//------------------------------// // III // Story: Never // by shortskirtsandexplosions //------------------------------// When they reopened, they were brimming with tears. Containing her sobbing breaths, the alicorn filly trotted gracefully down the golden halls of the Holy Palace. She levitated the brittle body of Star Bliss in her cradling magic. His breaths were spreading further and further apart, so she held him closer in mid-stride, nuzzling his brown wrinkles with her pale cheek. Finally, they entered the patio of the Palace's west wing. The room was open, and beyond several platinum pillars there stretched a field of bright flowers that danced in the crimson kiss of a setting sun. Evening was falling across the virgin fields of Equestria. The distant roar of sapphiric waterfalls danced over the tall grass, casting a fine mist across the landscape and ultimately condensing over the polished marble of the Palace floors. This patio was Star Bliss' favorite place to be. He spent days, weeks, months, years there: reading books and concocting the first spells to ever be committed to Equestrian parchment. Celestia knew this, for she spent every single precious decade with him, sitting with him, talking with him, teaching him. Today, she laid him down on a bed of velvet cushions in the penumbra of the evening's dying shadows. His body was as light as feathers, his skin as fragile as glass. When he stirred, his muscles resembled coiled rope shifting under loosely crumpled paper. “We... we are in the reading hall,” Star Bliss said in a whispering breath. His dry lips cracked into a wrinkling smile. “I love this place...” Celestia sniffled. She swallowed a lump bravely down her throat and pressed her forehead to his. “I know you do, my faithful student,” she murmured against his cheek. Her words and kisses were separated only by the breadth of warm tears. “You brought glory and wisdom to my Father's house. These hallowed halls belong to you as much as they do to us.” “I am... blessed to have served you, my liege...” he sputtered. As Celestia gazed at him with breathless worry, he winced and added, “I am the last of a generation to commune with both the Father and Daughters of Creation. There... is no gr-greater glory...” The princess shuddered. Smiling painfully, she brushed his straw-like mane out from his brow. “There are greater glories, beloved Star. There always shall be.” She winced briefly and whispered, “But none shall match your brilliance, your preciousness to me...” Star Bliss gasped, his fragile body briefly heaving in a wave of pain. His face tightened, and then relaxed in a series of heavy exhales. Celestia gnawed on her lip. There was a murmuring sound from behind her. “Celestia...?” Ever so briefly, the princess glanced over her shoulder. A tiny foal with a midnight-black coat stood pensively behind a pillar. A dark tiara hung loosely over a pair of worrisome blue eyes as the little alicorn gazed at the somber scene. Celestia instantly looked away. With a forelimb, she dried her face, put on a brave countenance, and faced her younger sibling directly. “Come forth, Princess Luna. You...You must attend this.” The foal merely shifted where she stood. Celestia took a deep breath and smiled. In a gentler voice, she cooed, “Come, Luna. Come sit with me and Star Bliss.” Nervously, Luna trotted over on tiny hooves. By the time she reached her sister's side, her eyes had glossed over. Her gaze remained locked on the dying sight of Star Bliss. The elder unicorn turned over, trembled, and managed a weak smile. “Princess Luna? Is that you, your Highness? I am...” He coughed, hacked, and wheezed. “...bl-blessed by your presence.” All Luna could manage was a tiny little whimper. Celestia cuddled her tight with her left forelimb. Quietly, she turned to face the unicorn once again and said, “Star Bliss, do you remember the first spell I ever taught you?” “Yes, your Majesty,” he breathed. He squirmed deeper into the velvet cushions. The purple shadows of night's descent lingered as the two alicorns hovered about his passing. “It was a simple trans-location spell. You told me that magic is never created nor destroyed. It...” He coughed. “It's always there, waiting to be discovered, to be respected, and even to be mastered...” “And what a fine master you've become, Star Bliss,” Celestia said, stroking his cheek as Luna trembled against her side. She smiled sweetly and added, “Thanks to you, the ponies of Equestria can control mana like a conductor and his orchestra. Teaching you was like a symphony in the making.” “Your eyes...” Star Bliss remarked in a gasp, reaching a hoof up that Celestia instantly clasped. “When... When I mastered the spells, your eyes sparkled. There was magic there too, Your Highness...” He coughed, hissed in pain, then whimpered. “No. No, it was more than magic. For I remember that same sparkle... in my mother's eyes...” He swallowed and smiled as a tear rolled down his wrinkled cheek. “...as it was in my daughter's. You...” He stretched his hoof further, quivering, until at last it touched Celestia's immaculate cheek. “You are as beautiful as I remember them... Then, now, and forever, my Liege...” Celestia shuddered before nuzzling the end of his hoof. She stared into his eyes and said, “You tell them that when you see them, my good and faithful student.” Star Bliss' breaths were now coming in fitful gasps. In between the last of them, he managed to spit forth, “Will... you f-forget me...?” Celestia kissed his hoof. She breathed back, “Never.” His ears flicked upon hearing that, then went limp. As the seconds trailed on the end of Star Bliss' last breath, Luna began to murmur in a low voice. “Celestia..?” Celestia took a heavy breath. She lowered his hoof gently beside him on the cushions. “He's gone, Luna. Star Bliss has left us.” Luna bit her lip. Tears began welling in her deep blue eyes. “Forever?” Celestia slowly nodded and nuzzled her. As a cold breeze from the distant waterfalls brushed over the two sisters, Luna buried her face in the older sibling's pink mane and murmured, “Did he go to the same pl-place that Father went?” At that, Celestia clenched her eyes shut. It took all of her young strength to choke back a sob as she held Luna close. “I don't know, Luna.” She reached out and stroked Star Bliss one last time, smoothing his wrinkled brown coat to a pure shine. The shadows of the Palace gathered over his pale eyes. “I don't know.”