Earth and Sky at Night

Princess Twilight’s hovered over her balcony and into the night sky.  Anytime she was troubled, she always flew a few laps around Canterlot Castle.

What always troubled her were her friend's absence.  The years they spent together felt only like seconds, after that, Twilight witness generation upon generation of ponies pass away and give up their responsibilities and lifestyles to newer ones. But Equestria remained the same – the same old innocent and harmonic place that Twilight found herself ruling over with a long horn, a flowing mane, and graceful wings.

But not alone.

“Hey.” A voice said behind Twilight.

Twilight didn’t need to turn around to face her co-ruler.

“Hey Origin.”  Twilight replied, gliding across the starry sky.

“Please…call me Mudslinger…”

The alicorn trailing behind Twilight flew beside her.   Mudslinger was once a rust-colored, blue-and-white-maned pony from some backwater earth-pony town.  He was turned into an alicorn years after Twilight became one, though he didn’t take it too well at first, refusing royalty for his current position. Eventually, Mud gave into the fact he could never be his old self and took advantage of the royalty offered to him.  However, most of the Canterlot were uncomfortable that a pony named ‘Mudslinger’ was earning a royal position, so Mud changed his name to ‘Origin’. When asked why, he always said “Ever think that ponies evolved from the ground?”

Twilight’s purple eye’s met Mud’s blue ones “How old are you again?”

“Pretty young; I was just a colt when you became an alicorn.”  Mudslinger sighed.

Two continued their journey across the night sky, higher and higher.

“What are you out for?” Mudslinger asked

“It’s…Spike…”  Twilight stated, taking deep breath before she continued “You…see…he...he’s not here anymore….not the Spike I knew.”

A few days ago, Spike had found out he was rapidly growing and becoming greedier and greedier.  Eventually he ran away and was rumored to have joined the dragon migration as soon as they were leaving the land of Equestria.  Twilight hoped that Spike would come back or at communicate with her in some way, but he never did.

“He just left…looking out for himself” Twilight sighed.  She didn’t cry…she was done crying for the friends and family and acquaintances she had lost –it had been four generations since they vanished.

“I’m sure he left as to not hurt you.  Well….in different way that would make you feel sorry for taking him under your wing.”  Mudslinger stated.

“How do you know that?” Twilight asked, sounding distant.

“I’m an alicorn – I had pals that tied to cut loose ends with me before they passed away; Ambient Wonder, Shadowlight, November Flare, Blades, High Hopes, Eventide-”

“Eve….” Twilight halted in midflight and trembled.

Mudslinger paused for moment and glanced at Twilight, who landed on a cloud and closed her eyes.

“I’m….I’m sorry…Twilight.” Mudslinger admitted.  Twilight didn’t say a word. “It’s was wrong of me to bring-”

“Cut the formalities, Origin.” Twilight teased, opening her eyes “I was just remembering Eventide…how…young she was….her taste in music…Flash and I were proud of her…even if she wasn’t an alicorn.”

Mudslinger landed on the cloud facing Twilight “What’s was like to be in love with Commander Sentry?”

Twilight closed her eyes again “It was…frightening.  You were scared because you felt that you would either spending the rest of your life with somepony you loved….or that you would fail and whenever you thought of that pony, you kept thinking over and over in your head what went wrong.  But nothing went wrong….mostly…we were wedded and then we bore birth to Eventide Spark and Murk Watch….and that knowing they would go eventually, I didn’t try to change the future – I enjoyed the present to the fullest extent.”

Twilight opened her eyes.

“….fascinating” Mudslinger replied.

After glancing at the stops and silently identifying over a thousand constellations Twilight wonder “Mudslinger…do you ever regret the day you choose to become immortal?”

“Me?  Well, After Luna and Celestia vanished without altering anypony, somepony had to step up.  So you gathered all the alicorns you could find, from Equestria and beyond, to determine with one would become the new immortal rulers of Equestria. As I remember, you volunteered to be one of them.”

Twilight nodded “Yeah, I did…Celestia would’ve wanted it.  And then you stepped up…”

“Well, no one else wanted to be immortal, including me.” Mudslinger stated “but there was this curiosity inside of me, wondering what it meant to be immortal; was it all sadness? How did Celestia and Luna enjoy it?  What was it really like?”

“And that why you joined?” Twilight asked.

“No – the Princess of Thoris just shoved me forward. I just played along and acted as though I was proud of being bestowed immortality.”  Mudslinger stated.

“Oh…”

“Sorry…I was joking. I wanted to see if you remembered me raising my hoof in the back of that alicorn crowd.”

Twilight smirked “I guess forgetting also makes us closer to mortals.”

“That it does….” Mudslinger stated turning his side to Twilight, showing his flower cutie mark as he glimpsed towards Equestria.  They could now see the entire land with tiny speck of lights flicking from the Crystal Empire to Las Pegasus.

“Mudslinger, what is being an alicorn like for you?” Twilight asked

Mud glanced at Twilight “It’s like being the reader of a book – the books being about your friends, you family, your memories….when you experience them for the first time, you are full of excitement, wonder, and other emotions.  You don’t know where the story will go. But when it’s over and you try to read it again, you know how it ends and where it begins.  You can’t feel anything for it anymore, so after some time, you forget about it so…”

“So…one day you can try to relive it again.” Twilight finished, wrapping a wing around Mudslinger “But the best the part about being an immortal alicorn is that there is always a friend beside you.”

“Yeah…” Mudslinger replied brushing his wing against Twilight’s neck. “Just a friend right?”

“Just friends…” Twilight responded. “It because you still yearn for ambient wonder?”

“…Well…before she did pass on she said something about a place that’s…somewhere higher than Alicorns could ever fly....…I wondered what she meant by that.” Mudslinger gazed up at the vast and infinite ocean of stars.  Mudslinger and Twilight began to feel dwarfed by the night sky, like ponies in awe before some great and mysterious rulers.

Thinking about Celestia’s smile on the night before she vanished Twilight chimed “I think one day we'll find out, when it’s our time to leave this world."