Six ponies, seven seals.
Regal and beautiful with her bright white coat and ever flowing mane of the colors of the horizon, Princess Celestia sat on one side of the Petit Cheval de D'ajouter et de L'acquisition table upon soft and luxurious gold-edged crimson cushions, the only solid things in the unsubstantial queerness of this "not-place". Somewhere that alicorns could be that was itself nowhere. A phenomenon the god-creatures used for privacy and solitude.
Across from the co-ruler of Equestria sat another alicorn, one rarely seen at all by the ponies of Equestria. She had a very pale cyan coat with bluish mottling on her rump and blue hooves with delightfully fuzzy fetlocks. The mottled blue on her flanks was punctuated by a winged jewel cutie mark. Like her regal relative, her deep blue and purple mane flowed perpetually in an impalpable breeze.
Celestia levitated two bowls and two opposing stones from the game table. Hidden from the view of her opponent behind the bowls the monarch swapped the stones several times, then splayed them before her, the stones still hidden from the cyan alicorn, one behind either bowl.
Celestia paused a moment to consider her opponent. Maera, the Equestrian Goddess of Death and Transitions was a distant cousin, one that had been a dear friend in their youth Millenia ago. Responsibilities had separated them, but there was not even a hint of animosity for it. Still, their respective roles in the functioning of the world were so different that they genuinely could no longer easily relate to one another.
Celestia hoped that Maera had as little practice at this ancient traditional game as she had in the intervening time.
"Care to choose, Maera?" Celestia asked with her customary polite respect.
Maera tilted her horn toward Celestia's right.
"You have light stones." Celestia announced. She placed the bowls back on the table, revealing which stone her companion had selected as confirmation.
"Pre-Equestrian earth-pony rules?" Maera asked cordially. "As I recall, you have a preference for that variation."
"Yes, thank you," Celestia said. She placed her stones in the table pits, rolling her four-sided tetrahedral dice to get her starting numbers. She repressed a frown when they came up decidedly unfavourable.
"It has been such a long time since we played, dearest cousin." Maera rolled her dice in the starting area. She smiled at the result. "It's a pity it had to come to this to get you at the D'ajouter et de L'acquisition table again."
"Indeed."
Doctor Stable barked orders, feeling utterly overwhelmed. The six mares in his emergency room had just saved Ponyville, and possibly even the world itself. It had been impressive and terrifying to see.
But... the cost.
He knew only Rainbow Dash's name, even then only because she was a "frequent flier" (he loved the irony of that term applied to Pegasuses) and could be difficult and irritating. Her daring and headstrong, bombastic attitude and penchant for flight stunts that would make a Wonderbolt pause meant a constant parade of injuries.
In this case, it also meant she had taken the brunt of the backlash and thus the greatest damage, trying to protect her friends. He had no idea how to help her. It was astonishing she had lived long enough to get to the hospital.
The purple unicorn was gravely injured. Bones were shattered, she was haemorrhaging from hydrostatic damage to her delicate internal organs, and her horn was shattered.
The lovely white unicorn had escaped the shock-wave, but not most of the debris. Nurses were carefully stabilising a thin shaft of wood that had penetrated her chest, and a lung. Road-apples! Those x-rays had better come back soon so I can see if her heart was compromised.
The powerfully built earth pony mare was a patchwork of deep, ugly contusions under her orange coat. They spoke of untold damage to bone and tissue beneath. She breathed raggedly, and only one eye would open yet she kept it open, watching over her friends even now.
The cute, slightly chubby pink earth pony had her neck in a brace. It was a single injury but one that put her in as much jeopardy as her friends.
The yellow pegasus with the lovely pink mane was a mystery to him. She had no injuries, or none were obvious, yet she was unresponsive and he could sense a magical influence. Hell, his earth pony nurses could sense it, so powerful it was. He'd seen nothing like it in his long career.
They had saved every life in Ponyville, including his own.
Now he was in a battle to save their lives.
He was losing.
Maera failed to suppress a petite smile as she watched Celestia arrange her stones for her current turn. Celestia noticed and worried that she was making a mistake. The stakes were high and the gravity of this game distracted her, to her shame.
Maera wasted no time beginning her move.
"You seem quite confident in your play, cousin." Celestia spoke without hint of the apprehension she felt.
"Oh, I don't feel confidence per se, Celestia. I've not played in so long, I am simply happy that I remember the rules, never mind good strategy."
Celestia nodded her head.
"I smile because it is obvious that you are equally out of practice."
"Given the stakes, I don't see how that's reason to smile." Celestia frowned.
"It gives us even footing, my dear. You know the rule of challenge and defeat would not apply if we were significantly mismatched."
Celestia sighed, her cousin was - of course - correct.
"I apologise," Celestia said as she began her responding move. "I am rather emotionally invested in the outcome."
"I know. I understand."
Maera watched the stones move under Celestia's magic. "I am not afforded the opportunity to invest in the ephemerals," she said softly.
"How so?" Celestia asked in earnest. "Surely you have the time to build a relationship or two? It can't be all work - it isn't even for Luna and I."
Maera pursed her lips and frowned, both considering her next move and her answer.
"When one of our little ponies looked upon Luna not long after she was freed from her torment, what did they see?"
Celestia ducked her head slightly. "Nightmare Moon." She replied.
"And they were afraid, were they not?"
"Quite often, yes."
Maera smiled wistfully. "She managed to change that, didn't she? She's even made friends among them."
"She has, yes."
"It is because she is no longer Nightmare Moon." Maera asserted. "I meet every little pony eventually, dear cousin. Every one of them is terrified." She sighed. "I can not stop being Maera."
Maera's stones settled into place.
"I declare the northeast. I have half the table."
Celestia stared at the stones. She had not seen that coming.
"I.V. Fluids, saline! Be quick!" Doctor Stable barked over the screeching monitor alarms.
He had been afraid of this, Rainbow Dash's signs of life were rapidly eroding. Something had gotten away from him, and he only had guesses as to what. His horn glowed as he used his magic to peer deeply into the wrecked blue pegasus.
"Doctor, Twilight's in pulmonary arrest!"
He ignored the announcement - his nurses knew what to do. This was now a battle on many fronts, if he didn't delegate, he'd be sure to lose at least one.
Celestia refocused her strategy, knowing now that she needed to let the back-piece stones do as the game rules intended rather than use them in an all encompassing attack.
Maera considered the table absently.
"What are they like now?" She asked. "In the beginning, they were so... rough. Terribly self-interested and xenophobic."
"Some still are." Celestia answered with more than a hint of regret.
"I doubt it is possible for them to entirely escape their origins, cousin." Maera mused as her magic began moving a few stones. "Of course I mean generally - surely they have learned and grown and started to resemble what we hoped for?"
Celestia smiled and nodded. "I suppose they have. Their tribalism has become little more than an old story told once a year. Save for some of the nobility, most ponies work together with utter disregard for wing, horn or hoof."
Maera put her stones back where they started, re-considering. "Good. That makes me happy."
"Six in particular have become shining examples of what we hoped for. They are such close friends, playing one another's strengths and covering one another's weaknesses. Together they are a force of nature. They build harmony, community and trust in their town. They protect it, too. All of Equestria, really. Unflinchingly."
Maera glanced at her cousin, her magic again moving stones from their pits.
"They are the six lives we play for?"
"Yes."
"Then I am sorry I have to do this." Her stones settled into their new positions. "I claim the southeast. I have three quarters of the table."
Celestia stared at the table, a tear welling in an eye.
"Buck. Buck!" Stable cursed, his magic unfaltering even as blood sprayed over his face.
There had been no time or warning. Rarity's vital signs had crashed, and even without the x-rays there was only the one conclusion - and that meant removing the impalement and repairing that heart now.
It was not a straightforward procedure. He found himself frightened for the fashionista's life, and knew his decision to put all his attention on the diminutive white unicorn would to cost Rainbow her life.
It was inevitable now. He could not save them all.
Celestia's brow knitted in concentration. Maera politely remained quiet and still.
Time seemed to crawl - and in this not-place that may well have been actually true - as Celestia gathered herself.
"Do you enjoy what you do, Maera?" Celestia asked.
Maera frowned. "That has always been a loaded question for me, Celestia."
"I understand that. I ask without judgement. I know that what you do is not murder, rather it is service to function."
"I find it as cold as you just described it."
"Then why continue? The all-Mother still puts new alicorns in our world. Surely you could find a new role?"
Maera looked at her cousin with a raised eyebrow. "When your time is insufficient, when the pressure of leadership are at their greatest, when every problem presents only unhappy solutions, do you wish to pass the mantle to Cadence, or Erithra?"
"No, I do not."
"What I do necessarily comes with the cold, and the unknown, and the terror of last moments. Just as what you do comes with the pressure and expectation and hard decisions."
Celestia heard the emphasis. To most ponies, it would have seemed exactly the wrong thing to do. But, to a goddess several millennia old, it was the obvious and only choice. She had to divorce herself from her emotional investment in these little ponies. To stand aside from that part of her heart that was granted to Twilight Sparkle. Splitting her concern between them and the game had already cost too much.
A door closed in her mind. A sense of detachment followed, followed in turn by a realisation.
She moved her stones.
Maera repressed a shout of joy.
Rarity had stabilised. It had been so close, but the damage had been repairable.
Stable consulted with a specialist flown in by the royal guard, ordered by Princess Luna herself. A unicorn with a lot of experience with curses, hexes and other dangerous magic.
Fluttershy's condition was not unknown to the light red unicorn. It gave Stable some hope for her. Having Fluttershy tended to by another doctor let him give attention again to Rainbow Dash. There was a little hope again for the cyan pegasus.
He turned his attention to the orange earth pony.
"Ahm I gonna get through this?" She asked almost too quietly to hear.
Stable nodded. "Plenty of hope to go around."
"I claim the southeast. I have half the board." Celestia announced.
Maera nodded appreciatively. This was the Celestia she had known in her foalhood. The subtle thinker, the natural strategist.
The rules of challenge and defeat would not allow her to play at less than her best - but with Celestia finally concentrating, the game was far from a forgone conclusion.
That gave her hope.
Applejack rested. The majority of her injuries set, bound or otherwise cared for. The pain medications were now safe to use at their full strengths, encouraging sleep.
Pinkie Pie's x-rays showed little to be done for her. Gentle traction was being slowly and expertly applied, and her body immobilised by strap and sedatives. Once the vertebrae fused, they could work out if it was possible for her to walk again. He was unable to say with any certainty, but again, hope seemed to be finding its way into the lives of these six mares.
The hydrostatic damage to Twilight's body, however, still worried him.
Maera found herself tense and even perspiring. The northeast had been taken, regained, taken, and regained again. Celestia was playing remorselessly, not even the smallest mistake went unnoticed, and certainly never went without being exploited.
Maera placed her stones for her move.
Celestia dispassionately studied the board.
"This is much more like the games I remember, now," Maera said. "A reminder of why the all-Mother wanted you to be the embodiment of leadership."
Celestia glanced up at her cousin.
"We were all well suited to the roles we chose. The embodiment of transition must also be wise in strategy and foresight."
Maera smiled at the compliment, then frowned as Celestia made her move.
"I claim the northeast. I have three quarters of the table." Celestia announced.
"Wise may not be sufficient."
The problem with hydrostatic injury is it will always be systemic. No part of the lavender unicorn's body was without damage. Unpredictable, patternless damage.
He was concentrating on the "important" organs. Not there was really any other kind, but in this case it meant the ones Twilight had to rely on being near full function to live. Her heart, lungs, and brain. The rest they could help along with intra-venous nutrients, dialysis to augment or take over for her kidneys and liver.
The healing spells he used were next to useless at the best of times. No unicorn turned to them unless all other options were exhausted, never mind a professional healer. They were often of no detectable effect, and there were a few stories about unintended effects.
The spells were taught as part of understanding alicorn magic, not medicine. If there was an alicorn out there somewhere who was willing, they could use these spells to real and reliable effect. But, there was only a hoof-full of stories of that ever happening.
Stable let himself snort at the irony - he was trying this on the one unicorn in Equestrian history considered to possibly have the power to cast these spells like an alicorn could.
Maera moved, and the move was instantly answered by Celestia. Her hold on her home quadrant was tenuous now, and she had no idea what her cousin's real plan was. Celestia took and released individual pits seemingly at random, keeping Maera's own defense spread out and thin.
She tried to get a concentration of pieces started, anything to try and breach this onslaught and regain her footing. But the end-game was where Celestia truly shined, and given her expertise with the beginning and middle game that truly meant something.
Then she was backed into an eighth table, then a sixteenth, and then a thirty-second.
"Enough!" Maera exclaimed, scooping out the last of her pieces and setting them aside. "I yield. At best I could prolong the inevitable."
Celestia looked up at her cousin, disbelief in her eyes.
"You never yield."
Maera opened her mouth to answer, but stopped. Her horn glowed brightly for a moment.
"It is done, cousin. It is over."
Doctor Stable gasped, his concentration broken from casting a healing spell for Rainbow Dash.
A bright light shone from a corner of the emergency room, back-lighting a dark figure with wings and a long single horn.
The light intensified, and seemed to flow through the room as if made of a fluid. It surrounded the six young mares he was so desperately trying to save.
He watched as wounds closed. Stitching fell from skin. Swelling reduced and vanished. Rainbow's breathing deepened and steadied. Twilight's body straightened and regained its natural shape. Pinkie Pie's traction released her. Fluttershy's eyes, well, fluttered open. Rarity moaned quietly as if merely asleep. Applejack's eyes opened, looked over her friends, and closed again, a look of satisfaction on her face.
The light diminished, then vanished. The dark silhouette became recognisable as the Lady of Dreams.
"Princess Luna!"
The regal Sister of the Night smiled at the doctor and his team.
"Thank you, all of you. Your exceptional skills gave my sister the time she needed."
The doctor and his team of nurses could only look confused, glancing at one another.
"They will sleep for a long while. Please continue to watch over them. They are precious to Equestria."
"Y... Yes. I know they are - I owe them that and more." The doctor stammered.
Luna looked at the doctor approvingly, and vanished in the flash of magic and light all unicorns knew as a simple teleportation spell.
Stable looked at his now healed patients. Exhausted, he slid to the ground and instinctively tucked his hooves under his body.
"Ok." He sighed. "We won. Death lost. Good work, everyone. Really good."
"I have one question, before your duties take you away from me yet again." Celestia looked at her cousin passively.
"Yes?"
"Why did you yield? Aren't you concerned that will invalidate the challenge and defeat?"
Maera looked away. "I am, I admit. But..."
She turned back and brought her nose to Celestia's for an affectionate nuzzle. "I did not wish to win. I was exhausted from forcing myself to do what I had no interest in. Once the outcome was inevitable, I had no heart for it any more."
"I know that my role is important, dear cousin. It fills a need and it satisfies me to fill that role. I know that I bring necessary change and complete the cycle of life for pony-kind. But, sometimes... sometimes I disagree with the timing. These six young little ponies are important enough to let them find death in their beds, hopefully surrounded by loving friends and family, with a long and fruitful life behind them. So few have earned that as they have, fewer still while so young."
Maera sighed.
"And I could not bear to take them away from you, cousin. Only a love so strong could have distracted you as you were at the start of the challenge. Taken you out of yourself as it did. So few of the daughters of the all-Mother will ever get to experience that intensity of connection."
"It grieves me deeply that one day I will have no other choice."
With that, the cyan alicorn mare nuzzled her cousin again, and faded from the not-place to wherever in the world needed her attention next.
Celestia also faded, returning to her place in Canterlot.
"'Tia!" She was greeted enthusiastically by her sister.
"My dearest Luna," she said with a warm smile.
She entered the embrace of her younger sister and relaxed. It helped her have a sense of the end of the ordeal. It re-opened that door she had needed closed.
Her knees trembled, and she buckled into her sister. Tears flowed freely.
"I almost lost them, Lulu."
The embrace from her sister tightened. "But you did not, you did as you always do sister. They live, they are healed. They sleep quietly."
Luna shifted her head on Celestia's shoulder. "Your student lives. She again surpasses our expectations, 'Tia. If her shield spell had been that of any other unicorn's strength save perhaps for her brother's, there would have been no one to fight to save. No game to play to ensure their lives."
Celesita nodded into her sister's coat. "I love that little lavender pony, Luna." The words came quietly and shakily.
"I know." Whispered Luna.
"I won't be able to save her. I won't. She will die. She will..."
"Savour her. Savour every moment. We are no different than the ephemerals in this, big sister. Only we do not have the relief of death to quiet our wounds. We can only embrace the moment when it is upon us, as our little ponies do."
She kissed the white alicorn just below her horn.
"And remember them fondly until time itself comes to a close."
