I found myself standing in the shades and shadows at daylight's end,
Counting the lines in the stones,
Waiting for the hour of twilight.
-Zephysona, Hour of Twilight
She stood there, staring at the ash-blackened spot where her friend had disappeared, for the fifteenth day in a row. She couldn't believe that the cheerful party pony that Ponyville had loved was gone. Despite her oddities and her strangeness, she had been a bright, shining beacon in everyponys' life.
And yet, that light was extinguished. As quickly as a blink of the eye. All that was left were those ashes, those Luna-forsaken ashes...
Twilight had delivered the news to the Princesses as quickly as she could when it first happened, when she saw her spell go awry. She had hoped they would be able to solve the problem she had caused. After all, they were centuries old, they must know how to fix it.
It wasn't until she noticed the look in Celestia's eyes that she began to realize the truth. Her ears had folded back, her wings had drooped, and in a trembling voice, she had asked the question, hoping against hope that she would get a 'Yes, we can fix it'. Celestia only shook her head. And then, Twilight couldn't take it any longer.
She had openly wept against the fur of Celestia, and in the days that followed, she had kept to herself, not even letting Spike, let alone her friends, keep her company. She had pulled all-nighter after all-nighter, scouring through her books, praying she would find answers.
She never did. Fifteen long days had passed, and here she was, staring at the ashes of Pinkie Pie, all happiness that had been within her gone, leaving her as empty as the black void of space.
She could only replay what had happened that fateful day in her mind, over and over again. As dusk fell, she continued to stand there, engrossed in her thoughts.
What could she have done differently? There must have been some miscalculation, some error in the spell, no, there had to be.
'Pathetic. Blaming it on the spell when your own stupidity caused it,' she thought to herself bitterly. 'There wasn't a miscalculation, you used an experimental spell on your own friend! And to what end? So you could show it off, hoping to impress Princess Celestia? Well, congratulations, idiot! You created a brand-new spell that completely evaporates ponies within milliseconds!'
She groaned, fresh tears springing up from her eyes as she collapsed on her belly in grief, as she did every time she was here. She just couldn't handle it... She hadn't said goodbye, hadn't given her friend a hug before she disappeared... She had been too focused on the spell to even consider not doing it. And the others had warned her! They had said that they were worried about the spell going wrong! Buck, even Rarity had warned her about using new spells!
But Pinkie had convinced her that she'd be okay, regardless of how scared the pink mare was of doing this. And she had listened to her. She had only nodded and set it up. Stupid, stupid, stupid!
Twilight began banging her head on the ground as she sobbed. It was all her fault. She had done this, she hadn't taken note of her friends...
Dusk deepened, and Twilight slowly began to stop crying. She couldn't just keep grieving. She had to do something. She had to atone for her mistakes.
But how would she do that?
Ending her own life seemed fitting, but the very idea seemed repulsive. That would be a stupid and useless move, and then her friends would suffer even more than they already were. She couldn't do that to them. They had already lost Pinkie, that was enough.
So her mind flittered on to other ideas, like a bee going from flower to flower. Find a way to raise her from the dead: She had tried that before, and it didn't end well. She shuddered at the memory of the skin, bones, muscular structure, and ghost of the foal all somehow crying at once. She wasn't planning on having that happen to Pinkie.
Finding a way to reverse the spell: A likely possibility, but it would take days and days of research. Not that she hadn't done that before, mind you, but reversing time was no easy matter. And if she warned herself like she had attempted to do using Starswirl's spell, she would most likely completely destroy the timeline, and that would cause millions of deaths.
She stared at Pinkie's ashes for a little while longer before a single thought nudged her mind. What about... Controlling the use of magic? There would be no spells, no accidents... No deaths. If she took control of all the magic in Equestria, she could moderate it. Ponykind would have their abilities, but only the most experienced and knowledgeable ponies would control spells that could cause any kind of damage or do tricks during flight that could injure somepony, and even then, they would be supervised.
It was perfect. A utopia. A place where her friends could live in peace, knowing that nothing would happen to them like what happened to Pinkie. A place where she could atone for her misdeeds and bring happiness to everypony like Pinkie had once did.
She smiled and got up, pacing in a circle, trying to find any flaws or problems in her plans. She filtered every step through her mind.
But what would her friends think? She froze upon thinking about this. Would she be as bad as Nightmare Moon, trying to bring peace to Equestria like the Lunar Empress had once brought the night? Would she be a villain herself?
Even so... She knew they would thank her later, once Equestria was safe from magic and its' inability to be controlled. And so, she made up her mind.
She would need some things to help her in her quest. The Alicorn Amulet and the Armor of Nemira. She could control those objects much better than anypony else. She stopped pacing, looking at the ashes where Pinkie Pie used to be.
"I'm doing this for you, Pinkie... I'm doing this for the good of everypony in the world."
She began walking.
Author's Note
Just something I wanted to write. Hope you enjoyed. :P
