The Last Day
Princess Twilight Sparkle woke with the sun. She liked it this way – the first things she saw every morning was Celestia’s fire rising overtop a brilliant Equestrian landscape. The birds were chirping, and the crystalline walls of her castle reflected the beams to cast a rainbow over her bed sheets.
If only she actually felt like getting up today.
“Uuuugh…” she groaned, putting a pillow over top of her face to drown out the beautiful light of the outside world. Unfortunately, her alarm was set to five minutes after sunrise specifically because she knew she had a tendency to ignore the morning light.
She was her own worst enemy.
With an exasperated moan, she pulled herself out of bed. She righted herself onto all four hooves and walked to her mirror where she quickly got the early morning stuff out of the way. Mane: combed. Wings: stretched. Horn: checked. For all the pain she went through in refusing to get up, she was fully awake remarkably quickly.
With her newfound awareness of her surroundings came the pangs of hunger. Twilight was ready for breakfast.
She trotted down the stairs toward the map room, expecting Spike to already have breakfast set out. Instead, she found him standing in the doorway, staring into the room.
“Huh? Spike, what are you doing?”
“Trying to figure out what all this is.”
Twilight looked into the chamber that held the map-table. On a normal day, it would be filled with the smells of breakfast, or just be empty if Spike was running late. Today it was completely filled with high-end scientific equipment, most of which Twilight didn’t recognize right away.
“How’re the magic levels?” Starlight asked, staring intently at a sheet of paper one of the computer boxes were printing out. “I… think this data is inconclusive.”
To Twilight’s surprise, none other than Sunset Shimmer trotted over, levitating the data to her eyes with her magic. “Magic levels are highly variable and unpredictable at the moment… aha, here, here, and here we have critical points, a possible pattern could emerge from those!”
“…You just pointed at three random spots.”
“How has Twilight not made you learn calculus?”
“…That’s the math thing, right?”
Sunset put on an awkward smile. “Yes. Yes it is.” She trotted over to a tall device clearly designed to be operated with hands given the keyboard on the front of it, but Sunset managed with magic alone. It was one of the few devices with an actual screen rather than a paper readout, though it was only black and green. As Sunset typed, mathematical curves appeared on the screen, all coalescing at one point. “Aha! It did converge!”
“…That looks explosive,” Starlight commented.
“Which is why we need to stop it!”
“Stop what!?”” Twilight asked, grabbing both of the unicorns’ attention.
“Magic anomaly,” Starlight said, thinking this was explanation enough.
Sunset rolled her eyes. “The Mirror Portal was flashing in and out of stability, lighting a few things on fire at Canterlot High. You were asleep when I came in but Starlight was up doing… something.”
“I was trying to figure out why my magic had been acting up all day.”
“Right. That. Anyway, we decided to figure out what was going on with the Mirror Portal and discovered that it was related to Starlight’s magic. So I started bringing in some equipment and Starlight brought out your ancient computers and here we are.”
“…You didn’t explain what the problem actually is,” Spike said.
“Ah. Right. Uh… it’s complicated.”
Starlight snickered. “The winds of magic have been coalescing at a single point - this map – and the density is getting just a little too large for the fabric of reality.”
“Oh…” Twilight said.
“…Why is that bad?” Spike asked.
“Think ‘boom’,” Sunset said.
“More like ‘explode twice’,” Twilight added. “That’s it, make room, I’m going to make some magic circles…”
“Bringing out the big spells?” Starlight smirked. “Nice.”
“Bringing out the ‘fine-tuned’, spells. If it was just a case of having strong magic you would have figured this out already between the two of you.” Twilight focused magic into her horn and began to trace a simple circle around the table. “Spike, send a note to Rarity, have her take over my classes for the morning.”
“Gotcha covered!” Spike dashed out of the room, message in mind. The three remaining ponies continued at their work, slowly integrating together human technology, magical power, and intricate spells to gain a greater understanding about what was happening.
Twilight was easily able to confirm that there was magic focusing above the table, but why was another question entirely. At first they thought it might just be the Tree of Harmony trying to do something, or a problem with the table itself, but after an hour of tests they were able to determine the magic wasn’t exclusively coming from there.
“This doesn’t make sense!” Twilight said, pointing at the screen with her hoof. “I’ve determined exactly how much magic it’s drawing in from the surroundings, and it’s not enough for the rate at which it’s growing! Where is all the excess coming from?”
“Teleportation?” Sunset asked. “Or perhaps it’s something intradimensional, given the Mirror Portal’s behavior.”
Starlight pointed at one of the papers. “Uh, didn’t we just say this thing isn’t detecting any problems on the other side? The natural magic there is just fine, it’s only the Portal that’s freaking out.”
“So whatever it is, it’s localized here…” Twilight put a hoof to her chin. She got an idea – she teleported into her office in the School, grabbed one of her magical recording crystals, and returned to her castle. “Let’s see… This has been sitting in the School and – yep, it’s detecting a magic imbalance. Not as bad as here, but there’s definitely something.”
Starlight levitated the crystal with her magic. “Huh… Something feels wrong about it.”
“It gave the readout just fine.”
“Just because it looks like it’s working doesn’t mean it is.” Starlight narrowed her eyes, turning the crystal over and over. “…Twilight, feel how its counting time.”
“Time? The timekeeping spell is j-“
“Just check it.”
Twilight touched the crystal with her horn – and furrowed her brow. “…It’s five minutes behind.”
“So what? Things go out of time all the time,” Sunset said.
“None of my instruments would be that far off. I set them regularly. I notice when it hits two minutes. It couldn’t have drifted that far in just one night…”
“So, might it be time related?” Starlight asked.
Sunset blinked. “I don’t even know how to test for that.”
“I can try,” Twilight said, tracing another magic circle in the ground, this one with four smaller circles for her hooves. She flared her wings and touched the magical fabric around her, the Element that defined her granting access no simple unicorn had – much to Starlight’s chagrin.
Time, she thought, and the realm of magic opened itself up to her. She couldn’t get anything specific, but she was able to see more than she had before. She could observe herself in multiple frames of reference at once, seeing the relative density of time and space.
It took some focusing, but she found it. A gradient. Time was flowing differently around the magical focal point than the room around them. It was flowing much faster.
“It’s… compounding energy faster than normal time will allow, so it’s accelerating time!” Twilight said.
“…That doesn’t make any sense,” Sunset said. “Really, think, accelerating time around one area doesn’t mean you’re getting more energy.”
“Unless you’re condensing every time at that point,” Starlight countered. “…Like a sandwich.”
“Right… so let’s take that as a theory, and say time is being ‘condensed’ around this magical focal point, drawing energy from… other time? Sure, why not. What’s causing it, and how do we stop it?”
“No idea.”
“We can take some measurements,” Twilight said, holding up her recording crystal. “We can use a timekeeping spell to measure the rate of time’s changing. Sunset, get ready with some number crunching, time to deal with relativity.”
Sunset nodded, putting her magic on the keyboard. “Ready.”
Twilight ran the recording crystal through the area of magic focus several dozen times, resetting the clock each time. Occasionally the magic pathways would fry due to oversaturation, but they were still able to get enough data points to create a graph.
Sunset traced her hoof across the screen. “Let’s see… at the rate of temporal change here, it began… about three years ago, local timeframe. Anything particular happen then?”
“Nothing specific,” Twilight said. “Lots of weird stuff happens here.”
“I’ve only been around about three years, probably couldn’t tell you,” Starlight added.
Twilight and Sunset slowly turned to stare at her with blank expressions.
“Oh. It’s me isn’t it? …Ponyfeathers.”
“Time related… about three years ago…” Twilight put a hoof to her chin. “It makes sense. If we didn’t really fix the whole time spell, it could have been slowly compounding over time until it reached this.”
“Wouldn’t we have noticed it? I mean look at that graph, it looks like it’s rising quickly!”
“Doubling a millionth only gives you two millionths,” Sunset said. “It hasn’t been noticeable until now.”
“…Right, so, now we know what it is.” Starlight shook her head. “Now I need to figure out how to stop it. Because apparently this is still all my fault.”
“You couldn’t have known.”
“And I’ve changed, I know, I can still feel a little annoyed about it.” She lit her horn. “I could try shunting it all into a time-bowl… Even without the scroll, I think I can do it.”
“But we don’t know how to deal with time,” Twilight admitted. “If we made this mistake last time… Who knows what other tricks could remain?”
“Do we know anyone who actually knows about time spells?”
“Hm… Starswirl.”
“His spell made this mess!”
“Doesn’t Discord know some?” Sunset asked. “Actually, he could probably just fix it with the snap of his fingers, keep the castle from exploding.”
“I would like to keep my castle…” Twilight admitted.
“I’ll call him.” Starlight lit her horn and sent out a pulse of blue energy. With a flash of white, Discord appeared between the three of them.
“Well well well, it appears we’ve got a ‘HELP US DISCORD’ spell.” He took off a pair of shades he hadn’t had on when he arrived and grinned. “What do you need me to do that your little horns can’t do themselves?”
Twilight cleared her throat. “Discord, we have a major temporal anomaly forming on top of the map here, threatening to consume magic from across time and explode rather violently, perhaps twice. This came about th-“
Starlight let out a groan of exasperation. “Discord. Fix the time above the table before it explodes.”
“Sometimes the simple answer is best, Twi,” Discord said. Twilight grumbled in annoyance.
With much bravado and stretching of his muscles, Discord extended a hand toward the table. The coalescing magic was no longer invisible, but existed as a faint white light hovering motionless in the air. “BEGONE, DOT!”
The dot did not listen to him.
Discord blinked. “Well, I, hrm… That should have worked.”
“Maybe it did…” Sunset said. “The readings are changing slightly – there’s a little less temporal difference outside.”
“I didn’t act outside though.” He glared untrustingly at the dot. “Are you future me playing a joke?”
“I don’t think so…” Sunset said, scrolling through the data. “I… I think this point is draining magic from all space and time simultaneously. It’s not just a ‘local’ thing; it’s a function that extends forever in all directions and times. Endless spider web.”
“…You can’t affect all of space and time, can you?” Twilight asked Discord.
“Uh… no.”
“Can anything?” Starlight asked.
“You did, somehow…” Twilight said, beginning to pace. “Maybe the Tree can. I’ll need some time to analyze that though…”
“We don’t have that,” Sunset said, paling as she extrapolated the graph’s data. “If it’s acting out across all time and space… It’s not just the castle that’ll explode twice. It’s everything. I’m not sure how long we have, but it isn’t much.”
“Right. Discord, I need you to work fast. I need all six of the Elements of Harmony at the Tree of Harmony pronto, as well as both Princesses and Pillars. We’re going to try to p-“
The table cracked in six different places, prompting the dot to flare in size. Outside, things began to hazy like a hot summer day, even though it was early spring.
“…I don’t think we have time for whatever you were going to try…” Starlight said.
Twilight stared at the dot in horror. “No…”
She felt everything start to bend and twist like it were made of rubber, slowly at first, but ramping up far too quickly to be anything other than a herald of destruction.
“DO WHAT YOU CAN!” Starlight shouted, jumping toward the dot with her horn lit with three layers of magical aura. She struck the spark as if her horn were a sword, creating a bowl of time around it, - a series of magic gears freezing her in place next to the instability.
The world stopped warping – finding a stable position.
“…Her spell will last minutes, tops…” Sunset said.
“Sunset, watch her,” Twilight said, forcing her panic into the back of her mind. “Discord, with me.”
Discord, for once in his life, didn’t let out a wisecrack. He accepted Twilight’s teleport wordlessly.
The two of them appeared in the caverns beneath the Everfree, where the roots of the Tree of Harmony spread all the way to Twilight’s Castle and the School of Friendship.
“Discord, your essence is tied to the nature of reality itself. I’m going to have to use you as a conduit for order and stability, and it will be painful. I also need it to be willing or this isn’t going to work.”
Discord closed his eyes, feeling the strain on reality. “Do what you need to.”
“It is an impossible choice, but the only option,” a new voice said.
Twilight looked up from the Tree of Harmony’s roots to see herself standing there – though it was only an sparkling projection that took her form. “The… the Tree?”
“Yes. Harmony. Given voice at last, only for a tragedy.” She turned to Discord. “You and I will know pain unlike anything we’ve experienced before. We cannot hesitate. Magic, create the link. Now.”
Twilight wasted no more time. She touched her horn to Discord, and then to the roots of the Tree of Harmony, linking them through her magic. Then she forced Discord’s mastery over reality onto the entire Tree of Harmony’s system. Chaos met Harmony, prompting the first to scream, and the latter to screech like strained glass. Discord crumbled to the ground and the Tree of Harmony’s avatar vanished into nothing.
And then Twilight’s horn exploded.
~~~
Every facet in the crystalline roots began to glow a bright purple from Twilight’s energy. The last-ditch effort coursed through the physical essence of Harmony itself, bringing a light of hope to all near it.
The Tree of Harmony itself received the boon first, becoming a shining beacon of lavender power deep within the Everfree Forest, surrounding both itself and the Castle of the Two Sisters in an arcane aura.
The roots, as well, provided their protection, reaching up to the ground itself and holding on for dear life – protecting every tree, animal, or pony it came across.
Zecora poked her head out of her hut, unsure what to make of the energy surrounding her home.
The roots went all the way to the School of Friendship, encasing the entire grounds in a similar warm grip.
“My Stars…” Rarity said, looking around the Headmare’s office. “…Twilight’s problem was bigger than she thought, wasn’t it?”
“…Looks that way,” Spike said.
Rarity put her hoof on the school intercom. “Everycreature remain calm! Twilight has everything under control!”
“I get the feeling she doesn’t really.”
“They don’t have to know that.”
Lastly, the energy arrived at the castle itself, the largest object the Tree of Harmony ever created. Every single wall was given the power, all the way up to the map room. Sunset’s machines started exploding from the strain. She had no idea how to figure out what was going on.
The best she could do was look at Starlight. In her frozen time, the energy could not reach the powerful unicorn.
“Starlight! Twilight’s doing it! You can stop now!”
Starlight could not hear her – no sound could pierce the bubble.
Sunset knew better than to try to do anything physical to Starlight – she could get stuck in there as well pretty easily.
So Sunset sat on the ground, feeling helpless.
And then Starlight’s spell gave out. The dot caught up with all the time it had been robbed of, exploding in a shower of violent reality-bending light that engulfed the entire castle and continued to spread, consuming the land itself. Grass was vaporized, earth became dust, and the air burned to nothing.
There was no time to scream or even know what was happening, for the explosion itself was time. Ponies were able to feel the world twisting and warping around them for a few seconds, and then there was nothing. While it seemed as if Equestria fell first, in reality it all happened at once throughout all time and space, merely choosing an uneven point for time to end. Nations were no more, the moon and sun were erased, and even the godlike Stars themselves were powerless.
All that remained was void.
And a chunk of earth protected by a veil of lavender energy; a triangle from the school, to the Tree, to the castle.
The Tree itself began to flash rapidly, each of the six Elements of Harmony beginning to shine like miniature stars in their own right. All six of them flew out across the remaining reality of the void, eager to find those to whom they belonged most.
A little beacon of hope in the darkness.
~~~
Honesty awoke first. The tangerine glow hit Applejack like one of her own apple tree bucks, shaking her into awareness.
She tried to open her eyes, but realized that she could already see. And didn’t have eyes. Didn’t have much of a body, either. She was just drifting in the nothingness.
What in tarnation…?
She tried to trace back her steps. She had woken up, done some of the basic farm chores, and then walked to the School with Apple Bloom for a day of good ol’ education. She had started her first class, then everything had gotten all purple, and then…
She felt the destruction. Everything…
No, everything wasn’t gone. She was here. Wherever here was.
The moment she asked the question, she was blessed with the knowledge. She was in the nothingness that remained, gifted a moment to think and understand by the Element of Honesty within her. So she could understand her choice.
What choice?
The Element of Honesty told her it had enough power within itself to save one more.
Only one.
Applejack instantly thought of Apple Bloom – without any thought put into it. She was allowed to see the School: it and everyone in it had already been saved by Twilight’s actions, Apple Bloom included. Applejack didn’t have to worry about her sister.
But what about the rest of her family? Big Mac and Granny Smith were still at the farm…
Instantly, she saw the two of them, drifting in the nothingness, frozen, mostly transparent. Nothing more than essences, essences that were fading around the edges.
If Applejack had been granted eyes, she would have cried. Had she a voice, she would have screamed. But she could not do either.
She could only see the two of them, knowing only one could come with her.
What would they say? They would both want her to take the other. Big Mac would say Granny was the head of the family, and Granny would say she was getting old anyway. Then she’d order Applejack to do it, on authority as the head of the Apples.
But she was Honesty. And this was her choice.
And the Honest choice – the True one to herself and to them and the family – was clear.
I’m sorry Granny. She reached out for Big Mac, taking his essence into herself
~~~
Laughter awoke second, ever-so-slightly before her Element actually hit her. Pinkie caught it in her nonexistent hooves and took everything in. She didn’t need time to process her new situation; she knew exactly what it was already.
She knew her closest friends were safe in the School.
So she went for her sisters, bringing the essences of all three of them up before her. Marble looked terrified, Limestone looked like she was trying to yell at existence, and Maud was impassive as always, the slightest shift in her pupil size the only indication she had felt anything as the world crumbled.
It was at this point Pinkie’s knowledge of the situation stopped helping her move forward. She had three sisters, and she could only pick one. Just one.
There’s gotta be some way to pick more than one…
No.
Maybe if I give myself up…?
No.
What kind of arbitrary tragedy is this?
Make the choice.
I’m not gonna.
Then stay frozen here for eternity. They suffer as they’re held in their spiritual state.
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa FINE! Let’s see, well, uh… Think, Pinkie, think. Limestone, you… you’d be angry no matter what happens. That’s… that’s not good. Marble, I… I’m not sure you could handle living through this. You… She turned away from Marble. And Maud. Strong, powerful, funny, steadfast… you would be able to make it. You would take this and stay yourself, able to hold everypony else up like the amazing rock you are. Stable. A foundation…
She reached out her nonexistent hoof, but paused just before touching Maud. She found her gaze drawn to Marble. A mare with so much pain, so much sadness, so much potential that Pinkie had never seen come out. They were twins, the two of them, and shared a bond the others didn’t have. Something unspoken.
Pinkie could feel the tragedy coming off the meek mare. A pony who’d never really gotten the chance to live. Limestone had, in her own way, as had Maud. Through the farm or through research… but not Marble. She was a mare who had rarely experienced happiness.
Maybe she could be given another shot at life…
It makes absolutely no sense and saving her will break her, Pinkie’s mind told her. Pinkie proceeded to slap her mind upside the ‘head’ and tell it to shut up. Marble needed a chance.
Pinkie took Marble’s essence into herself and began to giggle in a metaphysical sense.
~~~
Kindness awoke third, feeling as though she was crying even though that was impossible in the new void. Fluttershy drifted for a while, allowing spirits to float past her unnoticed. She didn’t want to choose. She never wanted to choose. Whatever she chose would have just been cruel to someone else who hadn’t been chosen.
But she soon came to know that not choosing would be even more cruel, keeping all these souls in their suffering in-between state…
With an internal sigh mixed with a whimper, she looked for Discord, finding him already part of the saved locations. …Except he was suffering a very exotic and deep kind of pain Fluttershy couldn’t hope to comprehend. She touched him and sent some of her spirit’s warmth into him, not that he was consciously aware of it in his state.
She also saw Twilight, head aflame, trying to absorb the Element of Magic in a torrent of fire. There was nothing Fluttershy could do for her here.
Fluttershy’s mind wandered, thinking of those she’d want to save. The animals… They were not an option for her. Even then it would have been cruel to choose an animal over a pony… But who did she know that wasn’t already saved? Her friends… her students…
Her family.
Her parents appeared before her, eyes full of fear. She reached for them.
One.
She retracted instinctually. She could only take one, not both… and how cruel would it be to take one away from the other? It would be best if she let them both go… a dark Kindness, but one nonetheless.
Which left… her brother. Zephyr. A stallion that had only just come into his own, discovering how he was going to make his way in the world. It would be a tragedy to leave him behind. Sure, he was annoying, overbearing, and Rainbow Dash was probably going to balk, but he deserved more.
Fluttershy wanted to hug her parents one last time, but that was not possible in this space. Instead, she just touched them with her essence – the best apology she could manage. Then she pulled Zephyr into herself and completed Kindness’ quest.
~~~
Loyalty awoke fourth. By the nature of the Element, Rainbow Dash’s choice was to be the most difficult.
For she had to answer one question:
Who was she the most Loyal to?
Twilight, but she was already safe. Most of the others she spent her day-to-day time with were protected as well, Scootaloo included.
Her parents… were an impossible question, and she knew it. She couldn’t just save one. …Could she?
She took a moment to look from her father to her mother. Bow Hot Hoof was strong, understanding, and supportive. Windy Whistles was excitable, energetic, and also supportive. Both were great ponies. And if she was honest with herself, they were both strong enough to go on without the other…
This is stupid! Rainbow Dash screamed. This is just stupid! How can they expect me to choose! Might as well flip a coin! And…
Who was she the most Loyal to?
Who deserved her respect, her admiration, and her saving hoof?
She allowed her parents to drift out of her sight. They were amazing… but deep down; Rainbow Dash knew there were others. It was a painful truth to admit, but she had pushed her parents away. Even if things were fine between them…
Rainbow Dash shook her head, forcing those thoughts out of her mind. She had a decision to make. Who would she give her life for, if she could?
Too many ponies. Way too many ponies… Dozens of ponies flashed by her vision, and even a few non-ponies.
Who would she listen to above all others?
The pony spirits dissipated, leaving behind only a handful. Celestia and Luna were obvious, but there was also Spitfire, Ember, Flash Magnus, Starswirl, anda few others…
Who would actually want to come?
Celestia, Luna, Flash, and most the others fell back. There were still a handful of spirits remaining, but Rainbow Dash knew the one she respected most. A mare with a fiery mane, a commanding demeanor, and a deep burning desire for life to throw something interesting at her again.
Spitfire, ma’am… looks like you’re coming with me.
She touched Spitfire and absorbed her essence, bringing another Element’s choice to completion.
~~~
Generosity awoke fifth. While others had tried to let out cries of pain, cursed the heavens, or just worked as quickly as they possibly could, Rarity froze in place.
One.
She only had one to give, one life to bestow.
Once her mind processed this, her emotions kicked in. Sweetie Belle came to her mind first, but of course she found her safe. The same went for her close friends, her students… but not her extended family, and not her connections in the fashion business.
The representations of her parents, Coco, Sassy, and many others flowed before her eyes, a mixture of sad, desperate, and begging faces. Most of the high and mighty she had known in her life were reduced to quivering cowards in the face of the end. Fancy Pants was a notable exception. He looked… dignified.
She knew she could only choose one of them, so she started crossing names off her mental checklist, each removal tearing away at a part of her soul. The celebrities and most of the fashion designers went first. She took a moment to look at Fancy, and decided he needed to be left. She didn’t have the heart to separate him and Fleur.
With rising panic she knew this meant she had to ignore her parents. She tried not to look as she dismissed them, but in the metaphysical void she was forced to see their representations dissipate.
She took a few moments to regain her composure.
Turning to the two remaining – Coco and Sassy – Rarity thought she had decided. She reached out to Coco.
What am I doing?
She pulled back, a feeling of guilt washing over her.
I’m thinking about who’s close to me… I need to think of who would be best for others.
Images of leaders popped into her mind – Thorax, Rutherford, Ember, Celestia, Starswirl, Mistmane, Meadowbrook, and others. The ponies would already have Twilight to lead them, so she dismissed Celestia… Twilight also provided magic… The other Elements did what the Pillars would do…
What of the leaders of the other races? What would they even do? Thorax would only have Ocellus, Rutherford only Yona. In fact, aside from ponies, only the dragons currently even had a true breeding pair…
…Poor Spike.
Ember… she was a possibility. Three dragons was better than two. But would she really be good for everypony? No… No, Rarity would only be helping the dragons, ignoring the ponies in her choice.
Rarity turned her focus to the only Element still left – Twilight. Straining herself so hard for all of them…
She will not get a choice.
Rarity took this new information, knowing what she had to do. She thought of who was important to Twilight – her brother, Cadence, her parents… separating any of them would be cruel. Flurry… Too young, too destructive.
You’re condemning a child to death, she thought. …Any choice condemns.
But there was one remaining light Rarity couldn’t just dismiss. A mare who had been like a second mother to Twilight, a powerful mentor, and a beacon of hope for all in Equestria – and beyond.
Celestia herself. Dismissed earlier as being redundant to Twilight… but whom would Twilight look to for support without the Princess of the Sun? Would she be able to handle what was to come without her mentor?
Rarity didn’t know.
And that’s why she took the burning essence of Celestia into herself – giving away her choice for the sake of the rest.
~~~
Magic couldn’t awaken like the others, for she was stuck between the energies of chaos and Harmony in an endless game of back and forth. Twilight’s horn had exploded long ago from her mental perspective, yet her body hadn’t quite caught up with it yet.
“The fact that you still have a body is remarkable.”
Twilight managed to open her eyes, despite the fact that her legs wouldn’t move at all. She could still see the roots of the Tree of Harmony around her, as well as the cavern walls. Discord was floating slightly behind her, while the Tree of Harmony’s projection was sitting comfortably on the ceiling.
“What do you mean?” Twilight asked the Tree.
The Tree sighed. “...The amount of trauma your body has gone through was more than it should have been able to survive, even as a physical representation of magic itself. I should be talking to Discord right now about what to do next. But you were not consumed.”
“…I expected I would be…”
“The noble sacrifice of a hero is not lessened by survival. You had the same intentions. You will just get to move on.”
“Move on to what? All I saved was a bunch of rocks… there’s not enough space here to support all of us!”
“This is why we must move on to another world.”
Twilight got an idea. “The Mirror Portal. We still have it…”
“And the human world would suffer immense imbalance if we were to take that option. Already we are taxing the balance with our continued proximity to them – we will have to sever the connection.”
“Sunset’s home…”
The Tree gave her a sorrowful expression. “One of many endless tragedies caught up in this failure of mine.”
Twilight couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “Failure? You!?”
“I’ve got to hear this…” Discord muttered, coming to and discovering his body was just as frozen as Twilight’s.
“I failed,” the Tree reiterated. “I allowed Starlight to assail time, knowing she would be reformed and be used to save our world time and time again afterward. I did not predict the long-term effects. I tried to end it – by choosing your successors earlier than planned – but it was already cascading out of control.”
“…I don’t follow,” Twilight admitted.
The Tree shook her head ever so slightly. “…I have been around far, far longer than you realize, Twilight of Magic. I was born with this universe, and my six essences have been spread throughout for eternity. They always take different forms. At first, they were just impersonal forces. But as time went on and the races developed, they took on concepts. Bearers would come, take the mantle of the Elements, and then leave, allowing a new set of Bearers to rise up. Every time they restored Harmony and Balance to the world, in both literal and personal ways. As they gathered new experiences, I developed into what you see now. And I tried to use my newfound will to shape the world closer.
“And that was my mistake. It has led to the downfall of my entire world.”
Twilight stared at her. “You… you were only trying to help…”
“The more power one has, the more care is required. I simply did not have enough.” She shook her head. “And now we must move somewhere new.”
Discord grunted. “Where do you expect us to go? Earth’s about ready to explode and I don’t exactly know of any other realms besides Limbo!”
“Ah, Discord… At least you weren’t a mistake.” She smiled warmly. “My desire to bring even that which is antithetical to my nature into Harmony… I am sorry this is to be our first and last real conversation.” Her expression suddenly shifted to a blank one. “We are out of time. The second explosion is about to commence. We must ride it.”
“Ride it?” Twilight asked.
“I will do everything,” the Tree said, unblinking. “I will have to give myself to complete the transition to the new world. The Elements are yours, now. It will be you who decide when to give them to the successors, not me.”
“We need you!”
“You are all suffering because of me. You’ll be better off on your own.”
“HARMONY! NO!”
The Tree of Harmony smiled and shook her head. “It is my final choice.” The projection dissipated into nothing, leaving Discord and Twilight alone.
“Still thinks she’s better than us…” Discord muttered.
“You were a part of her, once.”
“Puh-leaze, do you expect me to believe that hors-“
Reality exploded the second time. The area of the dot became a vortex of nothingness, trying to suck everything that remained in like a vacuum. The Tree of Harmony wasn’t having any of that – it tapped into the released energy with the walls of Twilight’s castle itself. As the energy spread out, the matter it touched was translocated to another realm entirely.
Twilight felt the magic within her lurch dramatically as a random direction was chosen. The Tree was still affixed to her – and it couldn’t hide what it was doing. “You don’t even know where we’re going! Hey!”
The Tree ignored her – understanding why she was afraid, but knowing Twilight’s panic and fear could not interfere with what needed to be done. Everything had to be moved, or else all was lost. There was no other option.
The Tree of Harmony severed the Mirror Portal’s connection the old fashioned way – breaking it in half. All it took was one burst of magic from a displaced root and the ancient artifact shattered into a thousand fragmented pieces.
Everything else moved as smoothly as butter, vanishing from the void and appearing in the sky of a new world. The triangular chunk of earth shined bright under the light of a new sun, hovering in midair for but a moment.
Go, make your own destiny.
And with that, the Tree of Harmony’s core split down the middle, ending its consciousness. The roots remained, surging with more energy than they ever had before.
Without an active will holding everything up, the remnant of Equestria fell out of the sky. Twilight barely had time to realize they were falling before they crashed, splitting the remnant earth up into several pieces. The Everfree forest divided, the School of Friendship collapsed, and the castle tilted sideways.
Within the caves, Twilight was pressed to the ceiling and then rammed into the floor hard enough to break some of her ribs, knocking the wind out of her.
The world was calm again. She could feel her body, and move it as she always could. Magic felt… different from normal, but not preparing to explode at a moment’s notice.
Even with her broken ribs, she could stand up and stretch her wings. Discord saw her in pain, snapping his fingers to mend the bones and fix her horn.
Neither of them said a word for the longest time. The sudden change from absolute peril to… quiet was too jarring.
Eventually, Twilight decided to send out a simple ‘ping’ spell to see how everything was doing. While the earth had shattered in numerous places, the remaining roots still tied everything together. The now-dead clearing of the Tree of Harmony, the collapsed school, and the castle.
Panic began to rise in her. “I… I don’t feel any ponies!”
Discord pressed his fingers together and snapped, performing his own Ping. “…By Entropy’s end…”
“No! We worked so hard to save them! It can’t be just us!” She spread her wings wide and screamed. “They were safe! I protected them! All of them! I felt them in the void! You felt them!”
“Yes.”
“THEN WHERE THE BUCK ARE THEY!?” Twilight slammed her hoof onto the nearest Harmony root.
You’re not alone.
Twilight stared down at the root in disbelief. “I… I thought you were gone!”
I am not the Tree of Harmony, Twilight. Look closer.
She did as requested, tapping into the root with her magic – and she gasped. A projection of the sun appeared in the cavern, floating just in front of them. The sun slowly became a tall, white pony with a mane of majestic pastel colors and large, wise eyes.
“Celestia! But… You were…”
“Rarity is a very generous mare, Twilight,” Celestia said with a sorrowful smile. “She could save one. She chose me for your sake.”
“I… I…” Twilight had no words - she just pulled Celestia into a hug. It only took a bit more magic to make Celestia a fully physical form. “I don’t know what to do… what’s going on… or anything…”
“I don’t either,” Celestia said, laying one of her hooves on top of the root of harmony. “But you saved so many, Twilight. All of them – every last one of them – is contained in these crystal roots.”
Twilight laid her hoof next to Celestia’s and felt them. Her friends, the students of the school, and the Element’s choices… All of them were in there. She even found Sunset… but not Starlight. She had been too close to the danger to be protected.
She got to make her sacrifice.
Twilight bit back tears and laughed at the same time. “Girls… You’re here.”
Y’all better get us out of here soon, Ah don’t quite know what to make of this place…
“Soon, Applejack, soon,” Twilight said, stroking the root gently. “There’s no way it will be much longer now…”
“We need to know where we are first,” Celestia said. “We must understand our situation.”
“By all means…” Discord put on a smile and readied his fingers for a snap.
“…Let’s walk outside, not teleport,” Twilight said, stopping him.
“Why?”
“It’ll feel right.” Twilight set off through the caverns, following the roots dutifully. Discord shrugged, following with Celestia.
Twilight kept her hoof on the root the entire time, letting everyone know that it would be okay, that she was here… That she would get them out. That they would all be safe. She was not able to comfort those grieving. She was not able to comfort herself… but she could put on a façade for at least a little longer.
It did not take long for them to find a section of earth that had broken, allowing them to step out into the light of the new sun. Instead of an orb of fire, it appeared as a crescent, the band of light narrowing as the local equivalent of ‘night’ approached.
All around, they could see the land sloping up around them, rising into the sky until no more details could be seen. Twilight could see clouds both above them, and affixed to the land far, far above them.
“We’re on the interior of a sphere…” Twilight said, jaw dropping.
“Half day, half night,” Celestia said, lighting her horn. “The sun does not respond to my power.”
“I don’t think it moves,” Twilight continued. “I… It just sits there, in the middle. With all this stuff around it.”
“…Not enough chaos,” Discord observed. “Where’s the fun if you can’t move the sun and moon? …There’s not even a moon, is there?”
Twilight looked up at the sky. She had just walked through one of the worst tragedies imaginable – the loss of her entire world. Hundreds of ponies she had known and cared about were gone, gashes of grief in her heart. The only same thing to do was scream and cry. And yet, here she was, looking at this new beautiful world they had been placed in.
She found herself smiling.
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My thoughts exactly, Pinkie. My thoughts exactly.
Eh, you made it work.
Have a Like. :)
Normally, I'm not a fan of tradgedy. But this, this was beautifully written. Instead of taking forever on the build up, you had the problem be even the beginning. Each and every character was written so well and in character. They all showed great maturity as well. Though normally they might not be as mature, when the situation arises, they meet it with maturity. They all knew what would be too cruel for some to endure. I think the one saved that will have to deal with the seperation and lass the most will be Celestia, losing her sister once again, this time, forever. I think that Sunset will be good for Celestia through this, and Celestia for Sunset. I think that, even moreso than Twilight, Sunset needed Celestia in this new world. Again, this was amazing. Great job! If there is a sequel, I look forward to it. If not, I am content with where this lies.
Yes, but I'd think "vengeful time-travelling unicorn" would count as "even weirder".
Which would make him one of the best candidates for solving this.
I do name this phenomenon a "time singularity".
EVERYONE RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!
… Oh wait, there's nowhere to run to.
It's okay, Applejack, it's the best choice you could have made in those circumstance. That goes for everypony else, you all did your best in a situation in which there is no best.
…
Of course?
It is a inescapable rule that those with more power also have more influence, for better or worse.
Oh thank… Discord.
I can't bear Twilight's horn staying broken.
Welp, that was one heck of a story.
All those lives lost in but a moment…
Sunset is an element as well, of an alternate dimension, sure, but one. Being born of Equestria and home again, she probably could have helped if given the chance. Although I don't even want to know how hard such a choice would be on the embodiment of Empathy.
... fuck, the only two leaders are the ones wracked with the most grief right now. Celestia has lost Luna, her sister, after finally getting her back only a few brief years ago, and Twilight's entire family is dead. The rest all have someone from their family, but they only have each other(and sunset, I suppose).
I do think it'd be better if time was going faster farther away- that would mean more energy could arrive faster because the internal reference frame allows more energy to arrive via compression- magic piling on top of itself as it shifts into smaller and smaller portions of tome, like light blue shifting and gaining energy when entering a gravity well. Plus, energy is mass and gravity distorts space-time, causing time to slow within the reference frame of the mass.
Well, that's the basic version that's taught in schools and is 90% incorrect but gets the broad strokes accross anyways. The real truth is way fucking weirder. Remember- everything is travelling at light speed into the future!
And then Starlight appears because she's the 7th element.
Interesting. I enjoyed it.
Thank you very much, this is very well done. I really liked how you handled the characters especially the choices of the elements.
I do appreciate Pinkie pointing out the arbitrary nature of the sadistic choice. Nice way to lessen the blow of the chronoclasm, as does the fact that it literally exploded twice. Looking forward to anything else you do with this, assuming that that Incomplete tag is supposed to be there.
Like, holy damn.
I wish I'd discovered your work sooner. Your storytelling is something I could just read forever.
If only there was some million word multiversal epic that could tide me over...
9456485
Glad you enjoyed! But, sadly, one does not simply allow a main course to 'tide them over'.
(see you in a month. Or two. Or three. Good luck, you'll need it.)
-GM, master of mastero.
Im excited for where this is going
Also i agree with discord theres never enough chaos
Holy smokes, this is heavy
Gripping, but heavy.
How the hay do you churn out all these ideas so fast and easily?
9484122
For every idea I write, there are twenty or thirty I don't. I am a guy with a lot of ideas, too many to put down...
As for the speed, I forced myself to write for two hours a day with a physical pen for several months. I came out of that with a quick mind for the words.
-GM, master of prices.
9484150
Holy carp, I need that kind of commitment myself ;-; You're inspiring
Well a dyson sphere is hardly the worst place to end up, you'll never run out of space.
Holy shit dude....
"So what happened?!" cried Twilight.
"Well," the Tree mused. "Either the Black Guardian got hold of them when I was calling the fragments the Key To Time, or Thanos completed the Gauntlet when I switched the name to the Infinity Stones... or Gems... whatever, the whole thing's screwy."
Can you please stop dominating my kindles? :-)
9756483
I refuse.
-GM, master of evil anime laughs.
10 minutes of tears. Bravo