Like every month for the past five decades, the Friendship council had gathered in Canterlot.
Rarity shared stories about the current fashion trends among the changelings. Apparently, red capes were in fashion that autumn, but Twilight just couldn’t bring herself to care. Her mind was busy with something else.
The others noticed her unusual silence. Fluttershy asked, “How was the last month for you, Twilight?”
“What?” Twilight seemed to just have realized that she was surrounded by her friends.
“She asked what you did this month, Darling,” Rarity said, “You have been brooding ever since we arrived here.”
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to brood. It was just a very boring month for me. I tried to think about something worth mentioning, but there’s just nothing.” She knew that they were still suspicious, so she turned to Pinkie and said, “Do you have anything to talk about?”
Pinkie Pie proudly, and, just as enthusiastically as everpony expected from Ponyville’s pink pronking party pony, told her friends about Lil Cheese graduating from school.
Then Applejack talked about the harvest of the current year on Sweet Apple Acres, and Rainbow Dash about the new Wonderbolts recruits demanding so much attention that she sadly can’t help with the harvest.
“You would have done more harm than good anyway, ma sugarcube,” Applejack joked.
“Hey, I got better at it!”
Lastly, Fluttershy talked about the new animals that moved into her sanctuary, but the longer she talked, the more she started to cough. Just a bit at first, but louder and more violently every time. Eventually, she couldn’t talk anymore, and had to cut her story short. She promised to tell them the rest the next time.
The moon began to rise, something Twilight had managed to automate with Starlight’s help a few years ago, and so the council came to an end.
Later that night, Twilight went to visit Shaded in her underground castle. Twilight always visited another ruler after the Friendship Council, in order to foster the friendship between their realms. This month, it was Shaded’s turn. They talked about various things for a few hours. Twilight was just about to leave, but then Shaded said, “There’s something else bothering you, isn’t there, Twilight?”
“No,” Twilight tried to reply convincingly, “what makes you think that?”
Shaded gave her a sad smile, “Oh, Twilight, you know that I feel the worries of those close to me.”
Twilight sighed. “It’s… It’s just that… My mother and father are already gone, and I only survived their passing thanks to my friends... and now my friends have all grown old themselves. Fluttershy is more and more ill every time we hold the friendship council. The doctors give her another year, at best. And now, I’m… I’m…”
“You’re afraid of the day when she will leave Equestria for the great beyond,” Shaded finished for her, “When they will all leave.”
Twilight just dropped her shoulders and her head, faintly nodding. “I don’t know how to handle it. I almost can’t remember the time the six of us weren’t together, and soon… soon we’ll never see each other again... How did Celestia handle this?”
Shaded motioned Twilight to sit down on her chair, then took the seat beside her and said, “She didn’t. I’m really sorry to say this, but she didn’t. Celestia made the same choice a lot of immortals make, and renounced to seek friendship or love with mere mortals.”
“The princess of friendship renouncing friendship,” Twilight said, tears in her eyes, “I won’t… I can’t accept that.”
“I know. I also know that the other fate you could choose isn’t anything for you either. Eventually, some begin to see mortals like you would see a pet. As something beneath them. Nothing more than a pretty flower you enjoy until winter, and then wait for a new one to replace it when spring comes.”
“There’s got to be a better way…” Twilight didn’t even look at Shaded anymore, now that the tears had started to defy her attempts at resisting them.
Shaded let out a deep sigh, old sadness reappearing on her face. “There is. You can make them immortal as well. I could teach you the spell.”
“Why didn’t you tell me that earlier?!” Twilight yelled. But Shaded didn’t answer, so Twilight jumped up from her chair, grabbing Shaded’s head with her magic, and forcing Shaded to look her in the face. She had already taken in enough breath to repeat her question in her royal canterlot voice, when she saw a tear escaping Shaded’s eye as well.
“Because I knew you would never choose that option, either. Because I know how much this option hurts.” One after another, more tears ran down Shaded’s face,
“Did you forget that I’m even older than Celestia? I roamed this world for over six thousand years already. I tried it, but soon realized how egotistical it truly is. Of course, it seems like a great idea at first. You and those dear to you can stay together forever. And everyone is happy.” She sobbed.
“At first. But what about the other’s families and their friends? The pain you fear—the pain I felt over and over and over again, more times than I could count—you would just curse them to suffer it as well. And you can’t make them all immortal, Twilight.
“I know this is not the answer you seek, and I am truly, deeply sorry for what I am about to say, but this is the price of immortality. If you decide to still make friends with mortals, and I am sure you will, just how I decided to continue taking care of all the children that are in need, then you will feel the pain of losing them. Again, and again, and again. And it will never be any easier. Even now, after the countless children I’ve raised, every time I have to lay one to rest, it still hurts the same way as it did when I had to do it for the first. The only thing that changes is that you learn that you will survive it, but that never helps.”
Shaded held her head with her hooves, her elbows resting on the table, tears streaming down her face. In this moment, Twilight finally understood what Shaded had said to her decades ago.
"Sometimes I don’t know if I should pity them for their mortality, or envy them."
