WARNING: THERE ARE SOME VERY SAD PARTS IN THIS ONE, YOU ARE WARNED

Gel was first to their bedroom. The thought surprised him at how much more meaning it had now. He looked around, seeing a few books scattered and as he watched they were floating to the side of the bed, bookmarks zooming to them, to be set safely aside. He turned his head to Night Light.

"Are you forgetting she is my daughter? I know what she is like, what her habits are." Night could hear more hoofsteps coming up the stairs. "Take care of my fillies." It was clear that Night considered their marriage to have connected AJ to him.

"I wouldn't dare do anything but." Gel bowed to his father-in-law, weathering the unsettlingly stern gaze of the stallion until Night was gone. He spun around and checked the room. Racing over to the bed, he drew the covers back on each side and then took up position, holding one side back.

Twilight entered, flanked by her mothers. She was still dressed amazingly, and as she entered he stumbled where he stood, let go of the covers in shock. "Told you." Twilight Velvet leaned down and kissed her daughter's cheek.

"Look at him, a prince of changelings, and he just forgot how to walk with you in the room. Keep hold of that one." Velvet gave Twilight Sparkle a chaste kiss before turning with her own wife and leaving the room.

"Wow." Gel blinked a lot, his brain feeling overwhelmed by his… his wife. "You look amazing…"

"Don't just stand there, help me out of this." Twilight gave what she hoped was a naughty wink, tilting her head barely away from Gel so he could only see her one eye. She lost all pretense of disinterest when Gel began to walk closer. Her heart beat faster the nearer he came until he was close enough to kiss.

"Not yet." Gel's tone stirred Twilight but his words were like ice, it was almost unbearable for her.

"Toldja they'd wait." Granny Smith gave a chuckle. "Now you girls don't tire him out too much, that colt's gotta come and beg yer brother for forgiveness, fer takin' you away from th' farm."

Gel's eyes were on AJ, he was disarmed completely again by her beauty. "I wouldn't, I couldn't, take her away from the farm. I love everything about Applejack, even the dirt of a day's work." But it wasn't Granny that Gel needed to persuade, he saw the level look that Big Mac was giving him. "McIntosh, don't think for a second I would even try to tell your sister what to do, I would learn the feel of her back hooves quickly."

"Eeyup." Big Mac liked Gel despite the fact he felt like the stallion was 'taking away his sister'. He knew his normal replies wouldn't quite be enough and gave a deep sigh. "Take care o' her." He glared at Gel as best he could, then spun around and marched out, Granny at his side.

"That is the most I have ever heard him say." Gel blinked in surprise before an orange snout reached up and kissed him. It had the effect of pulling all the stallion's attention away from the door and to his wives. The kiss lingered, he felt Twilight join after a moment, then he broke apart and took up his position at the bed again. The sight of the two mares, so wrapped in their love for each other, stole Gel's breath.

"He gonna just watch all night?" Applejack spoke the words as Twilight hungrily kissed her lips, messing her drawl up a little in the process.

"You two? Yeah, I would watch you all night." Gel could do more than just see the mare's love for each other, he could taste it. "But you could come over here and let me show you."

"Does Twilight's castle always do this?" Sunset looked around at the walls, power burning along them in sheets of energy. "It was always pretty quiet…"

"The Castle of Friendship has seen the ultimate culmination of friendship." Celestia looked around, part of her admiring the raw Equestrian magic pumping through the place, the other part trying to find the basement. When she realized where it was, there was a gray alicorn standing in front of it. "Muffins?"

"You can't go down there!" Muffins was looking, for the first time Celestia had ever seen, worried. "There are… we have… science projects!" She beamed, having finally found a way to explain the dungeon of fun. "We have samples of creatures and plants, from the Everfree, trying to study them!"

Celestia, her wing still wrapped tightly around Maddie, looked into the eyes of the gray alicorn. "Muffins, what is going on?" The mare tried everything to distract Celestia, her eyes crossed and slid around, she ruffled her wings, her eyes even glowed softly. "Tell me."

"A few of us like naughty things and we have a whole mess of them down there please don't hurt them, it's not their fault we put them there!" Muffins' eyes were wide and she was panting after the words spoken without pause or breath.

Sunset was blushing and smiling at Muffins, her fangs showing slightly. "They really don't mean any harm with it, only a few ponies even know about it."

Both intrigued and a little surprised, Celestia looked at Muffins a little longer until the dark alicorn finally lowered her head. Stepping forward, Celestia took the big mare under her free wing. "Muffins, don't try to lie to me, you are terrible at it. There is some room down there that isn't… infested?" Muffins nodded sheepishly. "Good, then Twilight's guests can have those."

The castle itself rumbled and Celestia's eyes flew open. Using her hoof to throw the door open, she trotted downstairs, leaving the vamponies to Muffins' protection. Sure enough, there was a long hall leading off with a little warning sign hanging off it, but to one side there was what looked like a bedroom that would be found upstairs. "The magic of friendship goes a long way…" Celestia opened the door, finding a fully-furnished suite of rooms.

Muffins' moved up behind the Princess and she peeked in the new rooms in shock. "This wasn't here…"

Maddie ran her wing along the wall, she got the idea that something major had just happened and that the castle itself had been responsible. When she saw the room, both her dark wings lifted in surprise. "This is wonderful…"

"Maddie?" A voice called down the stairs, soon revealed to be Sunny Days. "Maddie! What are you… Princess Celestia!" Sunny dropped her head low and bowed to the Princess of the Sun.

"Who is this?" Celestia stepped over to the unicorn, spotting the two little scabs on the mare's neck. "You know what you are doing with this mare, my pony?"

Sunny was caught like a deer in headlights. She nodded. "I love her…" The moment she said the words Celestia's expression changed to a wide smile.

"Then go with them, it seems the castle wanted to welcome you all specially." The white alicorn turned to Muffins. "Come on, Sir Knight." The title caught Muffins off-balance and she stared at Celestia. "Let us leave these fine ponies to their rest. Tomorrow there will be time for questions." Looking at the cordoned-off hall, Celestia pondered just what they had down here. "How big is this… dungeon?"

Muffins brightened up a little at the question. "About fourteen rooms in all, although I wonder if the castle might have changed it…" She spread one of her big wings, brushing it along the wall. The tingle she felt back, it was like the sensation she got from her changeling senses when she drank from a good friend.

"The light of day will show us much, I think." Celestia was playing her cards close to her chest, she really had no idea what the castle was doing, this was all delightfully new to her too. "I do hope there is a bed somewhere I can sleep… hopefully not too close to my former student."

The grin Muffins saw on her Princess' snout surprised her, but it cracked the rigid vision she had of the alicorn.

Granny Smith stepped out the front of the castle, her new lease on life letting her breathe deeply of the night air, where not two weeks ago she would have been wheezing and needing to rest. The song, the constant tune in her head, grew restful, relaxing. "Yer doin' that fer me?" Her words were soft, rasping in the crisp air. "Ah don't need it…" She went to take a step, but felt a stiffness that wasn't there moments ago. The music grew louder.

"Ah, that how it is?" She stopped where she stood, looking around. The song grew in strength and she felt her own mind humming along with it. "Well, better find a comfortable spot then." Her legs were stiff, and her right-front gave a little limp, but she got to the side of the castle. "S'what now? I know th'promise I made, that we both made." Granny Smith turned around, looking up into the air to judge how well the light would fall. "You gotta get that young'un to come first. She'll do what's needed." She folded her legs and dropped down to lay on the cool turf.

There was a sound, hoof-beats. Vinyl found the old mare laying on the ground. "Granny?"

"Gimme a minute, just gotta settle this here first." Granny Smith gave the unicorn a tight grin. She tried to adjust how she was laying but her right foreleg just wouldn't move right. "Supposed to hurt, ain't it? Supposed to feel a sharp pain just before this. Yer doin', ain't it? Bah." She adjusted herself with the dignity that a long life, well-lived, gives. "An' you, don't look shocked, you didn't hear my deal. I wanted to see my little Apple become the head o' the family."

"You gotta hold on, I can just get the doctor and-" Vinyl was standing in shock, she felt ten kinds of useless, the song in her head was not her own, it was all Granny Smith's.

"Fetch some water, this grass looks dry." Granny stretched out, her body no longer stiff. As she lay her head down, she realized she couldn't actually feel her limbs at all. "Actually, stay here, 'till morn'n, m'last… last thin', let muh filleh… let muh Apple… let her have her night…"

Vinyl froze, she didn't know what to do. The song of Granny Smith dwindled and slowed, but she picked it up in her own head, weaving it and kept it going. The mare who created it, had stopped and closed her eyes. She lay down beside Granny, the mare Granny had been. She pressed against what remained of her and kept singing, with tears streaking down her eyes. She didn't notice as guests left, nor did they see two figures hunkered low in the grass beside the castle.

The only two still singing Granny's song, was Vinyl and the Tree itself.

A snout woke Vinyl, she felt the gentle touch and then the song in her mind of the other pony. "Tree?"

"You stayed with her, like, to the end?" Tree Hugger had tears in her eyes, they matched well the ones stained onto the white unicorn's cheeks. "I know we've had our differences, but you are one righteous mare."

"She asked me to take her to The Tree. She wanted to ask it some things. I tried not to listen, but…" Vinyl started crying again.

Tree circled around and lay down beside the unicorn she had butted heads with a few times. "You want to share, tree-sister?"

"Time. She asked The Tree for time. She promised that she wouldn't fight, and her time was near anyhow. She wanted her… her…" Vinyl lost control, sobbing uncontrollably against the earth pony. It took some time, in the cool morning air, before she could continue. "She wanted her end to be a new beginning. She told me as she lay down that she saw her… saw Applejack, take the reins of the family."

"Her song." Tree Hugger stopped her own tune, taking up the one Vinyl carried. But as she began to let her own mind sing it, she felt a third singing. "Whoa…"

Vinyl too had turned her head to the shell beside her, it seemed shrunken, smaller. "It's growing? So soon? So fast?"

"It has a whole pony to feed it, as it fed her." Tree got up, helping the stiff unicorn to her hooves as both watched what remained of Granny Smith seem to tumble inwards. Each turned their heads rather than see. After a few moments, they felt the song grow stronger. Turning back, the body was gone, nothing left but a foot-tall sapling. "Whoa…"

Four loud hooves landed on the ground behind the pair and they spun to see Celestia standing there. Tree Hugger and Vinyl Scratch both lowered their heads. "Your Highness."

"What happened." The words Celestia used were a question, but her tone brooked no evasion. "I was raising the sun and I felt something very strange, what have you done here, my ponies?"

"You, like, know about our Tree?" Tree Hugger looked up at the Princess.

"Twilight has kept me abridge of matters, what has transgressed?" Celestia felt she might not like where this was going.

"Granny Smith joined us, two weeks ago. She made a deal with The Tree." Vinyl turned her gaze to the side, so she could see the little plant, reaching up for the morning sun.

"And?" Celestia narrowed her eyes, watching where Vinyl looked.

"She died." Tree Hugger stood proud. "The seed kept her alive for the last week, she should not have made it. Her deal was that she would get to see Applejack wed." The green-furred mare stood tall and proud. "She did, but it was too long."

Celestia pushed past the two, shoving them a little roughly as she examined the area with her magic. Burning brightness wrapped the area, but something pushed back. For a brief moment, Princess Celestia felt the song the little sapling sang, felt the life that had given it strength. "I see." Her wings sagged. "I will tell Applejack. Don't expect her to be happy with you."

"Like, that's up to her. The Tree did what it could, this is a good place for a new tree to grow." Tree Hugger moved back closer to the sapling. "The ground is a bit dry, though."

Gel was about as satisfied as he had ever been in his life, and it had nothing to do with sex. Nuzzling into the two mares beside him, his snout played over their necks. He inhaled their scents, mixed as they were. That each was cuddled belly-to-belly with the other did nothing to dissuade him from his notion that this was perfect. The bedroom door creaked open and it was more curiosity than anger that had Gel lift his head to look. Celestia was standing in the doorway, an undefinable expression on her face.

"Come in." His voice was soft, his world at peace; Celestia was going to hate herself for what she would do to this three, but somepony had to do it and taking hard actions was something a leader grew into. She stepped over, her snout not wavering from the neutral expression. "Who?"

"Applejack, please…" The begging tone, hidden under Celestia's voice, gave Gel the strength he needed to actually do what was asked. Leaning over, he nuzzled a little firmer.

"Love, Applejack?" Gel's persistence finally intruded on AJ's sleepy mind. It was unlike her to sleep past dawn, but memories of the previous night, flooded her mind and she smiled. She kissed the questing snout. Then the presence of another pony intruded on her little idyl. "Princess Celestia?"

"Applejack, please come." Celestia rose and walked from the room, looking every bit the solemn princess.

"Gel…" The word, his name, from one of the strongest mare's Gel knew, was enough to have him waking Twilight too. "I… she sounded serious."

"We will all go, we are together now, more than ever. I won't let you stand against whatever she has planned, on your own." Gel finally got Twilight past the stage of trying to fend him off. Applejack stared at the changeling, her heart beating faster, realizing just how much he meant to her, to have him stand with her.

It took some moments before Twilight, Gel, and Applejack left the room to find Celestia at the outside of the door. Starry was there, giving the white alicorn fierce looks that clearly revealed the big mare had not had an easy time of invading their privacy. "What is this about?" Twilight stepped forward of the three, but she watched her former mentor and peer look past her, at her wife.

"Applejack, it is about Granny Smith." Celestia hated this, hated it every time she had done it over the centuries. "She is not with us anymore."

The silence was pregnant, it weighed down most on Gel and Twilight as each turned to Applejack. The earth pony stared forward, at the Princess of the Sun. "But, but she was fine, she danced…" Her voice was tiny, barely audible. She felt both her mates flank her, a wing from each on her back. "Where is my granny? I want to talk to her."

Gel wanted to hate Celestia, he wanted to scream at her and tell her she was not welcome. Anger unlike any he had felt before welled up and was slammed down by the emotions his wife was suddenly drowning in. Terror, fear, but no anger. "Celestia, leave." Gel held on to his voice, fighting to keep himself neutral.

Applejack was trembling as she felt her world shrink down, it was only the two ponies beside her that kept her from falling. "Twi? Is it a lie? Gel? Where is…" A transformation took the mare, Applejack lifted her head, her expression fixed and determined. "Where is Bloom and Mac?" Her voice had none of the fear, the terror she had just felt. "We gotta do some organizin'."

"Starry? Twinkle? Where did the rest of her family stay?" Twilight turned on the mare she knew she took entirely for granted, the mare that looked like she was suddenly forged from steel. "Lead us."

The three followed the unicorn, down hallways that suddenly felt pained, it wasn't until the fifth hall that Starry stopped. "The castle… it's… it's bigger." She looked back, then forward. There is another hall down there, Star. "There is a whole new wing of rooms…"

"Is this the room?" Applejack was oblivious to the changes in structure, her mission was all that was keeping her together. She intended to stay together, if only for her brother and sister.

"It is." Starry opened the door, admitting Applejack.

AJ stepped in and looked back at her wife and husband. "Ah don't know if Ah can do this alone." The two instantly moved up. "Y're my family too now." Big Mac and Apple Bloom were sitting at a window, watching the sun rise up higher. They both turned when their sister strode in. "Y'all, we havin' a family meetin', right now."

"Now? I'll go get Granny Smith!" Apple Bloom climbed up off the seat and made to go but was caught in a purple wing. "Twi?"

"Just us this time, Apple Bloom." Twilight pulled the filly forward, a little surprised at how much effort it took.

"But Granny Smith-" Apple Bloom was halfway through exclaiming when she was wrapped up in the forelegs of her big sister.

"Is gone." Applejack spoke the words, hugging her sister as tight as she could.

"Eeyup." McIntosh looked down. "She tol' me. Said to keep Bloom here."

Gel beat Applejack, reaching the stallion he could feel was being torn up inside. He hugged Big Mac tightly as Applejack got his other side. When Twilight moved in and wrapped them all in her wings the first sob came from the red stallion.

Nopony talked, they hugged each other, accepted tears and cries, as others accepted theirs. But then the littlest pony in the room lifted her head, teary-red eyes blinking in shock. "Ah hear her song!" Apple Bloom squirmed loose and was running for the door. "Ah hear her song!"

She was out of sight a moment before the rest looked back from where she had run. "Let's go." Gel let go and got up, his hooves thudding against the floor, but not alone. Three more sets thundered from the room behind him, following in his wake. "She is heading for the front."

The chase led all the way out the front door and to the side of the castle where they found Apple Bloom, sitting on her rump, one forehoof extending toward a small sapling that hadn't been there when they arrived the previous night. "I found her, Big Mac, Applejack!" The filly turned back to the plant and let her talent flow.

The song roared in Apple Bloom's ears, she welcomed it, the song her Granny had sung. She fed herself into the plant, fed the music as branches reached higher and higher, leaves sprouting and reaching for the sky.

"Apple Bloom, what…" Applejack's mind finally connected dots she hadn't picked up on. "Granny's seed."

"It is her! It remembers her!" Apple Bloom drew her hoof back from the tree, unmistakably an apple tree, that now reached up to nearly twenty feet above her. The filly leaned forward, her power faded, but she was wrapping her hooves around the new trunk. "Thank you for remembering her."

"I'm sorry." Gel closed his eyes as he said it.

"You don't need to be, you had every right to act as you did. I said things that hurt your wife." Celestia stepped over and brushed a wing against the changeling's side. "You did as any stallion… as any pony, would."

"I gave you an order…" Gel felt a little of the tight knot unravel, but it still felt like there was more there.

"In your own castle, you told a peer to leave the room rather than let her silly self take a hoof from the strongest mare in Equestria. That is a service, Gel Pattern, not something to apologize for." Celestia was relaxing in the room she had been assigned, it had a huge bay window that she was now lying in, the sun pouring in and onto her. "There are other things you can do than protest your treatment of me in a very emotional time. Why is it you extend your home to vamponies?"

"Ah, that was what I needed to talk about." Gel felt that other weight lift. "It wasn't her, she was hunting her foal as surely as I was, more so. She… I can't help but feel kinship with her, she has not had an easy life."

"Nor a short one. What happened to Sunset?"

"She was foalnapped by the other vampony, he sent a note threatening to kill her if Mademoiselle didn't come. She came, wearing me. He was stronger and faster than Maddie." Gel couldn't stop the grief, he had seen too much death lately, for one pony. At least Granny Smith had a long life before her end. He stopped, overcome suddenly and crying dark tears. He was pulled into the light, the sun itself wrapping around him in the form of one of Celestia's wings. "There was no sight of Sunset, but Dash found her. She was bleeding out, if we had somepony who could heal with magic…"

"That is a rare talent indeed." Celestia tried nothing intimate, she just held the stallion that could not be held.

"When Maddie struck, I launched myself onto him. I snared him, slowed him. I held him still while Maddie latched on and started to drink from him. I kept holding him until she was done. But with his madness and evil snuffed out, we still had a mare stained red with her own blood." Gel felt those emotions all over again, the feeling that he had let Sunset down.

"She was a brave pony. I take it you made the connection between her magic and the sun?" Gel nodded to Celestia. "There was a reason I took her as my student. Alas it didn't work out."

"It did. It just took something you couldn't give her." Gel smiled despite the situation. "I begged Maddie to do what she could, she refused. She told me she didn't want to make another monster."

"Sunset Shimmer didn't seem a monster last night." Celestia felt Gel relax in her grip, her wings tight around him.

"She spent most of a week trying to maul my neck every time I saw her. I had to order Mademoiselle, I promised her sanctuary as my… as my servant, if she would follow my command and save Sunset. She saved her."

"And now the poor filly is in quite a spot, I imagine. How does her magic work?" Celestia counted her breaths, finally letting Gel go a moment before he made a struggle himself.

"It doesn't, it burns her from the inside." Gel rolled free of Celestia. "We were to stop at Canterlot and ask for your advice."

Celestia rolled to her back, her growing belly proud and wide. She turned her head to look at Gel. "Twilight will find a way, I know she can do it."

"Maybe later, maybe." Gel inhaled deeply, smelling and tasting a mare who was grieving in her own way. "Are you okay?"

Celestia's eyes snapped open and she looked at the changeling. "Not many ponies would ask that of me. I will survive, I have a reason to continue… several in fact. Each death makes the act no easier to accept."

Dark wings wrapped around Celestia, cutting off the sun's light but boosting the feel of its heat. It was good to be held, even if this stallion was not her stallion. "Thank you, Prince Gel. You are more than worthy of that title."

"Ah thought she was gettin' better?" Applejack sat under the shade of the apple tree, one she could see was as healthy as a tree could be. "She looked like she was."

"Like, the seed was giving her some strength, but mostly it was just doing a gnarly job of making the pain go away." Tree Hugger looked at the mare squarely in the eyes. "She asked me if it would help her, I told her to ask The Tree itself."

"And it gave her time fer what? To see me married?" Applejack wondered what it had cost her beloved Granny to do this.

Vinyl nodded. "She said… she said last night. She just wanted time to see her 'Apple' grow." The white unicorn wore her shades, hiding the tear-stains, but new wetness flowed down her cheeks so much so that Applejack couldn't keep from leaning over to press against the mare's side.

"She called me that, when Ah was a filly." Applejack looked up at the tree. "Do you think Ah could have a seed, just for a day? I want to hear her song."

"Applejack, I grok that it is okay." Tree Hugger moved over, flanking Vinyl. She was about to get settled when a dark-colored mare arrived and galloped over to the unicorn.

"Vinny, I felt your song…" Octavia took over the care of her wife, letting Applejack retreat.

"Tavi, I need my deck… where is my gear?" Vinyl looked around and was nudged to her hooves by her earth pony mate. "Come on, we have a song to write."

Author's Note

This... was agony to write. I have planned this event for some time, but not HOW it was going to happen. Granny's pact was a sound one, she felt her life slipping as it hadn't for so long, she just wanted a little more time, and the tree gave it. Forgive me, I need more kleenex.

Support me on Patreon or fuel my writing on Ko-Fi!

Join me on Discord. Warning, said chat may contain NSFW material and should be considered adult in nature.

Awesome ponies who are already helping to keep me in keyboards and rum:
Canary in the coal mine
Daremo
Mary Rowland
Boulder