Pale Passing

Dehydration and hypothermia, mixed with hypoglycemia from lack of food, explained away all of Fluttershy’s experience, save of course for how she ended up in Whitetail to begin with, or how she did not die, or how in Celestia’s name she found that letter. The bones, she heard, had been looked over by a coroner, and while cause of death did not seem violent, insofar as one could determine such based on bones, the skeleton belonged to an earth pony stallion, somewhere around thirty years old. The shattered bones showed signs of healing, meaning they broke while he was still alive and he lived longer than a day or so after the fact; he likely died of exposure in that hole, a fate Fluttershy only narrowly avoided. It was a very good thing Pale Pass had stoked that fire when he did, or her stay in the hospital would have been a lot longer.

Speaking of the stallion, nothing in Ponyville’s birth records indicated a stallion by that name and coloration ever lived in town, nor did anything Twilight dug up mention him; the princess of friendship was looking into other cities for answers, seeing as he had been partially responsible for Fluttershy’s safety. It was most troubling, looking for a stallion who did not seem to be real, if just to put Fluttershy at ease. She had even contacted Celestia about it after sending off the letter that was found with the skeleton. The letter itself was addressed to the princess herself, so delivery had been mercifully easy; Princess Celestia, however, had not responded about what it contained. or if she had ever heard of Pale Pass. It was a frustrating situation.

Fluttershy stared at the ceiling in her room, lights dimmed to allow her eyes some rest. Visiting hours were over for the day, and all her friends were at their respective homes; she was alone, as she had probably been for the past three days. A gentle knocking sounded at her door, and she wondered who it could have been; very slowly, the door opened, and a smiling white pony stuck her head inside.

“It’s good you’re okay, Fluttershy,” Princess Celestia said in maternal tones. Philomena was perched on her horn, brought along because she knew how much Fluttershy liked the phoenix. “The doctors say you should be released soon, maybe even tomorrow if everything goes well.”

“I hope so.” The butter yellow pony’s tone was not entirely enthusiastic, but she was stressed and tired.

“I’m not keeping you awake, am I?” the princess asked in genuine concern. “I can come back tomorrow if that would be better.”

“Oh, no, it’s fine; I’ve slept plenty already,” the shy pony laughed weakly. “Is everything alright, Princess?”

“Everything is fine, my little pony.” Celestia walked over and sat next to Fluttershy's bed, scooting close to reach her hooves on the blankets. “I have a surprise for you, actually, some answers.” With a small smile, she pulled out the letter, seal broken, and presented it before Fluttershy’s curious eyes. The pegasus could not read the language it was written in. “You’re not crazy; this is written in Old Equestrian, the language we used until about three hundred years after my sister’s banishment.”

“It was there for a long time, then.” Fluttershy tried to avoid the idea of the stallion who was meant to deliver it falling into the hole and dying. “And it was the only letter I found.”

“He burned all the others for warmth,” Celestia said sadly, frowning as her eyes looked a little watery. “He destroyed every letter he had except the one meant for me; he held onto the idea of help coming for him, even until the end.”

“You knew him?” It made sense, of course, but it was still a hard pill to swallow. “I’m sorry if you did not know; don't like bringing bad news to ponies.”

“No, this is a happy day; he can finally get the burial he deserves.” Now Celestia smiled, though it still had some sorrow in it. She still lost a friend, and a wound had been reopened, but now she had her own closure. “He was my secretary, just like Raven is now.” She looked to the door and smiled fondly, before turning back to the one she was actually speaking to. “Fluttershy, the stallion you spoke to, Pale Pass, went missing seven hundred and fifty years ago. I fully believe you encountered his spirit, and that he used you to fulfill his final mission.”

“But Twilight said there’s no such thing as ghosts,” the mare protested, unwilling to believe that she met a spirit of any sort. There simply had to be some sort of mistake; maybe they just shared a name and the princess was confusing the two.

“Stranger things have happened in Equestria, Fluttershy; why can’t this just be one more thing we can’t really explain?”