Twilight was walking towards a bookcase located in her mansion of a library. Using her magic, she was holding onto a book that she had just finished reading. It was one of her new favorite books. The title was "To Live Forever?". It was a philosophical book written by a popular theorist Dr. Vice, who was located up in Manehattan. In it he discussed the idea of living forever and whether or not he believed that it was possible. He made a point that Twilight found particularly interesting, if any pony could live forever, would it be worth the consequences? Seeing every pony you love die while you live on unscathed? Dr. Vice said that he would personally not want to live forever but would not judge any pony who would. Twilight agreed with him. She didn't want to live forever. She knew that ailcorns had an extended life expectancy but nopony knew who long an alicorn's full life span was. Twilight stopped in front of the bookcase and maneuvered the book onto it's new spot on the top shelf. When she finished putting it away she began to make her walk to the kitchen. It was in the middle of the afternoon and she didn't even have breakfast yet. When she got to the door, she used her magic to open it. She jumped when the open doorway revealed a blue pegasus standing behind it.
"Ahhh!", Twilight screamed in surprise.
Rainbow Dash stepped forward and raised her right hoof. "Sorry Twilight! I didn't mean to startle you!", Rainbow Dash said apologetically.
Twilight settled her front hooves back on the ground. She calmed her breathing down enough to speak,"Darn it Rainbow! You scared me!"
Rainbow dash smiled a bit, "I'm sorry Twi, I forgot how skittish you were."
Twilight frowned, "Haha. Very funny Rainbow. You know one of these days you are going to scare somepony to death. Do you need me for something?"
"Yes! You see, I was flying over the Everfree Forest and noticed something hidden under some vines and plant growth.", Rainbow Dash said excitedly.
Twilight smirked, "Since when are you interested in things hidden in a forest?"
Rainbow Dash gave a blank stare at her friend before she remembered why she had cared about what she thought she found. "That's just it. It wasn't just anything buried under a few leaves. It looked like some sort of old structure. I was going to check it out alone, like my hero Daring Doo would, but thought that it might have something related to old magic in it. I came by to see if you wanted to join me on my adventure."
Twilight rubbed the bottom of her chin with her right hoof. "Hmmm. If it does have anything to do with old magic, I could possibly learn from it."
Rainbow Dash leaned a bit on her front legs. "Sooo...are you coming or what?"
Twilight thought for a moment before she answered, "Yes Rainbow, I will go with you."
Rainbow Dash flew off the ground and did a backflip in the air, "Alright!" She then turned and got ready to speed out of the room. "Let's go Twilight!" Just as she was about to move, she became engulfed in a purple aura. "Hey! What gives!"
"We can't just go unprepared. You wait here while I pack us two bags.", Twilight gently placed Rainbow Dash on the ground and released her as she began to walk away to gather supplies.
Rainbow Dash sat with a frown on her face and crossed her arms. "I knew I should have just gone alone.", she said as Twilight left the room.
Twilight came back ten minutes later with two bags packed to the brim with anything you could need on a trip to the unknown. She already was wearing her backpack. Holding Rainbow's backpack with her magic she secured it to Dash's back.
Rainbow gave a slight grunt in protest as Twilight tightened the strap.
"There you go! I packed each bag with everything that we could ever need.", Twilight said smiling ,"Lead the way?"
"Huh?", Rainbow Dash replied with confusion.
"You are the only pony in this room who knows where this mysterious structure is. I was just assuming that you would take lead for me to follow.", Twilight said contently.
"Oh! Right! I hope you can keep up. I am a very fast flier you know!", Rainbow said confidently as she began to fly quickly out of Twilight's castle.
"Who doesn't?", Twilight said with a slight chuckle as she closed the front door to her home behind her. She then took flight and began to follow Rainbow Dash to the Everfree Forest.
It took the two about fifteen minutes to reach the edge of the forest. They hadn't said much since they left. Rainbow Dash was to busy searching for the thing that she had seen while Twilight was busy trying to keep up to her quick friend.
Rainbow Dash had made a mental map on how to get to where the structure was located. She was sure it wasn't much further. When she noticed the fallen tree that she remembered was three yards from the structure she called out to Twilight. "It's down there!", she said as she made her quick descent. When Twilight landed Rainbow Dash was already standing in front of a tall structure poking out of the ground.
"Well Twilight, what do you think it is?", Rainbow Dash asked her friend.
Twilight walked up to it. She tilted her head as she examined it. "I am not sure. There is too much foliage covering it. Maybe if I....", Twilight said as her horn came to life. Rainbow Dash watched as the thing in front of her became uncovered. All of the foliage pulling off it like a tablecloth. With the foliage gone the two could see what was hiding beneath. It was a small building about a two feet taller then the average stallion. It didn't have any walls, just bars crafted out of stone. It had a doorway in it but no door. It looked like some sort of prison cell. Next to the right side of the entrance there was a podium like structure with some writing on the top of it. Twilight began to walk towards the podium as Rainbow flew closer to the prison to investigate it. When Twilight got to the podium she began to feel a powerful breeze on her face. When she looked up Rainbow Dash was in the center of the prison cell. But there was something wrong, the prison's bars were glowing. Twilight watched as a blue translucent wall appeared around the entire cell. Even a door appeared. Rainbow Dash flew into the doorway just as the door appeared. She was forced back and hit the floor with a thud.
"Ow! Twilight, what's happening?!", Rainbow Dash said worriedly.
"I don't know! I have never seen anything like it!", Twilight said with a hint of fear in her voice.
"Thats reassuring to hear!", Rainbow Dash said sarcastically.
"Maybe this podium says something about it. Hang on Rainbow!", Twilight said as she began to read the text in front of her. As she read her face slowly went from being determined and in destress to very relaxed. It lacked any emotion. One tear began to fall from her left eye as her mouth slumped into a frown.
Rainbow watched on as her friend stood alone in a state of sadness. Even though she was in a rough situation herself, she called out to her friend, "Twilight! What's wrong?"
Twilight didn't answer her. She just stood staring at the podium in front of her.
"What does the podium say?", Rainbow tried again.
Twilight stood very still for a moment. So still that if she were grey you would have thought that she was a statue. She slowly looked up from the podium and stared at her friend. She began to slowly turn and walk towards the door of the prison. She was positioned parallel to Rainbow Dash. She never took her tear filled eyes off her friend.
"Twilight, wh-", Rainbow tried to say before she was cut off.
"It's a prison.", Twilight said sternly.
"I know Twilight, I kinda figured that out already.", Rainbow Dash said sarcastically.
"It's not just any prison. It was a prison set up by an old village of ponies who lived her many years ago. It was designed to catch a very particular chaos spreading maniac.", Twilight said calmly.
"Discord?", Rainbow Dash asked.
Twilight ignored Rainbow and continued, "It was designed to trap him and...kill him."
Rainbow's eyes widened.
"But instead of trapping him, it trapped you. It is going to kill you Rainbow Dash.", Twilight said as a few more tears dropped from her eyes.
Rainbow Dash sat down on the floor of the prison and placed her hoofs on her head. "I...am going to die? I had so much I wanted to do...I haven't even married yet or had...a child of my own.", Rainbow Dash said as her eyes began to water.
"There is a way to save you.", Twilight said reassuringly.
Rainbow dash wiped tears away from her eyes as she spoke, "Really? The please do it!"
Twilight stood still a moment. She looked down to the ground that was in front of her. She began to speak as she rose her head to look at her friend, "The ponies who made this prison wrote a spell that would remove a pony if they became imprisoned inside of it instead of the intended prisoner. It will remove you from the cage.", Twilight said as she began to tear up again.
Rainbow Dash smiled, "Hah! This is fantastic!" Rainbow Dash stood up and asked the last favor she ever would to her friend, "What are you waiting for? Release me from my prison!"
Twilight stared at her friend. She knew Rainbow Dash didn't know yet. Twilight knew that she had to tell her. "There is a catch." Rainbow Dash began to frown. Before she could respond Twilight began to talk again, "This prison is designed to only be activated once. There is no way to shut it down without somepony being in it. It will only deactivate when it completes it's purpose and kills a prisoner. I can teleport you out of there easily. But I have to switch places with you."
Rainbow Dash realized what Twilight was saying and she wanted no part of it. "Twilight don't do it! There has to be another way!", Rainbow Dash said as a single tear dropped from her right eye.
Twilight ignored her friend and began to walk to the podium. When she got there she began to read the special teleportation spell to herself quietly. She stopped just before the last word to say the last sentence she would ever say again, "When you have a child tell them that they have the most amazing mother in all of Equestria."
Rainbow Dash screamed for her friend to stop and leave her to die. Twilight didn't listen, she had already made up her mind a long time ago. There was a blinding flash of purple light as the two switched places. When Rainbow Dash looked up from the podium she saw her friend standing where she had just stood. Twilight smiled at her as the box glowed for about five seconds. Twilight squinted for a second before she fell lifelessly to the ground. Rainbow Dash ran to her friend and tried to revive her. With no luck after thirty minutes she gave up and began to cry holding Twilight's lifeless head on her lap.
Twilight was not dead however. Well...her body was but her soul wasn't. You see, she was a bearer of an Element of Harmony. The Elements of Harmony work by connecting to the soul of the bearer. When Twilight died part of her soul was saved in her element. After the element lost connection to it's host, it let go of the soul and sent it to the Tree of Harmony. The tree tried to search for a living Twilight by sending her soul across space and time. She became a ghost trapped everywhere at once. Ponies say that if you watch tv sometimes you will see a random purple pony pop up out of nowhere. It will only be for a fraction of a second but long enough for a pony with a keen eye to see it. Supposedly she touched many other worlds having the same effect. In one case she came as a vision to a creature they call a "human". They were then inspired to create a TV show based on what they had seen.
Twilight may have died on Equestria but her death affects many across the universe and always will. There is one question that is shared between all affected worlds, "Have you seen her?"
