A summer breeze worked its way through the trees, their leaves whispering ancient secrets to any who cared to listen. Today, only two ponies paid heed to their words.
Celestia was amazed that she had been able to juke the guards for this long. It usually wasn’t too much of a problem if just one of them was missing but for her and Luna to be out of the castle alone was no doubt going to cause quite a bit of fuss amongst the royal guards. That is, once they figured out the Princess’s prowling the grounds were mere illusions.
She cast her gaze around, idly taking in the lush greenery that surrounded her. Luna was reclining under a tree nearby; no doubt laid low by the struggle of staying awake at such an hour. There were times where Celestia was glad that her job was to raise the sun. Better hours. Even still she wished her sister would wake up. It would be nice to have someone to talk to. Instead, she was left to her thoughts.
The two heavenly sisters had been ruling Equestria for a long time. A very long time. In one form or another they had been watching over the pony race for the entire span of the races’ history. They were goddesses after all, and when a being of such power was no longer needed their essence was recycled and reborn. Stale ideas and forms were shed like a second skin and only moments later they were welcomed back into the world. It had happened before; Celestia remembers these rebirths only dimly. But today would be different.
It was always apparent to Celestia that there would come a time where she was not needed, that ponykind would mature to a point where they could live without the watchful gaze of some ethereal god-figure watching over them. She had been at peace with this idea for some time. Being a god meant limited existential dread, as it were.
But some twenty years ago a young filly pushed her way into her life and, as they say, the rest was history. Literally. The antics and actions of Twilight Sparkle and her friends had been forever committed to the annals of Equestrian history. The return of Nightmare Moon and the Elements of Harmony, the defeat of Discord, Queen Chrysalis, and Tirek. All these things and more were carried out by the new bearers of the Elements of Harmony. All were clear signs to the goddess of the sun that her time was nearly over. She had lived many thousands of years in this body and dealt with tenfold that number of hardships and she was tired. So, so tired.
Her sister seemed to be feeling quite the opposite, however. Luna had only just woken up, blinking the sleep out of her eyes. Celestia regarded her with a smile as she drew herself to a standing position, flexing her wings.
“Celestia. Have you been watching me this entire time?”
“Only just now, dearest. I’ve been occupied otherwise.”
“Occupied? With what?”
“Always so many questions. But to give you an answer, thinking.”
“You do an awful lot of that if you don’t have someone to talk to.”
Celestia smiled softly. Of that much she was guilty. “Old habits die hard. But we won’t have to worry about that soon, correct?”
Luna was silent for a moment. Celestia knew that the subject was a sensitive one but there was no beating around the bush today. “I suppose not. Shouldn’t we be back in your study by now? You did say you had a letter to write, after all.”
Her study. How many years worth of time has she spent in this place? It might as well have been seconds to her but its significance couldn’t be understated. Her eyes scanned the familiar room, taking care to drink in every ray of light glinting off the sea of polished surfaces. There was already a fresh sheet of parchment lying on her desk, a quill nestled in an ink pot next to it. For now that’s where it would remain. She wanted to have one last nostalgic reverie with her sister, after all.
Memory spells were not uncommon. Anything from tampering with events to reliving them was possible. Alicorn magic allowed one to grapple with forces far beyond the ken of most of ponykind. The feat that they were about to perform was far beyond even the greatest spells either of them had mastered. It was magic in its rawest form, a release of pure energy not oft attempted by the celestial sisters. Celestia knew it involved touching horns but beyond that she was as in the dark as Luna once was.
It started tenderly. For creatures as magical as alicorns, it was one of the most sensitive gestures in their repertoire of body language. Almost at once the world around them began to melt away, folding into itself and eventually leaving them weightless in an vast nothingness. Celestia inspected her body, seeing that everything was still in place. For now she was immobile, an observer to what she could only imagine was the infinite miasma of pre-existence. Before she could continue down her train of thought a tear occurred and from the tear came color. Hues and values Celestia had never seen before and would never see again spilled out, filling the void with vibrance. She felt color brush against her coat, enveloping her as it went.
It felt like she was swimming but she found no need to hold her breath. In fact, a quick check showed that she wasn’t breathing at all. No pulse either. It wasn’t the strangest thing that was happening right now but it definitely grabbed her attention for a moment. In that moment, she felt her extremities begin to numb. A glance confirmed one of her fears: she was losing her corporeal form. She had only experienced this sensation a few times in her many years of life but it still made panic creep into her psyche. She remembered her sister by her side and focused on that presence, her physicality diminishing by the second. Luna was her tether in life and this role didn’t end in memories.
Before long, the now-settling waves of color finished stripping away her physical form. She let herself get swept up in its’ tide, not that she had much of a choice anyhow. It was always better to follow the flow in situations like this. There were some things that simply were not worth fighting. She could feel herself blending into the primordial color-ooze, stretching out infinitely in all directions. A thought came to her and she seized it, straining to exert her influence on the universe. She recalled her body, albeit dimly, and began to form it from the constituent elements of matter. It was a strenuous process but seeing Luna coalesce beside her gave her the spirit to carry on.
Form yet again. This was existence at its most basic and yet most vast. Each one of her milky white limbs easily carried on for lightyears. She knew and felt all. She and her sister reigned supreme in this realm. Her first task was to create a planet, molding and pressing matter into a rough sphere. Just moments after she created it it dissolved back into shapelessness. She needed a spark, something to connect creation to her desire to create. She turned to Luna and in fit of emotion craned her neck over, pressing their lips together. A shock ran down her body, solidifying it even more. Love. That was what she felt and that was what she needed. She pulled back, regarding Luna with all the love in the endless universe. Around them creation began to swirl, eddies and whirlpools forming independently of the goddesses. The scene changed as they gazed into each others eyes, gaining sharpness and clarity.
Together they ushered in the universe proper. Celestia missed the warm sea of color but she knew that things like this had to advance. All around her glittered the universe as she knew it, albeit a little rough around the edges. Constellations and nebulae were smeared across the inky blackness of space, stars and planets coalescing steadily. She cast her gaze around, searching for a planet to shape in the image of Equestria. It didn’t take long for her to find one and as she touched her hooves to its’ surface she found her size diminished greatly. Her and Luna retained their vibrancy, thankfully. That seemed to be a constant across their various iterations. She still towered over the landscape, of course. She walked its surface, flora spreading out in all directions each time her hooves touched the earth.
She tired of sightseeing quickly, deciding to nestle down with her sister. They found their lips drawn together again, a mirror of the gesture that brought this planet into existence. They were tangled together for days on end, the sun rising and setting of its own accord. The moonlight spilled across their limbs and Celestia drank up every last drop of the sight. Love poured from her being, saturating the very core of Equestria in positive energy. This was the birth of magic.
It took an entire week until they were spent, separating their lounging bodies with no small degree of reluctance. Celestia stretched her limbs, finding herself smaller still. She was somewhere between her familiar size and the towering goddess she was scant hours ago. She gathered up the magic that permeated the meadow where they lay and formed it into the ancestors of the beings that she knew in the present day. She imbued them with will and scattered them across the globe, wishing them all well. Her and Luna trawled the rolling slopes, finding the planet far more lively than it was upon their arrival. She had set life in motion; all she needed to do now was wait.
They carried on as the observers for what must have been eons. The sun was replaced by the moon, only to be swept away again and again. It was a most satisfying loop and one that was easy to get lost in. Celestia and Luna drifted across Equestria, sometimes skating close to the burgeoning pony civilization to impart fragments on wisdom to anypony who dared to seek them out. So it was that they taught ponies of magic and of love and of flight. At times they were called away from their future friends as powerful beasts began to rear their head. The more magic settled the more chaotic the world became, giving life to all manner of oddities. They witnessed the creation of the draconequus, a fluke of creation in its’ very nature. They saw flights of dragons and griffons take to the skies, vying for dominance across sprawling mountain ranges. All the while the sisters kept a watchful eye on ponykind. It was nearly time to join them.
When that day approached it was an odd one. Celestia felt diminutive, no longer capable of crossing rivers with a single step. She was still possessed of extreme power, of course. She could no longer create life but she was more than capable of sustaining it. They entered a fresh Equestria with as little fanfare as possible. They introduced themselves plainly and assisted the three tribes in their unification efforts. It was largely a hands-off approach when it came to direct politics but they were very much a catalyst for growth across the board. They mentored some of the most skilled fliers and mages the planet had seen, they gave the earth ponies the gift of metallurgy and divulged every drop of agricultural knowledge they possessed.
They slowly folded themselves into the lives of ponykind, eventually taking up their contemporary positions as princesses in Canterlot. The events they were experiencing now were starting to graze closer and closer to the memories they gathered in this life. Celestia watched as legends unfurled in front of her. It was one thing to read about things in a history book but it was something else entirely to be a part of it as it transpired. Wars were waged, empires formed and toppled, and Celestia and Luna grew older still. They retreated to the hills, immolating themselves in a bust of pure magic only to be find themselves in very familiar bodies.
Time began to move faster now, a single year passing in a minute. Celestia was forced to deal with thousand years of separation from her sister yet again, a memory so painful she had hoped it would be buried forever. She relived the return of Nightmare Moon, the assembling of the Elements of Harmony, the return of Discord. Reality began to creep in around them until all at once the dream ended.
The vision was over. Celestia focused on the rush of tactile feedback she received as reality righted itself. Silk covers. The sun on her coat. The warmth of another body lying next to her. She turned to smile at Luna and Luna did the same in return. It was a sort of bittersweet smile. The only kind either of them could muster at this point, really.
“We had a good run, didn’t we?”
“I suppose we did. I have every bit of faith that Twilight and Cadence will fare just as well as we did.”
Luna considered the statement presented to her for a moment. If there was any reservation in her sister before there was none now; her eyes gleaming with pride from a job well done. “Equestria is in good hooves.”
Dearest Twilight Sparkle,
I don’t know how to say this. This will be the last missive I write you. Luna and I are not eternal and our era has come and went. The fate of ponykind rests upon you and Cadance now. I trust the two of you entirely and if you ever need guidance you need simply to refer to the sun and moon. I’ll see you another day.
Ever yours,
Princess Celestia.
And Princess Luna.
Celestia wished she could do more for Twilight. She wished she could stay, to continue guiding her as a princess, as a friend. But life had set a different course for them. Celestia had always hated having to say goodbye. Being immortal meant that she had to deal with it far more than anypony should but this? This was something else.
It seemed her worry was palpable as Luna pressed against her. It reassured her more than she could explain. Gathering her nerves she stood up, making her way to the observatory. There was a chamber that only her and Luna could access and she was determined to make use of it. She sat on the soft floor, having been woven from the purest clouds. Luna sat beside her and together they watched the sunset one last time.
