Yggdrasil Plateau, although one of Equestria's lesser appreciated monuments, has a vast history to its name as the site of a great many magical events and occurrences. Once a thriving disc shaped explosion of lush greenery, it became the barren mesa it is today after a magical disaster at the spot stripped it of all natural life and left it with its now-trademark scar running diagonally across the diameter. Since then, hundreds of battles and experiments have been conducted there, owing in part due to the high levels of magic concentrated in the air surrounding it, and in part due to the historical and dramatic appeal of battling a foe atop a giant natural battlefield.
Once, in some circles, it was even a hazing ritual for up-and-coming sorcerers to battle their bretheren atop it in order to showcase their spells.
Things aren't quite the same these days. Now, rife every year with teenage wannabe mages fresh out of magic college and heavily drunk, the plateau has lost much of the reputation it once held. What's more, every spell cast upon it drew from its immense reserves, until at the current time said reserves are no longer quite so immense. Now, it is simply another curiosity of Equestria's vast history.
Traces of the past still linger. Every chipped away chunk of stone, every scorch mark and sheet of magically never-melting ice, every spot of blood and crater that litter its enormous face is a story. Once upon a time, the plateau was changed so frequently and often as to nearly be a creature of its own, growing older and stronger every year. Thousands of stories spewed from its depths, and its well seemed never-ending.
Now, it is old. Seldom are its visits, and less frequent its fresh stories have become. Yggdrasil Plateau is dying, and when it runs out of magic, it will once again become a rock in the desert, until even its stories erode out of existence.
Fortunately, Twilight Sparkle had always had a soft spot for the classics.
In a sofa chair in Golden Oak Library's bottom floor, Twilight Acorna Sparkle rested her body.
The years had not been delicate to her. Adventures, near-death experiences, and intense pressure had aged her perhaps quite a bit more than most mares her age, but as she reached her late sixties, one hardly expected her to look lively. Her face bore wrinkles in more places than it was smooth, her skunk stripes outnumbered her natural stripes, and veins could be seen in her hands where they lay comfortably. She was still in fine shape and health, and it was impressive that her vision had remained good enough to not warrant glasses quite yet, but nobody anticipated she would be fighting monsters and travelling the world anytime soon.
She jerked, aroused from near-sleep by a sudden knock at the door.
"Willkommen, bienvenue, welcome, come in." Twilight absentmindedly called. Even when she heard the door opening, she didn't turn her head to see who it was.
"Quite the way to invite royalty into your home." A melodic voice drifted in.
Twilight's eyes shot open and she immediately sat up, turning giddily from her chair.
"Princess Celestia!"
The ethereal woman bent down to get through the doorway, rising to her full height and beaming down at Twilight. Her face and skin were effortlessly perfect, and her swathe of hair shimmered and swam in the air behind her.
Despite Twilight's slamming into her full force, Celestia didn't move an inch backwards. She absorbed the hit fully and wrapped her arms just as quickly around her smaller student, resting her chin on the mare's shoulder affectionately.
"It's been too long, Princess. When you cancelled last week...." Twilight began to fret.
"Duty called, I'm afraid. There's been little leeway in peace talks with the Abysinnians, and it seems every time I look away they find a quarrel with their neighbors." She shook her head. "But I digress. My faithful student, how have you been?"
Twilight's chest swelled with pride as it always did when she heard those words. "The library's still standing, Spike's sleeping peacefully, and my heart hasn't disturbed me in quite some time. I'd say things are just right."
"Ah, so Spike remains unbothered." Celestia said cheerfully as she was led in by her hand. "How much longer do you think he has?"
"Just two or three more years before he wakes up. And I intend to be there for it, don't you worry." Twilight said.
Celestia lifted her hand in assurance. "I never doubted it, my faithful student. You've never let a friend down before. And what of your magic, if you don't mind me asking?"
Twilight led her back to the sofa chair, and pulled up a skinner one next to it.
"Levitation still works. On a good day, I can lift myself a few inches. Hammerspace can still store a few things, and teleportation- we can't forget the very second spell I ever learned. It's good to see my Magic Kindergarten training isn't going away anytime soon, even if the rest of it is. It's always your first companion that sticks with you the longest, eh?"
Celestia tittered as she sat down comfortably, resting her arms on the sides and shutting her eyes.
"I've often hoped that was the case, dear."
That had been last week.
Now, Twilight's mind was on other things.
Only a few days after, there had been a break in at Golden Oaks. A mob of changelings had come in without a trace, and just as quickly left. They took nothing, nor damaged the tree in any way. They only delivered the message they had been given; While Celestia was away, every facet of Equestrian government had been infiltrated by changelings. Guard factions, lordships, and branches of the Crown's power were all prepared to mutiny at a moment's notice. Luna and Cadance had been cocooned, as had Celestia mere hours after leaving Twilight.
Only Twilight was left. And Chrysalis wanted to see her face when it happened. The choice of location was Twilight's.
Now, here they were. Yggdrasil Plateau. One hundred paces away, her long hair blowing in the breeze, Queen Chrysalis stood coolly.
The Queen of Changelings was unnaturally tall and thin, like a skeleton with jet black armour. She had no nose, fingernails, or breasts. All fat or cartiladge in a pony's body were absent on her own. Even her joints emitted guttural noises when she moved, the sounds of her external bones grinding against each other.
Her mouth was like a gash in her face, from which her narrow tongue spat its venom with an eery green glow.
"Twilight Sparkle." Chrysalis' lip twitched and curled into a depraved grin. "You amuse me greatly."
It wasn't hard to see why. Twilight had no natural armour- she had only brought her own. The metal armour she wore, recovered and touched up from the Castle of the Two Sisters several years earlier, was centuries out of date and rusted in several parts. Moreover, it was a size small for her, leaving plenty of gaps in which a nimble blade could remove her limbs. She had forgone the knight helmet entirely, replacing it instead with a hoofball helmet taken from Ponyville's hall of fame.
She resembled less a warrior and more a poor cosplayer.
"Give it up, Chrysalis." Twilight already felt tired, but ran the motions she was used to. "You're finished."
"I hear you saying those words, but they don't reach your face." Chrysalis said calmly. "It's been a while since you've seen me, hasn't it? Even then I could see your grey hairs forming. Your movements were slower, weaker. You defeated me, but I realized then how easy it would be to end you. All I needed was patience."
Chrysalis spread her arms out, putting her body on full display. "I am far, far older than you could ever imagine. Only Alicorns and Gods outrank me in years. Does it bother you, Twilight, that I look the same as I did when we first met at your brother's wedding? Nearly fifty years ago, now, and I haven't aged a day."
"Your body hasn't aged." Twilight said wearily. "But your heart is gnarled and twisted."
"I was born that way, pony." Chrysalis took a confident step forward. "Were I like your beloved Celestia, I would never have gotten this far."
Magic fire washed down her arms, and beneath its glow her skin tore and reformed. When it dissipated, her hands were gone, replaced with biologically formed and chitin armoured weapons. Her left, a battleaxe. Her right, a warhammer.
"Evil prevails when good people fail to act, Twilight." Chrysalis said coldly as she approached. "Or as I like to put it, 'good people fail'."
One week earlier, Celestia reached for the plate on the table between them, lifting another cube of ginger cake and bringing it to her lips.
When she swallowed, she sighed.
"You know, I considered making you an alicorn."
Twilight seemed amused. "Really? When was this?"
"Almost as long as I've known you." Celestia said. "I tossed the idea back and forth for my own amusement when you were young, but... you grew older, smarter, so much more talented..."
She sat back, recollecting. "I think the real make or break moment was when you finished Starswirl's last spell. Seeing how effortlessly you translated one of history's greatest mysteries, and coming from someone who had been one of the greatest mages in Equestria... My old teacher... it made me look at you in comparison. I... I liked what I saw."
They sat in comfortable silence for a moment.
"I hope my telling you that... sits well with you."
"Immortality?" Twilight shook her head. "Seeing that future stretch on, and disappear into forever? Nah. I think it would have made a lot of my life very different."
Celestia nodded, relieved. "I'm glad to hear that, my faithful student. It means you've learned from me. Perhaps more than I intended to teach you."
A thought occurred to Twilight. "Does it bother you, looking ahead like that?"
"It did. Once, a long time ago." Celestia acknowledged.
"How'd you eventually get over it?"
"My faithful student... what other choice did I have?"
Years and years ago, Twilight would have thrown up a magical shield. She would have made it small and manageable, so she could devote part of her mana to reinforcing it while simultaneously charging up a deadly bolt of energy as her first offensive attack.
Now, neither her mind nor her magic were that fast. When Chrysalis charged her, fast as sound and deadlier than a Manticore, all she could do was brace.
She held up her arm, and lowered her head, and took the blow.
Only the plating saved her arm from breaking. She was tossed backwards, skidding along the face of the plateau and rolling to a stop covered in dirt. She didn't have time to even stand back up when the second blow came, Chrysalis bringing down her hammer arm down with intent to paralyze. Twilight barely managed to roll over in time, saving her back at the expense of her side.
Twilight rose shakily to her feet, and was rewarded for her efforts with another sharp slice across her breast. The axe cut through her plating like butter, leaving a horrible gash in the metal and only barely missing the skin beneath. Twilight backed up, trying to catch her breath as hit after hit landed successfully. Chrysalis was playing to win, but even still Twilight could tell she was holding back, enjoying inflicting pain in small increments rather than ending Twilight right away.
With anyone else, the queen would have slaughtered them instantly.
Twilight was special. And that was her last saving grace.
"Does it still hurt?"
Celestia shook her head, steeling her jaw. "Not anymore."
"Do you think it will hurt when it happens to me?"
Celestia took longer to answer that one.
"If it does... I don't think I'll remember that feeling for what it is."
Twilight nodded, content with that answer. Both of them looked into the distance, awash with thoughts.
"Rarity last year made five." Twilight spoke up. "She was so beautiful. Even to her last."
"She knew how to carry the body she owned, so she was never ugly a day in her life." Celestia mused.
"Dash. Fluttershy. Applejack. Pinkie." Twilight wiped away the beginnings of a tear. "And Spike's asleep. It seems to me sometimes that you're one of the only originals I have these days."
Celestia turned to her slowly. "Is that why it bothered you when I had to cancel last week?"
"Heh. It's a little selfish, I admit."
"It's not selfish at all." Celestia said.
"It's just..." Twilight blew hair out of her eyes. "These days, I feel like I'm waiting to die. My magic, the very thing I built my mark around, will be gone soon. When it does, I might as well be done. I don't know how many years I have left, but I can't imagine it's a high number. And... I don't know if I want it to be high. I want to see Spike one last time, before I die. And until then... it's just me, you once a week, and my books. Collecting dust, all three of us."
Celestia tilted her head. "Do you think you are becoming useless, because you cannot perform your talent anymore?"
"It's not something I like to dwell on."
"That's because it's not true." Celestia said. "I don't care for ponies who reduce their mark to a single word, a single definition for which they base their entire self worth around. 'Magic' is not yours. I wouldn't even say it's 'Friendship'."
"Really?" Twilight met her gaze. "Then what does my Cutie Mark say? What can I continue to do, in these last years of my life, that my mark has always and will always steadfastly represent?"
Celestia took a moment on that. When she answered, she was sure of it.
"It says 'Twilight'."
Chrysalis was fast and brutal, and had fought Twilight a great many times. As she weathered the excruciating pain of a fight with the queen, she thought back to all the ways she had bested her foe before.
Wave of love magic? Sadly not her forte.
Power up from the Secretariat Comet? Not for another two years.
Kiss her? Blow up a whale carcass? Get Trixie to do it?
This was becoming unproductive.
All she had left was her laughably abysmal array of magic spells. She still remembered how to do most of them, but where the spirit was willing, the flesh was weak.
Twilight tried to put her levitation spell to work, grabbing Chrysalis' body with her mind and attempting to throw mana into slowing down her blows. Not even stopping, just slowing them down to allow Twilight a minute to think. Nothing worked. She moved too fast, too forcefully for the grip to last more than a pitiful second.
Chrysalis' fists were reformed, now assuming a more classical method of beating their opponents senseless. Left hook after right hook after left hook impacted Twilight, rattling her brain in her head and giving what would surely turn into a concussion even with the helmet. Twilight was seeing spots, and as her mind swam her spells grew even more useless.
A final uppercut sent Twilight into the air. She felt the closest she could get to flying, feeling the cool wind soothing her bruises, and then she came down again. The impact was actually enough to bounce her, snapping her head every which way in her tumble.
Twilight wasn't certain she had a left eye anymore.
When she was escorting Celestia out into the night, Twilight stopped at the door. Celestia noticed and paused, turning back to her old student quizzically.
"Princess..." She began. "Do you ever wonder... What it would have been like? If I had become an Alicorn?"
Celestia looked askance thoughtfully. She clasped her hands gently in front of her.
"I think you would have been stronger." Celestia said. "Faster. More powerful. More durable... Immortal. As would anyone be, to whom I might have granted that ascension."
"But would I have been..." Twilight searched for her words. "...Better? Could I have done more, helped more people, saved more lives?"
Celestia chuckled. "At our end of life woes, are we?"
Twilight shrugged. "Can you blame me?"
Celestia took a breath, considering the question. "...Could you have done more? Yes, you could have. Would you have been better? Not at all. Anybody could take on the title of princess, but had they not a sound mind, they would not be able to do as much with their body."
Celestia turned away, feeling the cold air on her cheeks.
"You have always been and will always be my faithful student. That is the best you could possibly be. Goodnight, Twilight Sparkle."
Oozing blood, nursing multiple broken ribs, and browning out multiple times in succession, Twilight's ragged lungs rasped.
Chrysalis' footsteps met her ears, slowly approaching with no haste or rush.
Cheek to the ground, Twilight was face to face with her brown satchel. Her fingers curled, bringing it slowly towards her.
Chrysalis paused, watching with morbid curiosity as Twilight struggled to lift her arm, reaching into the bag. With all her strength Twilight pulled out it's contents- a gold crown, inset with a purple gemstone.
"Delightful." Chrysalis admitted. "For old times sake, eh? Go ahead, then. I'll even help."
Chrysalis knelt down before Twilight, taking the crown from her tired hands. She lifted Twilight's chin, and set the crown securely where it belonged.
After all these years, it fit like a glove.
Twilight shut her eyes, and concentrated. Slowly, surely, the fog in her mind began to clear, and she felt a spark of magic reignite. Her cheeks were lit with a dull purple glow from her crown jewel.
Magic flowed. Ideas sparked. Harmony once again held her in its arms like a child.
With the warmth and strength flowing through her, she concentrated, casting with all her might. A purple aura flickered, and coalesced around Chrysalis' left arm. Chrysalis obediently held it out, and Twilight began to tug, tug...
Chrysalis flicked her wrist, and the hold broke.
"You haven't changed one bit." Chrysalis said softly.
Far faster than it had come to her, magic left Twilight's body. She felt fingers brushing her head as the crown was plucked off, and she once again collapsed.
"This is cute." Chrysalis teased, holding the crown up to the light. "The old gang, eh? I heard what happened to them. You have my condolences." Even as she said it, she couldn't keep the smile off her face.
Chrysalis crushed the crown in her hand effortlessly. Shaking her fingers free of gemstone shards, she turned back to Twilight, swinging her arms girlishly. "Feels like the end of an era. I hear mortals like you have trouble, coming to terms when their days begin to dwindle. I can understand it, in a purely clinical sense."
Twilight clenched her eyes shut, uttering a prayer to Celestia.
She was Twilight Sparkle. Magic was her forte.
Chrysalis held her chin up, looking into her bloodied eyes.
"The joy of being me is that my days are endless." Chrysalis said. "I hardly even see the changelings as a race; they are my hands, through which I exert my will. Cut one off, and I grow two more in its place."
Despite her physical weariness, it occured to Twilight that her head was still clear. She was tired, exhausted, and hurt in a way she could never have imagined prior to now, but her head was clear. With nothing else to do in her last minutes, she put it to work.
"Ponies fear the changelings, and they fear me. Not because of what we already have done, but because of what we will do. I will make your race into my unending feast. I will herd you like cattle, and euthanize you like dogs."
There was one final spark of magic. Magic was everywhere in Equestria, not just in the spells cast. It lived in your body, in nature, in the plants and animals. In unicorns, it exerted itself so naturally, most considered the abilities it gave them with the same mental faculties they gave growing hairs.
In Yggdrasil Plateau, it was near barren. But it was enough.
Chrysalis' finger grew, and stretched, and sharpened to a point. When she was finished, she held a needle, an inch from Twilight's forehead and pointed straight at her frontal lobe.
"And my thanks to you, Twilight, is that you will not live to see it. I will not even feed from you. You will be buried with the highest of honors."
Hammerspace is a spell rarely thought of beyond convenience. Saddlebags are pretty, but for the even dimly experienced mage on the go, there really is no better way to transport things than to poof them out of reality entirely.
Among all aspiring wizards who have turned their sights to it, however, one mantra is repeated among mentors who have seen far too many accidents.
Never use this on another creature.
"Good night, Twilight Sparkle."
Twilight shut her eyes.
Twilight used it on another creature.
The spell tugged on her entire soul as it tried to enact her command, and Chrysalis paused a moment to register the immense pressure on her body. She glanced down at herself in mild surprise.
She looked back at Twilight for an explanation.
Twilight gave none.
The next moment, Chrysalis' atoms found themselves forcibly separated.
A few minutes after Celestia left, Twilight pulled out a wooden box in her bedroom.
With even one Element severed, the rest failed to operate to their fullest capacity. It had been a long time since Dash's death, and with the most powerful magic artifacts in Equestria reduced to paperweights, neither Celestia nor Twilight had seen a problem with taking them out of storage and allowing Twilight to carry them in their retirement.
Twilight unlocked the box's clasps and opened it, admiring the six dusty gold pieces inside. She felt around under the desk with her magic, wincing as it faltered for a moment, before withdrawing a rag and running it delicately over each one. They may not shine as brightly as they once did, but they were still immaculately conceived works of art. When she died, Twilight intended for them to be delivered to one of Canterlot's museums for preservation; they held quite the history between them.
She smiled warmly as she wiped them down, one by one. When it was finished, she removed the crown, and toyed with the idea of wearing it again. Even without the ability to magically adjust, it would probably still fit her.
But she didn't. She only admired the six pointed star carved from its center gemstone, and her reflection duplicated along each face.
"Twilight." She repeated thoughtfully. "I think I can do that."
Chrysalis' scream echoed across Equestria.
Half of her body was torn away, instantly causing her to stagger and fall. Ichor gushed out of her mouth, and all of her inner faculties began to slide out onto the ground like yogurt from a tube. Encouraged by her success, Twilight went further, grabbing pieces wherever her eyes fell and storing them away.
Hammerspace could store an object.
But more importantly, hammerspace could store part of an object.
Chrysalis writhed, but only for a moment, and eventually her bisected tongue could no longer form sounds.
Chrysalis' remaining eye looked at Twilight, so wide it seemed like it could fall from its socket.
And it never closed again.
Even as strange fluids and pieces of Chrysalis met Twilight's body, she didn't move. She was too tired, too beaten, too worn down. It was time to rest.
But before she winked out, her thoughts were clear.
Number six.
