"What was the 'telematrix array'?" Twilight asked, her magic working around and carving runes into the ground.

I hummed, thinking as I did the same thing as her. "A dream."

"A dream?"

I sighed. "Before the end, I was one of the only alicorns left. It was just me, Glowheart and Starfield. Glowheart was always the kindest soul I ever met, she would even defend the ponies who wanted her dead. Then me. I was..." I hummed as I thought of my words. "I was arrogant. Arrogant and beyond powerful. I believed I was Helios reincarnated." I snorted at the tale, "Every alicorn goes through that phase one day I suppose. When they realize just how powerful the alicorn race truly is, what we can be. But coupled with my intellect..." I trailed off.

"I spent a long time in that phase." I noted another pink flash as more supplies arrived, but no Cadence or Luna still. "And then, there was Starfield. She was absolutely brilliant. Beyond me in terms of pure ambition, ambition that led her to pushing and shoving her way to improve herself, she never gave up." My magic formed a panel, showing a monochrome purple image of her. "She designed a concept of an array of teleports, designed to warp Equestrian citizens around the nation in a split second."

Twilight nodded, bringing a hoof up in thought. "As amazing as that is, the amount of power needed–"

"Would be astronomical, yes." I nodded as well, reaching and grabbing the large metal rings from the supplies. "So she found a way for it to passively feed off of my magic. By this point in time, I had enough magic that it wouldn't have been an issue." She awed at my words, before helping me. "And so we created it. I trusted her judgement beyond anypony else with regard to the science behind it; I didn't even question it."

I narrowed my eyes. "What I hadn't counted on, was the corruption in her heart."

"What?"

"I'm not sure how I didn't notice it before." I sighed. "When he returned, his followers attacked without hesitation from all side, it would be near impossible to find out how and who brought him back. They assaulted Trottingham with the intent of massacring the alicorn council—Which he nearly accomplished."

"He?"

I sat down with a sigh, "King Sombra."

"But... Didn't we defeat him already?"

"That's right." My magic welded the rings and metal beams in place. "But he's a tenacious brute, no matter what we did, he wouldn't just lay down and stay dead."

She frowned, using her magic to assist me. "Before he attacked, there were just over thirty of us on the council, as you saw. After that, only three. He was ruthless, and neared my own power at the time. But beyond both of those, he was smart and cruel. Every attack he made was carefully thought through as a torture tactic. He would push us into going after him."

"One by one, he picked us off. Until Starfield, Glowheart and I managed to find him and stop him." I closed my eyes, feeling inside my soul for my harmonic link. I needed to influence the Tree of Harmony to grow closer to here for this to work. "After that, I thought we were safe." There. I pulled on the tree, and it followed. "But he had one last trick up his sleeve. During the attack, he split a part off his soul and latched it inside of Starfield."

"So the telematrix was..." Twilight's eyes widened in understanding.

"A trap." The roots tunneled from the ground and wrapped around our creation, me leading them into their place. "When it was activated, it stole all of my magic and forced it into the artificial sun. The gravity and the heat destroyed everything."

"And... Starfield and Glowheart?"

"They survived." I placed my hoof on the metal pillar, pushing it to test it's strength. I looked at Twilight before I regarded the machine. "Now we wait for the final part." I said, closing my eyes.

Twilight sighed, I could feel her shift the air as she sat beside me. "Wait, didn't Celestia find you alone?"

"Yes."

"But you said they survived the telematrix." She tilted her head, her brow furrowing in thought.

"I did say that, yes." My answer only seemed to confuse her even more.

"Then where did they go?" She kept asking, but I didn't answer. It wasn't any of her business, she was lucky to hear what she did.

Thank the Mothers Luna and Cadence are back. I don't think I could handle Twilight glaring at me any longer. "Did you find them?" Well maybe I could, it was kind of funny.

"Yes but..." Luna coughed. "Why do you need these?" She hoofed over the bag of gemstones, what looked like water balloons and rubber tubes. I took them and waved a hoof at them dismissively, before trotting back to the machine. "You're welcome?"

"Yes, thank you." I levitated the gems into the water balloon look–alikes, fusing the ends of them to one side of each of the the tubes. "Very rudimentary solution, but it'll do. Twilight?" I turned towards her, two wisps flowing off my horn as I sat the tubed balloons and gems on a crate. "Here: I have two spells you're going to need to perform."

She nearly galloped the three hoofs over to me, eagerly grinning at the thought of future spells. Though she seemed to remember who I was as she stepped back a couple steps, "Wait, what do they do?"

"The first is a specialized preservation spell I created. It doesn't need to be recast, it merely feeds off ambient magic to recharge." Her mouth literally fell agape. "The second spell simply retrieves the power source for the machine." Oh Mothers, she looks like a child on Hearth's Warming morning.

She tilted her head, as did Luna and Cadence. "But... Why can't you cast these spells?"

"And take all the credit? I'll have you know: I'm a very humble mare." I huffed, tipping my nose above them. To say they looked confused was an understatement. I leaned down to Twilight, sighing. "Just trust my judgement on this." I placed my horn to hers.

The wisps danced off my horn shimmering and coating Twilight's like a thin sheen of water before fading away. Her eyes grew distant for a moment before she backed up, shaking her head. "Whoa. That was weird, memory spells are weird. Have I ever mentioned memory spells feel really weird when cast on you?" She babbled as the spells asserted themselves in her mind. "O–Oh. Wow. These spells are ridiculously complex. I can't believe I know how to cast them already!" She jumped up and down as her mind ran through the little intricacies of the spells.

I turned away as she prepared herself to cast the spells, summoning a few extra folders from her laboratory. "These are the rest of the notes for the construction if you need them, I have something else I need to do." I said, levitating the notes over to Luna. "Don't read them until you know you need to."

She tilted her head, placing the folder on the stack of crates with the other supplies. "Yes, of course." She said rather uneasily. Clearing her throat, she looked left to right before shuffling her hooves. "So what happens now?"

"Now?" I trot over to the machine, all twelve of my bands buzzing. I take a deep breath as the power starts to overwhelm me, my mane expanding like ink in water.

Cli-Clank

The bands fall through my mane like it was made of smoke, clinking and thunking on the ground one by one. "Sweet Celestia." I heard Twilight say under her breathe. My mane started to glow, the cutie marks of my friends ghosting through it. Applejack, Fluttershy, Glowheart—Celestia. I flinched, looking away from the rising sun. No. She was no longer my friend. "What're you doing?"

"The machine will require these to limit and control the power source, otherwise it'd do more harm than good." I explain, carefully levitating the rings of iron around the bottom ring of the machine. One wrong move or break in concentration could be catastrophic with this much magic without any filters or restraints. "Be quiet for a moment." The three alicorns sat behind me, awkwardly exchanging glances as I precisely placed each band. "There..."

"Now what?" Twilight asked. I sighed, looking up at the sky.

"Now you cast the spell."

She nodded, charging up her magic in her horn as her eyes squinted closed. "Oh wow, this requires a lot of magic."

I look over to Luna and Cadence. "Give her some extra magic. She'll need it." They give me an odd look. "Just do it, please." They sighed, but raw magic started to pool above their heads, leaking into Twilight as she continued charging the spell. I lean down on my knees, "Twilight?" She opens her eyes, looking up at me even while I'm sitting in front of her. "Please understand that this is the only way."

Her head tilted. "What do you mean?" Then the spell arced out and pierced my chest. Everything turned numb, the lights of the world and the sounds of the spell dimmed and dampened. "Twilight!" She yelled, trying to end the spell. In the background, I spotted Luna and Cadence struggling too. Their forms covered in a dark haze as my senses left. "Stop this!"

"That won't work. The spell was designed to hijack your magic after it charged, I should know. I made it myself." The tip of my mane sparked, turning to a purple flame. "Don't feel bad, Twilight. Don't think you're murdering me. This is my choice, this is my action. I'm just using you to accomplish it." The fire licked down my mane quickly, a smokeless fire eating away at me.

"You're so selfish!" She yelled, still trying to stop the spell.

"You don't understand—I'm not abandoning you." I raised my hoof to reassure her, but it crumbled away. "The spell is harvesting my heart. My soul will be destroyed, but the magic will remain." My voice started to reverberate, echoing and distorting. "I will become the power source and I will get my wish." She didn't know what to say. She just stared at me. "Don't look at me like that, Twilight. We'll meet again." I said, closing my eyesas the world turned white.

watch?v=d9RUp0upbEQ

My name is Twilight Sparkle and today is my fifth birthday! I'm finally older than as many hooves as I got, so now I have to learn to write the numbers. But on my birthday, my mom got me a cool music box! It plays a really really old song from a fairy tale or something.

What was this? The world swam and distorted around me. Was this what death was like, or merely the way there? Everything was bright, a blue and white haze. I felt tiny, but I wasn't afraid.

My name is Twilight Sparkle, today I am nineteen years old. I just met my new friends earlier this year, we defeated Nightmare Moon and saved Equestria! I have a feeling my life is going to be a lot more interesting than I originally thought.

My life? Who was saying these words? Oh. Am I saying them?

My name is Twilight Sparkle, today I am twenty-two years old. I became a princess of Equestria yesterday, I can't believe it! I wish there were a book on the subject, maybe I can ask Princess Celestia to write one.

Day after day, life after life. I remembered. All my forgotten memories, all my hidden sorrows; they were free. I took it upon myself to embrace them, internally my soul wept.

My name is Twilight Sparkle, I think I'm five thousand years old, give or take a year. After helping two more alicorns ascend in the last few decades, me and the other princesses have decided a new form of government is in order. It's not official, but I've personally suggested a council system, governed by Princess Celestia and Princess Luna.

Too many memories! It hurts. The bright white world around me is pulsing, growing brighter and brighter as I remembered. And as I forgot.

My name is Twilight Sparkle, I am now twenty thousand years old. I don't remember my birthday anymore, I'm mostly just guessing. Today, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna died. In their will, they have left the chairmare's seats to me, making me the primary alicorn of the Equestrian Republic. I won't disappoint them.

Who was Twilight Sparkle? Why is she so important?

I am Twilight Sparkle, I am fifty-seven thousand years old. Today, one of my friends betrayed me. A device we created, the telematrix, killed everypony. I have no one left anymore, I'm all alone. But I will live on, if only to preserve pony kind. Not because I have no other choice.

I see a face, a face I feel like I recognize. I see a lot of faces.

I am Twilight Sparkle, my estimated age is three hundred and fifty-six thousand, two hundred years old. I have been alone for a very, very long time. I can't remember what my loved ones sound like anymore, their faces are blurs and their memory is tainted. I'm even doubting the saved memory I indulge in constantly, how do I know that their faces and voices in that aren't wrong? I've grown mean and hateful in my isolation, but that's okay. I don't need to be kind anymore, there's no one to be kind to.

More and more faces phased into view.

I, Twilight Sparkle, have died today. I gave up my life out of selfishness and necessity. I have no place in the living world, I belong in the limbo I was stolen from. Retribution is served.

"Glowheart?" I reach out with an ethereal hoof, it's sparkling and glowing like the hoof of a crystal pony.

"Welcome home Twilight."

"End? No, the journey doesn't end here. Death is just another path. One that we all must take."

― J.R.R. Tolkien