Andromeda Rising

by Azurala

Andromeda

Celestia cast teary purple eyes down over her little sisters. "But, mother! Father! None of us can leave! It would just be..."

"...Awful." Luna finished softly from between her big sister's hooves, where she was nuzzling the downy white coat. The little filly shook her cobalt fur out as if it made her seem bigger in the face of their choice.

Andromeda sat silently next to her sisters, running her hooves through her star-flecked mane. Her nearly kohl eyes watched the little specks of light twinkle away in her long tresses, understanding shining back from the depths of her pupils. Her shadow shimmered beside her, pinpricks of light sparkling on the throne room floor where the shadow of her mane stretched in the evening Sol, like pieces of her simply were not there.

King Cosmos sat upon his dark throne, addressing not his daughters, but his students. "Your mother and I understand," Queen Galaxy nodded solemnly where she was perched on her pearly throne, "that this will be, perhaps, the hardest decision of your lives. But it must be made."

"Verily." Galaxy cast a shimmering gold hoof upwards, towards the glass ceiling through which the sky shone, divided evenly by the day and the night. "For it is time to move the days again, and for Sol and Moon to dance across the sky once more. We must pass the torch on to you, my dearest darlings. But it is not only these that need guiding."

"The stars." Andromeda's small, bell-like voice spoke when the rest fell silent. "I... Can be the stars."

The crushing vacuum of the echoing nothing that replied weighed heavily on them all.

"I love the stars." She stopped playing with her mane, letting the locks cascade back over her shoulders. "Not as much as I love my sisters, but I love the stars. I can be with them."

"Andromeda..." Celestia let out a shuddering breath, holding back her tears still. "You don't have to go."

"I know." She whispered. "But I can."

---

"Come, little ones, and watch your sister become one with the stars." Galaxy led her remaining daughters up the tower stairs to the observatory. She adjusted the golden telescope, pointing it to follow Cosmos and Andromeda into the furthest reaches of the sky.

Each filly took turns watching as their sister's dark pelt became harder to focus on, giving way to the starlight, until she faded from view entirely, only the two glistening orbs of her eyes remaining against the stars.