The Sacrifice
Twilight was certainly not prepared for this.
To recap, she was recently getting ready for her coronation with her six best friends: Spike, Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie all supporting her. However, something was clearly amiss when ponies started being more cold and distant, she was even more concerned when Discord approached them on FOOT.
Discord had revealed that he had recently been spying on three old villains who had been summoned by Grogar to cause Equestria’s downfall. Those villains were Tirek, Chrysalis, and Cozy Glow, they had recently betrayed and overpowered Grogar with his own bell and before Discord could escape, he too was drained of his magic.
When questioned why he let this all go on for as long as it did, Discord explained that he wanted to shape Twilight into the perfect ruler Equestria could be, so he let this go on, feeling he could use this to give Twilight the confidence she needed while seeing himself as a failsafe in case things went wrong.
After that, Twilight and her friends narrowly avoided capture from the Legion Of Doom and were at a final standoff in the fields of Canterlot, Windigos howling above. The battle was intense and everyone was contributing to the fight, this was all on them now, the ponies were divided, the school was abandoned and any backup friends were currently captured or in Shining Armor and Cadence’s case, looking after Flurry Heart.
Twilight looked on as her friends were battling the rest of the villains to get the bell, it was being heavily guarded by Tirek, Cozy Glow, and Chrysalis as she and her friends tried feebly to get past them. By the looks of it, things were looking bleak and they might not get the bell before the villains overpower them.
But unknown to Twilight’s friends, she did have a backup plan, and she was hoping she wouldn’t have to use it but…
What else could she do?
She super charged her horn and blasted the villains to the ground, and grabbed the bell. The blast took a bit out of Twilight but she still had enough energy to grab the bell and fly past the Legion Of Doom. She ignored her friends’ cries of concern and continued flying away.
“Come back here you ignorant alicorn!” She heard Chrysalis demand furiously, just what she was hoping for.
“If you want it, you’ll have to catch me first!” Twilight smirked mockingly before zipping off, leaving the three villains to chase her.
It wasn’t too long before they sent a blast towards Twilight’s way but she prepared for that and stuck Grogar’s bell in front of her. The blast hit the bell and much to Twilight’s joy, it began cracking.
Twilight had done some thinking when she was in the Crystal Empire, Grogar’s bell was pretty formidable but it also was fragile, and if her studies on the artifact taught her anything, dark magic could destroy an evil artifact.
Including the magic it came from.
Twilight continued to fly away as Tirek jumped in front of her, sending a laser her way, but Twilight held the bell out again, causing it to crack again. She then teleported away from Tirek’s firing range and soon found Chrysalis and Cozy Glow chasing her from a distance, they fired their own combination of magic which Twilight had effortlessly blocked with the bell before teleporting away again.
Twilight was twenty feet away from the villains at this point, she looked at the bell and saw how unstable the bell was getting, just one more blast should do the trick.
Finally the three villains made a beeline for Twilight, all of them powering their combined magic and soon sending a gigantic laser her way.
Twilight held the bell in front of her one last time, once the bell broke, all the magic it stole would go back to their original users, meaning Celestia, Luna, and Discord would get their magic back.
Though with the amount of power put into the laser the Legion Of Doom fired, Twilight knew a massive explosion was inevitable. There would be no time to teleport before it hit her and she knew it. She would likely die from this deed.
The laser inched closer to Twilight as she gathered her last thoughts.
’But if this is the way I end up dying.’
The laser made contact with the bell.
’I don’t regret a thing.’
“What is Twilight doing fighting those three alone?” Rainbow Dash asked incredulously.
“Yeah! Doesn’t she know that one versus three are really bad odds?” Pinkie Pie said in confusion.
The rest of her friends all seemed confused too, except for one dragon.
Spike knew Twilight wouldn’t just rush into this sort of thing without reason.
Spike knew Twilight wouldn’t leave behind her friends if she didn’t have a plan in mind.
Spike also knew Twilight would do anything to protect her friends.
Before he could voice that out, a loud explosion rang in the distance.
“TWILIGHT!” Rarity and Fluttershy shouted out in horror.
‘No… I was right…’ Spike thought in horror.
Twilight laid on her back, facing towards the cloudy sky above, she looked to see how the villains were doing and was relieved to see that Tirek, Cozy Glow, and Chrysalis were all rendered powerless and unconscious, just as Twilight wanted. She saw they were breathing, but it would be a long while before they woke up.
However, their condition was practically heaven compared to Twilight’s. Her left wing was bent out of proportion, her right cheek had a gash, and her torso was pierced by some pieces of Grogar’s bell. It didn’t help that she was bleeding.
“Twilight! Guys! I found her!” She heard Rainbow Dash’s voice in the distance.
Twilight’s friends stopped near her in horror at seeing the alicorn’s condition, Fluttershy even covered Spike’s eyes at first but that was quickly stopped by Spike prying the hooves away from him, which Fluttershy seemed to understand, she probably knew what was coming.
“Girls… you came back for me.” Twilight lightly smiled despite the pain.
“What the hay were you thinking jumping into danger like that?! Don’t you realize the state you’re in now?!” Applejack lectured furiously but Twilight caught the tears in her eyes.
“Applejack… I knew there was a chance something like this would happen.” Twilight laughed hoarsely.
“What in Equestria are you talking about?” Rarity said incredulously.
“I knew Grogar’s bell could only be destroyed by dark magic, especially from the magic that created it, so I baited the trio into destroying it… even if it takes my life.” Twilight explained, frowning in sorrow as she spoke, she knew this was the end, there was nothing they could do to stop this.
“But we’re here Twilight, you’re going to be okay now that we’re together.” Fluttershy smiled reassuringly, if only Twilight believed those words.
“I wish I could say you were right Fluttershy, this looks like the end of my story.” Twilight sighed sadly before looking fondly at the ponies and dragon before her, “Thank you all for being my best friends and teaching me the magic of friendship. I’ll always love you, even when I’m gone.”
The girls felt themselves saddened at what Twilight was implying, and Pinkie’s mane even deflated at knowing Twilight would most definitely die from this and they would never see her again.
However, Spike could not accept this, he felt as if everything he ever cared about was being taken away from him in an instant. He ran over to Twilight immediately in desperation, “Twilight! Please don’t say that! We can figure something out! A magic spell or something, just please, you can’t die on me! You’re my family, I don’t know what I’ll do without you!”
“Spike, you’ll survive without me. I swear, you have the friends surrounding you, Celestia, Luna, Cadence, Shining Armor, and even Starlight and Discord. It’ll be tough I know, but you’ll persevere without me. Just knowing all of you are safe is enough to let me go in peace.” Twilight found herself grabbing onto Spike’s back, letting tears fall out her eyes, before turning to the rest of her friends, “Before I die, I just want to say that I love you all… it was an honor to be your friend. And tell Starlight, Discord, and my family that applies to them too.”
Twilight looked at the sky one more time, the clouds were starting to clear up, and the Windigoes were finally gone. She smiled softly as she took her last breath and closed her eyes, that was all she needed to know what she always knew before.
Friendship Is Magic.
Spike put his hand on Twilight’s chest and gasped in horror when he felt no pulse, and began tearing up, as did the rest of Twilight’s friends when they realized she was truly gone.
Even though Twilight was at peace with her life, the Mane Five and Spike were all devastated at the death of their friend and they all started crying. The pony that had brought them all together was now dead right before their eyes, Equestria may have been saved but at what cost.
What they did not see was that every pony, changeling, dragon, griffon, hippogriff, and yak were all standing atop a mountain in shock, since they were expecting to see an epic battle between the heroes of Equestria and the legion of villains, they were not able to see the entire scene but noticed that the villains were defeated and drained of their power but the heroes were all crying for some reason.
Neighsay was the first to act and spoke to some nearby castle guards, “Hurry up and deal with the villains, and find out what is going on down there.”
Sunburst adjusted his glasses to see that Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Spike were all crying but he caught a glimpse of what they were crying over and gasped at what they saw, “I think I know what happened.” He said in horror.
Celestia, Luna, Discord, and Starlight had finally made it to the scene and ran over towards to where the Mane Five and Spike were all grieving, clearly concerned but then they saw Twilight’s body and the concern grew into horror but out of all of them, Starlight was the first to react.
“TWILIGHT!” Starlight cried out as she immediately rushed over to the unmoving body of Twilight.
“Twilight?” Starlight squeaked out, she was just worn out, there was no other possible explanation, “Twilight, get up.”
But Twilight did not respond, she was unconscious, her fur had lost some of its bright purple color, and her mane was dropped limp across her face. There was no doubt about it, Twilight was gone.
Starlight could not believe this, she wouldn’t believe it.
“Twilight, this isn’t funny. You can’t be gone, I know you aren’t. Just open your eyes and wake up, please Twilight, PLEASE TWILIGHT!” Starlight cried out miserably,
Everyone witnessing this felt indescribable amount of sympathy for Starlight, Twilight had been her rock, the one who saved her from becoming a monster she could have become, the one who showed her the light of friendship, and now she was torn away from Starlight in an instant.
“This can’t be.” Celestia whispered in horror, she too, beginning to tear up at losing her most precious student.
“This wasn’t supposed to happen.” Luna cried softly, also feeling saddened at Twilight’s passing.
“Twilight, I could handle you leaving Ponyville, but you can’t die on me, I don’t think I could ever bare losing you!” Starlight begged fruitlessly before remembering something, “You-You promised me that whatever we went through you’d always be there for me, no matter what comes next. I always believed you when you said that, I always remembered that Twilight. You’re the one I always needed in my life! Please don’t leave me!”
Starlight sniffed before smiling in hope, “I-I can fix this. I just need to heal her!”
Starlight lit her horn for a spell, only for it to fail, she tried again and again, but no matter how much she tried to heal her, it wouldn’t work. Healing spells could only do so much, and it had no effect on the dead.
“Twilight…” Starlight‘s lip quivered before letting herself sob on the ground, just as everyone else was doing at the moment, except for Celestia and Luna who kept themselves composed as they cried.
One creature remained standing despite all of the pain and sorrow happening before their eyes, and it was Discord, but then he couldn’t prevent tears from falling.
“Oh Twilight… I shouldn’t have let this go on for as long as I did.” Discord silently cried, “I’m so sorry.”