Celestia sat in her personal chambers as she watched the scene play out before her on the mystical window into the past. Displayed upon it, six mares, the princess’s former student and her five friends were struck by beams of light shooting out from the Tree of Harmony in the cavern. The light consumed the little ponies before their essences were drawn into the jeweled box and six spheres of colorful light shot out to reveal that the Bearers had been reborn as something never before seen in Equestria.
While the sight of it was magical, and a boon to all of Equestria, Celestia’s heart could not help but ache for the young ones that had yet to realize their fate. A fate that would one day force them to watch their families grow old and die while they remained forever untouched by time.
She had checked up on all of them after everything had died down, visiting the little ponies for the past few days after their initial meeting to see how each of them were adjusting to the changes brought about by the defeat of the latest threat to Equestria. While her concern over any problems the latest adjustment in their lives had been genuine, Celestia had also wanted to see if any of them had noticed that the bodies they now possessed were any different from the old ones. Well, aside from the power to call on a magic to make them look more colorful and crush gods beneath their hooves like bugs that is.
Thankfully, none of them had become aware that the shells they now wore were any different from their previous bodies, aside from some old injuries or aches that no longer bothered them. None of them had noticed that they had been altered at all. Even Twilight had failed to grasp that her new alicorn body was a step beyond what she had been elevated to before the harmonic event.
Unfortunately, their lack of knowledge about the situation meant Celestia was faced with a difficult choice: she could let them remain blissfully ignorant to their newly gained immortality, or tell them of what had transpired and offer her advice on how to cope with the idea of Forever.
Celestia knew from personal experience that the first path had its appeal as well as disadvantages. After all, she and Luna had not been aware of their own immortality until her friends began to gray while the sister remained ever young and powerful. It had caused a great deal of heartache, jealousy, and the loss of more than one friendship when all the ponies around Celestia and Luna were dragged down by time and the sisters were not. Words had been exchanged in anger that still brought pain to Celestia’s heart, despite the fact that the ponies who said them had long since turned to dust.
She still wondered what would have been different had she known what was to transpire all those years ago. If she had come into the world knowing that she would never leave it through the fault of age. Would she have bothered making friends at all, or simply ignored the slights that became tearful arguments in order to not waste time with the ones she loved?
It was a question she would never find an answer to.
And something she need not worry about at the moment.
She had to focus on the effects her decision would bring.
There would be the change in perspective that came with the knowledge of immortality. It would happen to them now, or forty years down the line when they noticed the lack of slowing down, gray hairs, and the hundred other things that came with bodies that were supposed to be over the hill. But it would come all the same in time.
Either way, Celestia would at least be there to help them cope with the change in that regard. She would be there to guide them into the new perspectives they would need. Her little ponies didn’t worry about the future on the same kind of scale she did, nor did they think of what would happen to the foals scampering around their hooves when it came to the children's old age, as the older would usually pass before the younger. That was the way of the world after all.
Telling the Bearers, or whatever they were now, would put that weight on their shoulders much sooner than if they were to figure it out themselves. They would find themselves having to worry and plan for things years, decades, or even centuries down the line from day one instead of day ten thousand.
At the same time, it would allow them to prepare. Telling them would let Twilight and her friends stop wasting precious days simply lounging around, fighting with loved ones, or doing a million other silly things that ponies did to eat up time because of one reason or another. Armed with the foreknowledge, they could spend every second of every day with those that they felt close to. Because they would know that each second that went by was time closer to when they would have to say goodbye to their loved ones forever.
But there would be consequences for that foreknowledge. A little voice would constantly whisper in their ear that their families would one day be dead, and they would continue on. It was a weight Celestia knew all too well, and had stopped her from growing as close as she would have liked to several ponies throughout the years.
If Celestia were to remain silent thing would certainly be better in the now. There would be no worries, and no little voice in the back of their heads constantly reminding them that every second that went by was one step closer to never seeing their families again. They could relax and enjoy simply living life because they would think there wouldn’t always be a tomorrow for everypony and they had no need to wonder about what would happen centuries down the line; or how much they would regret decisions of eons past.
But on the other hand, just because ponies like Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Applejack didn’t know just how long they would outlive their little sisters, just because they would be able to not worry about things like seeing the foals that trotted at their heels grow old while they remained the same… It didn’t mean they wouldn’t resent Celestia for not telling them later on.
That particular realization brought her to a completely different line of thought.
Was she doing this for them, or herself?
Immortals could carry grudges for a long time, and Celestia was more than a little worried of what a single pony out of the six who defeated Tirek while he had been next to unstoppable could do. The magic they held was beyond all the unicorns, pegasi, and alicorns in Equestria. It was more than possible that a single one of the six stood head and shoulders above the Alicorn of the Sun when it came to raw magic power, and even Celestia didn’t know what kind of new abilities the Magic of Friendship had given them.
And as much as it hurt to admit, she was afraid of them, if they were brought to anger.
A part of her called the notion silly. Celestia had seen the five other ponies since Twilight had come across them, watched them, and laughed at their antics from afar. In truth, she felt closer to those six mares than any other pony in Equestria save for her sister. And she knew that despite everything that had transpired between them, never once had they turned to violence against one they considered friend.
But then, never before had they faced such a problem…and the question of just how much friendship they held for Celestia was also in doubt.
Respect and admiration?
Yes. Celestia was their princess, their ruler. The pony who raised the sun and whom some ponies considered a deity despite her mortal roots. She had ruled Equestria for a thousand years and sacrificed the one she loved most of all for its safety.
Friendship?
Well…that was the question.
But it was neither here, nor there.
Celestia refocused her mind on the six ponies in the projection before her, on what was important, and made her decision on what to do.
Author's Note
Just something that's been bouncing round in my head since the whole "Twilight will not outlive her friends" thing. I mean first everyone was like oh she's mortal or...she'll get killed off before her friends, but few people have focused on the third option of all the girls being immortal.
After all, it wasn't just the mane six's cutie marks on the Tree, Luna and Celestia's were there too. So it could be the tree, not alicorn-hood that gives them the ability to live forever.
And if you had to live forever, would you want to know about it now, or X number of years down the line when you started noticing a lack of old age?
