Eternal is a My Little Pony 'n Friends oneshot by ThickerThanLove. It can be read here
, and stars Ribbon, Buttons, Gusty, Fizzy, Galaxy, Mimic, and their children.
The story starts on Baby Galaxy's tenth birthday. She is the last of her group of unicorn friends to turn ten, which excites her. On this day, Galaxy and the other adult unicorns have to tell their foals a secret related to being a unicorn. This secret wil change everything their foals know about their parents and their race.
Eternal is a serious, somewhat dark take on My Little Pony canon. It features some worldbuilding and gives insight to unicorns in general.
Not to be confused with Eternal, which is a My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fanfic.
Eternal provides examples of:
- Adaptation Name Change: Downplayed with the baby ponies, whose official names are actually nicknames.
- The Ageless: Unicorns stop aging after a certain period. Galaxy is eons old but doesn't look older than thirty.
- Awful Truth: Whenever unicorn foals turn ten, they are told by their parents that they are immortal and that they must forever keep the balance of the universe, defending it against evil, and essentially have no free will or choice in the matter. They can even be forced to have children themselves if the universe wills it. And if they do not, evil and darkness will overtake the universe and the unicorns will age and die.
- Creation Story: Before time itself, ten mystical proto-ponies were created to help bring the universe into balance. These unicorn-like beings created several pony races in their image, but they didn't make unicorns because they felt superior to their creations. Later on, the firstborn created the stars and brought light to the universe.
- Honorary Uncle: Baby ponies treat their friends' mothers as their aunts.
- Innocence Lost: The adults deem the Awful Truth about unicorns to be a curse. They tried to withhold the information from their daughters for as long as possible in order to let them stay innocent, but after everyone turned ten is when they decided to disclose the truth.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Baby ponies have individual names, with "Baby [x]" only being a nickname that is used until they're a certain age.
- Really 700 Years Old: Unicorns are immortal. Galaxy is older than time itself.
- Truly Single Parent: Baby Galaxy has no father. Galaxy wanted to experience motherhood, so she impregnated herself.
- We Are as Mayflies: Earthlings typically have the shortest pony lifespan at one hundred, pegasi live to two hundred, flutter ponies and sea ponies live until three hundred, and unicorns live forever.
- Who Wants to Live Forever?: Being immortal is not all that fun, especially when your existence is crucial to the universe's well-being.
