The Canterlot archives, while plentiful, are always kept under firm security. Nopony got in without a guard knowing and, as it would turn out for the cloaked figure, it was quite difficult to sneak in. The cloaked figure kept by the wall, pressing herself against them when she heard even the faintest sound of trotting. Such a crazy idea required plenty of stealth.
Stealth was something that she still had. The cloaked figure managed to find her way to the Canterlot Archives, specifically the Star Swirl the Bearded wing. Staring at the door to get inside, she almost tore away from the dark safety of the shadows to throw herself in, but knew the guards would certainly know she was there if she did so. The cloaked figure waited patiently, looked both ways down the hall, and finally determined it safe to proceed. Anypony else would have gone right in, claiming such tactics used by the cloaked figure to be “childish” or “unnecessary”. The cloaked figure knew better; the Star Swirl the Bearded wing was the most secure part of the Canterlot Archives.
She opened the door, flinching a bit at the quiet squeak of the rusty old door, but she was finally inside.
The cloaked figure looked around in wonder. There were long rows of high shelves, each one stuffed with ancient scrolls and books. So many mysteries had been solved and created on every piece of the parchment that now surrounded her. Usually she would be excited, hopping around and looking everywhere in wonder, but her face remained grim. She threw off her cloak, leaving it discarded by the door, and then Princess Twilight Sparkle went deeper into the library.
She gazed around in wonder at the hundreds, maybe thousands, possibly millions of scrolls surrounding her. In the middle of it all was a large hourglass with sand quietly falling down. Twilight sometimes wondered what would happen when the sand finally fell to the bottom, and she remembered seeing a stallion around with an hourglass cutie mark…
Twilight shook her head. She didn’t have time to think about that tonight. She had to start her search, and find what she was looking for. Her horn glowed, and rolls of parchment began to fly off the shelves and come to a stand-still next to the purple alicorn.
Without hesitation, she began to look through the scrolls. This was where all the time spells were, so if there was a spell for what she needed, it would be here. Twilight’s brilliantly purple eyes swung back and forth as she read each scroll. She had to find what she was looking for, and she wouldn’t leave until she did.
It grew darker in the Star Swirl the Bearded wing as the night pressed on. Twilight used her horn to emit reading light. Her eyelids felt heavy, but Twilight pressed on. Occasionally stifling a yawn, Twilight rapidly made her way through the scrolls. A large pile of already-read scrolls was quickly forming next to her.
“Twilight?”
Twilight quickly looked up in surprise. She had been expecting a guard, but no. Princess Celestia herself was walking toward her. Looking as regal as she did many years ago, Twilight’s mentor surveyed the room and saw the many empty shelves, the contents of which were now littering the floor around her faithful student turned Equestrian Princess. What Celestia really noticed was how desperate Twilight looked. She was visibly tired and her eyelids were drooping, but she still looked like she wouldn’t stop rooting through the scrolls.
“Princess Celestia…!” Twilight said in surprise. The white alicorn strode into the room, “W-what are you doing here?”
“I come down here every morning, usually to remember how great Star Swirl the Bearded was, as a unicorn and as a friend,” Celestia answered, picking up a few of Twilight’s scrolls with her magic and glancing at them, “I should be asking you what you’re doing down here so late into my sister’s night. It’s almost time for me to raise the sun.”
“Nothing,” Twilight quickly replied. After receiving a strange look from Celestia, Twilight sighed, “I just can’t stop thinking about them.”
Celestia lowered her head. She knew exactly what Twilight meant. She walked over to the purple alicorn and put one of her wings around her.
“They… they just look so old now. Applejack looks like Granny Smith did before… near the end…” Twilight gave a small sob, and a small tear ran out of her eye down her face, “I don’t think I can deal with this. I can’t watch my friends…”
Celestia had her eyes closed, but could hear Twilight trying to choke out the last word. She knew what it was.
Twilight couldn’t watch her friends die.
“I didn’t know that I’d live longer than them…” Twilight sobbed, now crying with tears streaming down her face, “I never thought this day would come. I-I’ve been looking around here for a spell to stop them from aging…” Twilight looked up into her mentor’s sorrowful face. Celestia could see herself reflected in one of Twilight’s tears, “I don’t want my friends to die.”
They sat in silence for a while, Twilight coughing up quiet crying sounds with Celestia’s wing around her. As she cried, her tears fell onto the scrolls, making some of them damp with sadness.
“I don’t usually come down here this late, Twilight…” Celestia began, “I come down occasionally after I raise the sun, not every morning.”
“So why did you…?” Twilight tried to ask.
“Luna came to me in my dreams,” Celestia said with a sad smile, “I… She had been in your dreams, and told me about them. She told me about you, dreaming about listening to your friends’ cries of anguish and pain as they shriveled up and died.”
Twilight shook the wing off her, and began to take a few hoofsteps away from Princess Celestia. She didn’t want to listen to this, she couldn’t, even if she knew it was all true.
“As soon as Luna told me, I woke up and came down here to see you,” Celestia continued, “I know how it feels Twilight, to have all your friends leave you in the worst way possible. Such is the curse of the alicorns.”
Twilight heard Celestia’s voice quiver a little bit, and turned around to a shocking sight. Princess Celestia had a single drop of water running down her face. She had never thought that Celestia could cry, but now knew that everypony felt anguish.
“Throughout all these years… knowing my students and then losing them… with my sister as my only companion, you can’t imagine how painful it was for me to send her to the moon. I never felt more alone then I did in that moment.”
Celestia let out a quiet sob, and then continued, “Cadence has this curse now, and so do you. I’m sorry… both of you, I’m so, so sorry, Twilight…” She was breaking down, the tall, regal leader of Equestria was breaking apart, “Shining Armor will leave Cadence… your friends will leave you… and you’ll never get to be with them again because of what I have done. I’ve shared this curse of immortality with both of you… I’m sorry.”
Twilight took a few cautious steps toward her mentor.
“I didn’t know that… being an alicorn would mean I’d have to make this sacrifice…” Twilight took a deep breath, “Some days I wish you would just turn me back into a plain old purple unicorn. Just Twilight. Just normal Twilight. But…”
She now embraced her mentor in a hug, throwing her hooves around the Princess of the sun, “I don’t want you to be alone.”
The two sat in a hug for a long time, each one fighting back tears as they remembered every heartbreaking thing that had ever happened, as they remembered who they were and that it was finally okay to be sad, and as they prepared for the tragic events still to come.
Princess Celestia sighed, and then got up.
“It’s time for me to raise the sun, Twilight,” She said with a sad smile, “I… I have to go now. Just… remember what I said.”
Twilight watched Celestia leave, and then sat there for a moment before getting up to follow.
As she walked down the long corridors of Canterlot Library, Princess Twilight Sparkle began to reflect. A slow smile began to grow on her face as she remembered the time Pinkie, Spike and herself had snuck inside the Star Swirl the Bearded wing to go back in time. It only grew from there as she remembered everything she had been through with her friends in Canterlot, and finally Ponyville. She remembered fighting Discord, facing Tirek, stopping the Changelings… as she walked out of the library and looked up at the castle, she remembered when she was just a unicorn living in Canterlot, unsure of what friendship meant and unwilling to find out.
Twilight continued to cry, despite the smile on her face. The smile of remembrance.
Applejack passed away the next day.