Chapter Text
Lord Tirek’s hunger for power grew exponentially with every second he spent out of Tartarus. He trampled towns as he searched for the fourth princess, leaving in his path a trail of ponies whose magic had been stolen from them. Twilight Sparkle, carrying the magic of all the Equestrian princesses, understood how grave the circ*mstances would be if he ever caught her.
The amount of royal magic coursing through her body was enough to be painful. It was hard enough controlling it, but it was even harder trying to keep herself upright when her whole body was screaming at her to lie down and never get up. Despite the magic eroding her veins and pounding inside her skull, Twilight knew she had to keep moving. The fate of all of Equestria depended on her.
“Okay,” she whispered to herself, “you can do this…” Squeezing her eyes shut, Twilight pictures herself celebrating her victory with her friends. She had to defeat Tirek, if not for Equestria, then for them.
“Princess Twilight!” The deep, gruff voice carried throughout the rocky cavern. “You have something that belongs to me!” Twilight gasped, her whole body freezing up. It was Lord Tirek. He had found her.
Twilight used a blast of magic to boost herself up off the ground, large wings carrying her through the sky. Tirek spots her against the evening sky, grinning and revealing rows of yellowed fangs. He lifts his head to the sky, large horns conjuring a ball of energy and hurling it towards the princess. Barely dodging the attack, Twilight shoots an even larger spell back at him.
Throwing his hands up in front of him, Tirek laughs into the crisp fall air.
“Now I see what your fellow princesses have done,” he cackles. “Are they really so foolish to entrust all of the Alicorn magic in Equestria to such a small girl?” Twilight doesn’t entertain his taunts, flying towards him at speeds that could even challenge Rainbow Dash. She readies another attack, wasting no time in launching her magic towards the horned centaur.
Tirek counters her easily, and the battle continues. The clashing of magic against magic echoes throughout all of Equestria, the sheer force of the collisions flattening all the nearby vegetation and uprooting even the strongest of trees. By the time the moon began to rise up from behind the mountains, the two strongest beings in all of Equestria were still fighting.
Another blow from Twilight sends Tirek stumbling backwards, fear flashing briefly in his eyes before being replaced by malice.
“It appears we’re at an impasse,” Tirek spits at the girl. “How about a trade, Princess Twilight?” With a snap of his fingers, Tirek is surrounded by Twilight’s friends, all of which are trapped in his magic hold. “Their release, for all of the Alicorn magic in Equestria.” Twilight gasps, her heart dropping into her shoes.
Her friends waste no time in protesting, Rainbow Dash shouting, though muffled by the magic, “Don’t do it Twilight!”
Fluttershy adds, “We aren’t worth it!” Discord, having been betrayed and imprisoned by Tirek, shakes his head.
“Oh, but you are, Fluttershy,” the chaos-holder says sadly. “You’re the one who taught me that friendship is magic. I had friends and I had magic…now, I have neither.” Fluttershy looked at the hooved man longingly, a deep sadness in her eyes.
“Enough!” Tirek shouts, shaking the air around him. “What’s it going to be, Princess?”
Twilight is silent for a long moment. Finally, she answers, “I will give you my magic in exchange for the release of my friends.” The girls shout their disagreements, pleading with Twilight to rethink her decision.
“Done.” Tirek snaps his fingers, dropping the girls to the ground. Fluttershy brushes the dirt from her face, then looks around. Discord was still trapped.
“All of my friends!” Twilight demands. Tirek looks confused, breathing out a short laugh.
“After he has manipulated and betrayed you and your friends, you still think of him as one of your own?”
“Release him!”
Tirek snaps his fingers, releasing the horned man from his prison. Discord looks up at Twilight, disbelief in his eyes.
“Thank you, Princess Twilight.” He turns to Fluttershy. “I’m sorry.” Fluttershy doesn’t meet his eyes, looking away as tears begin to form.
She whispers in a shaky voice, “I know.”
Using her Alicorn magic, Twilight sends her friends to safety, ensuring that they don’t become victims to what is coming. As soon as the girls and Discord are a safe distance away, Twilight hurls another attack at Tirek, sending him flying backwards. The princess was the element of magic, not honesty. The centaur has to be stupid if he really thought she was going to give up that easily.
Fire rages in Tirek’s eyes, and the battle resumes once more.
.·:*¨¨* ≈☆≈ *¨¨*:·.
Back in the ruins of Ponyville, Applejack helps her friends to their feet. Rainbow Dash shakes off the help, looking in the direction they’d been sent from. She furrows her brows, then turns to the rest of the group.
“We have to go back!” Dash shouts. “She’s fighting that guy completely alone! She needs help!”
“Hold your horses, Dash,” Applejack tells her. “Twilight has all of the princesses’ magic, and we don’t have any at all. If we were to go back, we’d be more of a hindrance than help. All we can do is wait for her to come home.”
Fluttershy backs into Discord’s arms, and Rarity clutches at her wounded leg. Pinkie looks around at each of them, and she can practically feel each of their distress lingering in the air. She looks towards the mountains, knowing that Twilight is there somewhere fighting for her life, and takes a step towards it. Then another, and another, and before she knows it, she is running towards Twilight like her life depends on it. She hears her friends calling for her, Applejack’s irritated voice calling her back, but she can’t stop herself. It’s as though someone is moving her legs for her, sending adrenaline coursing through her body.
Pinkie runs all the way back to the scarred battlefield until she sees Twilight. The pressure of the magic is so heavy that it stops the curly-haired girl in her tracks. She’s panicking, taking in lungfuls of air as her exhaustion finally catches up to her. The war before her is violent and merciless, attacks being shot back and forth at one another. It’s dreadfully mesmerising—so mesmerising, in fact, that Pinkie can’t will herself to move when Tirek deflects one of Twilight’s attacks and sends it hurtling towards her.
It’s mere meters away from her face when her instincts finally throw herself out of the way of the blast, her left leg just barely being grazed by the firey beam. The pain shoots through her body, and the smell of burnt flesh litters the air. Pinkie screams in pain and falls to the ground.
Twilight’s head snaps around, her eyes widening as she shouts, “Pinkie?!”
She’s unable to dodge Tirek’s next attack, distracted by the wounded girl. Twilight is sent flying towards Pinkie, her wings scorched, and her back slams against the rocky terrain. Her horn is cracked, and she’s bleeding from too many places. Pinkie cries out Twilight’s name, hurriedly limping over to the injured Alicorn’s side.
“Pinkie…” Twilight whispers, trying to lift herself up.
“Twilight!” Pinkie sobs, her hands hovering over Twilight’s wounded body. “Dear Celestia, I’m so sorry! Oh, your wings! I promise, everything is going to be alright!” Pinkie’s hand rests on Twilight’s abdomen. It’s wet.
She sees the blood, but she doesn’t really see it. Not until it starts rapidly pooling on the ground, soaking both of them in the coppery, crimson fluid. Pinkie resists the urge to scream, whimpering at the sight of her friend dying in front of her.
“Twi—Twilight…” she rasps.
Twilight seems to grasp in that moment the truth about what was going to happen to her. Her vision of going home and saving her friends was in pieces. Tirek stomped towards them, the ground shaking, sending ripples through the puddle of blood underneath them. Twilight grabs Pinkie by the shirt, pulling her in close.
“Pinkie Pie, I need you to listen to me,” she gasps. “Tirek cannot have the Alicorn magic. I’m going to give it to you—” Pinkie begins to stutter a protest before Twilight cuts her off. “You will take this magic, and you will run far away from here! Just because I die doesn’t mean you have to die, too! Promise me, Pinkie, that you will take care of Equestria, that you will protect our friends!” Pinkie is shaking, unable to find her voice.
“Promise me, Pinkamena Diane Pie!” Twilight shouts at her, eyes flooding with tears.
“I promise, I promise!” Pinkie cries, tears pouring down her face. Twilight smiles at her, eyes full of something Pinkie can’t quite identify.
“Good,” Twilight sighs, turning her horn towards Pinkie. “This might hurt a little.”
Suddenly, Pinkie’s body is flooded with a searing pain as thousands of years of Alicorn magic enters her system. Pinkie had never been a magic user—she was an Earth-bound girl who was raised on a rock farm, they never used any magic to do anything. The magic inside her felt unnatural, burning hot and pulsing like a living thing. She felt her head and her back pounding and aching, and she couldn’t hold back the scream that erupted from somewhere deep inside of her. Sharp, boney wings broke through her skin, and a long, elegant horn burst free from her forehead. Blood was dripping from the tears in her flesh, covering her face in her own war paint.
The transfer was finished, leaving Pinkie twitching and sparking with magic. She wipes the blood from her eyes. Twilight isn’t moving. At once, Pinkie’s body stops twitching. She lifted a shaking hand to Twilight’s face. As soon as she touched the body, she screams so loud that her entire skull vibrates. Twilight is dead on the ground, her skin pale and her eyes lifeless.
Tirek’s thundering footsteps and horrible laughter bring Pinkie back to the situation at hand. She whips her head around, staring at the centaur with grief-stricken eyes.
“These Alicorns are so pathetic!” Tirek laughs. “They really think that giving away their magic will keep it safe from me?”
Pinkie pulls Twilight’s body close to her, purple hair resting against a ruined pink shirt. Twilight, why? She thought to herself. I don’t know how to use magic! Please, please help me, Twilight!
Her fear turns to anger abruptly, as the man who murdered Twilight approaches her. Her violet wings unfurl, her new wingspan casting a large shadow over the two of them. Her horn, a pink-purple mix, begins to spark and glow.
She doesn’t know how it happens, or how it works. All Pinkie knows is that one second, Tirek was standing in front of her, and the next, he was collapsed over seventy meters away. Her wings seemed to lift her without needed any command to. Pinkie carries Twilight’s body in her arms, holding the girl’s head against her chest as tears and blood clouded her vision.
It’s as if her horn calls the magic itself. The magic which Tirek stole from all over Equestria was responding to the silent call the Alicorn put out, drifting through the sky towards Pinkie. All of the different kinds of magic circles around her, whispering something incoherent. Suddenly, the magic goes shooting off in different directions, each individual spark returning to its person. Tirek was reduced to his weak, small form, still crumpled in the rocks.
Pinkie feels parts of the Alicorn magic leave her body, her wings reducing in size and her horn shinking to a reasonable length—but, a part of that magic is still inside of her. Twilight’s magic, she realises, has no one to return to. It’s hers now. She’s stuck with it.
.·:*¨¨* ≈☆≈ *¨¨*:·.
Rainbow Dash wastes no time in gathering her friends and hurrying over to the last place they’d seen Twilight. Their magic was back—Twilight won! Applejack, carrying Rarity, shouted at her to slow down, but she couldn’t help herself. She was too happy, too excited about Twilight’s victory.
As soon as she reached the field, Rainbow Dash stopped dead in her tracks.
Applejack soon caught up to her, along with Fluttershy and Discord.
“Damn you and your big ass wings,” Applejack laughed as she caught her breath. Rainbow Dash didn’t respond, her eyes fixated on the scene in front of her. Applejack shook the girl’s shoulder, holding Rarity in one arm. Then, she saw what Rainbow Dash was staring at.
Rarity shrieked at the sight, grabbing onto AJ’s flannel so tight it almost tore. Fluttershy sobbed into Discord’s arms, the creature of chaos holding the shaking girl. AJ removed her hat, gripping it tightly in her hand.
Pinkie Pie was flying. And she was holding the body of the Princess of Friendship in her arms.
