It was only a few hours since Princess Celestia had been slain by the foul magic of Queen Chrysalis whilst defending everypony against the Changeling's attack, and allready the dreadful news had spread through Canterlot. Everypony was in mourning,at least in public anyway, for the only ruler they and generation after generation of pony families had ever known. As well as Celestia's death, many members of the Day Guard had died in the battle. Princess Luna had been distraught, shaking her sister over and over again, trying to wake her up without success. The finest doctors in Equestria had been called; they had checked her heart, held a feather and a mirror to her mouth and nose,and pronounced her dead, and the Mane 6, Pinkie Pie far from her normal joyful self, had met with Princess Luna and Princess Cadence to decide what to do next. "I ask you all, to accept me, Princess Luna Equestris, as raiser of the Sun and Moon," Luna asked, staring at Princess Cadence as if daring her to object to this. Princess Cadence knew better then to challenge Luna for the succession and bowed low as did all the Mane Six.
The succession question having been solved, the talk moved on to what would be a proper funeral for the Raiser of the Sun.
"Where we come from, a dead pegasus pony is traditionally cremated upon a great pyre so that his or her spirit may be freed from the dead shell that was their body and rise to Heaven," Rainbow Dash said. "It would be an honour for me to do the same thing to Princess Celestia as a final show of how much she meant to us all."
Luna shook her head. "My sister knew that even an immortal alicorn like herself might not live forever; that she might one day die in battle or of disease. And whilst she has nothing against cremation for other ponies she thought it to be too...final for herself."
"We could leave her on a plinth in the Everfree Forest, her body to become food for the forest creatures and plants and trees," suggested Fluttershy. "That's what I want for my own body, by the way."
"But the forest is dangerous to venture very far into, and we don't want anypony amongst the bearers to be killed by accidently meeting up with a manticore or worse," Luna pointed out. "Also, there are rumours of Changelings living in there who might replace the bearers. Or they might accidently bring parasprites back to the rest of Equestria. The Everfree forest is off limits to ponies for a lot of very good reasons. If we only go in a little way the smell of my sister as she...becomes one with the elements over time, might drift out." Luna felt herself unable to say the word "decomposing" at that moment, as she did not want to think of such a thing happening to her beloved sister. "Also, there are those who would want my sister's bones as holy relics or for nasty purposes."
"We...I know all sorts of magic," Twilight said. "We could use magic to reanimate her...to bring her soul back to her body and preserve it and all would be well. Princess, why are you looking at me like that for?"
"I may be the Princess of the Night, but what you have suggested is horrible. Such spells never work well, which is why their use is banned. Some of them result in empty corpses that just do whatever they are told and no more, and slowly decompose and fall apart as time goes on. We would have a shambling parody of my beloved sister, a mockery of what she once was and I could not bear that. Others take a horrible demon from the depths of Tartarus and thrust it into the body, with predictable results. My sister would attempt to become a Tyrant Sun. Nothing of her orginal personality would remain because it would not be her soul in her body. If there was a workable spell of that type without ill effects, everypony would be allowed to use it unless it caused overpopulation. Twilight, I know that you mean well, but I will not allow you to use the foul arts of necromancy on my sister. She must be left to rest in peace."
"What about freeing Discord? If anything can bring her back it would be him."
Luna snorted. "After she froze him in stone for long? No way would he agree to do that."
"How about turning her into a stone statue?" Rarity suggested."Then we could go and see her whenever we wanted."
"She had a horror of that," Luna replied, "even more so then that of cremation. A fear that her soul like that of Discord would somehow be trapped in the stone statue for all of eternity. No. A burial it will be in the Royal Canterlot Noble Graveyard, in a tomb after one day's lying in state watched by Royal Guards."
The funeral was a huge event. Luna made the first speech, somehow managing not to cry during it, saying how wonderful her sister was and how much she meant to her. Next came Cadence, then Twilight, then the other members of the Mane Six, and then numerous of the nobility of Canterlot and the great and the good of Manehatten and Ponyville. After that pony after pony filed past the open coffin of their beloved Princess, the only ruler they had ever known. Huge queues formed, for the Princess was a living Goddess in the eyes of her subjects. It was late into the night before the coffin was closed and left there for the night with only a couple of unicorn guards watching over it, in case she should somehow come back to life again.
Golden Dawn flipped open the lid of the coffin and started sawing with the sharp blade of his spear at the horn of Princess Celestia, as soon as his fellow guard went to the toilet. They say that alicorn horn is worth a lot of money if sold to the right ponies or griffins. If not, at least it will bring me good luck as a holy relic in my home. After the Changeling attack, orders had gone out for every guard to sharpen their spear on both the points and the blades in case such an attack ever happened again, as blunt spears had often bounced off the tough carapaces of the Changelings that could be identified as such. It did not take that long to cut off all but a couple of inches of the magnificent horn and stuff it in his saddlebag, then flip the coffin lid down before the other guard came back.
The next day the coffin was taken to the Royal Canterlot Noble Graveyard on the shoulders of the Mane Six and placed into it's tomb. All of them were deeply unhappy, Twilight was in tears, and even Pinkie Pie was in a deep depression.
The gravestone set on the tomb's door read Here Lies Celestia, Princess of Equestria, Raiser of the Sun, fouly slain by Queen Chrysalis after a long life of over a thousand years. You brought light and warmth to all who knew you. Rest In Peace.
Celestia opened her eyes. Why is it so dark in here? I feel so thirsty...and like I've slept for years. I must be in my bedchamber. And my horn really aches. She tried to sit up and hit something a few inches from her face. Something that was covered with satin. She felt around with her hooves and found herself in a box. A box? No, this is a coffin, they've buried me and left me, buried me and left me...don't panic, you have a horn, you can teleport yourself out of this, it's only a few feet of earth above you. She concentrated on the simple spell that would bring her back to the world of light and warmth that was just a few feet above her and...nothing happened. The outside remained as far away for her as the surface of the moon, even though only a few feet of earth were in the way. She tried a light spell and that worked, filling the coffin with light, gleaming off the satin lining. My horn! Somepony cut most of it off! Don't panic, Celestia, this is what the Canterlot Voice was really meant for. A few screams for help and they'll dig you up and then you can give whoever buried you alive a really big telling off for wrongly thinking you were dead.
The scream that came out of her mouth was no louder then that of a normal pony. Water, I need water to undry my throat and call for help, I need food to regrow my horn, and I won't be getting either down here. Celestia began pounding on the coffin with her hooves. On the third attempt, the lid flew right off, revealing to Celestia that she was not buried alive under the earth after all. With the light shining with what remained of her horn, it revealed grave goods meant for her use in the afterlife. Water, blessed water, which she greedily drank. Tasty apples, the finest green grass, hay, fruit of al kinds, rare pony delicacies. Fine books to read. A royal sword just in case she was attacked in the afterlife. Celestia let loose with the Royal Canterlot Voice, and this time it worked, very loud and clear. "YOU BURIED ME ALIVE YOU IDIOTS! LET ME OUT OF THIS TOMB NOW!"
It was not long after that when the heavy tomb door was thrown upon to reveal Princess Luna, Twilight Sparkle and a great crowd of ponies. Celestia glared at them. "You clearly didn't check that I was properly dead. What if you had buried me under the ground? I could have been stuck down there in the dark for centuries, slowly going insane! And who on Equestria had the bright idea to cut my horn off?"
Luna hugged her sister. "You're alive! I am dearly sorry for what happened to you-it can only be one or both of the two guards who were left to guard you who cut your horn off."
****
One week later...
Golden Dawn lay upon the courtroom floor, his legs in heavy chains, whilst Princess Celestia glared down at him. It had needed just a look in the castle paperwork to find out who was stationed where, and the dawn raid had uncovered the horn of a size that could only be that of an alicorn in his locker. After interrogating the other guard, it had been fiound that he knew nothing about it. Celestia's voice was hard and cold.
"Golden Dawn, you have a lot to think about. Thinking that I was dead, you mutilated my body and cut off my horn for your own profit. It is true that my horn will regrow, but slowly, at the speed of a griffin talon. As a result, it will be years before I can teleport anywhere and months before I can pick anything up with my magic. Until then I will either have to pick things up with my mouth, or have a servant do it for me. You have utterly disgraced yourself, your profession and your regiment. For what you did, you could spend eternity encased in stone within my Canterlot Sculpture Garden.If I had been buried in a grave instead of a tomb, I would still be down there now trapped in airless darkness. I will have mercy...up to a point.You are expelled from the Royal Guards for life; and you will serve twenty-five years in Foalsom Prison. Take him down."
