Celestia opened her eyes again.
The young, pink-maned alicorn was confused. Very much so. Just a moment ago, she had fallen onto the ground in a heap of agony and pain, caused by the gaping sword wound in her chest. In her final thoughts, Celestia’s mind graced over two things: the first, her sister, and the worry that the younger alicorn would be lonely without her big sister; the second, an amazement at the amount of blood was in her body...“was” being the operative word, of course. It just didn’t stop flowing from her...dyeing her pristine alabaster coat with splatterings of crimson.
Celestia realized that the image of her own broken body wasn’t just in her mind, no. She looked down and saw it there at the base of her hooves, laying in a sticky pool of blood, glazed eyes still half-open and lifeless. It was more red now than white. Next to it, Celestia’s own bronze sword lay across another blade on the dirt; the black weapon that had been plunged through her heart. Hardly a stain lay on the black sword, despite having been in her chest for well over a minute.
I’m dead. The revelation didn’t seem to surprise Celestia, especially as she stared down at her corpse. It was all the evidence that she needed. So...this is what happens when you die, is it? The alicorn frowned. This was not what she was expecting at all. Where are the Fields of Elysium? The Court of Eternals?
Suddenly, an echoing shout of dismay broke the silence. “Celestia! NO!”
Turning toward the noise, Celestia saw Luna hobbling toward the broken body on the ground, the royal-purple alicorn sporting a few wounds of her own, but none too severe. At her side, Luna carried her silver rapier, which was coated in a blood that looked like much darker red than it should be. Did she... Celestia thought, eyeing the weapon, ...kill the Baron?
When Luna finally came upon Celestia’s corpse, the sanguine saber was dropped in shock at the gorey horror. “Sister...” Luna breathed, staring down at the blood-soaked body, Celestia’s extraphysical presence appearing to be unnoticed. Tears immediately sprung to the younger alicorn’s teal eyes. “Tia, no...please, Sun and Stars, you cannot be...” Grief began to creep into Luna’s mind, and gradually she began sobbing. “You can’t be dead!” she cried, collapsing to the ground.
“Luna...” Celestia spoke, trying to calm her sister. “I am here, dear sister.”
“Please,” Luna continued, still sobbing, showing no sign of hearing Celestia’s voice. “Don’t leave me, sister...”
“I have not left you!” Celestia insisted to her sister, tears beginning to well up in her own eyes. “I am right here!” She stamped her hoof angrily, but there was no sound of nail hitting dirt, nor dust disturbed by the impact.
“She cannot hear you.”
At the sound of another voice, Celestia turned away from her sister to see a cloaked equine figure, hiding their appearence behind a ragged gray hood. Their voice was akin to a young stallion barely out of his youth, at least as far as Celestia gathered, and had a silky tone, his word ringing clearly. Beneath the hood, all that could be seen was a beige muzzle wearing a neutral expression.
“You do not exist tangibly, at the moment,” the cloaked stallion continued, approaching Celestia. “Without flesh, a soul has no voice the living can hear, or hooves that can be touched. How you appear is how you imagine yourself to be; namely, as yourself.”
This made the white alicorn’s eyes narrow in curiosity. “Yet you can hear me,” noted Celestia. She looked back down at the quivering form of her sister, who showed no notice of the stallion, and still no acknowledgement for her. “And she hears neither of us.” With a scrutinizing gaze. “Then you, too, have perished as I have?”
To her confusion, the strange stallion only laughed at this. It was not a morbid jubilation, rather the laugh of somepony who had just realized something rather foolish they had done. “Perhaps I may have,” he muttered, seemingly to himself. “Would that not be ironic, if my inception was indeed the very chore to which I am doomed?”
“I apologize, but I am confused,” Celestia said, tilting her head at the shrouded pony. “Are you or are you not a lost soul like myself?”
With another small chuckle, the pony shook his head. “A soul? Possibly, depending on how you perceive a sentient personification. Lost? Most definitely not. Or maybe I am, and I just do not know it.”
“Curb your riddled tongue, knave!” Celestia yelled angrily, growing impatient at the stallion’s cryptic mutterings. What fool is this that mocks my demise in such a manner? “Speak your next words carefully. Reveal your nature.”
A smile crossed the hooded face. “You truly are an inspiration, Celestia of Everfree,” he complimented, holding a more serious demeanor in his voice. “Even in defeat, you plant your hooves and challenge Death itself. Is it different, now, when I can look into your eyes and accept your challenges?”
It took a moment for the stallion’s words to sink in, but Celestia’s eyes widened as she worked out the meaning behind them. “You are...Death?” she asked.
“In the fle--” Death paused, thinking about what he was just about to say. He burst into another round of chuckles. “Pardon me. Irony seems to be the story of my life.”
“Indeed,” deadpanned Celestia. It sounds as if he hasn’t spoken to another pony for a long time. I wonder... “So. This is how dying is?” The alicorn looked back at her body, frowning as she once again saw her grieving sister. “I figured there would be more fulfilment in death. Elysium and the like. This is...rather disappointing.”
Death shook his head. “Mmh. Had you been a normal pony, such would have been true,” he informed. “Elysium...Tartarus...they’re both as real as you make them out to be, and either is the destiny of those who have met their fate.”
Hearing this, Celestia turned a glare on him. “So why am I not there, then?” she asked, becoming frustrated. “What makes me different?”
Slowly, the hooded stallion paced toward Celestia’s corpse and the blue alicorn next to it. “Your fate has not yet been met,” said Death, looking down at Luna. There was a moment where the personification looked almost somber at the sight, one he had likely seen many a time before. “You have a destiny yet to fulfil, Celestia. One that requires you to transcend mortality itself.”
“You speak again in riddles,” growled Celestia.
“I’m afraid I am being rather literal in this instance,” Death replied. “You are an alicorn. An immortal in the most serious definition. Fate has decreed that you must not die, therefore, you will not.”
Celestia stared at him, absorbing his meaning. Immortal...by what manner? “Yet I am dead now,” she pointed out.
“Only temporarily,” assured Death. “I wished to speak with you, so you might better understand what is happening.” The hooded stallion assumed a serious expression, peering at Celestia from within the shadows of his cloak. “You will be returned to your body soon, your wounds mended and your body restored impeccably. This will occur each time you experience a mortal wound or injury.”
“But what of age or disease?” asked Celestia. “Surely, I am not impervious to time.”
With a sigh, Death shook his head. “Know you not the definition of immortality?” he retaliated. “Time cannot touch you. Sickness cannot claim you. You will not wither away, nor will you be ended by any weapon of mundane or magic. Do you see now, Celestia of Everfree?” Suddenly, an ethereal wind picked up, Death’s cloak whipping about his body and his voice echoing loudly through the spiritual realm. “I cannot lay a hoof upon you.”
As suddenly as it had come, the tempest died. Celestia looked frightened by this abrupt declaration alongside the menacing air. I am untouchable by Death... she wondered in fearful awe to herself. Once, Clover the Clever had spoken deeply to her and Luna about the implications of a deathless soul, never to age or be killed.
“The way I see it,” Clover had said, “immortality is one of the greatest curses that can befall a pony. Imagine, Luna, Celestia, trapped on this physical world for eternity, watching all that you love wither away and succumb to time. Life clings to you like a disease, eating away at your soul until you are naught but a cold shell of what you were, nothing to live for, not doing anything but sitting idle and existing, waiting for the End of Time to come along and free you from the prison of the tangible world before you finally find peace in Elysium. One might cope for so long, but only as long as they have something left to be alive for.”
“I am cursed, then,” breathed Celestia, a panic beginning to build inside her. “Damned to eternity, bound to life in chains.” Her gaze once again found Luna. Tears immediately sprung to her eyes. “We are both cursed.”
Death sighed again. “That depends on how you see it,” he said to her, adopting a consoling tone. Tilting his head up, as if in prayer, Death inhaled calmly. “Being bound to life...it is not such a grim thing, you know. I’d much rather my eternity dwell in the realm of the living than have my existence bound to the task which I perform now.” A small smile graced his features. It was in that moment Celestia began to see in Death a pony much older than he appeared in mannerism and voice. In that smile, the alicorn could see pain, so much torture that one would have to be truly ancient to have experienced it. “Would you feel better if I said there was a way I could make you and your sister’s immortality a finite thing?”
The question caught Celestia off-guard. “But...you said that I had a destiny to fulfil,” argued the alicorn. “One that required me to be immortal. Is my destiny not so important?”
“Celestia, your destiny is more important than any pony that has been born to date,” Death replied, lowering his head and smiling at her. “But seeing as you are unwilling to accept the means to the end, and because I am a reasonable pony, I will make a bargain with you.”
“A bargain?” asked Celestia skeptically. “If my destiny is so important, why would you bargain it with me?”
“A small bit because I believe it is my turn to challenge you for a change,” quipped Death. “For the most part, because I understand how it is to suffer eternity, and if anything, I would not wish the same doom upon anyone, so I will give you the chance to escape, if only for my own conscience.”
Cautiously, Celestia eyed the cloaked stallion, hesitating in her reply. Is a bargain with Death truly wise? After some quiet seconds, she nodded. “Very well, Death,” answered the alicorn. “Name your challenge.”
“Celestia of Everfree, in order to win your freedom from eternal life and pass on to Elysium, I challenge you this: you must tell me what your destiny is,” Death stated in an official tone. “Each time you face me again--not of your own accord, of course--I will allow you one attempt to guess. Once you can correctly name your destiny, you will have won passage to Elysium. Until you do, you will remain immortal.”
My...destiny? Celestia frowned, considering this challenge. It seemed simple enough, yet she was still wary. If my destiny is so imperative to ponykind, then it should not be so difficult to decipher. “I accept your challenge, Death,” she answered, but then added, “under one condition.”
Death made the motion of raising an eyebrow beneath his hood. “Oh?”
“My sister is also immortal as myself, correct?” Celestia clarified. “When first she meets you, I would like her to receive the same mercy as I have.”
An amiable smile crossing his face, the stallion nodded. “I was planning on it. Death, as you know, is quite possibly the most fair thing in the world.”
Celestia exhaled a pent-up breath. “So then the challenge has begun.”
“Yes, I believe it has,” Death noted as well, humming to himself. “Would you like to wager a guess now?”
Surprised, but grateful, Celestia nodded at him. Since Death did not seem to be rushing her, she took her time to ponder over what such an important destiny she might have. Logically, she reasoned, that it must have something to do many years beyond now, given that she must be deathless to fulfil it. Perhaps something immortality would be useful for. After much deliberation on her part, she spoke her guess: “Am I to become a great warrior? To fight the enemies of Equestria as a true force of reckoning?”
To her confusion, Death broke into laughter. “Oh...and I thought I was the definition of irony,” he mused. “I apologize my dear, but...”
Suddenly Celestia’s vision was blinded by cloudy white. She felt the sensation of falling...
“GASP!” Celestia’s eyes snapped open as she gasped for air to fill her previously empty lungs. A coughing fit struck her, life returning to her aching limbs and organs, jump-starting her quieted heart into overdrive to quickly return oxygen to her resurrected cells. There was a numb feeling in her chest, precisely where a gaping, bloodied hole once was, now completely healed.
Slowly, as she regained her senses and coordination, Celestia realized that she felt physically better than she had ever been. Her hip, which she had once dislocated as a foal, no longer gave her discomfort. The discolored scar on her foreleg--the remnant of an unfortunate encounter with a dragon--had disappeared completely, leaving a pristine white coat. All the blood she had seen pooled around her body was also nowhere to be seen. Not a single crimson stain remained on her body.
“Ce-...Celestia?” Blinking the dust out of her eyes, Celestia lifted her pink mane from the dirt and turned her gaze to her sister. She saw the younger alicorn staring at her with an expression of absolute shock and disbelief, her reddened, glistening eyes wide and staring. Luna stood up and backed away a few steps, staggering a little. “What...what manner of sorcery...? How is this possible?”
Taking care to rise gradually to not startle her sister, Celestia returned Luna’s gaze. “Luna...” she breathed, half-incredulous herself. “Luna I...”
“This is a trick, is it?” Luna exclaimed, lifting her rapier from the ground and floating it defensively between her and revived alicorn. It shook anxiously, Luna’s instability showing in her telekinesis. “Some...final spell the Baron has placed upon you to mock me in his defeat... Necromancy of some degree...”
Blinking in surprise, the elder alicorn frowned at her sister. I...I need to say something... Calm her down. “Luna,” she repeated, “do you remember what I told you when we were fillies? The day Clover taught us of life and death? My promise.”
Luna remained silent, still regarding her with a suspect eye, but she began to lower the weapon slightly.
“I swore a solemn oath that I would never leave you, Luna...” Celestia continued, taking a few steps toward the terrified alicorn. “Then you asked of me what I would do if I were to die...and I told you I would not.”
“That leaving me alone without you would be too important to die...” paraphrased Luna quietly, her saber lowering fully. A few moments passed between them in silence, with the younger staring at her sister as she recalled the memory. “Celestia,” she finally said, staggering forward. At the last moment, Celestia had to catch her as she stumbled onto her. As Luna buried her face into her sister’s chest, Celestia could feel the wetness on her cheeks. “You...kept your oath...?”
“Always, Luna...” answered Celestia, wrapping Luna in a hug with one foreleg. “I am an honest pony, am I not?”
“Y-yes, that you are,” sniffled Luna, jubilous tears soaking into Celestia’s coat. “But I... by what manner have you escaped death itself?”
Escaped Death...not as such... Celestia sighed, holding Luna tighter. Her own eyes began to water. “That is talk for another place. One more calm and without the bleak of death and dark upon it.” I will tell her...not now, of course, but soon...
When Celestia once again crossed paths with Death, three decades had passed. In that time, she and Luna had been welcomed back from their encounter with the Baron as heroes of Equestria. A banquet had been held in their honor at Castle Everfree, the citizens of the city-state rejoicing their freedom from the practitioner of black magic who had been terrorizing them for months. Peace endured for the two alicorn sisters as they took up residence in the Castle as champions, and for twenty years, they happily enjoyed their peace.
But peace was not to last. In a surprising development, the Griffon Empire began a ruthless campaign against the minotaur emirates directly west of Equestria, utterly annihilating them. With Equestria undoubtedly their next target, the ponykind rallied at the western front, armed for war. At first, it seemed that the greater armies of Equestria would turn back the griffon incursion with minimal losses, but as months of battle became years, it was evident that the undying resolve and tenacity of the griffon warriors would hold.
And hold it did...for ten whole years. Both sides suffered severe casualties, neither gaining more than an average of a few meters of ground per month. Then, in the tenth year of the war, Celestia herself became another casualty of war.
“Really now, Celestia?” Death tisked at her, trying to hold back laughter. “In all the valorous ways to die in the heat of battle, it was a single loose pebble and a protruding spear-tip in the ground that ended you?”
Celestia growled at his chiding, eyeing her corpse. Its frozen face still held an expression of the purest surprise. “Do you always devalue the sacrifice of fallen soldiers in such a disrespectful manner?”
“No, but with you I can afford to do so, all things given thusly,” replied Death with a small smile. In comic fashion, he made a presentation of pointing out the corpse. “Would you like a eulogy? I am quite adept at them. ‘Wherefore lies Celestia in this world, but on the point of a broken spear so clumsily left in--'”
“Enough of your mockery!” shouted Celestia. “We have business, you and I!”
With a sigh, Death shook his head at the loss of humor on his audience. “Morbidity is a dying comedy,” he lamented before turning to Celestia. “Very well, Celestia, Knight-Captain of Equestria, what is the destiny you foresee for yourself?”
Celestia took in a preparatory breath. She had spent much of her time at the castle meditating on her destiny, and in the last few years before the war, she felt confident in her answer this time. “Am I to become a savior for ponykind? If some great disaster befalls this land and ponykind, am I the one to lead them from hardship into a better future?”
For a moment, Death said nothing. In this moment, Celestia felt hope. Had she guessed it on only the second try?
However, the next thing she knew, Death burst into laughter. Then she woke up again, a second time resurrected from demise. “Ponyfeathers!” she swore.
Next to her, a sergeant--who had come across her body in the battlefield--fainted of shock.
By the time Celestia met Death again, Luna had already met him thrice: twice during the war with the griffons (which had ended soon after Celestia’s perishing on the field, in a daring strike on the griffon commander, headed by Celestia herself), and once more in an unfortunate accident with a bar of soap in the shower, an account which she and Celestia agreed never to mention. In the years following the war, the two alicorn sisters talked much about their visits with Death and what their destinies might be.
About a two score years from then, Celestia once again found herself staring down at her own corpse. This time, though, a smile of satisfaction crossed her face. After all, she and Luna had just sealed the all-powerful, maleficent Lord of Chaos in a tomb of stone. She felt pride at the fact that they had ended Discord’s reign of fear, and freed ponykind from his iron grasp.
What she did not account for, however, was that the overwhelming power of three Elements of Harmony would be too much for her to handle. Inundated with the raw magical might of Harmony, her body burned up from the inside.
“Quite an impressive feat, that...” she heard Death’s voice say with an impressed tone. “That’s a lot coming from me; I’ve seen the creation of the universe.”
“Really?” Celestia asked Death curiously. “How was it?”
Death shrugged dismissively. “Imagine a huge explosion, but with no sound, fire, or anything else that makes an explosion exciting,” he recounted with a disapproving tone. The hooded pony then regarded Celestia. Though he made note of the alicorn’s increased height and ethereal rainbow mane, it was her question that put him off slightly. “That was rather uncharacteristically...well, not-cynically-irritant of you. Hit your head on the way to Limbo, did you?”
“Nothing of the sort; I was merely interested,” she replied calmly. “A chat with the Reaper is a rare opportunity, after all.”
“Actually, it’s not so rare at all,” Death argued. “Just that most ponies will only do it once.”
A small laugh escaped Celestia’s lips. “Yes, well...shall we begin?”
Death’s beige muzzle smirked at the laugh, satisfied that he had finally received a positive reaction from his joke. “Very well, Celestia, Grand Hero of Equestria, what is your destiny?”
Without missing a beat, Celestia answered, “I am to become a ruler, alongside my sister. We will usher Equestria into a new age of peace and prosperity, leading ponykind into a golden age.”
So sure she was of this answer, which had been agreed upon and discussed to great depth between herself and Luna, Celestia was utterly shocked when air suddenly filled her lungs, life returning to her once more.
The first thing she heard was a growl of frustration from Luna, who had also failed to guess her destiny.
Though it may not have been their destiny, the two sisters found themselves being heralded by ponykind everywhere as their saviors and heroes. In a vote amongst a council of the wisest and most capable ponies in the realm, they were unanimously elected as the new rulers of Equestria, for demonstrating unmatched skill, knowledge, and judgment while on the run from Discord. Newly dubbed Princess Luna and Princess Celestia, they accepted the throne graciously, swearing to rule justly and fairly.
In their new reign as the diarchs of Equestria, they each met with Death several times over the many centuries of their rule. Their demises varied from acts of sacrifice on the battlefield--especially in the confrontation with the shadowy King Sombra of the Crystal Empire, to various successful assassination attempts, including poison, surprise attacks, and one particularly clever scheme by a disgruntled unicorn that resulted in their incineration (it was quite a surprise for him to see the previously-charred corpses rise from the floor, not a burn to be seen).
But each time the Princesses offered a guess, Death returned them to the land of the living. They had since ceased trying to keep count of their attempts, as it become too tedious a task to remember. Over the many meetings, Death had become a friend to them as much as anypony. Celestia had developed a liking to his morbid jokes and philosophical musings, and often the two had lengthy discussions before Celestia made her guess and he returned her to the living world. Because of the longevity of the alicorn’s age, Death became like familiar occurrence, a part of regular life. She always looked forward to his next visit--not too eagerly though, as she disliked the pain and discomfort that usually came with him.
Then, on the eleven hundred and fifty-sixth year of the diarchy’s rule, Death came once more to Celestia. But instead of being greeted as a welcome friend as he usually was, the cloaked figure found Celestia’s soul staring up at the moon in the sky, trails of heavy tears running down her face. At the alicorn’s feet, her body lie motionless, having once again been overwhelmed by the Elements of Harmony. This time, though, she had wielded all six. Death had known the day would come, as foretold by Fate, that Celestia would have to take up the power of Harmony against her own sister.
“She is not dead,” Death began, attempting to console the alicorn. “Merely suspended in the moon by the Elements. For her, it will just feel like a dreamless sleep.”
Celestia didn’t answer him directly, her gaze never leaving the moon. On its silvery surface, the silhouette of a mare seemed to glare accusingly back. “What could I have done, old friend?” she asked, the Princess’ voice shaky with sobs. “You commune with Fate...is there anything different I could have done to stop this?”
Sighing, Death sat next to the weeping alicorn, his gray cloak falling over his shoulders. “There was no way of knowing that the Nightmare had been corrupting her, Celestia. It is a parasite that lies dormant for many years, feeding on a pony’s inner darkness until, like what happened with your sister, it manifests through the host as an incarnation of that darkness.” Death shook his head. “No, you could not have known until it was too late. Luna was too far infested to save by yourself.”
“I thought...that with the Elements...” Celestia sniffled. “I thought I could save her.”
For a long moment, they sat in silence, Death’s presence a welcome one for Celestia in her time of grief. She held off on asking to guess what her destiny was, if only to keep Death around for comfort. Reaper he might be, but he was also her oldest friend aside from Luna. Now her sister was sealed in the moon, leaving her alone with only Death as company.
“Perhaps you still can,” Death suddenly said.
Celestia tore her gaze away from the moon to look at the hooded stallion. “What?”
“I will tell you how to save your sister, Celestia,” stated Death, returning her gaze from beneath the ragged edges of his cowl. “But I must ask of something from you in return, to balance the scales of Fate.”
“Anything!” Celestia exclaimed desperately, falling to her knees in front of Death in a begging manner. “I will give anything you need! Anything you name!”
Death put a hoof under her chin, lifting her head up to look at his veiled face. Slowly, he coaxed Celestia out of her pathetic bow into a more dignified stance. “In order to satisfy Fate, you must forfeit your bargain with me until such time that you have freed your sister from the Nightmare.”
“I accept,” declared Celestia without hesitation. “Now, please, how do I save her.”
A little shocked by her reckless answer, Death took a brief moment to respond. “While the Elements do have the power to save Luna, their power is too great to channel through one pony alone,” he told her. “To use the Elements to their greatest potential, they must be wielded by six ponies who exemplify each Element: Honesty, Loyalty, Generosity, Kindness, Laughter, and Magic. Most importantly, they must share a bond of fellowship, such that their souls are tied together through the Love they share.” Death looked up at the moon. “They must be assembled by the time the spell sealing Luna and the Nightmare in the moon wears off, precisely one thousand years from today.”
Suddenly, Celestia’s hopes were much lowered. “But...where do I find six ponies with such traits?” she questioned. “Surely, the chances are one in several million such a fellowship will exist by that time.”
“It is not as rare as it seems, my friend,” Death said, restoring hope to Celestia. “Through forces beyond even my comprehension, the Spirits of Friendship always seem to have interconnected destinies and capabilities beyond that of normal ponies. They will always be drawn to each other, one way or another.”
“So all I have to do is find one, just before the thousandth year,” Celestia realized. “If they are indeed exemplars of ponies, it should not be such a challenge.”
Smiling at his friend’s improved attitude, Death nodded. “Are you ready, then?”
Celestia nodded. “As ever.”
Then she woke up.
Death and Celestia met again, of course, throughout the millennium. Their sessions continued as they always had, and their friendship never waned. Each time, Death would allow her a single, cryptic piece of information regarding the six ponies that would become the Elements of Harmony at the time of Nightmare Moon’s release.
When the day had come, however, Death did not hear of Celestia for quite some time. Luna, however, met him once during that time, as proof that Celestia’s goal had worked to wonderful success. The younger alicorn spoke with Death about all that had happened since the Elements had freed her, about meeting Twilight and visiting Ponyville during Nightmare Night (which Death had found quite amusing). Like always, at the finale of their meeting, Luna guessed what her destiny was.
“Sorry, Luna,” Death responded. “Better luck next time.”
“Indeed,” the Lunar Princess chuckled. “Goodnight, old friend.”
“Goodnight, Luna. Try to be careful with your bars of soap next time.”
Twilight rushed down the corridor, the tears in her eyes clouding her vision. The lavender alicorn brushed past Canterlot Palace staff and guard alike in her blind panic. No no no no no, it can’t be! it just CAN’T be! She repeated this mantra over and over in her head as she ran, hoping with all her heart.
When she finally reached her destination, she burst through the door, panting and dripping with nervous perspiration. Celestia’s room was still as she remembered it when she studied under the Princess, three decades ago. It almost never changed, aside from the positioning of the pillows perhaps, or the presence of a crackling fire in the hearth on cold days. It was a sight more familiar than her own Ponyville home.
At the side of Celestia’s bed, Luna, Cadance, and Discord turned to face the newly-arrived Twilight. All three, even the draconequues, wore somber expressions, confirming Twilight’s terrors. “No...” she breathed, her tears beginning anew. “No, please...I didn’t want to believe...”
“I am afraid so, Twilight,” Cadance said, bowing her head. “This is hard for us all.”
Twilight stared at her old foal-sitter, taking in her words. “But...but...”
“Twilight,” Luna spoke up, “she has been asking for you. Please.”
Still in disbelief and almost approaching denial, Twilight slowly approached the bed. Respectfully, the other three present stepped away to give the two some space for their meeting. The lavender mare gasped at what she saw in the bed, her worst fears now in full view.
Celestia turned her head. “Twilight,” she said weakly, a frail smile gracing her lips. “My faithful student.”
As Twilight trotted up to Celestia’s bedside, she saw how severe the Solar Princess’ condition was. A usually pristine white coat was balding in patches all over, uncovering shriveled, gaunt flesh beneath. Her mane flowed no more, and its vibrant colors had dulled, reverting to the pink color from so long ago. Pink eyes looked back at the lavender mare with a haze in them, set in a face that was wrinkled and sickly.
“Princess Celestia...” choked Twilight around the knot in her throat. “Wha...what’s happening to...?”
“I am dying, my little pony,” Celestia answered without a trace of sadness in her voice, as if she felt relieved by this fact. “My unfathomable time on this world is ending, like all things must eventually. Did I not teach you this very thing? In this very room?”
The facts now undeniable, from the mouth of the pony herself, Twilight’s dam burst. With a wait of grief, she collapsed onto the bed. Tears soaked into the sheets with every sob. A sadness like Twilight had never felt before overcame her very being. “Y-you...you can’t d-d-die,” she argued, trying to convince herself more than anything. “Please...you just can’t.”
“I must, Twilight.” Celestia lifted a wing, molting feathers trailing off the decaying appendage, and set it over her sobbing student. “There, there...do not feel sad for me. Death is a part of living, and my own is much overdue.”
“But it’s not fair!” Twilight wailed. “I’ll never see you again! I won’t get to hear your voice when I need advice, o-or spend a winter evening reading a book with you next to the fireplace, or...or...” Unable to finish, she broke down again into sobbing. “It’s just not f-fair...”
“My student...” cooed Celestia, her voice growing weaker as the sickness continued its silent rampage. “Death is quite possibly the most fair thing in the world. We will be separated now, yes... But remember, Twilight, I will always be in Elysium, waiting for you as well. It may take a long, long time, and you are going to have to be very, very patient, but do not worry, Twilight. We will meet again, one day.” A weak cough shook Celestia’s body. Slowly, she turned her gaze away from Twilight to gaze at somepony else. This time, his gray hood was down, and she was greeted with a pair of amiable, shimmering blue eyes, set in a smiling beige face. A single tear rolled down Death’s face at the sight of his long-time friend slipping into his realm so she could be carried away to Elysium. “I am ready, old friend,” she whispered quietly, as if to herself. “I know what my destiny is...and it has been already fulfilled.”
Death gave her the same, familiar smile she had come to know so well. For the last time in Celestia’s long life, she let out a contented sigh and closed her eyes, drifting into the hooves of her friend to be carried away.
As she watched her body fall away, her gaze lingered on Twilight. Goodbye, Twilight. Thank you...for helping me find peace at last.
“You’ll watch over her, won’t you?” Celestia asked.
Death nodded. “Her and Cadance, both. The bargain I have made with you, so shall I make with them. After all, what am I if not fair?”
“Thank you, Death.”
“Think nothing of it, Celestia,” Death replied. He and the alicorn in his hooves looked upward, toward a brilliant light above. “It is my job, you know, to deliver peace to all.”
Author's Note
I had a ton of fun writing this...I think. It was hard to see what I wrote through teary eyes at the end. It was an idea in my head that I wanted to use in one of my larger stories, but it came out much better here as a standalone. One thing that sorta irks me is that I had to fictionalize a villain for the beginning and make them so vague, but it's such a minor part of the story that it worked well as it is.
As my followers know, I LOVE LOVE LOVE feedback, ESPECIALLY criticism. It helps me know what I do well as a writer and what I can improve on. I take my criticism like I take my coffee: pure and not sugar-coated. Don't like something about the story? Tell me! It's the only way I'll improve!
