How worlds live and die

“Wow, you look messy. Has something happened to you?”

“Couldn't sleep,” the young catlike creature replied while it was slowly moving towards the table. “The young cerberi were barking all night. Don't tell me you didn't hear them.”

“Slept like the dead”, answered the doglike skeleton with a grin, before taking another sip of his coffee.

“Very funny,” said the young one in a bored tone as he sat down at the wooden table. The dining room of the two was simple, with only a long wooden table on which two chairs were set up. The room had no windows, the only light source was a candle that stood on the table, and covered the dining room in a flickering red-orange light. The dark wooden table, unlike the room, was covered with plenty of breads, spread and drinks

"But it's not normal for them to be that loud around this time of the year. Would you mind passing me the bread?”

“Here.” With a energetic movement, the skeleton pushed a small box towards the other end of the table, “and don't worry about the cerberi. It was probably just a Windigo that came to close to our castle. It won't kill us.” The skeleton ended his sentence with a loud laugh.

“Again, very funny.”

The rising sun shown soft through the windows into the princess’ face, as she drank from her coffee. There's nothing as awakening as a beautiful sunrise and a cup of coffee. At the other end of the table sat her little sister, who would soon go to bed, drowsily looking at her sandwich. Even though she was always tired in the morning, Luna had lately been sleepier than usual.

“We haven't done much together recently,” said Celestia, with a warm smile.

Luna was still eying the untouched sandwich, her head resting on her right hoof. ”Yeah.”

“Maybe we should create an eclipse sometime soon, so we could get some more sister time, besides breakfast and dinner.”

“That would be”, she yawned, “great.” A moment of silence followed, in which Luna finally took a bite of of her sandwich. After she finished chewing, the princess of the night broke the silence again. “How’s your migraine doing?”

“Still unchanged.” For the last week, Celestia had been suffering from a horrible headache, that would not go away despite everything she tried. Because of this, Luna had taken over some of her sister’s responsibilities.

“I'm worried, you know. That doesn't sound good. Maybe he knows something?” The princess of the night raised her head as she spoke.

“How am I supposed to reach him? Besides, his travel would take time, and By the time he got here, the headache would already be gone. You shouldn't worry that much. It won't kill me.” Celestia smiled.

“I hope you’re right.” Luna took another bite of her sandwich.

At that moment, a cloud of smoke and green fire appeared before them and formed into a letter. Caught by surprise, Celestia almost dropped her coffee. Carefully she put down her cup and grabbed the letter with her magic. Unlike most letters she recieved, this one was not rolled, but folded. Once she was done reading, the princess began laughing. “Speaking of whom.”

The bipedal creature stood there for a moment, silently, with his hands in the pockets of his short pants, looking around the library, before speaking again: “Could I use your bathroom?”

“Uh, yes. It's right down the corridor,” Twilight replied.

“Thanks.”

Once he was out if hearing range, Spike raised his voice: “Well that was strange, wasn't it?”

“Not much stranger than what happens here usually,” answered the purple unicorn .

“Really, you think so?”

“Spike. He just wanted to send a letter to Princess Celestia, and to use our bathroom. There's nothing strange about that.” While talking, Twilight went back to her desk, where she was working before her visitor showed up, and began rearranging her quills. What a mess her working place was. Besides two open books several scrolls and stacks of loose paper sheets were lying around. That a stranger saw her desk in such a state made Twilight feel a little bit embarrassed. Lucky the rest of the library was tidy since Twilight had cleaned it just yesterday.

“The only thing that makes me wonder is his appearance. I have never before seen a species that looks like that, neither have I ever seen such casual clothes. There schould be a catalogue of species somwhere. Maybe I find somthing about him in there.”

“I know exactly which one you mean. But you don't find him suspicious?” The dragon climbed up a ladder to get the requested book from the shelf and brought it over to Twilight.

“We already learned that lesson Spike, remember?” Now she was laughing, “and my horn is still normal. There is nothing to be afraid of.”

“Yes, but”, before Spike could finish his sentence, he exhaled a green flame.

Twilight grabbed the letter that had appeared with her magic and unfolded it: “The princess sure is quick at writing. I wonder if she has some sort of secret technique. Now, let's see, what we have got here:

My faithful student Twilight Sparkle,

I would like you to join your visitor on his way to Canterlot in order to meet me. It will probably be interesting for you to get to know him. Although he will might act a little bit strange, trusting him shouldn't be a problem.

Sincerely,
Princess Celestia

Well, this is interesting, but still not strange,” she said after reading the letter to spike. “I better clean this mess before we go.”

“No time for that” The visitor returned to the room, "Our train leaves in excactly twelf Minutes." As he spoke the bided moved towards Spike and eyed him, as if he was waiting for something to happen, which made the young dragon visibly nervous.

“What are you looking at? Is there something in my fa-,” there was another green flame and two tickets appeared. The stranger grabbed one out of the air and headed for the door, where he had placed his bag after he had entered the library several minutes ago and picked it up, leaving behind a confused dragon and unicorn.

“Don't tell me that wasn't strange.”

Spike was right, this isstrange, Twilight thought to herself while following the bipedal creature toward Canterlot Castle. She had already given up on trying to get answers. “I don't want to spoil the surprise,” was the only thing he would tell her. So now the unicorn tried to figure out what species he belonged to. His appearance resembled a primate, though his arms were shorter and he was walking more upright, like Spike or minotaurs did. He was also a bit taller than the primates Twilight knew from the Canterlot Gardens, and about a head taller than herself. What made the purple mare wonder the most however, was the fact that he didn't have any fur, except for his short brown mane. Never before had Twilight heard of a species like that. And this couldn't be his first visit here. He knew his way around Canterlot way too well, and this place did not appear to astonish him. Hay, even Twilight was astonished by the town every time she visited, and she had lived here for years before moving to Ponyville. How could that person’s earlier visits go unnoticed. Literally everyone was looking at him right now. Also, why was this stranger in such a hurry? Their train had arrived at Canterlot not just in time, but even earlier than expected. They couldn't be late for the meeting with the princess. Well, the stranger at least appeared to be in a hurry, he wasn't exactly fast and it was no problem for Twilight to keep up with him, so she could be wrong about that.

As if the visitor had been able to hear her thoughts, he turned around, not slowing down, and smiled at the unicorn: “How about a little race?”

“A race?”

“A race!”

Without waiting for further answers, the biped turned around again and started running.

Twilight couldn’t afford to lose him, so she also sped up. “Why are you running?”

“Because this is a race, silly.”

“But, why the race?”

“Why not?”

“Well, for one, you are rather slow. You cannot be thinking about winning it.”

“You for one should know that it's not always speed that wins. Though you just came in fifth.”

The only race Twilight ever participated in was a Running of the Leaves in Ponyville, where she in fact did come in fifth, but how could he know that? There was that smile again. Strange wasn't even close to describing this. Though the scene, a unicorn and a whatever he was, running through Canterlot, must have looked strange to bystanders.

Guarding the entrance of the palace was probably the worst of all tasks a member of the Royal Guard could be charged with. Just standing there all day, in the hot sunlight, wearing the heavy armor, without anything happening. On top of it all, you can't even moan about how boring your task is, because you have to stay still all the time to concentrate on what was happening, which happened to be nothing most of the time. All you could do was hope for the time to pass, or wish for something to actually happen. Apparently, this guard’s wish became truth, as he could see two figures in the distance, closing in at a moderate speed. One of them seemed to be some sort of biped, while the other one was a unicorn mare, but not just anypony, this must have been the Captain’s little sister. He was told that Twilight, if the guard recalled the name correctly, would be coming for a visit, and that she would bring a guest with her. The princesses were already awaiting the two of them.

On the last few meters, the biped sped up, and came to a sudden stop shortly before the guard, who managed to keep a straight face thanks to all his training, even though the sudden burst surprised him.

“I won.” The stranger was breathing heavily. He put down his bag and took a large bottle of water out of it.

The mare followed him with a nervous grin: “Hi. I'm Twilight Sparkle and...”

“I was already informed about your visit Miss Sparkle.” the guard interrupted her. “Please follow me. The princesses are waiting.”

The cool and gloomy inside of the palace's summer wing was a welcome change from the unusually hot summer day outside. The race had caused Twilight to overheat, to the point where she had to stop running, so whe wouldn't faint. The biped however seemed to have less problems with the heat. He was pretty thirsty though. That was already about half a liter, and he still continued drinking. Maybe the stranger belonged to some marine race? No. Sea creatures looked different. They had webs and gills and so on. He didn't share any of these traits.
The suspicious eyes of the royal guards followed the two of them as they moved on to the throne room to meet both princesses. This guest must be pretty important, if Princess Luna sacrifices her sleep so she could meet him, Twilight thought.

“Please, wait here while I announce you.” Ordered the guard who guided them before leaving the hallway through a massive door.

“Princesses, Miss Sparkle and her companion have arrived.”

“Wonderful.” Celestia's voice could be heard in the hallway. “Let them enter, and you can return to your usual routine. Thanks.”

The biped didn't even wait for the guard to return and had already begun moving as soon as Princess Celestia's voice died, and Twilight followed him into the meeting room. Through the stained glass the sun was shining, making this room brighter and warmer than the hallway they came from. On the far end of the room, behind a large table, the regal sisters stood, awaiting their visitors. Luna's face almost burst with joy upon seeing the biped.

“Homer!” she said excited, “How long has it been?”

“Far too long, my dear Luna,” this 'Homer' answered, not bothering with any formality. “You have grown quite a bit. Last time we met, you had just outgrown that rebellious teen phase. I am happy to see that you are still awake just for me.”

“How could we miss the visit of one of our oldest friends.”

“'One of your oldest friends'? Just 'one' of your 'oldest friends'? It hurts to hear how little you care about me.” The way he overdramatized his sentence somewhat reminded Twilight of Rarity. Caring little? There was barely anything Princess Luna valued higher than her sleep. She even slept through Cadence' and Shining Armour's wedding, including the Changeling attack. The visitor also didn't really look old either, but the unicorn had no real comparison, so she could be wrong on that, too.

“You know how we think about you,” said the Princess of the Night with a light giggle, while Princess Celestia rolled her eyes.

“Of course I do, but it's always nice to hear it. You have become bigger as well, Celestia. Maybe you should cut down on the cake.” The biped let out a short laugh.

How could he treat the princesses so disrespectfully, and why didn't they seem to be bothered about that? This whole scene didn’t make any sense to Twilight

“You haven't changed a bit, and I'm not sure if I'm glad about that.” The Sun Princess' reply was rather serious, but with a friendly sub tone.

“An old dog doesn't learn new tricks.”

“I am older than you.”

“Just somehow.”

“Could someone PLEASE explain me what is going on here?” Twilight didn't mean to be that rude, but all this confusion caused her patience to burst.

“Of course Twilight Sparkle,” the white alicorn spoke with her usual calm and warm voice. “This human before you is the spirit of knowledge.”

That didn't explain anything, so without further thinking, the Unicorn said: “This what is what?” Immediately afterward she realized how disrespectful her question had been. What luck that Celestia was very patient with a lack of formality. Most other royals would have probably thrown her out already.

“We humans,” Homer started to explain, “are a species of highly intelligent primates, so your first guess was mostly accurate. The 'sea-creature' guess however was completely wrong.”

The unicorn took a step back. “How are you doing this?” she asked.

“The role of the spirit of knowledge,” the human answered, “comes with all existing knowledge. Which doesn't mean I know everything. It's more like reading everyone's mind at the same time. For example, even I don't know how Pinkie's keen sense works, but the moment someone finds it out, I will know it.

For the question 'What is a spirit anyway?' the answer is: We spirits are immortal beings who represent what keeps this world alive. Like Celestia represents the sun, and Luna represents the night, I represent knowledge.”

“So, you are responsible for this world?” noted the mare.

This time it was Celestia who answered: “We three aren't the only spirits. In total, there are ten of us.”

“There WERE ten of us,” corrected Homer, which left an expression of confusion and fear on the princesses face.

“What do you mean 'were'?” asked Luna.

“Funny story. Morus and Vito died about a week ago.” The confusion left their expressions, and made room for panic.

“Died? How can this be possible?”

“That's the funny part,” said the human, while pointing towards Luna with one finger of his left hand. “I don't know!”

Just when Twilight thought she had understood, the whole conversation turned out even more confusing than before: “Didn't you just say that spirits are immortal?”

“I most certainly did.” The human moved his finger towards Twilight while speaking, “At least there haven't been any reported cases of dying spirits before.”

“HOW CAN YOU BE SO CALM ABOUT SOMETHING THIS SERIOUS?!”

This was the first time the unicorn heard Princess Celestia scream. She had never lost her temper before, not when Twilight's friends caused turmoil at the Grand Galloping Gala, nor when Discord broke free. While Celestia's face showed anger towards the human, her eyes showed nothing but panic.

It took Homer, who apparently also got caught by surprise, a moment to reply. “I thought it would be a better way to bring the news to you, instead of just bursting in, screaming 'LUNA, TIA, ALL OF EXISTENCE MIGHT BE ON THE VERGE OF EXTINCTION!'”

He went silent again for a second, then he continued in a more serious voice, “That aside, panic won't get us anywhere now, so calm down. I already have some sort of a plan.”

Celestia was visibly relieved by the human's words, but the panic hadn't left her eyes.

Nervously Luna stepped forth, “So, what is your plan?”

The human took a deep breath and then answered: “Well,” he paused again for a second, “I can only think of one, who could be able to cause something like this, and I am going to visit her.

Even though I cannot think of a reason why she should have killed Morus and Vito, in case it was really her fault, I would like to take the Elements of Harmony with me. In the meantime, you two try to gather the other spirits here. It will probably be the safest for us if we stick together, and aren't scattered around the whole planet. I know it's not much, but it is the best thing we can do at the moment.”

The sisters exchanged a short gaze. None of them seemed very fond of the humans plan, but they couldn’t think of something better, since he had a week time to make this plan and if the spirit of knowledge didn't came up with a better plan within that time, there was no way the two of them could within a few minutes.

“Very well,” Celestia stepped forth, “I'll bring you to the treasury.”