Pete Powell's Life as a Pony, and Beyond

Her coat was a slightly off white, complimenting her bright platinum mane and golden eyes. It was a description that Pete Powell took in with pride.

“Our beautiful baby girl,” he whispered, as he looked down at the sleeping filly in a crib, “She's definitely got your attitude.”

“Would you expect anything less from our foal?” Rainbow Dash asked her husband quietly from the other side of the crib.

“Not at all,” he chuckled, “I can't say I'd have it any other way either. She's a pegasus too, so I couldn't be happier.”

Rainbow Dash's face fell, “Yeah... it-it doesn't bother you? Being surrounded by ponies that can fly?”

“Why would it? Love, flying was my dream, but I'm not going to let that make me bitter because others have that ability. I certainly wouldn't let it get in the way of my love for you two either.”

“It makes me sad. Like, there's this whole part of my life I can't share with you.”

Pete stepped around the crib and nuzzled his wife's neck, “Maybe you can't in the way you'd like, but you do. Whenever I see you at a show, or when you come home and go on about some trick you can't get down, it may not seem like it but you're sharing it with me then. I can't experience it, but seeing it, and hearing about the intricacies of it are close enough.”

“No,” she began, returning the affection, “It's not. You can't imagine the feeling of plowing through the air at top speeds, nothing but the wind, clouds and sky.”

“No, I can't, but I can see your face when you do it, and that's good enough for me.”

“I love you,” she whispered in his ear.

“I love you too,” he whispered back.

35 years later

“That's the last of them,” Pete said, as he stepped back into the Canterlot throne room, “I've put all the books back where they belong. My life's work is complete, forty five years of research.”

“Pete,” Celestia called, as the blue unicorn started to walk away, “Is there nothing I can do to change your mind about this? Surely you know the side effects of what you're about to unleash upon the world? If everypony lives for thousands of years...”

It was Celestia's last ditch effort. She could not allow this to pass, even if it meant breaking some rules.

“And what could you offer me? You know I don't need money, I make enough as a captain, and Dash brings in double that as the head Wonderbolt. I'm content with all but one thing in my life.”

“Immortality.”

Pete turned around and sized up the princess. Deciding she was serious, he began laughing hysterically, “Do you honestly think I would accept that?”

“Not just for you, but for Rainbow Dash as well. Isn't that what you wanted? You can both live together, forever.”

“Dash is certainly at the top of the list, but she's not the only one on it.”

“The other Elements then? I would hardly find a problem with that as well.” She did find a problem with it, but she would rather have seven immortal ponies than a billion aging ones.

“Yeah, Applejack and Pinkie will be so grateful to be forever in their sixties,” Pete rolled his eyes at the idea of two of his most active friends being old forever.

“Youth can be restored.”

“...and where does it end Celestia?” Pete asked seriously, “Twilight would want Shining Armor, who would naturally want Cadence, and both of them want their kids. Pinkie and AJ would want their families, hell most of them would. Gods, what about me and Dash? Our daughters? You seriously think I would just go 'yeah sure' to this half cocked plan?”

“And do YOU not see what you plan to unleash? I would have thought, I had hoped, that you would see the foolishness of your actions. Your world was so abysmal because of the overcrowding, and your plan to stop aging the whole of Equestria, and possibly the world, would do even worse.”

Pete laughed, “I know. That's why I scrapped that plan about a decade ago.”

Celestia stopped, “Then... what is you plan?”

Luna's former student turned his head so Celestia could get a good look at his right ear. Specifically the gold ring embedded in it.

“I did all that research into life magic, and in the end found it to have been a huge waste of time. My plan had always been to try my best to synch up Dash and I's lifespan. When I realized what extending her life, and eventually everypony's would do, I changed it. I went into the dark arts and found a very interesting spell, one that slowly kills the bearer of the item by leaching away their youth. That's what I've got in my ear right now. If my calculations are correct it should shorten my life down to roughly 300 years at its current speed, and when Rainbow finally... … well, I just have to turn it up to maximum.”

“That's suicide,” Celestia said, her face aghast at this revelation.

“Indeed. Twilight was very angry when I refused to give her my findings, I actually had to burn them, then scatter the ashes to make sure she didn't piece them back together.”

“Pete, no. You don't have to do this, you could live just fine after Rainbow Dash passes. It's still a long ways off as well.”

“Sorry, Celly, but that just isn't in the cards. Never has been, not for me. It was nice seeing you.”

The Princess of the Sun called out to him as Pete slowly trotted away, but he didn't even acknowledge her. It crossed her mind to stop him by force, she could, but it would do no good. As he walked out the large double doors to the throne room Celestia felt a pain in her chest, a familiar pain.

“And now imagine mine, dear sister.”

Celestia looked as her sister, Luna, entered from one of the side doors.

“What do you mean?”

“You've always had the attention of the ponies, the griffon's have their 'All-Maker', and the dragons are too prideful to worship anything. I had the humans. They were my creatures, they flourished and loved the night, and we had to send them away. Despite all my protests, all my arguing, we had to banish them.” Luna let out a deep, shaky sigh, “Then we find them again, and not only do we find them, we find the one that embodies all the good and evil of them. A fantastic example of why even we call it 'humanity.' ...I made him the same offer.”

Celestia was taken aback, “What?”

Luna nodded, now standing in front of her sister, “Yes, just a few hours ago in fact. Beyond that I was willing to go much further than you were. I not only offered immortality for him, the Elements and their immediate families, I offered him myself.”

The alabaster alicorn's gasp could be heard outside the doors on the far end of the room. It wasn't uncommon for the princesses to engage sexual activities, even a few marriages here and there. The phrase 'offering myself' had different meanings for them. Being of immortal souls, Celestia and Luna were much more than they appeared, closer to gods than anything. What Luna had offered, and Pete rejected, was essentially subservience. It was as Pete had said he wished to be for his wife, it was giving the entirety of themselves to another. Everything. It was something that they very rarely offered to anyone, it was the power to command a god. Worse yet was that Luna had offered it atop immortality. In essence, Pete Powell had declined godhood.

“And yes, I explained to him everything that entailed,” Luna said, cutting off her sister's next quarry. “I can't help but say that I would never have been more happy if he had accepted. You see sister, what you have closed yourself off to is something I miss very dearly. Humans are capable of unspeakable acts of love, ponies are too of course, but never to this extent. I would have willingly given anything to have that by my side for the rest of eternity, a reminder that I once had a very special gift, a race all to my own.

“I would have accepted Rainbow Dash as well. Because for all the complaints I raised over their marriage I can see now, and have for a time, the pure love that he feels for her. I mean, look at what he's done! He refuses immortality, the chance to be one of the most powerful beings in the history of this world, and he does it TO DIE! He turns it all down, just so he can die next to her. It's an incorruptible love he feels, and I almost feel silly for thinking I could try. But it hurts, more than anything you could possibly imagine. He's the last of his kind here, though he looks like a pony now his soul is still human, his heart, and I've no choice but to watch him die. Not only naturally, but sit aside and watch as he willingly, gladly, chokes his own soul away. All For her.”

“...the humans complemented you very well, sister.” Celestia said after a time, “Both you and they were very passionate, and capable of unspeakable acts of kindness and terror.”

“I wonder,” Luna said, facing her sister once more, “If the alleged 'All-Maker' is anything like the griffons.”

“Rumors say he's an eight foot tall, four horned, lava bodied demon, with a six foot broad sword made of hellfire. And that he appears before those that do dishonorable things and slays them.”

Both sisters went wide eyed and began looking for the source of the voice. Only to find that it was in their heads. After confirming with each other that they had both heard the same thing, the voice laughed.

“Oh come on now you two. Calm down, I'm just a disembodied voice, no need to get all excited. Just popping back in to see how my boy's doing. Looks like he made the right choice here, though I'm slightly interested in what he would have done with godhood. That's a very rare thing for one of them to achieve. ...I wonder if maybe there's a splintered timeline laying around somewhere I could visit and see...”

“Who are you?!” Celestia shouted, both internally and externally.

“I am the All-Maker. No, seriously, I am. Well, in a way. It's very round about and contrived, but that is TECHNICALLY one of my various titles. I'm sure we don't want to delve into that, we'd be here for eons just getting through one of YOU TWO, let alone myself.

“It doesn't look like Pete's going to do anything really interesting for a while yet. So I'll just be moving along. Nice talking to you two again. Well, one of you anyway.”

As with all previous encounters with this voice, the two were about to respond when his presence simply vanished. On edge, and worked up, the sisters sent word to their students. They wanted to know everything they could about this All-Maker.