The great white pony lay on a large bed in a towertop room, next to a blazing fire. Her majestic wings shed feathers like rain, her normally flowing hair lay limp on the ground. Her magenta eyes were sunken, her lips cracked. She did not speak nor move. Her shallow breaths echoed around the room.
Outside on the balcony, a blue alicorn and a lavender unicorn were in tears. The unicorn's mane was a mess, with strands sticking in all directions. The blue alicorn was saying something to the unicorn in between sobs:"She will not live much longer. When she dies, I will die as well. You must read her will to the media. It will keep balance. You must also assure them we were not murdered."
The unicorn did nothing but nod without stopping crying. A medic burst onto the balcony, his eyes wild until they focused on the two ponies. "Miss Sparkle, Your Majesty. Princess Celestia requests your presences in her room."
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"Twilight........you....must read.......the will." Celestia stopped speaking and shuddered, her rasping breath growing more shallow by the minute. "All......of it. Even the........forbidden........section. It is time.........for me, my......faithful student. Good....goodbye, Twilight........" her voice trailed into nothingness and her eyes closed. Her breathing stopped a moment later, spurring a new round of tears from the lavender unicorn. In the corner, Luna collapsed on a lounge chair, letting out a last word "will" before her spirit exited her body, mingling with her sister's.
Outside, millions of ponies were gathered to watch the Solar Eclipse, unknowing to their monarchs' passing. Watching the spirits, Twilight noticed they made a beeline for the eclipsing celestial bodies, dissolving into the light and projecting a unicorn's head on each planet so that their spirits could keep their respective planets in check even in death.
Turning, Twilight went to retrieve the will.
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"Her royal majesty Princess Celestia hereby decrees the next crown princesses of Equestria to be the bearers of the Elements of Harmony, known as Twilight Sparkle, Applejack Apple, Rainbow Dash, Pinkamena Pie, Fluttershy, and Rarity. All persons mentioned will be transformed by the power of the Arcane Mages Guilds of Equestria into immortal alicorns using the transfiguration spell number two-two-five-zero" some of the media ponies gasped, but let her continue "and shall take the parliament tests required of alicorns. On the condition they pass, they shall jointly rule over Equestria as the replacements for and chosen by Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. The celestial bodies known as the sun and the moon will be controlled with their majesties' spirits' power, respectively. Empress Mi Amore Cadenza and Emperor Shining Armor shall remain stationed at the Crystal Empire to keep order there."
As Twilight finished reading, her friends stared at her disbelievingly and the crowd erupted into shocked and outraged exclamations.
"Scandalous!"
"Treason!"
"That will is a fake!"
"They murdered the princesses!"
"SILENCE!"
Everyone turned to look at who had spoken. It was a knot of medics, doctors, and advisors, with a brown pony in the front. "I know how you feel, everypony. But accusing Princess Celestia's private pupil of murder? You all know that they were not only teacher and student, but close friends as Miss Sparkle here grew. How many of you remember the day that she hatched her loyal dragon companion, Spike? I do."
The brown pony stepped back, and one of the doctors stepped forward. "The princesses were not murdered. Princess Celestia was killed by a mysterious, non-contagious disease that only affects immortal alicorns. It has no name and has only affected two ponies, Princess Celestia and the ruler before her's husband, King Galactica. Princess Luna was killed by a life-bond with Celestia that they must have been born with."
When the doctor had finished, this time a red pony took a deep breath and began. "Everypony, I drafted our princesses' joint will in the name of Celestia under orders to copy exactly what they said. I did as told, the princesses even revised and read it on their own millions of times. There is nothing there that should not be, and there is absolutely nothing there that our princesses had any doubt or arguement over.The will is the word of the princesses alone." Thus said, everypony in the crowd seemed placated for now.
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Twilight flapped her wings experimentally, Rarity admired her new feathers, Rainbow shot a magic burst at the ceiling, Fluttershy levitated Angel so he could pretend to fly, Applejack just stared dumbfounded at her new assets, and Pinkie was busy figuring out how to make her horn shoot confetti.
"The extra height, speed, skills, etc. should affect you any minute no-" he stopped abruptly as the six mares gathered in front of him put on a spurt of height, coming up to where Princess Celestia used to measure. A moment later, their manes and tails elongated and began flowing, stirred by an nonexistent breeze.
The ponies paraded through the streets towards the meeting hall, where their abilities as an alicorn would be tested. Halfway there, Pinkie finally shot repeated bursts of confetti from her horn, showering the gathered onlookers.
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At last, the tests were done. On the magic measuring machine, or 'Mmm' as Pinkie had dubbed it, they glossed over their scores on the piece of parchment that had been hurriedly typed and brought back to them.
Pinkamena: 765,432
Rainbow: 772,961
Rarity: 760,342
Applejack: 751,001
Fluttershy: 743,056
Twilight: 899,987
Everypony seemed happy with their scores, though Flutttershy had to do it behind a privacy screen because she insisted she couldn't with all the ponies gathered in the court's chamber. Applejack nearly failed the cloud test, because she turned herself parallel with the columns running up and down in the room, and gave it a good solid buck. What resulted were five soaked, slightly annoyed alicorns, eight soaked, very annoyed judges, and a large wet splotch on the floor.
Bringing in their crowns and chest armor pieces, the still soaked judges proclaimed them the next crown princesses of Equestria, and ended the meeting. Fluttershy almost ran the way to the castle, but Twilight held her tail magically the whole way there, so she just hid behind her mane.
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Standing in a room filled with servants, they told all staff ponies present in the room to take a day off, go shopping, go see their family, etc. In the next few days, they worked on bringing stability back to their shattered country, meeting with delegates from two or more countries at one time.
All the while, Princess Pinkie was planning a giant party that would be held on the same day as their official coronation ceremony. She called it the: New-Princess-extravaganza-blowout-after-coronation party.
Rarity took advantage of the servants, though they loved it. The other new princesses insisted on doing it on their own, or squirmed and complained when they had to sit through a treatment. Rarity was a different story. She often called them at least six times a day to adjust her mascara and eyeshadow, redo her blush or lipstick, or re apply a dozen other cosmetic products.
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The day of coronation had arrived. They were crowned at the same time, and the assembled crowd chanted their names until well over half of the ponies lost their voice or got sore throats.
Then Pinkie's party started, letting the six relax for the first time in three months. Pinkie, true to herself, devoured three whole cakes in single bites throughout the evening, while Rarity walked into the castle to get her makeup redone at about midnight. Fluttershy was nowhere to be found, as she was making peace with the animals in the royal gardens and apologizing for what had happened at the Grand Galloping Gala.
All in all, they had a new life, new responsibilities, and new friends among the staff at the castle. Standing together, viewing the construction going on below them, they knew that nothing would ever be the same.
That was probably good though, because Fluttershy was the only one who saw Philomena and Peewee's egg go rolling out of its nest. Instead of diving for it, she ensnared it gently in her grass-green magic and set it back in the nest. Peewee nuzzled her and Philomena cawed her thanks from her position on the nest.
Applejack sighed. She'd just finished her part of the taxes, and her head was still spinning. Taking off, she landed in her year-round growing apple orchard. There were trees for gold, silver, bronze, crystal, and every other known normal type of apple known to ponykind. Her orchard here was a lot fancier than sweet apple acres, but it helped her think.
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Rarity sank lower into the hot tub, letting the bubbles brush against her body. Her pedicure was scheduled for just after her tax portion, and then she wanted to do another episode of her beauty show, So You Want to Look Like a Princess? But in the meantime, she was relaxing in her private spa. She invited her friends sometimes, but mostly it was just her. If she knew her friends, Pinkie was in her balloon garden, Applejack was in her orchard, Twilight was in her newly renovated personal library, Fluttershy was in her indoor garden, and Rainbow was outside doing tricks for the group of ponies who gathered every day to watch.
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Twilight hummed happily as the printer finished. She thanked him and added the books to her collection. In the year since she became princess, she had written easily close to five hundred textbooks and scientific manuals for her country. Some of her books made it to Celestia's school for gifted unicorns, still named after the dead monarch out of respect; schools and mages' guilds all cross Equestria, and some of the most prestigous science centers in the country. She suspected that it was just out of respect, but when she graced the school with her books, the lesson speed increased tenfold for all levels of magical expertise, leading the teachers to rave about her books. Life was good.
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Completeing her day's routine with a sonic rainboom, she soared from the green where she performed daily to her balcony in the Canterlot Castle. Deciding to head down to Applejack's orchard for a zap apple, she stretched her wings, she took flight again, gliding down several glass tunnels that connected their private rooms. At last emerging into the field, she trotted over to the farmer princess and magically yanked the hat off of her head. A brief tug of war ensued, cyan and amber magic battling for the upper hand. When Applejack had gotten the hat back, they used their magic to talk inside each other's heads. After getting her zap apple, she grabbed a couple crystal apples for Pinkie and set off down the glass tunnels once again.
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Pinkie bounced around the candy room, wondering if she should try the Chocolate Castle or the Sugar Rush Mountain cake. The chocolate castle was complete with a drawbridge, and the inside was sculpted beautifully. However, the sugar rush mountain cake was shaped like a very tall, very delicious volcano that spewed liquid sugar every five minutes. Finally deciding on the chocolate castle, she used her purple magic to break off the drawvridge, and stuffed the whole thing into her mouth. When the chefs came back a moment later to ask which one was better, they stared at the carnage, but didn't find Princess Pinkie.
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Fluttershy finished splinting the leg of the poor flamingo and watched him waddle off before helping the next patient, which happened to be Philomena and Peewee carrying their egg. They explained it was cracking, and they were worried about their unborn chick. After a careful checkup, she deduced that the egg would hatch tomorrow morning, so they should stay overnight at her clinic. She guided them to one of the trees, settling them in a large birdhouse.
Next morning, they called her and proudly presented their daughter, Flutter, to her namesake. Watching her speak for the first time--her first word was shy--she felt that life couldn't be better.