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It has been almost a century since Twilight and her friends had discovered their destiny, and Celestia has been wracked with constant regret over the fate she has condemned her friends to. Now Luna looks to those very ponies to help Celestia smile again.
A sequel to A Tale of the Sun, Moon, and Stars.
Featured on Equestria Daily!
Cover art by the amazing Aniritak
Oh god. Equestria. Save it!
But, in all seriousness, this was a really sweet story. Loved the use of the smile song. By an odd coincidence, I actually had it playing on repeat before I started reading this. It was awesome. Great story. you should write more stories in this timeline!
This is Australia...
I loved how this finished, especially after reading Sun, Moon, and Stars. It was the perfect close.
Celestia was "doomed" to happiness as soon as Pinkie Pie got involved. 
Honestly, why does anyone bother to fight the irresistible force? "Futility, Mr Verdeschi." Oh, no, not another reference! 
Finally something who does a bit away with the immortality is such a horrible curse thing. I mean yes an immortal in a world of mortals has to face sadness, but it being such a horrible curse? Esspecially if your not alone? I mean is there anything that would stop someone from commiting suicide if they really meant that?
With an immortal pinkie pie sadness should prove impossible in the long run^^
T-Up
BTW, GUESS WHO'S STORY GOT FEATURED!?
I loved both this story and its prequel. They're intelligently written, have a very interesting story, especially this one, and even though not everything is explained, it just feels natural that way.
I do have one small complaint with this story, and that is that Celestia acts like a bit of a whiny dick.
" Twilight and I will inform Shining and Cadance of our meeting in the moring. Goodnight everypony."
Wait a moment, if it all happen 100 years after Luna was cured, it mean:
1) Mane 6 parents are dead and probably some of they friends are dead too or worse case scenario they are old like Granny Smith, should not it turn down mane 6 spirit a lot ?
2) I can understand mane 6 to live long because of element blessing, but Shining Armor never received one, and he was older then Twilight, should not he be dead and Cadence be in depression because of it ?
As much as I can understand that mane 6 managed to deal with they sadness ( option 1 ), I do not get it why Shinning Armor is alive, I take it as plot hole.
Masterfully done, it felt like watching one of the episodes and i for good or bad your story forced itself into my headcannon. 
If you are thinking of writing some more, it would be great to read about their royal everyday shenanigans. Those stories made me think of all the fun stuff that could be happening.
Celly/Luna sisterly bonding? If you are not pranking your siblings, how can they possibly know you care?
How is Flutters doing and how did her care for animals evolve over the years? 
Rarity and her fabulous fashion fantasy? 
Rainbow doing other things then flying? 
How on earth did AJ avoid going loco in her coco without apple bucking? 
Twilight... well... she's probably still nerding out after all those years and loving it to boot. 
And pinkie.... i'm kinda afraid to ask. 
Shining Armor and everyone in the Crystal Empire crystallized thanks to extreme magical radiation from certain unshielded, heart shaped artifact. Who needs elements of harmony for loooong long life when you are turned into a living mineral. 
And yeah, Shining IS a plot hole. What kind of BBBFF forgets about delivering wedding invitation to his little sis. 
Wow, but with that theory, it mean all crystal ponies would leave for hundreds of years ( without need of curse what seal them or something ), so it mean that there is no place for fillies in Crystal Empire or overpopulation will destroy the empire form the inside.
I still think that Shinning Armor should be dead, it is fate that Cadence choiced herself when she married Shinning and filly should be all Cadence would have left from it.
The point is that this story here was meant to show that Celestia is worried how immortality would hurt mane 6 ( watching loved ones dying, children's overgrowing they parents, and how mane 6 managed to deal with it ).
However this story end up to be very sugar like, there is no good reason why Shinning Armor would still be alive, Cadence should have to deal with it as immortal who married mortal if I can say it that way, and ponies from Crystal Empire survived 1000 years only because they were sealed, you can not have entire race long living without decreasing they numbers, for example dragons, they live very long but they have drawback like not enough food and space for to many of them, I just do not buy the reason why Shinning Armor is still alive.
>>1892122 No, I get it, I really do. Like you said, no whole species should survive that long.
Dragons, despite longevity, are shown to be highly competitive, and I'm sure that while younger the games are tail wrestling and king of the horde, become much more dangerous and lethal with age. That would obviously keep numbers down.
My thoughts are probably leaning towards the fact that even with Shining Armour still around, Twilight and Co. will lose their families after a time, their current friends, and everypony the know in their original set life spans before obtaining immortality will die, but that wasn't the point of the story.
The story was that even though you do have to suffer through said things, you will, in the end, have eachother.
Shining does not have a good reason for being around, but things happen and stories can be convoluted sometimes. Hell, I hate the start up to my story "From Ashes" because I have a nod to the slipspace device from Halo:Reach with Jorge because I couldn't think of another non-magical way for somepony to travel through time. I personally disliked using said plot device but didn't want to deal with the fancy crap that went along with insinuating that the Main Character had the magical ability to 'just time travel' when having a problem.(mostly due to my hate for any OC alicorn and their tendency to be far too overpowered)
Similar to my issue, the author probably didn't wish to try to figure out how to deal with a sad depressed alicorn at the same time as another sad depressed alicorn, making the easiest solution to leave Shining Armour alive and well for the story so that the focus could be on Celestia and how she feels, as she is the main character.
Therefore my deduction is that it was simply easier to write in Shining Alicorn rather than try to find a way to deal with him dead, just as I settled with a otherwordly device rather than magical prowess.
Hope this clears things up a bit, that or shines some light into how it might have happened in the authors mind.
I intentionally left his immortality vague, wouldn't want to spill the beans on a story I plan to write down the road. I will give you a hint: if the others are embodiments of certain virtues, think of who the two baddies SA and Cadance have vanquished. After that story, not having them here would seem like a plot hole. So I figured I would leave it to the reader for now. Sorry if it caused any confusion, I may go and rewrite that part sometime later.
>>1890850 I know Celestia is more justified in her whiny dickness than, say, Frodo Baggins, but it just always frustrates me when a character whines about the same thing for the entire story. That is a nitpick obviously, and I didn't dislike Celestia's character in the story, but that was just something that annoyed me a little bit.
So Twilight as most powerful Unicorn in Equestria should have like 180 years ahead of hear, after all those with a lot magic inside should leave longer, at last in most fanfic's considering that Luna and Celestia live very long thanks to huge amount magic inside them.
I personally do not support immortality theory in fanfic, I prefer theory that princesses are long living thanks to powerful magic inside them, and it also mean that even if they are extremely durable, they can still be killed/destroyed.
But theory that elements grant long live is fine with me, but not that it give immortality, only Discord deserve to be immortal.
Nah, it would be to easy, I mean, Celestia and Luna can burn cities with they power, it would be a shame if normal knive would kill them, it make as much sense as Twilight laser what she used on the wedding what was able to blow up solid rock and yet was unable to blow head of changeling, and then make spear weapon kill changeling with one hit, if it was the case, why mane 6 without weapons defeated 100 changeling's when armies with weapons and armor's failed ?
I prefer to think off Celestia and Luna and Chrysalis like on RPG final bosses, tons of hp, high status, strong skills, plot that they can destroy the world if they would want too, but usually they fight without any help, they can live very long, but they can be killed if they hp run to 0.
I know, the point is that weapon can not be lethal in ponies, I mean, one solid kick from Applejack can do far more damage then strong hit with mace, and Twilight laser beam can penetrate far more then spear ever would, not to mention that RainbowDash can easy withstand crashing into solid rock and Twilight withstand a lot of heavy cargo dropped by Derpy what should crush her.
So yea, if there is fanfic where someone write that Celestia almost died from spear what penetrate her body to the heart, it would just make no sense.
As for the changeling's, 100 of them were defeated by mane 6 what were untrained and un-armored when army of guards failed off screen, and the reason that they were captured off guard is pointless, mane 6 were captured off guard as well and yet they managed to fight they way, Royal Guards expected invasion and were prepared for weeks.
And on side note, tons of changeling's probably died from crashing into walls or falling into wasteland when giant shield pushed them back, and since ponies learned about changelings, probably more hundreds started to die from starvation.
While I didn't actually downvote it, I am in the minority in not liking this simply because I don't think it examines the pathos of Celestia's existence deeply enough.
Celestia has the love of her subjects, certainly, which sustains her. And also their fear, inevitably. But that love is an extraordinarily bittersweet thing, for every one of them will die, and most, if not all, will never really know her. The only pony that can possibly know her is Luna (and in this world, the Stars) - well, Twilight's undergoing serial reincarnation (or is dead, by implication the Stars overwrote/merged with whatever and whoever Twilight was before), so that relationship is fundamentally altered.
And what she did to Luna, she certainly blames herself for. How can she not? But Luna has undergone confrontation and catharsis, while Celestia has not. And cannot. She sinned, so to speak, against herself, and so the only one who can forgive her is herself.
That's not likely to happen.
When you carry such a wound of the heart, the affection of others, no matter how well-intentioned, does nothing to salve it.
So I disagree with that much in this story at least, but it only gets worse making choices for other people...again, no matter how well-intentioned, when you live as long as Celestia has you understand, deeply, fully, the outcomes of your choices. Say the mane six are okay with immortality now...fine. How about a hundred years from now? A thousand? Ten thousand? How will AJ cope with burying generation after generation of Apples? It's not necessary to examine those questions here, but Celestia understands them, so she's not going to give much credence to reassurance by ponies who are, fundamentally, ignorant.
So overall I just felt it was too shallow a pass over Celestia's characterization. I understand the desire to give Celestia a happy ending, I really do - I'm struggling with it myself - I just think it takes more than this.
Thank you for the feedback! I did touch on this very subject in the prequel to this story, but I think I will go add a line or two in to reiterate it though. I did not intend for her to feel shallow because I share the same idea that her subjects really did sustain her through the loss of both her sisters.
To explain Shining Armor's old age, I once heard that, due to magical and herbal techniques, most ponies of the current era already live to very old ages. 120 - 130 years would not be unreasonable. That Celestia hasn't yet told them of the horrors of immortality likely shows this. They were of a normal old age, and only in their later years, like now, would they begin to realise that they weren't just living long, like normal, but they weren't aging at all.
>>1897907 And exactly why does Discord 'deserve' to be immortal?
What is it with some people wishing indestructibility only on the villians?
You all hate it when good guys are OP, but an OP villain? Cool beans, you say!
To hell with you! I am the most OP hero that can possibly exist! I am the Deux Ex Insert! I have the power of 10 trillion gods x Infinity + 1 Always-More-Powerful-Than-Your-OP-Character-With-A-Cherry-On-Top!!
So there!
Because Discord is incarnation of Chaos, princesses can not defeat him so they must seal him with Elements of Harmony, in exchange, Discord does not go for the kill and is overconfident, as you noticed he is the only villain who use power of chaos.
As for why I want Luna and Celestia to just be long living thanks to magic inside them when Discord is better immortal, well, it just fell better that way, you can use it as excuse to get another Alicorn in when other die, Alicorns should be just powerful species, not gods.
Luna/Celestia ( powerful Alicorns, yet can be killed with enough damage what will drain magic out of them or weapon what can penetrate magic, doing more damage then conventional weapon ), Chrysalis also not immortal, just powerful Queen who's power come from love gathered by her hive ( I am totally again idea that love from Shinning Armor gathered in weeks let Chrysalis overpower Celestia, it make no sense, because you would say that love gathered for 20 years by lone changeling would make him strong like 100 Alicorns, theory that Celestia lost because she was afraid to hurt her subjects and yet was to inexperienced in fight to teleport herself and Chrysalis away from every pony or dodge and use more smart tactic then just laser beam sounds fine for me.
Sombra is a screw up villain, he is Unicorn, Twilight is also Unicorn, the most powerful Unicorn in Equestria, so how would Sombra gain power to fight again 2 Alicorns, curse entire empire and gain immortality so that princesses had to seal him because killing him was out of option, it sounds like any Unicorn would gain ultimate power if he would study power of darkness, it is totally unfair for other races, because you would never get Pegasus or Earth Pony to become super immortal villain, it had to be Unicorn.
The only reason I find Discord as the one who deserve to be immortal is because he represent chaos what existed and will always exist, when Luna was banished, Celesta could control moon and starts just like Luna, when Luna transformed into Nightmare Moon, she could keep sun out of the way, and when there were 3 tribes, Unicorns could move sun and moon, but do there is a single Unicorn or pony who can control chaos, no, only Discord, I would not have anything again him being killable if there would be more of his kind around, but then you would need to limit his power ( if there can be many Alicorns and many like Discord, they should not be stronger then one another, if Discord is one of his kind, it wont hurt to give him power buff so 2 princesses would need elements to beat him ), in exchange Discord is doing a lot mistakes, and it lead to his downfall.
>>1903717 Discord 'utilizes' chaos. He's more of a harbinger of it, from what I've seen.
If he were pure chaos, he wouldn't even be able to maintain structural integrity. So he too has a flaw in his construction, a flaw which the cunning an exploit to make him destroy himself.
The point is, Cadence have every right to be in the story, Element Bearers have excuse why they live so long, but how did Shinning Armor ( who was older then them ) got immortality, was not the elements who let mane 6 live so long, it is not like Cadence would give immortality to her husband ?
Unless you get an plot excuse that weapon is enhanced with powerful magic to do massive damage, any spear, knives or sword should hardly do more damage then solid kick from Earth Pony, heh, even RainbowDash can break rock with her head, sword would more likely break.
Considering how many stuff break when ponies run into them ( Flutthershy penetrated three, RainbowDash break rock ), metal horseshoes would rather break if Applejack would use it again other pony.
Basically ponies are harder then they armors and weapons unless you use dragon scales as building material.
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