The Forever Burning Embers of Love

Luna had spent every day for over two weeks trying her best to memorize the spells she'd need to know to resurrect Velocious Blaze. She had spent almost all of her time at her seldom used study in the corner of her bedroom, reading the spells over and over, and whenever she made a mistake, started over completely.

However, Luna was smart, and knew that if she spent every second of her time in her room, her sister would start to get suspicious, so she took frequent breaks walking around the castle, and helping Celestia with her royal duties. She even paid a visit to her friend Twilight, because she knew if she successfully brought Blaze back to life, he would be the only pony she'd be seeing for quite a while.

One night, as she was raising the moon, she was also reciting the spells she had spent so much time memorizing, and, when she got it perfectly without error, she knew it was time. She decided to go without wearing any of her royal jewelry, she knew how extravagant she looked to Blaze, no matter what. She started down the path to the old cemetery right on the edge of Canterlot.
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Luna arrived at the cemetery Blaze had been buried at all those years ago. She opened the metallic gate with her magic, as well as keeping her horn lit, to see better in the gradually increasing darkness. There was a worn golden plaque on the stone beam to the right of the gate, reading:

Built on this foundation, as part of the beautiful town of Canterlot, is The Royal Canterlot Cemetery, resting place to the royalty of Equestria, and the extremely wealthy.

Underneath was the date of construction, more than 2,000 years ago, before Luna's time. She knew that among the ponies buried here were her parents. She also knew that Blaze was only buried here because of a request by Celestia herself; she always said it was the least she could do after what happened. Though he was the captain of the legendary Firebolts, he still lacked the extreme amounts of money the ponies buried here possessed. The well kept lawn and polished headstones were completely different from what you would find in a normal cemetery, where in many places, the grass was an overgrown mess, almost completely covering dull, weather beaten headstones.

After stopping at her parents' huge crypt, build out of polished granite encrusted with various jewels, including rubies, sapphires, emeralds, amethysts, and diamonds to pay her respects, as she always did, Luna went to the gravestone of her love. As she was reading the inscriptions on the stone, as she had done many times before, to the point of memorizing them, she had a flashback. It was of the time she found out how Blaze died at such a young age.
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It had been about a week after she had returned to her true form. She and her sister were standing at Blaze's grave, after Luna had asked how he died.

"Sister, please follow me to the Royal Canterlot Cemetery, I'll explain there." said Celestia.

This had puzzled Luna. As much as she had cherished Blaze, why would he be buried at the place royalty such as her parents were? He was a middle class pegasus, his parents were mere weather patrol ponies.

"You see Luna, after I banished Nightmare Moon, well, Blaze..." she stuttered.

"Yes? I want to know, please!" Luna begged.

"It's very sad, I'm not sure if you could handle it Luna, perhaps-" Celestia was cut off.

"NO! TELL ME! I HAVE TO KNOW!" Luna shouted, tears pooling at the corners of her eyes.

Celestia decided there was no use in holding back the truth from Luna, and took a deep breath.

"Blaze requested my presence, and he met with me in the great hall of the castle. I was surprised to see him with tears in his eyes; I had never seen a pony as strong as him cry before. He then begged me to bring you back, saying how he couldn't bear spending any more time without you. As painful as it was doing so, I told him how there was no more Luna, only Nightmare Moon. Blaze didn't take this well at all..." Celestia paused as she noticed that Luna had started crying ever so softly. She waited a few moments, looking at Luna uncertainly, until she said, "Please, go on, I'm fine."

Taking another quivering breath, Celestia said, "In blind rage, Blaze charged at me, before he could even get close, my guards brought him down, shouting at him to stand down. I was about to use a stunning spell on him, but he had begun to fight back at the guards, and, in self-defense, one of their swords mortally wounded him. As soon as I saw his blood, I ran over, but it was too late; he was bleeding too quickly for me to stop it." She stopped because Luna's bawling was drowning out her own soft, though unsteady voice. Once Luna had stopped shuddering so much, Celestia decided that she'd finish it, Luna had to know how much Blaze cared.

"And, right before he passed, he looked up as me, and whispered, 'Thank You'. That was the last thing he ever said. Knowing how much he meant to you, I had him buried in this Cemetery." Celestia finished.

Luna had been sobbing almost the entire time, and Celestia hugged her tightly, allowing her smaller sibling to cry into her flowing mane, not caring how wet and matted it was getting. As painful as it was to say all of this, she knew that it was all for the best. Her beautiful, innocent little sister deserved to know everything, she thought.

"Thank you, so much." Luna whispered, her face still buried in her elder sister's mane.
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Luna had hidden a shovel under a partially uprooted tree located near Blaze's grave. She used her magic to retrieve it, and, with any uncertain thoughts cast away, began digging.

"Imagine what people would think if they saw their princess digging up a grave!" Luna said to herself, laughing dryly, as she dug even more.

As she heard a hard thunk, she knew she had reached Blaze's coffin. She used her magic yet again to lift it out of the hole she had just dug, and took a good look. Blaze's simple cutie mark: A blue, orange, yellow, and red flame, representing how scorching fast he was, was on the front in chipped paint. After taking a deep breath, she opened the coffin with a long creak.

What she saw was a skeleton so cracked and brittle, she thought it could blow away in a slight breeze. She could hardly believe how this was once the blindingly fast and strong pony who she loved. She had to get this over with, there was no turning back now. She cast the strengthening spell for as long as the book instructed to, until there was not one single crack. Now the inside of Blaze's skeleton was complete, though Luna left the top of the skull and ribs open for where she'd have to place the organs. Now that the skeleton wasn't so weak that it would blow away in the wind, she lifted it out of the coffin and onto the soft grass, as well as placing the coffin itself back in the hole.

Now she reached the hardest part, remembering how to regenerate every organ exactly. Her horn glowed bright blue with intensity as she put her memory to the test. She thought of nothing else while doing this, and she placed in each organ, starting with the brain, until his skeleton was full of them. What was now infront of her made her want to be sick, the skeletal frame of her lover filled with real organs, it was revolting, but she didn't let this horrid sight stop her. It was time to reform the rest of his body.

As complicated as this next spell seemed, it wasn't nearly as difficult as the previous one for Luna. Instead of having to remember a completely different one for each organ, as in the last, this was one long spell. She pointed her horn at what was soon to be the Blaze she remembered, and ignored her light blue mane falling in front of her eyes. She knew this.

As she recited the spell inside of her head, she didn't even look as the ribs and skull closed up over the organs inside, and muscles, and veins were quickly and efficiently wrapping themselves around the bone. Once the skin and slick black fur started covering up the exposed muscles, she began to look up. By the time her eyes made full contact, besides the finishing touches being added to his cutie mark, everything was there. His dark body, vivid flame colored mane and tail, and gold eyes were present. Unlike most Pegasi, Blaze's under feathers on his wings were also flame colored; so when he flew at fast speeds, it created the illusion that flames were trailing him because of his extreme speed. As the last preened feather was in place, Luna knew she had done everything right so far; now she just had to bring him to life.

However, before she performed the final step, she realized something. If this worked, and she prayed it would, how would he react to seeing his own gravestone, let alone being in a cemetery? She used her magic to levitate the pile of dirt she had made back into the hole, and flattened it. To make it look like nothing had ever happened, she even removed the grass from the corner of the cemetery to cover the bare dirt above Blaze's now empty grave. She then levitated his limp body right in front of her as she made her way to a clearing outside of Canterlot.

Luna had found a small, peaceful clearing just to the south of Canterlot, she decided this would be a good place for Blaze to wake up if this happened to work at all. Because of the heavy darkness of the night, she used her magic to cast a bright blue ball of light into the air above her, so she, and hopefully Blaze as well, would be able to see eachother. Now it was time. Now was the moment that would show if her millennium of despair would come to an end. She quickly remembered the simple spell which would allow her to transfer her magic to Blaze's body, closed her eyes, and, with an abnormal white light coming from her horn, cast the incantation. Then, the center of Blaze's chest, where his heart was, glowed bright white, and then it slowly died down, until it wasn't visible anymore.

Luna had been standing completely still, staring with anticipation. After about thirty seconds, she started to be in disbelief that this was going to work at all. A few seconds more, and a few tears slid down her cheeks. After about two minutes, she had begun crying loudly, not caring if anypony heard her. She turned around, not wanting to look at her lifeless love, and buried her face in her hooves, when suddenly she heard a voice from behind her.

"Luna?"

To be continued...