How many seconds in eternity?
Twilight sat alone on a dreary, rainy day.
She had been sitting alone a lot in these past few days, and she didn't know why. Well, she knew why, but not why.
She knew where she was, a small cemetery outside of Ponyville in front of six graves. Each one emblanized with a cutie mark of her friends. From left to right, there was Pinkie Pie, who died of a heart attack. Rarity, who passed gracefully in her sleep. Fluttershy, oh dear Fluttershy died of a rare disease. Result of an animal she kept, no doubt. Applejack had died of an accident on the farm, Rainbow Dash had died in the line of duty, attempting to wrangle some stubborn storm clouds that just....struck harder than normal with the lightning. Or rather, she wasn't as skilled as she once was.
Then there was Starlight. Oh, Starlight. She had been presumed dead in a lab accident not even a year ago, but Twilight knew the truth. Her friend was scattered across time and space, her essence fractured forevermore.
But at that point, it was all in the past. Twilight would often come here alone on the anniversaries of their deaths, to cry and mourn them, for she never truly got over losing them. But today was especially sad, for they had just finished the funeral for her student, Luster Dawn. The girl had died of natural causes.
And here Twilight was, the last of her friends to live. All because of her immortality. All because of the fact that she was doomed to outlive her friends. And that dark future had been realized for a while or so now.
And yet, she endured. And yet Twilight Sparkle lived on! She had been living long enough to bury her own parents! As well as her brother! She continued to live on!
And she will live on, too! Long enough to bury their great, great, great-grandchildren. Well, those that even had kids. Some had passed on without a lineage. Either by choice or by genetics. Or both. And while she could never fault her friends for never finding the one they wished to be with, well those that wished to be with someone, or the partners they chose never had the right "equipment" for children, she was still here.
Alone, and, as some have been saying lately, broken. For even death can never come to her. The pale horsemen can never play chess with her, as it were. She will never feel the soft touch of Thanatos or the embrace of Faust's mighty wings. She will endure well into the future, till eternity passes.
"Eternity," Twilight repeated to herself. "How many seconds are there? In eternity?"
"Twilight?" A new voice called out. She turned and found her mentor standing behind her. The former solar princess was donned in mournful black clothes, but nothing to fancy and she held an umbrella in her solar yellow magical aura, the same aura bathing her horn.
"Oh, Celestia...I was...uh...." Twilight stumbled over herself, the elder alicorn looking sympathetic.
"You were contemplating your immortality," Celestia said knowing, walking up to the graves and examing them.
"Yes," Twilight admitted with a sigh, looking back at the graves beside her teacher.
"I know it's hard. To lose someone. To lose anyone at all is difficult as a mortal! But for us Immortals....." Celestia sighed. "It's harder because we can never join them. We will endure, till the stars above go out and the sun can be moved anymore. It's funny, in a cruel way. Some ponies seek out immortality to escape death, to escape Hell, but after a few thousand years when your loved ones aren't even dust in the ground anymore, it dawns on you that......it's worse than any Hell that can be conceived by any god, cruel or altruistic."
Twilight was dead silent as she stared at her mentor, mouth agape. "I assume you're speaking....from experience?"
Celestia sighed before chuckling weakly, shaking her head. "Maybe I would've once. But now, the years pass so long, you forget things, but the holes remain."
"Holes?" Twilight asked, cocking her head to the right.
"Holes," Celestia repeated, nodding her head lightly. "Of those you lost. Holes in your heart. There's a reason I never married. I've already had a number of loves in my years as Princess of Equestria. Yet they passed so long ago, history has forgotten all of them. All of them, now not even dust to be spread in the winds of eternity."
"Eternity," Twilight repeated. "How long is eternity?"
Celestia chuckled. "A lover of mine once asked that question one night, and I found myself with no answer. The next day, she called the wisest people in the kingdom to answer. And believe it or not, we got the answer from a simple shepherd colt."
"What answer did he give?" Twilight asked, prompting the older mare to sigh.
"That somewhere in a lost country is a mountain made entirely of diamond that takes only an hour to climb, and hour to walk around, and an hour to go through, if it had a tunnel," Celestia said. "And that every one thousand years, a small bird comes to the mountain peak to sharpen its beak. Once there is no mountain to sharpen its beak on, and the entire thing is chiseled away, the first second of eternity will have passed."
"What happened to the colt?" Twilight asked curiously.
"Oh? He became my first student," Celestia said nonchalantly. "I still remember how small Grim Outlook was that day."
"Hmph. My predecessor....was chosen because you were looking for an answer....about your immortality?" Twilight asked curiously.
"Yes, ironically enough. I just...liked teaching so much, so I would often take a personal protege to mold by my own hooves." Celestia said, a small tear forming at the edge of her eye. "It made me feel, like I was a mother.....again...."
"Again?" Twilight asked curiously.
"Again," Celestia repeated, more tears forming. "I.........had a child once. With my first lover.....but......I ended up.....outliving them both."
"Oh.....um....do they have any living relatives today?" Twilight asked curiously.
Her mentor nodded as she wiped away the tears.
"Who?" Twilight asked.
"Someone you might not know all too well," Celestia corrected herself. "I'm sorry. Its just....been a while."
Twilight nodded and dropped the subject. "Don't be sorry. you came over here because I was the one crying, right?"
"Right," Celestia said before perking back up. "Come my fellow princess. The rain has made your coat wet. Why not we head back home?"
Twilight blinked before looking down at her fur coat, which was soaked and matted, and her flank was muddied from when she was sitting.
"Yes. That'd be nice." Twilight nodded, wiping her own tears and heading towards the horsedrawn cart, Celestia following with a thought on her mind.
My fellow princess......never thought I would say that in reference to my own granddaughter.
