and observed the scene with mixed feelings about the childish behavior of their friend.

“Spike.” Spike told Twilight once he recovered from the hug. “You should really learn my name.”

Twilight let go and just watched him, seemingly lost.

“Spike.” Spike said again, pointing at himself. “Twilight” He said, pointing at her. “Spike” He said again pointing at himself.

“Spike!” Twilight replied joyfully while putting her hoof on Spike’s nose.

“Hum… please excuse me asking, but why is Twilight acting in such a puerile manner?” Rarity asked.

“Could somepony explain what in ‘tarnation is going on?” Applejack said in a more direct manner.

Spike turned to them, then looked at Twilight who had made a few steps back under the pressure of all those looks targeted at her. He sighed.

“Well, everypony, I present to you Twilight two. She is the one I told you about in the train.”

“The one you tamed during that epic fight that almost destroyed the whole castle back in Ponyville?” Rainbow Dash asked.

Spike blushed. He was glad to have some friends like Rainbow Dash who didn’t immediately see through his lies, or, at least, didn’t mind playing along.

“Yes, the very one.” Spike asserted. “But I’m not sure how and why Twilight becomes Twilight two. They just act so very differently that I call them that way.”

Suddenly, Twilight two fell on the floor and immediately her friends went to make sure she was doing okay, only to realize she had fallen asleep.

“Maybe… maybe one of use should go ask for help?” Fluttershy proposed, a bit shaken by the unpredictability of the events.

But Twilight was already waking up again. This time, however, it was clear in her eyes that she recognized them all.

“Rainbow Dash? Pinkie Pie? What are you all doing here?” She asked, still completing to recover from her forced slumber.

“The more important question is what is happening to you?” Applejack asked. “Spike told us about your weird behavior, but it’s even worse than he described.”

Twilight looked down for a moment. A lot had happen and it wasn’t easy to explain. She herself wasn’t certain to understand every aspect of the whole thing. But she did her best nonetheless and so she told her friends everything that she knew, from the actions of Celestia long ago to the consequences of the broken seal and her decision to let the filly’s soul take over her.

That last part was the one her friends found the most difficult to accept.

“What are you talking about?” Rainbow Dash asked. “No way we are going to let you go. Not under my watch you are.”

“Certainly there must be another solution…” Rarity proposed. “I am certain that princess Celestia would never allow you to do something so, pardon the word, reckless.”

But the most shaken of them all was Spike, who had already understood from Twilight’s look and tone, from all those little details in her expression that he had learned to decipher after all those years, that Twilight was serious and that he would never see her again.

As the others were trying to convince Twilight to change her mind, he just suddenly ran away, as there was nothing else he could really do and he didn’t want the others to see him face the prospect of losing his closest friend.

It wasn’t just losing his friend even. Twilight had become way more important during all those years. She was more of a mother to him. She had always been there for him, when he was scared of the thunder as a very young baby dragon, or when he would cry for entire nights and she had to rock his cradle for hours until he would finally simmer down. And now that he was crying again, she wouldn’t be there anymore to collect his tears and give them a taste of joy and a feeling of comfort.

“Spike… are you alright?” Twilight asked.

She had found him. She always found him. She just knew him too well. Still, Spike made sure not to look at her. After all, she had already decided she didn’t want to be there anymore, didn’t she?

“Spike, I’m sorry.” Twilight continued. “I just have to do it. The other one, the true Twilight Sparkle, she deserves a life.”

“No you don’t!” Spike yelled in his corner. “You just don’t care about us. You want to pretend you’re a big pony like princess Celestia and now you are just throwing me away because of some filly we don’t even know…”

For a moment, Twilight just stayed immobile and silent. Had Spike looked at her, he could have seen her own tears forming and the shiver in her legs. But despite her emotions, she eventually made a few steps toward him.

“I do care about you. Especially you. I would have never gone anywhere in my life if it hadn’t been for your constant help. I watched you grow and each day you made me feel prouder to be your friend. You are my very first true friend. You are my very best friend.”

“Then let Celestia cure you and come back to Ponyville with us!” Spike shouted.

And as he did, he also turned back to her and hugged her leg as if to prevent her from ever going away.

“You know I can’t do that.” Twilight replied, while trying to comfort him the best she could.

“I just don’t want to lose you!” Spike shouted in the midst of his crying spasms.

“I will always be there, inside. But there is another Twilight Sparkle who will need your help. She will be lost, she will need a strong, honest and brave dragon to guide her.”

Spike didn’t respond. He just tightened his grip on her leg a bit more and kept weeping. Twilight just let him exhaust all of his tears, as she herself was fighting hard not to echo them. But he eventually ran out.

“Do you feel better?” Twilight asked.

“Yes.” Spike lied.

“Then let’s join the others.” She told him.

Spike nodded and climbed onto Twilight’s back. She then proceeded to walk back to the throne room where their friends were waiting for them. Spike first just stood on her back, but he quickly just grabbed her neck and cuddled against it. Twilight decided to make a few detours through the palace corridors. It was still all empty. It was just them and the millennia old walls.

Twilight stopped in front of a pot full of flowers. They had been place there that very morning and were still blazing with all their colors. But Twilight knew those flowers would wilt eventually and would have to be replaced.

She resumed her journey and, after a few more detours, arrived in the throne room.

Her friends were there. They weren’t alone though. In their midst were Luna and Celestia and also Twilight Velvet and Night Light.

Mom and dad.

Twilight ignored how Celestia looked away as she arrived and ran towards her parents to hug them.

“Good thing you’ve finally arrived.” Her father said. “Your friends and the princess have tried to tell us that you’re not our daughter and that you’re going to disappear. Now you can tell them that nothing of the sort is going to happen, right?”

Twilight avoided his look and made a few steps back.

“It’s not true, is it?” Her father insisted. “Please Twilight, tell us it’s just a bad joke.”

“I’m sorry…” Twilight replied.

A deathly silence followed those words. The ponies assembled there were looking at each other seeking signs of a happy ending they couldn’t themselves offer. But no matter where they looked, none of them, not even the wise and reassuring princess Celestia seemed able to provide.

“There must be another way!” Twilight’s mother shouted. “I won’t lose my daughter. Isn’t there anything we can do?”

“Maybe…” Celestia said out loud without even realizing she had let that word out.

All the head instantly turned to her. She had no choice but to explain the last alternative that could be considered:

“An already existing soul can only be transferred into a living body.” She explained. “So if any of you was willing, you could make the sacrifice in her place.”

Instantly, Twilight Velvet volunteered:
“If it can save my daughter, then I don’t care what happens to me. I’m already old, she is still young. Do it!”

“No!” Responded both Twilight and her father.

“Heck, it’s not that I enjoy the idea, but if it’s for Twilight’s sake, then I guess you can have my body.”
Now the heads turned to Applejack who had just said those words. Under the sudden pressure, she explained:
“I’m just a farm pony. I’m kind of nopony. But Twilight, she is a princess, so if it’s for the good of the community…”

“Nah, forget it.” Rainbow Dash told her in reply. “Twilight needs an awesome body: she can have mine. Sacrificing ourselves is what we pegasi are all about. No matter how fierce the storm we face, we will always go in and do our duty.”

“Hey, you can’t keep Twilight all for yourselves!” Pinkie Pie shouted. “She can come in my body too and then we will be together forever and have lots and adventure and we will share secrets and we will argue about the movie we want to see and we will laugh and have tons and tons of fun!”

“No! Stop it.” Twilight ordered. “Nopony sacrifices herself today, I forbid it! Also, Pinkie, I think you may not fully understand what is going on here.”

Pinkie Pie scratched her head, looked at the others who weren’t sure how to react to her antic and just said:
“Oh, sorry.”

Twilight turned to her parents. She grabbed her mother’s hoof and said:
“I am not your daughter. I mean, I am, you have been the best parents a filly could have wished for and I love you very much. But I am not your real daughter. Princess Celestia created me so that I could save Equestria. Equestria has been saved, so it’s time for me to give your daughter back to you.”

Twilight Velvet said something her daughter couldn’t understand because she was enjoying the deep and warmth embrace of her mother.

Luna approached Celestia and asked:
“Is that what you had planned from the beginning?”

Celestia just looked away.

“I thought so.” Luna continued. “At least Nightmare Moon wasn’t hiding behind lies.”

Celestia ignored her sister’s cutting remarks and approached Twilight.

“You can still change your decision.” She told Twilight. “It isn’t too late. Look at your friends, look at your parents. They all want you to stay.”

Twilight took the time to look at each and everyone in the room. It was true: every pair of eyes was telling her not to go away.

“Please stay…” Fluttershy whispered.

“Please stay.” Applejack echoed.

“Please stay.” Said Rarity, Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash in unison.

“Please stay.” Said both her parents.

For a moment, Luna stayed silent, but after a few hesitation she also said:
“I want you to stay, please.”

“Please stay.” Celestia supported.

Spike just avoided her look. He just knew her way too well and she could hear his thoughts without him saying anything anyway.

Twilight smiled.

“I truly want to stay. I swear I do. Truth be told, I’m terrified right now.” She told them.

And indeed, her whole body was shivering no matter how much she was trying to prevent it to.

“All I am asking now is that you watch over Twilight Sparkle like you watched over me. She may not be me, but she too will need great parents and great friends. She will need each and every one of you.”

She then turned to princess Celestia and added:
“I am ready.”

Celestia’s horn lit up but immediately stopped.

“No.” Celestia replied. “I am sorry. This isn’t something I am willing to do. You will have to perform the spell yourself if that is truly your choice.”

“I will do it.”
This time, all heads turned toward Luna.

Twilight smiled and tried to thank the princess for her help.

“Don’t you dare!” Luna replied. And she pushed Twilight back. “I will only seal your soul as Twilight Sparkle’s soul was once sealed. And I am only doing it because you are a stubborn old mule and I don’t want you to screw up the spell if you do it yourself.”

Twilight nodded and Luna simmered down. She called upon her magical powers and soon the whole room overflowed with rivers of light all converging around Twilight lifting her off the floor and forming a giant lock. Every pony’s fur bristled under a violent magical wave that seemed to plunge the whole world into darkness for just a second.

Then all lights dissipated, everything went back to normal and Twilight’s body fell back onto the floor.

“Twilight!” Her parents shouted.

They ran to her and made sure she was alright. They quickly sighed out of relief once they realized she was merely asleep.

None realized that Celestia had already left the room.