//------------------------------// // Chapter 16: This Story's End // Story: Diary of the Necromancess // by Sebbaa //------------------------------// Chapter 16: This Story's End I have actually been turned to stone once, but I think it was not the real experience. It happened in a broken world of floating rocks where stones were alive and could soar through the sky. I remember that I felt hard, and weightless. The experience after the Elements hit me was nothing like it, but something I knew too. An impossible time of profound nothingness, until the presence of a certain unicorn reminded me of my own consciousness. “Oh come on, this again? Just banish me, turn me to stone or whatever and be done with it. I'm way to old to listen to another schooling of some formless entities.” The presence that I recognized as Twilight Sparkle seemed to boggle at my outbreak. “What? How can you even talk back? This is supposed to be one way vision!” “It's for dramatic purposes silly, to tell the reader what her expectations of this event are.” Count on Pinkie Pie to explain things without making any sense. Well, it would make sense if I were to get an opportunity to write this down in my diarium, and if at some point in time anypony would actually read it. “Could we just get on with this? I know we are not pressed for time, but this is just silly.” Applejack presence interjected before Twilight and Pinkie could elaborate on the fact that I could talk back to the Elements. “Alright, alright, I will just continue then?” Twilight took up my attention again. I felt how she gathered herself for a moment, before she spoke up once more. “Sapphire, you had your second chance to start a new life in Equestria and redeem yourself from your previous ways. We, the Elements have weighted you against Harmony.” This time again, the spirit of Applejack was the first to appear before me. “You cheat and lie wherever it serves your purpose. The truth is a precious commodity for you, you share only with few.” The kind and warm presence of Fluttershy was the next to take up my mind. “You have taken in the foal Serene and raised her as if she were your own. You are a far kinder pony than you will admit yourself.” After her spoke Rarity. I think I was smelling my favorite tea. When was the last time I had spoken to her without having tea? “What is yours you share freely with those dear to you. You are as generous a mare as anypony could expect.” She was almost pushed to the side by the exuberant energy bundle that I recognized as Scootaloo. “You were ready to sacrifice your life and even face eternal torment to save a friend. Your loyalty is admirably.” “And you still don't eat cake!” Of course I had expected Pinkie to break protocol again. “Why don't you like cake? Everypony likes cake!” I shook my conceptual head. “I like cake as much as every other pony Pinkie, I just don't eat any.” “Well you should! Know what? When we are back in Ponyville I will bake the biggest cake a pony has ever baked. Everypony will have to eat from it if we want to have any chance of eating that beast! Then you have no excuse not helping to eating the cake.” “OK?” The sensation of a pony clearing her throat brought my attention back to Twilight Sparkle. “We have weighted you against Harmony, Sapphire, and found you adequate. From this day on you shall be welcome in the Harmonic Lands, now and forever forth.” I was still trying to comprehend that words, when the Element's presence already began fading from my consciousness. “Welcome Sapphire, welcome to Harmony. . .” The last word were almost to faint to understand. .oOo. The first thing I noticed was the thick stench of blood and charred flesh. I groaned as the sensation of weight came back; my body felt heavy and pressed flat against the ground. To make it even more uncomfortable my skin felt strangely sensitive, I itched all over, and my left front leg was throbbing with every heartbeat. That realization shocked me out of my stupor. I opened my eyes; bright sunlight blinded me, and I had to blink several times before I could make anything out. I looked into a large number of worried faces. Standing or sitting all around me were Serene and Lionheart, the bearers of the Elements and even Princess Luna. I didn't have time to say anything before my daughter threw herself at me, crushing me down in an overwhelming display of affection. “You are alright! Thank Harmony you are alright!” “Serene, you are choking her!” Lionheart came to my rescue, she pulled the over eager filly off me and helped me to my hooves. She didn't even wait for me to be steady on my hooves though, before showing how glad she was to see me herself by drawing me into a kiss. I threw my hooves around her neck not to fall over again, rubbed her messy mane and brushed along the contours of her face, marveling at feeling her under my hooves. Then I quickly ended the kiss and drew back. “OK, hold on a second.” I took a step back and raised my left hoof. Instead of seeing the sock or bandage I used to cover my leg with, or the blank bones I hid beneath, shining, dark purple fur greeted my eyes. “Your leg, its not just bones anymore!” Lionheart took it into her hooves and looked it up and down in wonder. I just nodded, trying to keep my jaw from dropping. “And look here!” Serene said, and I could feel a hoof on my flank. I looked over my shoulder, then bend my body sideways to get a better look. “It's an owl.” My eyes widened in wonder, and slowly a wide grin spread on my face. I couldn't help but start jumping around in circles. “I've got a cutie mark! I'm a real pony now!” Lionheart's eyes looked up and down, as she followed my bouncing form. “But what does it mean?” Somehow I managed to stop in midair and came back to the ground. “Actually, that's a good question.” “Owls are considered guardians of knowledge.” Me and everypony else looked up from what we were doing when Princess Luna approached. I had to look up as her shadow fell upon me, and her alicorn form towered above me. On her lips was an unreadable smile. “And you are guarding a lot of secret knowledge, my little pony, are you not?” Twilight and the other bearers also walked up to me. Serene placed herself right besides me to give me support. I took a deep breath to collect myself, then I looked the princess in the eye. “I guess we have a lot to talk about.” .oOo. If I have learned one thing in all the years that I have lived, it is that love is not a definite resource. When only two years after the banishing of Trot Amon I finally gave birth to a foal, I felt that I had endless love inside of me. No matter how large my herd grew in the years to come, I always found within me more love to spare. The only thing that was in short supply was time, and before I knew it, it had run out. In Equestria it is possible to plan the weather for a funeral ahead of time. A skillful mortician will schedule it according to the mood he finds the bereaved in. If their loved grandmother died of old age, she would be buried on a sunny day, and her descendants would remember the good times they had shared. If a pony died young of sickness or in accident, it would be buried during rainfall, giving the guest the impression that the heavens shared in their grieve. This funeral however was held under a clear, moonlit sky. I have always found the guest attending a funeral more interesting than the corpse to be buried, for I told me something of who the pony had been in life. How many other lives it had touched. Serene was there, together with her husband and their whole herd. She had organized this funeral, as she had so many before, held a beautiful, moving speech, and was now the first pony to throw a shovel of dirt into the grave. Wisp O'Wind came after her, followed by her twin sons. North Star, my only son had come alone. That he came at all was enough to move me to tears. Rarity's daughter Gemstone was there, for once seen without a horde of admirers following her everywhere. Her aunt Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom and with them a stampede of Fans and Apple Family members were there as well. Scootaloo came, wearing her Wonderbolts parade uniform, and with her came a dozen veterans from the Nightguard. Last but not least Twilight Sparkle came to say her farewells. Or was that Princess Twilight now? She had changed much since she had fallen to Trot Amon. Rainbow's death had devastated her. She blamed herself, and only through the support of her friends and her former mentor did she eventually overcome her grief. She emerged as a better mare, wiser and stronger. She took a post at Celestia's School for gifted Unicorns and eventually became its headmistress and royal adviser. Then only a few years ago she grew wings and left mortality behind. But that is a story of its own. By her side, towering above everypony, was Spike. He had perhaps taken the longest journey to get here. He had not been in Canterlot since the last dragon migration. I watched them all pass their farewells. I watch them talk and share quiet words of condolence. I watched them all leave in small groups, heading home, or to one of the official after parties. I knew North Star would try to bring down Auerbach's Cellar this night. I watched them all, and when they were all gone, I stepped from the shadows where I had been waiting in my black shadow cloak and approached the grave on silent hooves. It was only one of three graves, all sharing the same stone. The one furthest to the left was overgrown by grass and flowers. On the one right next to it still lay bouquets of shriveled white lilies. I ignored the fresh grave and stood in front of the middle one. With a tentative hoof I reached out and brushed over the name engraved into the stone. I faint smile crept to my lips, yet a tear fell on the grave when I read it out. “Lionheart.” “Not many ponies are mere guest at their own funeral.” The Princess of the Night stepped out of the shadows at my back and walked to stand at my side. She looked down at the gravestone, at the name engraved above the newest grave. “She died only two weeks after her beloved wife. Who would have thought.” I shrugged. “It makes for a good story. When the love of her life died, she lost the will to live and soon followed her.” “You look good Sapphire. More than sixty years have I known you, and you still look as on the day we first met. Or is it again?” I drew back the hood of my cloak, letting my hair flow free in the wind and looked up to her. “I think I actually look much better than the scrawny half skeleton you knew back then.” She gave me an amused smile. “True. Makes a mare wonder what your secret is.” “Same as yours princess. Sport, a healthy diet and of course magic.” “Of course.” She looked back down on the grave. “And you had not thought about sharing that magic with your wife?” I shook my head. “I had. But in the end I decided against it. I was the happiest pony to share with her one lifetime, it would be selfish to deny others the same opportunity. But who knows? Maybe we'll meet again, fall in love again. Stranger things have happened.” “Indeed they have.” We just stood side by side for a few moments, looking down at the graves. “So why the funeral?” Luna eventually asked. “You can't just turn yourself sixty years younger and life on as if nothing happened. Ponies will ask questions, wonder if your are in secret a princess or a demon. Reporters or a mob with pitchforks and torches may follow. Better to just bury the past and only tell the ponies that have to know.” She raised an eyebrow. “I see. . . you know it is not impossible to become a princess. You already got the immortality part down.” I had to snort and chuckle at that. I waved the motion off with a hoof. “Oh please, you and I know I would make a terrible princess.” “If you say so.” We shared a few more moments of silence, before I spoke up again. “There is one thing I always wondered, Princess.” “What would that be?” “It was you who send Serene to me, was it not?” “Yes, indeed. I had heard her plight, and brought the two of you together, for I knew you each were what the other needed.” I slowly nodded. “I never deceived you, did I? You always knew what I was.” “I felt the aura of death upon you when we met for the first time. My sister may have forgotten what a necromancer's magic feels like after a thousand years , but for me the memory was almost fresh.” “Then why didn't you blast me the instant you saw me?” “How could I deny anypony the opportunity for a second chance, when I was only there because I had one myself?” “Huh. . . I guess you would know about that.” I shook my head and chuckled. “Ha! We could open a club of ponies who have been hit by the Elements of Harmony twice and live to tell about it!” She smiled at that. “It would be a small club though.” I shrugged. Silence spread once again, and together we watched how the sky slowly turned from black to blue. “What will you do now?” Luna eventually asked. “I think I will travel the world, help ponies where I can. You know, adventuring. There is so much I haven't seen, so much to learn. I hear Saddle Arabia is nice this time of year.” I shrugged. “Maybe I will take on a new apprentice along the way. I always wondered if an earth pony could learn magic.” I made an arbitrary gesture with my hoof. “A wise pony once said that a journey is better measured in friendships made, than in miles traveled.” I looked up at her, an eager grin on my lips. “I could write you letters about it if you want.” Princess Luna returned the smile and nodded. “I would like that.” The End