A Cure for Immortality

An alicorn never dies. That was the truth Twilight had learned. When Twilight had first become an alicorn she had believed that while age and time were of no consequence, they could still be killed like any other pony, would still die if struck with the right attack, a foolish belief; no attack nor magic could harm them. Eternity was theirs, whether they liked it or not. And Twilight was tired.

So very tired.

Twilight had existed for far longer than all but the princesses, and Discord, she supposed. He never seemed to die either, but he viewed time differently, and for him it was less of a curse. Eternity was hers, and it was far more a curse than a blessing.

Twilight had tried to forget, by will or by time or by magic. But eternity was an alicorn’s curse, and no magic could challenge it, at least not for long. A spell might last a few days, weeks, even years, for a powerful spell, but eventually it would fail. Forgotten memories would slowly resurface, the original mind would eventually reexert itself, and the spell would fade. The same spell wouldn’t even work twice, an alicorn’s magic was adaptive enough to form a type of immunity from the magic, and all future castings of the spell or even similar magic would either fail or fade far quicker than before. There was no escaping eternity. Not for her. Not for the princesses, not for any alicorn.

That thought surprised her slightly, less because of the contents of it and more so that she was thinking of the princesses at all. She had seen them recently, not in the last thousand years at least. They weren’t dead, at least she didn’t think they were, after all, alicorns couldn’t die any more than they could forget, and she still felt their magic, raising and lowering the sun, but they had disappeared after Equestria fell… After what Celestia, or Daybreaker, names had little meaning, had done, and Twilight had only rarely seen them since.

Twilight still remembered the destruction, the dead ponies, the wasteland that used to be Equestria. She didn’t think Celestia even regretted her action. Truthfully though, neither did Twilight. She had been queen for so long, nearly 10,000 years at that point. Through it all she had been a good queen, had been loved nearly as much as Luna and Celestia had been, but even then she had been so tired. Tired of the same routine. Tired of dealing with petty nobles who cared only for themselves. Tired of dealing with problems only for them to reappear in a year, or a 1000, it didn’t really matter for an alicorn. She wondered if Celestia and Luna had felt the same; she suspected so, they had given up their position to her after all.

She had hoped when Equestria fell that it would change, that she would be free of her burdens, and that eternity would mean something to her. Perhaps that very sentiment was why Celestia had done it, had burned down the world, not that it mattered. It had been a foolish hope.

She had been a queen then, few even remembered her now. It didn’t matter. Her spell was almost complete. A spell that had taken a 1000 years to research, another 1000 to prepare. It was her greatest spell, one powerful enough to challenge that magic of an alicorn. If it succeeded, one powerful enough to let an alicorn die.

The most powerful of spells required the universe to align, for other events to amplify spell’s power. The more powerful the spell, the rarer the events required. She had been incredibly lucky, if her calculations were correct, it would be only another decade till the stars aligned. A red sun being eclipsed by a blood moon was perhaps the greatest alignment of celestial objects Twilight had ever seen required for a spell, though with the power she had now she could likely have cast that spell through her magic alone, but if that was all that was required an alignment would occur about once every millenium, but this spell required more, an alignment of stars, planets, and earth. An event that had happened only once before in Twilight’s lifetime. And if her spell failed, an event that by her calculations wouldn’t happen again for another 100,000 years. Not that it would matter then. If the spell failed, her alicorn magic would ensure that it never succeeded again.

She had sent a letter to the princesses, and any other alicorn or immortal she had met, detailing the spell. She was on less than the best of terms with many of them, the princesses included, so much for Celestia’s friendship lessons, Twilight thought ironically, but they deserved a chance to die, if they wanted it, as well. If they accepted the offer, Twilight supposed she would see them one last time before everything was gone to her forever.

…

A decade had come and went. To Twilight, who barely even noticed the passing of time anymore, it was no time at all. Now she stood before a circle carved deep into the rock of what once had been Canterlot, and the height of all magic, and where even now deep currents still flowed. It was strange to be back.

Much can change with time, and around her was a forest, stretching farther than the eye could see, or at least a normal one could. Twilight had spells that would allow her to see even the edge of the continent, let alone the forest’s edge, but she saw little reason to cast them now. No reason not to let herself pretend that the forest truly was infinite and that she was lost within her.

Behind her she heard movement. The sound of flight, and the sound of hooves hitting the ground. Turning, she saw Celestia land, followed by Luna, still graceful as a proper princess, something that Twilight had never quite managed as anything more than an act. She supposed that maybe it was an act for them as well, an act that had become a habit.

To them, Twilight bowed, putting on the act as well, and Celestia returned the pose. It meant nothing, the actions were nothing, nothing but the rehearsal of ancient actions that had long since lost their meaning. Still, rehearsing such actions was comfortable. A remembrance of a time that still meant something.

“Princess Twilight, my student,” Celestia said, smiling at her, "Look at how far you’ve come.”

“I didn’t even think it was possible,” Luna murmured, “A spell to end immortality. You have surpassed even us in your studies.”

Twilight smiled, wishing their praise still meant anything to her. But it did not. She doubted it meant anything to them either, it was only another habit born from their long existence.

There was a month left till the alignment, till she could cast the spell. A month where Twilight, and all others casting the spell, would not eat drink or sleep. They would push themselves as close to death as their alicorn magic would allow, and only then would the spell even have a chance of working.
…

Over the course of the month three other ponies and an ancient being that Twilight once would have banished for its very existence arrived as well. Celestia, Luna, Twilight, Opaline, Edorell, and Ashfall. The one who swallows. 7 creatures, a little over half of all immortals in existence.

The others had not come. She knew her letters had reached them, or would reach them eventually if it could not now, her magic had taken care of that. Perhaps they were trapped, or perhaps they were still clinging to the remains of their life. Either way, Twilight was indifferent. She had given them the spell and they could cast it the next time the universe aligned.

One by one, they formed a circle, or in the case of the one who swallows, covering the entire circle. Seven immortals unified in their intention. Seven immortals unified in their will to overcome their own magic, to return them to mortality, even for a moment. As far as Twilight knew it was the greatest gathering of magic ever formed, and if directed elsewhere it would almost certainly be enough to level the continent.

Twilight could feel the spell as it began. Felt the power being created as she fed her magic into the spell. The spell itself was in some ways very simple. Store enough magic to overwhelm an alicorn’s internal power, and then push it back at them, overwhelming their immortality and magic, even if only for a moment. The actual application of such an idea was far more complicated, but the idea behind it was simple. It worked in theory, but now was its first, and possibly last true test.

She fed it her power, her will, and it took it happily. Growing stronger and stronger until she had nothing left to give, and even then taking more still. She thought she would fall to the ground if she could move, but the spell seemed to trap her very existence as it grew ever more powerful.

And then, all at once it stopped, time seemed to hold still, and then reverse. The power crashed into her like a tidal wave, flowing into her with a single purpose, to overwhelm the magic that was already there.

It was over. All around the circle ponies collapsed, or screamed out in pain. Twilight certainly did. Only Celestia remained upright, her mane still glittering as if by magic, though Twilight knew she must have been out of that. An act indeed, Twilight thought, but she was focused on more important things.

It had worked. She felt the spell within her, battling against her own internal magic. It was an unstable balance, one that would last for minutes at most. Immortality could not be fully cured with any spell but death, and now was her chance. Her last chance.
Gathering what little was left of her strength she pulled herself onto her feet. One staggering step after another she pulled herself up towards the cliffs edge. She was tired, so very tired. But she had done it, and now, finally, she could be at rest.

Her hooves left the ground in one final stumble and she fell forward, over the edge, and down to her death.

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Across the continent, Discord laughed. He had felt it as they had cast it. A spell to cure immortality, he had never heard of such a thing. He could stop it if he wished, Twilight had sent him the spell, he knew how it worked. All it would take was a tiny push to tip the balance, hardly any magic at all. Did he feel like it, not particularly, but perhaps he would. It would be minutes till the spell was completed, and his whims came quickly. Either way it mattered little, he held their fates in his claw, as he always had, whether they realized it or not. Even so, it, the spell to cure immortality, and the power he had to tip the balance, was such a beautiful thing that Discord could not help but laugh, and laugh he did. Across the continent Discord laughed.