• Published 11th Sep 2012
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Cry for Eternity - asylum1388



After Celestia's death, Twilight must take on a role she is woefully underprepared for.

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Chapter 32

Author's Note:

Eh, I've made better.


Pre-readers: PiquoPie, and f0xhole.

Sixty-five years since the coronation of Princess Twilight Sparkle.

Twilight groaned as a knock on her bedroom door interrupted her thoughts. She tossed a white sheet over the project she had been working on and magically unlocked the door.

“You’re late,” she growled as she heard the door open behind her. Seizing a nearby notebook, she began rapidly writing down notes on her latest theory.

“A-apologies, Princess,” a mare’s voice stammered. Sunshower approached and glanced nervously at the towering stack of papers on Twilight’s desk. “Is this all finished and ready to go?”

“No. It’s not,” Twilight replied curtly.

“Oh,” Sunshower muttered disappointedly. “Would you like me to go over the important matters for today and leave everything else on the desk with the, err, rest?” she asked, gesturing to the collected paperwork.

“Yes,” Twilight replied, doing her best to show her annoyance at having even been asked that particular question again.

“Very well,” the mare said quietly, sitting down in front of Twilight to read. “The first thing is the request for funding to rebuild Saddleshire. They-”

“Denied.”

“Denied? But-”

“They were warned by dozens of ponies not to attempt to settle in that particular floodplain and did anyway,” Twilight grunted. “Denied.”

“Okay... Next is the proposal by Duchess-”

“Don’t care, it can wait.”

Sunshower set the proposal aside and held up the next with an exasperated expression. “The trade agreement with-”

“Not urgent, put it with the rest.”

"Okay," Sunshower groaned. "Last we have an urgent request by Count Fairbank. You'll recall that he began a joint venture with the Adal Company that went poorly and their factory ended up spewing fifteen tons of cement into a nearby swamp."

"I remember. What does he want?" Twilight snapped.

"I guess the cleanup is turning out to be more difficult than anypony anticipated. He says it'll end up bankrupting both his family and the company. He's requesting assistance."

"Well, that's too bad," Twilight grumbled.

"Princess, Adal is a rather large company," Sunshower replied nervously. "Letting them go bankrupt could hurt-"

"They're the ones who screwed up, they're the ones who will have to fix it," Twilight interrupted. "Anything else?"

"No... Your Highness."

"Good. Leave me," Twilight replied, letting her annoyance spill into her voice.

Sunshower left with a sigh, closing the door behind her. As soon as Twilight was alone, she turned back to her desk and pulled off the sheet, revealing the Elements of Harmony laying on the table before her. She fixed her eyes of the Element of Loyalty and touched the cold stone. Black — like a lifeless lump of plastic — as it had been for the past two weeks. With its bearer gone, it seemed to have lost all its power; as if it had lost the will to live. Granted, all of the Elements had been acting up since Dash died, but Loyalty had become completely inert.

No, that wasn't true...

The rest of the Elements had been acting strangely since Applejack died. Since she fought with Rainbow and started pushing her remaining friends away. Could the Element's behavior be her fault?

She tore her eyes away from the Element of Honesty, and her current train of thought immediately ceased.

She shook her head, reeling back in shock, angry at the violation of her mind, only to inadvertently set her hoof down on Laughter. A powerful sorrow and regret filled her before she even realized what was happening, and she fell away from the table, landing hard on her back.

She stood up with a growl, and swiped her foreleg across the table, stubbing her hoof as Generosity refused to be moved. She clutched her hurting limb and began swearing angrily, but was silenced as a frightened scream manifested itself in her mind. Thrashing blindly through the skull-splitting headache, she felt around for something to alleviate her pain. Something soft rubbed against her hoof, so she seized it and hurled it over the table.

Immediately, silence returned to her thoughts as the blanket fell over Kindness, hiding her from its gaze.

As her vision slowly began to return to her, Twilight instinctively reached out and took the Element of Magic in her hooves. She turned the familiar weight over several times, taking comfort in it.

She had been going about this all wrong. There couldn’t be something wrong with each of the other Elements; it was close to impossible. There was only one problem, but it was shared between them, she realized.

The only way to fix it was to use the Element that linked all the rest together; the only Element that had been acting normally. Her Element.

She started channeling her spell, focusing as much magic as she could into the Element. She was filled with a supernatural elation as she began to feel around the magical matrices.

Then it came, feedback, like a bolt of lightning shooting through her horn. Pain beyond anything she had ever felt.

Her veins splitting open; her limbs being torn off. Every nerve ending aflame as Magic itself rebuked her intrusion. Her mind was battered with eldritch images of unknowable crimes committed in universes beyond her imagination.

The mere instant it lasted was a lifetime, and when Twilight’s senses returned, she found herself a short distance away, sitting with her back against her bed. Her face was soaked with sweat and tears, and she was clutching the ice-cold tiara to her chest, holding on for dear life.

She glared down at the Element. The betrayal... it hurt more than the feedback ever could have. Her breathing quickened. She heard herself let out an enraged scream as she hurled it across the room and it connected with the far wall to the sound of breaking glass.

“Oh no...” She lept up and bolted towards the Element, searching for whatever had been broken.

A picture frame, holding a photograph of her and Shining Armor, taken on the day he had been accepted into the Royal Guard. She gently lay it on her end table and dragged herself back over to her desk. She snatched a packet of paperwork from the top of the stack and beginning to read.

Another knocking interrupted her thoughts and she heaved a sigh. “Come in,” she grunted unenthusiastically.

The door opened quietly and she heard a pair of ponies enter. Twilight didn’t bother looking up from her papers. “What?”

“It’s us, Twilight,” a voice replied softly. She turned around to find Luna and Sweetie Belle standing in the doorway.

“And?”

“We’re worried about you. I know you’re depressed about losing Dash, but it’s been two weeks and you haven’t come out of here once,” Sweetie said timidly.

“And...?”

“And... We want you to come out?” Sweetie stated.

Twilight gave a sarcastic laugh. “We all want things,” she muttered, turning back to her report.

“Shutting yourself away like this isn’t good for you, Twilight,” Luna replied softly, sitting at her side. “It wouldn’t be good for anypony, but you especially. You need social interaction the way other ponies need water. With you refusing to leave your room, I can’t give it to you as often as you need it, and with Rainbow gone, she cannot remain here in my stead. If you won’t stop hiding from the world, would you at least venture out into the castle on occasion?”

“Or at least let me in here to see you?” Sweetie inserted.

“You two just don’t understand. Nopony does,” Twilight mumbled, turning her head away from Luna.

“That’s because you won’t let us!” Sweetie blurted out, her voice steadily rising. “You’re the pony who was always telling me to be open with my feelings; well how about you be open for a change! Does sitting up here alone really make you feel better?”

“That’s none of your business!” Twilight snarled. “What I do with my time is my choice and mine alo-”

“Oh, get over yourself!” Sweetie screamed, leaving Twilight speechless. “We miss Dash, but we also miss you! Do you know what’s not fair? What you’re doing. I’m going to die too, and so are a lot of ponies who care about you, so why aren’t you spending time with us? When we’re gone, we’re going to miss you just as much as you miss us, but you’re too blind to see that!”

Sweetie finished her tirade, shaking with anger. The room remained silent for a few tense moments before Luna laid a hoof on Sweetie’s shoulder and spoke up.

“Do you see what you’re doing? You are tearing us apart,” the Night Princess whispered. “You are right that it isn’t fair, but you knew that coming into this. I remember it vividly; you were well aware of what becoming a Princess meant and knew in no uncertain terms that this was going to happen, but you bravely accepted.”

“Yeah, well, maybe that was a mistake.”

“Twilight, how could you say that?” Sweetie squeaked.

“Twilight, please, you’re scaring me,” Luna mumbled. “I’ve come too far to lose everything I’ve gained; everything you’ve given me.”

“Oh, please,” Twilight groaned. “I have self-control. I’m not stupid enough to start killing ponies and demanding eternal daylight.”

Luna didn’t react to Twilight’s words. There was neither anger, nor sadness in her expression. Only disbelief. Without a word, she turned and stumbled out of the room.

Sweetie watched her leave before wheeling back around on Twilight, seething. “That was... The. Single. Most. Vile thing I’ve ever heard come out of anypony’s mouth! Just what the hell is wrong with you? You’re the worst Princess Equestria could ask for!” She spat at Twilight and watched as the spittle fell short before galloping after Luna.

A vase sailed through the spot her head had just been occupying. Twilight let out an enraged scream before levitating a second vase and hurling it through the door for good measure, taking a grim satisfaction in the sound of it shattering against the outside wall.

She turned around, blew her balcony doors off their hinges, and hurled herself over the railing. She took a steep dive, carving a burning streak through the Royal Garden’s treeline before leveling out and skidding to a landing along one of the garden paths. A sharp crack caused her to jump and she snarled up at the trees, now aflame from the heat of her descent. She blasted the burning branches, extinguishing the offending fires and leaving only a smoking ruin in their place.

She stomped down the path, foliage and flora both shrinking away from the wild, crackling magic she was emitting. She had no destination in particular, but lacked the ability to stop her legs from moving.

“P-princess, are you ok-”

SHUT UP!” she raged at the innocent gardener, sending him fleeing. She glared after him, catching a glimpse of somepony else at the edge of her vision. She turned to direct her fury at the new intruder, only to find herself face-to-face with a statue.

It was the statue of Princess Celestia. It seemed to tower over her, a bleach white god of ready to exact punishment on its unworthy disciple. A sharp pain wracked Twilight’s chest as she gazed at it; into its magenta eyes.

“Don’t you look at me that way,” she growled with an angry sob. “Don’t you dare judge me! Y-you have no right! You... This is all your fault! YOU DID THIS TO ME!”

She threw a deadly spell at her mentor’s likeness, leaving dust where the regal head had sat only moments before.

Then, she fell to her knees, sobbing.