Starlight stared straight ahead at her teacher’s back. Twilight’s wings were spread, her horn was lit with three layers of over glow, and her eyes were nearly unrecognizable. On the ground below her was Shadow, barely breathing, his side gored badly. In front of her was the Chimera that had been killing her friends. Starlight and Trixie had been the next targets. Shadow had gotten in the way, taking the brunt of the Chimera’s attack. Her magical overglow was because of three different spells she was casting. A shield spell to protect herself and Shadow from the Chimera, a healing spell to heal Shadow, and a Temporal Freeze spell to lock the Chimera in its place.

It still amazed Trixie that her rival was so powerful. Despite being the element of Magic and an Alicorn, Twilight Sparkle still improved over and over again. Looking away from her teacher, Trixie took in the Chimera. Just as Shadow had said, it looked like a real monster. A dragon like head on the end of its tail, a bull head with wickedly curved horns and a wolf. But the one thing he hadn’t said was exactly how terrifying it looked. The wolf’s eyes were jet black, she couldn’t even see pupils. The bull’s horns gave off smoke, like they were on fire. The snake’s scales were cracked and looked like they were splitting, or the snake itself was a living volcano. It looked like a real monster.

Starlight remained next to Shadow, a shield produced from her horn around her two friends. Twilight herself remained outside the shield, her magic clearly out of control as she squared off against the chimera. Trixie, though not as powerful as either of her friends, shook of her surprise and focused on Shadow, her magic slowly mending his injuries. “Healing magic is not Trixie’s strong suit, but Trixie will do what she can.”

“Thank you Trixie.” Starlight said, never taking her eyes off of Twilight. “If anything happened to him, I think we’d lose her...” Starlight said and Trixie nodded as her magic slowly worked on healing Shadow’s injuries. Turning back to Twilight, Starlight watched as she nimbly evaded the Chimera’s claws, teeth and fangs. The serpent tail may not have been venomous, but one bite could sever bone. Not to mention the size difference. This Chimera could swallow Twilight whole, if it could catch her. Her teacher remained well out of the creatures reach, despite it being able to fly.

Hearing a groan from behind her, Starlight turned around and saw Shadow’s wounds knitting closed. But it wasn’t her magic or Trixie’s. Black smoke, like the stories she’d heard of King Sombra, was knitting his injuries together. A shout caught her attention and Starlight looked to Twilight. The Chimera had broken through her shield, the Dragon head with its jaws clamped around her foreleg, her leg hidden in its throat. Eyes widening, she turned to alert Shadow and froze. The smoke was slowly vanishing, but his eyes were open. Pure black. Hearing a yelp, Starlight looked back and saw Twilight tumble to the ground, one of her wings badly twisted.

She was about to drop her shield when her mind was hammered by inexplicable pain as her shield shattered. “Starlight, Shadow’s...” Trixie’s alert was cut off as the Chimera was slammed into the ground, a roiling mass of black magic tumbling into the bushes with it.

“Shadow!” Twilight shouted, struggling to stand even as the pain in her wing forced her to her knees. Trixie couldn’t see anything but she could hear them. Shadow’s growls, the Chimera’s roars, moos and hisses. Teeth clacking together. Yelps from both sides. Before Twilight could go running after Shadow, Starlight clamped onto her tail.

“No. If you follow him, he’ll be too busy protecting you to fight well. You’d get in the way.” She said and Twilight stared back at her, shaking, tears flowing down her cheeks. “He’ll be ok. He promised, remember.” Twilight blinked then looked back towards Shadow

“Nothing will happen to you as long as I breath, Twilight. You have my word of honor. And to a wolf, our honor is our law.” The memory gave her some comfort. Starlight jolted and Twilight glanced at her horn before turning to look at the shield wall. Shadow was pinning the Chimera against the shield, the snake tail writhing on the other side of the room, the bull head hanging limp, his fangs buried in the shoulder near the wolf’s nape.

“Wait.” Twilight said, stepping forward and staring at the wolf’s eyes. “Why? Why kill my friends?”

“Why? What reason do I need to kill for the pure joy of shedding blood?” The wolf growled, a grin on its face and Twilight sniffed then turned to Shadow and nodded. He nodded back before his teeth sank in deeper and he twisted his head. A sickening snap sounded, like a bamboo rod cracking across a hollow tree trunk, and the Chimera dropped. Twilight watched it for a moment as Shadow kicked its head. Not even a twitch. When he was sure, Shadow kicked the Chimera away with enough force that the corpse slid into a wall, sending cracks spidering along the crystalline structure.

The moment it stopped moving, Twilight raced to Shadow’s side and buried her muzzle against his neck. “Thank you for protecting them...” she said and he nodded, nuzzling against her.

“We may have a solution to the issue of the Element Barers untimely demises.” A voice said from the window and Twilight looked up as Celestia and Luna flew in through the same window the Chimera had come in from.

“As we said before, the deaths being unnatural is a boon of sorts. Had they been of natural causes; old age, disease or the like, we could not do anything. It would have been in fate’s hooves. As they were murdered, there is something we can do.” Celestia said and Luna nodded.

“We must all go to Canterlot. That includes your students, Twilight Sparkle.” Luna said, looking at Starlight and Trixie.

“Trixie is not Twilight Sparkle’s student.” The silver maned unicorn snarked and Luna smiled.

“Be that as it may, this will require five magical beings of sufficient power, and are you not the... how did you put it... greatest and most powerful?” Luna asked and Trixie puffed up.

“Yes, yes I... er... yes Trixie is.” She said and Luna nodded.

“Twilight Sparkle, meet us at Canterlot Castle before nightfall. Enough time has passed, the elements must be ready by now.” Luna said and Celestia nodded before she and her sister flew back to Canterlot. Twilight’s ear twitched before she looked at the Chimera’s corpse.

“Shadow could you...”

“I’ll dispose of it. Spike, think you can handle mop duty while I handle the disposal of the rest of it?” He asked and Spike saluted him before racing off to get a mop and bucket. Twilight smiled at her assistants antics. Ever since he’d met Shadow, Shadow’s real shape at least, he’d been more than eager to please. As if he looked to Shadow like a big brother. Or a father figure. “In the meantime, Twilight, you and the girls go get cleaned up. You aren’t injured, but you are pretty dusty.” He said and Twilight nodded and leaned up, kissing him.

“We’ll be ready to go by the time you’re done.” She said, leading Trixie and Starlight upstairs to her personal quarters. The bathroom attached was much larger than the ones the two other mares had.

One hour before sunset found Twilight, Trixie, Starlight and Shadow in Canterlot Castle’s throne room. At the bottom of the stairs were five statues, each one a perfect likeness of Twilight’s friends. Embedded in their chests were five very recognizable stones. Their Elements of Harmony. “This spell is not one we take lightly, Twilight. It normally requires a large sacrifice on the part of the one casting it.” Celestia said as she approached from Twilight’s right. Luna did the same from her left, her eyes scanning the statues as she walked.

“Normally?”

“As there are six magic users present, the sacrifice will not be so great. We will be slightly drained, possibly unable to do even the most basic of spells for quite some time, but the strain will not be so great as to rob us of our individual lives.”

“Whoa, hold on. You mean if we attempted this one for five, we’d die?” Starlight asked and Luna nodded.

“Even we Alicorns are not immortal. We discovered this many centuries ago.” Luna said and Celestia sighed and stared at the floor.

“When we were younger, Luna and I were... rebellious and impetuous. It... happened with me first. I got into a fight. A stupid little fight, but things were very different back then.” Celestia said, sitting down on the floor. “The fight... slowly escalated. As two sovereign rulers of Equestria, we had our own military forces, our own followers. It developed into a stupid war. My side versus Luna’s. One of my... overzealous followers... got it into his head to assassinate the leader of the opposing army. Luna. And he succeeded. I found out the next morning that the General of the Enemy Forces died in her sleep. Poison.”

“Mother and Father took it upon themselves to punish the offender and right his wrong. By resurrecting me. It cost Father his life, leaving me in charge of the moon in his place.”

“Not to long after that, we had another petty squabble. I don’t even remember what it was over, but one of my followers set an improvised magical explosive on the undercarriage of Celestia’s chariot. Two Pegasi guards were lost that day, and Mother gave her life to resurrect Celestia, leaving her in control of the sun. After that, we settled most of our arguments with games. Fun little games that never cost lives, merely some dignity. I am sure you remember the time we wagered our purities, sister.” Luna said, a small smirk playing at the corners of her mouth.

“Yes... I remember. I also remember you lost and couldn’t walk straight for a month and reeked of stallion for a week after the event.” Celestia said, smiling. Luna’s smirk vanished, replaced with a resolute frown and a blush on her cheeks. “You did get me back, however. Ten mares, sister? Even I have my limits.”

Clearing his throat, Shadow glanced at Twilight. Following his gaze, Celestia blushed and coughed. “I apologize, Twilight. The point is... a lone Alicorn cannot reverse death without facing death themselves. But four Alicorns, two unicorns, and a Wolf with magic equaling the unicorns should be able to suffice.” She said and Twilight nodded.

“What do we have to do?” She asked and Celestia smiled and lead her student, her student’s student and rival, as well as her own sister and her sister’s former guard to a door emblazoned with her the old King and Queen’s cutie marks.

“Beyond these doors, you will meet the one responsible for the Afterlife. I am certain she is eager to meet you. You must strike a bargain with her that will lure her here, where we may enlist her aid in reviving your friends.” Celestia said and Twilight looked up at her teacher. “You must go alone, Twilight Sparkle. You cannot even take Shadow with you, as She would see it as an insult. She governs Death, my dearest student. An insult to her would surely result in your own demise.”

Twilight nodded and Celestia looked to her sister, who merely nodded once before the two turned their gaze on the door. Their horns lit, but the magic was different. Luna’s magic was almost pitch black, as black as the night sky, and Celestia’s was pure white. Twilight turned back to the door as the cutie marks emblazoned on them rotated completely, turning upside down from their original positions. As the door swung open, Twilight stared inside at the pearly white room. No shadows, not even a speck of shade, save for in the middle of the room, where a table with two seats sat. One of the seats contained a mare possibly more beautiful than any Twilight had ever seen before.

Swallowing her nerves, Twilight walked into the room. As soon as her tail passed the threshold, the doors swung shut and she was alone in a room that didn’t seem to have a beginning or an end with Death herself. Or the very closest thing to it. “Approach, Twilight Sparkle. I have been expecting you.” She said, lifting a cup of tea to her lips. Twilight watched as her magic seemed to be the only thing shaded just slightly less white than the rest of the room. “Well?” Jumping slightly, Twilight walked forward, taking the seat opposite the other mare.

“You were expecting me?”

“Yes, of course. When last we met, you were becoming an Alicorn. It was merely for an instant, so you would not remember it, but I was there to sever your Chord of Life. Alicorns, you see, are...”

“Immortal.” Twilight interrupted, immediately clapping her hooves over her mouth. “I am so sorry... I didn’t mean to interrupt I just...” she stopped as Death raised a hoof.

“It is fine. Now, as to why you are here. Five lives have recently come into my possession. You wish to bargain for them?” Twilight nodded. “What do you have in exchange?”

“I... um... I don’t... I’m not sure.” Twilight said and Death quirked an eyebrow at her as she sipped her tea. “That is... I don’t have anything...”

“You wish for me to do something for you with nothing in return?” Death asked, her robes flailing in an invisible breeze.

“No! I mean... no, ma’am. Celestia wishes to bargain with you in the living world...”

“Does she now? Well then, we must not keep your Princess of the Sun waiting. Finish your tea before it gets cold.” Death said as she stood up, standing just as tall as Celestia. Twilight swallowed and sipped at her tea, finishing it off just quickly enough so as not to make her wait any longer but also to savor the taste. Honeysuckle and vanilla. A wonderful blend that didn’t exist in Equestria. Standing up, she walked with Death to the doors leading back into the living world.

As they swung open, Twilight blinked to see Celestia pacing, bags under her eyes as if she hadn’t slept in days. “Hello, little sister.” Death said and Twilight froze. Celestia froze mid step and looked up at the mare standing before her.

“Hello... sister.” The Princess of the Sun said, staring Death in the face. Twilight looked back and forth between the two of them for a moment as it dawned on her. This was a family reunion, one for the history books.

Author's Note

And BAM. Sort of playing with the idea that Celestia and Luna, governing the Sun and Moon, are also the guardians of life, meaning Death would be their big sister, the guardian of Death. Though... her name will not be Death in the next chapter. Anyway, coming up next, the grand finale of Fallen Harmony. Possibly the first fic on here I've ever really finished that was more than one or two chapters long. Also, for all of you wondering how Shadow killed it when I replied to a comment before about an Immortal being the only thing capable of killing an Immortal... wait and see folks. I promise, it's worth it.