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To my faithful student Twilight Sparkle,
You know that you are my most trusted pupil, and that I would never lie to you. Please believe that this is the truth. Still, I have not been completely honest with you, and about the real responsibility you took on when you became the element of magic. I have with held part of the truth because I wasn't sure you and your friends were ready to know. I regret waiting so long to tell you, but now I can wait no longer, you and the other five MUST come and see me right away.
~ Princess Celestia
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**--------------------**
Yesterday
The moon shone brightly overhead as the magnificent ruler over Equestria stepped out the door to the balcony.
"Sister, What art thou I mean- what are you doing up so early? Dawn is not meant to come for a few hours." Luna said puzzled. Normally at this time the sun princess was out like a rock. Something must have really been bothering her.
"Luna... I've been thinking. The elements of harmony, I think we should tell them the truth." Celestia looked to to be in deep thought, it was so weird seeing her big sister this unsure about something.
"Art thou certain they are ready to hear such news?" Asked Luna, realizing afterwords that she had done the whole 'thou and thee' thing again.
The radiant, white alicorn took a deep breath. "Honestly no. I had wanted to wait just one more year but..." She shook her head "...they all must be noticing by now, and Twilight is a very smart mare. If we don't tell them now it wont be long before they figure it out on their own."
**--------------------**
4 years ago
"Yeeeee-Haaaaw!" Applejack's exclamation of joy filled the air. SPLASH!
A second "Yeee-Haaw!" Belonging to Applebloom soon echoed it. SLASH!! Well how do ya like them apples? I made a much bigger splash than you!" The younger filly boasted.
"Pfft, dream on! little filly." retorted Applejack.
"I can't believe you're pulling as much as Big Macintosh! You're getting really strong, sis!"
Applejack suddenly felt a bit uncomfortable. She let herself sink a few feet deeper into the water. "Oh well, sugar-cube it only seems that way cuz' Big Mac just isn't as young as he used to be." She bit back the urge to add 'And for that matter, neither are you'. Her cream colored sister was almost as big as her, yet applejack hadn't grown an inch.
*is something wrong with me?*
**--------------------**
2 year ago
Fluttershy sniffed and stifled a flood of tears. The softhearted mare could hardly believe this was happening to her yet again. It seem so recently that she had held Angle bunny's daughter in her hooves for the fist time! Yet now here she was, standing over her make shift grave on the edge of the Everfree Forest.
The entire course of the small bunny's life had played out along side Fluttershy's...So why did seem as though it had gone by so quickly?
**--------------------**
3 months ago
A rainbow blur streaked across the sky, abruptly making a ninety degree turn west before stopping directly in front of a white pegasus stallion. "Soarin, you slow poke! Have you been slacking?"
Soarin chuckled softly, "No Rainbow, I think I'm just past my prime." He sat down on a small cloud.
"Impossible, you were the best flyer the wonderbolts had, well that is until I joined." scoffed Rainbow dash.
"I was going to wait a little longer, but I've decided that tomorrow I'm going to announce my retirement."
Rainbow dash opened her mouth to protest but Soarin spoke again. "I'm getting old, Dashie. I just can't fly like I used to."
"You CAN'T be getting old, its only been...um..."
"Dashie, its been over six years since you joined the wonderbolts."
No, that was impossible! Had it really been that long?
**--------------------**
about an hour ago
It was a typical day for Twilight as she used her magic to flip though 3 different books at the same time. She paused for a moment to look up at a boiling beaker of blue liquid before scribing something down on a scrap piece of parchment.
"Whatcha doing there, Twi?" Ask a now adolescent Spike. The young, purple dragon was a lot taller nowadays with well defined teeth and claws.
"Hm?" The study obsessed pony was to engrossed in her research to fully register the question.
"Um Twi? Hello?"
"Hmm?...Oh, sorry Spike. I was just studying the magical properties of the poison joke. Its really quite remarkable! You see the way it works is-"
Spike cut her off with a loud belch of green fire. A scroll bound with a red ribbon materialized with a flash of light from the green haze and promptly feel to the floor.
"A letter from the Princess?" Twilight mused as she used her magic to pick it up.
**--------------------**
In the personal bedroom of their princess, the six elements stood in a semi circle around the sun goddess. All of them waiting patiently, with the exception of Twilight who was pacing back and forth nervously.
Celestia took a deep breath. "My little ponies, as I'm sure you're all aware, tonight marks the tenth year since you became the embodiments of the elements of harmony. This gave you the power to defeat Nightmare Moon and even the god of chaos, Discord. What I've never told you is that it also gave you something more. You six are the only non-alicorn ponies to unlock the full power of the elements of harmony, you did this when you defeated Discord...You had to otherwise it would not have been enough power to seal him away again."
Yeah? So what? We kicked a god's butt!!" Interrupted the brash rainbow pony, whom immediately received a 'shut up' glare from Twilight.
She pause for a moment, as if still putting the next words together in her head. "Because you each embody your respective elements so well, you were able whiled every bit of power they had..."
Twilight stepped forward, Unsure what to think. "But Princess, what does this mean for us now?"
Celestia met her pupil's eye and closed her own. "The Elements of Harmony were originally created by an alicorn who sacrificed his life to give us the ultimate weapon against evil. Each piece of the elements of harmony contains one sixth of his life force...W-When you defeated discord you took on that full life force...."
Twilight's eyes widened as she was the first to understand, her jaw hung open
Celestia bit her bottom lip and finished with: "...to put it simply, you are all going to be alive...for centuries. If I had to guess, I'd say you all probably haven't even aged one full year since you beat Discord."
Everypony nodded in understanding, it all made sense now. Everything around them, every pony around them, had been changing, growing. Meanwhile they stayed the same. Never changing, never growing older, or stronger, or weaker...stuck in a slow moving current of time."
"Uh so Twi...one sixth the life span on an anicorn, how'n the hay long is that?" asked Applejack.
Twilight, The only one of the six well read enough to even guess at the number shook her head. "A-Apple jack...If this is true, you're going to live long enough to see AppleBloom's grand children die."
"Well this is good, right!? I mean this means I'll get to be a wonder bolt for like...over a hundred years!" Exclaimed the cyan element of loyalty.
"I agree, dashie! Sure it will be sad to see all our other friends go..." The pink pony's voice drifted, nearly losing its happy charm for a moment, only to cheer right back up when she said "..but we'll have each other, and now we can be best friends-" *Giggle* "-FOR-EV-OR!"
Twilight looked up at Celestia, eyes wide with surprise and awe. "Princess, is this true?"
"...Yes Twilight, Every thing I have told you is the truth, You will likely all live even longer than spike..." She started to cry a little. "Twilight, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to put this much responsibility on on you or your friends, and I feel terrible for having kept this information from you... I just hoped that..maybe I was wrong..." She sniffed and wipe away her tears. "Its going to be hard, Twilight, watching every one of your friends and family die and grow old, while you stay young and healthy year after year..." Celestia was clearly remembering her own childhood, her own life. "But you have to press on, no matter how hard it gets, because with great power, comes even greater sacrifice."