As the days went by, the crowd of ponies constantly seeking to comfort her began to quickly shrink. Twilight went about her days normally, except for some very noticeable differences; she spent much less time around her friends lately and when she was with them, she didn’t talk half as much as before, plus every night around midnight, Twilight would vanish, and Spike was unable to find her until the next morning. After two weeks of this routine, Spike finally went to Twilight’s friends to beg for their help.

Spike went to each of her friends one by one, asking each of them to try and locate Twilight during the night, but it seemed only Applejack and Rainbow Dash had reasonable plans on how to do it, so he settled for just them.

“Don’t worry Spike, when she goes out tonight I’ll just follow her on the clouds, while AJ gets ready with the rope in case she tries to get away, we’ll get her to talk to us, trust me”

Spike put his head in his claw, somehow, he knew he would regret this later, but he was worried about her, and this was the least extreme plan they had come up with.

Later that night, just like Spike had said, Twilight exited her house around midnight carrying a bag and began walking…just walking, towards the edge of Ponyville. Rainbow Dash followed above her on a cloud, being careful to stop if Twilight ever looked up. She had AJ following her cautiously from behind with her rope, darting behind trees and bushes. They followed her for at least twenty minutes before coming to a hillside with many broken trees. Applejack immediately recognized this place as the spot where they had first met Don. With all the broken trees still lying about, it was pretty easy to spot.

Twilight walked to the top of the hillside and took out a number of items including: a book, her Element crown, Don’s heart necklace and her Smarty Pants doll, along with some other items that AJ couldn’t make out in the dark. At first, neither AJ or Rainbow Dash could see what she could do with all of this stuff, but they only had to wonder a short time. Twilight quickly put the many items into specific spots on the hillside. She put her Element crown on her head, she opened the book in front of her, she set the necklace and doll on the very edge of the hill, and set the other items behind her out of sight, in the bushes. Then she began reading, she sat for some time, but then, quick as lightning, she jumped up and lit her horn brighter than Dashie or AJ could remember seeing it. Her crown lit up as well, Twilight took aim at the necklace and doll letting loose the magic from her horn and crown straight at them.

The beam struck the necklace and doll simultaneously, but Twilight did not leave the beam there, she arched her horn upwards, which quickly sent another beam, coming from the necklace and doll, over the hillside. As the beam flew, it mysteriously stopped in midair, and began to expand like a portal. Twilight’s face, even through the strain, AJ could see a hopeful smile beginning to appear on it. However it disappeared just as quickly.

The portal suddenly, and violently collapsed inward and exploded, sending Twilight rolling down the hillside. Twilight bumped and rolled for several seconds before coming to a painful halt at the bottom of the hill. Even before she saw her, Applejack heard Twilight coming back up the hill, she heard her because she was crying. As Twilight dragged herself back up the hillside, AJ could make out the faint sighs and grunts of Twilight quietly sobbing to herself. Once she had regathered her items around her, she pulled her bag back out of the bushes. From it, she took a blanket and pillow, then plopped her head down in the pillow and continued her crying. Eventually Twilight pulled the blanket on herself, before falling asleep shortly afterwards, tears still falling from her eyes.

Once they were sure she was asleep Rainbow Dash and Applejack snuck past her and headed back towards the town. On their way back, they discussed what they had seen with great enthusiasm

“Come on Applejack, we should go back and bring her home!”

“Won’t do nothing of good. If she don’t want ta be home, then bringing her back would just be wrong. What ya’ll need to do is go comfort her tomorrow, all of us, together. She’s never gonna move past this if we don’t help her. I’m really starting to worry about that one, Daybreak’s…death…land sakes”

AJ could see the word still hit Rainbow like it did her, she winced as AJ said it

“Daybreak’s death…hit all of us hard, but we’ve managed to bring our days back to some basic normalcy. All of us, except Twilight, Ah hardly ever see her anymore now that Ah think about it, what about you Rainbow?”.

Rainbow Dash shook her head “I’ve barely seen her at all lately, she never comes to the spa anymore, and like Spike said, when she does come around, she doesn’t talk, we need to do something.”

“Especially considering what’s right around the corner”.

Rainbow Dash stopped in her tracks “Do you mean?”

AJ nodded “She’s gonna need somepony during heat. Ah don’t think it’s safe to leave her by herself during that, who knows what she might do”.

Rainbow scratched her head with her hoof as she flew next to AJ “What do you think she was trying to do with that portal”

Applejack merely shrugged “Ya’lls guess is as good as mine, we’ll ask her tomorrow”

“Agreed”.

Rainbow and Applejack continued their route home, until, quite shockingly, Twilight ran past them, clearly in a hurry. Rainbow recovered from the shock, and took off after her

“Hey Twilight! Wait up!”

Twilight didn’t look back at her, but Rainbow still heard her clear as day

“Just leave me alone Rainbow Dash, I don’t want any of your help!”.

Rainbow Dash caught up to Twilight quickly, but the moment she cut her off, Twilight teleported away.
Rainbow floated back over to AJ and kicked the air with her hooves

“What is with that crazy mare?! Has she lost her mind or something, she never acts like this, oh…” her words dazed off into mumbles under her breath as the two ponies continued their walks home. Eventually AJ and Rainbow parted ways, AJ went back to the farm and Rainbow went into her home in the clouds.

Twilight reappeared in her home, and walked straight up to her room, barley giving a greeting to Spike, who ran to her loyally, wanting welcome her back. She slammed the door, tucked herself under her covers and began silently crying to herself again. She hugged herself and her tail for comfort. Twilight activated her horn and out of her bag floated the heart necklace and her Smarty Pants doll. Once they flew under the covers, she put the necklace around her neck and hugged the doll close to her. The necklace gave off a low pinkish glow, Twilight had finally come to understand how this thing truly worked. It changed to different shades of red depending on the type of love, and ever since Daybreak had…she couldn’t bring herself to even think the word...ever since that day, it had glowed with a pinkish light which she came to understand as “loving sadness" or melancholy. The glow faded as it always did, and Twilight was left alone in the dark, with only trinkets to remember her love by.

She cried for more than just her own self pity, she cried for many other things. She cried for the way he had gone, to protect her, keep her safe, when that was the very thing she had sought to keep him from doing. She cried because she would never feel the joy of his flesh and fur against her own again. She cried because now she would never bear a foal, which was a secret hope she had harbored for them. She cried because the last thing they had done was battle each other, she cried because she realized too late who he truely was. She cried because she continued to fail in her attempts to reverse the spell that had destroyed him. But most of all, she cried because no pony else would, everypony else, everyone else, had stopped shedding their tears for him! Oh sure they missed him, they grieved, but only for a short time! Now they all just wanted to do the one thing she couldn’t, they wanted to move on, maybe even forget, like it never happened or was a bad dream. That there had never been a Daybreak, who brought joy to nearly every one he met, who cared for everypony of Ponyville. No they wanted to move on and let it pass, and Twilight hated them for it. No! Hate was not what she now felt for her friends, she felt distance, like a gap had opened between them, and it continued to move away, until she was left nearly wishing she had never loved in the first place. What was worse, she knew what was coming up, estrus, she would be in the heat soon, and she would endure the whole thing with no relief. She knew she would, even the slightest bit of pleasure caused her pain in her heart, a pain that would not cease, because she had shared her most intimate places with Daybreak and now any pleasure felt like a betrayal, to him and their love. She knew that she would would be in for a long nine days when her time rolled around.

…..

Daybreak felt the numbness from his crash beginning to wear down, he rolled his head around in the dirt, attempting to find the sky. It felt like every muscle, every bone, every single inch of his body was numb and raw. He finally found the sky with his eyes, it was a clear cloudless day, as he did, his mind seemed to do a automatic reset. All at once his head felt like it exploded with pain. Every memory he had, as Daybreak the unicorn, and as Don the weird-mixture flooded back into him. He grabbed at his head attempting to squeeze away the pain. He breathed in the fresh air of his surroundings and let out a sigh of disbelief

“I’m…alive?”

He knew it should be impossible, but yet hear he lay, breathing and in pain. He put his hand in front of his face, extended one of his claws, and poked himself in the arm. He let out a slight gasp

“Yep-I’m alive alright…ouch! How can I be alive, I blew myself up?”

He knew he had, he remembered it clear as day, the feeling of every cell in his body being ripped apart all at once.

Daybreak sat up, feeling the blood rush to his head, he set his hand on the ground and steadied himself. It didn’t make sense to him, how had he survived? He had figured out how he held some kind of special power when Twilight had cast her spell on him, and he knew he had released all of that power in his explosion, the power that had changed him to look the way he did, even if he was alive, he knew he should be a pony again. Daybreak worked his way to his feet, although everything felt like jelly, he still managed to stand and lean on the nearest tree. He held out his hand and focused on his magic, then a brown aura, the same color as his fur surrounded his hand like it normally would for a spell. He released it and found himself more confused. He reached up and felt his head, his mane had returned to its original style as a pony, his magic was back to its original style, and once he found a mirror, he was certain he would see his mane was back to its old colors too. All of these traits pointed to him being a pony again, yet as he stood up he still had his claws and still stood on two legs. He looked behind him, even his tail was back to its Daybreak colors, green and white, yet somehow he was still in this form. He found these things most odd, though considering the fact that he shouldn’t even be alive, it didn’t really surprise him that much.

Daybreak looked around, and immediately climbed to the top of the nearest tree. He took in his surroundings from atop that tree and realized something very important…he had absolutely no idea where he was! He couldn’t even tell if he was still in Equestria or not. He mumbled to himself, grumbling that it could not possibly get any weirder. Then a thought occurred to him, the last time something like this had happened he had been shot several years into the future. His grip faltered as the thought crept into his mind, what if he had shot past Twilight’s time, and she was gone, he knew the thought was ridiculous since Granny Smith herself had been alive when Ponyville was founded, and that was centuries ago. The thought however, grew into more fears, he was still the same age, but his friends might have grown more, perhaps even moved on, maybe Twilight had forgotten him and found somepony else. The thoughts in his mind finally frustrated him to the point of release, he couldn’t take it, his own thoughts betraying him, he screamed at the top of his lungs, letting loose an incredible wave of magic straight up into the sky, it exploded into different shades of purple, the sparks from it drifted down and popped lightly on the ground.

That had been relatively pointless, but he still felt better, he refused to believe he had been shot into the future again without a memory of the time in between! And he would continue that belief until he saw Twilight for himself. However that still brought him back to his most pressing problem, where the hay was he? Daybreak jumped down from the tree and as he struck the ground he heard a loud BOOM! He looked back up and saw the magic he let loose was still traveling across the sky, he silently wondered to himself, if Twilight might possibly see it. Perhaps he had inadvertently sent up a distress flare for his friends, he chuckled, it was a small hope at best. He took a look at the long forest ahead of him, he had seen several small clearings throughout it, those would be where he rested until one of the paths seemed promising to him. He stretched out his legs

“Well *sigh* the only way I’m gonna get home is if I start walking, might as well get going then”.

…..
That Night

Princess Luna felt the tremor even from her post in the Cantterlot tower. She looked into the clear night sky and saw the amazing wave of magic that followed the tremor. She stared at it in disbelief

“Impossible!”

She flew from her tower down into her sisters room as fast as she could manage. When she entered she was already yelling in her Royal Cantterlot Voice

“SISTER! HAST THOU SEEN….”

Her voice drifted off as she saw her sister already packing a travel bag of items. Luna flew over to her

“My sister, you know we cannot go”

Celestia shook her head without looking up.

“These are not for me Luna, we must summon Twilight and her friends…NO! On second thought, I will go to her, this time I will tell her everything, I have kept secrets from my most faithful student for too long”

Luna watched as her sister continued to pack several magical item into the small bag. She knew her sister felt guilty and she sympathized with that, but still

“Sister, we don’t know for certain…if it’s not him……the hope may only serve to break her again, and this time it would be solely our fault. I advise a manner of discretion in your telling of this news to Twilight Sparkle, she is fragile at the moment, and her friends…you yourself have seen the letters her friends have sent us voicing their worries for Twilight, please, I urge discretion with this”

Celestia sighed and nodded “I know Luna, I know, I shall be discreet, but there is no harm in me hoping for the best”

“But still we must plan for the worst”

“I doubt it could get much worse”

“it can always get worse sister, one can always fall lower than before, but one can also always rise higher, let’s give her that chance”

Celestia nodded, reluctantly.

…..
The Next Morning

Twilight awoke to the sound of trumpets at her door, their screaming screeches served as a rude “good morning” to all of Ponyville, she peeked out of her window, and saw Princess Celestia standing in front of her home, along with five royal guards, two of whom, were blowing the trumpets. Although she knew it would deeply disrespectful to keep the Princess waiting, she still felt a mild temptation to throw a book at the trumpet players and shut her windows tight. She knew she wouldn’t though, it wasn’t truly Celestia’s fault that her situation was what it was, despite the amount of time Twilight had tried to blame her in her mind.

The Royal guards only had to blow the horns once more, for after that, many ponies, including all her friends, began to gather around them. Many of them were probably wondering why Royal guards were blowing trumpets at Twilight Sparkle’s door. Twilight knew she could not avoid showing herself, despite her wanting to be left alone. As she descended the steps to the door, she thought to herself that the Princess was probably going to try and comfort her now too. As if she could help, Twilight doubted that anything the Princess could offer would make her feel any better. As she approached the door, she set Smarty Pants on her back like he was riding her, and strapped Daybreak’s necklace around her neck. It had become her habit, if she ever ventured away from home, she always took either the necklace or Smarty Pants with her now.

Twilight opened the door and stepped out into the sunshine, it was an especially bright and sunny day, she suspected this was part of Celestia’s attempt to cheer her. She walked past the guards without notice and approached the Princess. She gave Celestia a slight bow

“Princess, what are you doing here in Ponyville?”

Celestia narrowed her eyes, it was like she could see Twilight’s suspicions. She removed a bag that had been strapped under her wing, out of sight, and placed it in front of Twilight

“You will need these on your journey”.

Twilight was dumbfounded, and her face reflected it

“P-Princess, what journey, what are you talking about?”.

Twilight’s previous mood of defiance was shocked out of her, the Princess had never been so direct, and she had never looked at Twilight like that before. Her eyes were narrowed, Twilight could almost see the seriousness behind them, it made all other thoughts vanish from her mind. Celestia’s seriousness did not fade with her next comment

“A magical force was detected last night by my sister. It arched like a purple rainbow in the sky leading far out of Canterlot, beyond, to places even I don't know. We believe the magic may belong to a familiar source but we are unsure. Nevertheless it must be investigated, and you and your friends are just the ponies to investigate it. I have a feeling only you six can find it.”

Twilight felt a pang of defiance in her ignite again.

“What if I don’t want to go?”

Twilight didn’t mean it how it sounded, but if she was being honest, she didn’t really care much for adventure anymore. The ponies around her looked shocked that she would speak that way to Princess Celestia, but the Princess did not seem to share their surprise

“If this journey does not prove beneficial to you, I shall not request anymore from you, ever”.

Twilight had not expected to hear that, especially from her teacher, who always sent her out on adventures with her friends, usually for the good of Equestria, she had expected her to insist, not accept. It only proved that she too, knew, Twilight had nothing left in her. Twilight knew then, this would likely be her last journey, and her last adventure with her friends. She picked up the sack of items in her mouth, and set them on her back, ready to go! She looked up at her teacher

“Will I need anything else Princess?”

Celestia nodded “you will need your friends Twilight, I have confidence this journey may...dawn onto something” the Princess muffled a smile and departed, leaving Twilight standing in the road, waiting for her friends to gather around her.

Author's Notes:

Don't fret about how he survived, stick around for a long while and u may find out eventually :P
i personally like defiant Twilight
(Celestia) "Twilight i need you to clean up my mess again"
(Twilight) "Le No"