> Our Lot, Our Life
>  by KiroTalon
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Suffering Losses
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“We must meet.”

The letter had been very simple.  Short, with no signature, no ribbon or wax, no fanfare whatsoever.  Had Twilight not recognized the writing--and, of course, had it not been delivered via Spike--she would not have known Celestia had sent it at all.  Her initial response to the letter had been utter disbelief, not that the Princess had written her, but that the letter she had sent had been so...insubstantial.  It seemed almost comical in the face of what Twilight was feeling tonight.

As she walked home under the streetlights burning warmly in the fading light of the day, the pointless letter habitually tucked into her saddlebag, she could feel the gazes of all the other ponies of the city hovering cautiously on her retreating form.  They were confused.  Concerned.  Scared.  Twilight couldn’t blame them; she was equally confused, similarly concerned...and completely terrified.  Spike walked slowly beside her, as protective as ever, and now actually capable of providing some protection.  His body had steadily filled out and grown as the years had passed, rendering him easily thirty hooves long, perhaps fifteen hooves tall, replacing his boyish smile with a permanent smirk full of razor-sharp fangs, his soft, rounded spines with long stilettos, and, perhaps only five years ago, granting him a pair of long, beautiful, fully-functional wings.  Had Rainbow Dash still been in any condition to fly, she would have gladly shown him how to use them to their fullest potential.  Instead, she had simply sat by, coaching him as best she could from the ground, and smiling broadly when he expertly mastered and demonstrated some of her signature moves.  Her death two years later had been extremely hard for him, perhaps nearly as hard as Rarity’s death seven years earlier.

For Twilight, nopony’s death had been as hard as Pinkie Pie’s.  It had been the first, not altogether unexpected--a life spent indulging a rampant sweet tooth had rendered her generally unhealthy--but it had been the first time Twilight had been forced to face her friends’ mortality, and to look at herself in the mirror differently.  Pinkie’s passing had left Rainbow Dash, her mate, and Scootaloo, her adopted daughter, utterly distraught, and in their grief, they had lashed out.  Twilight had faced the brunt of their anger, and while she had feigned indignance, later that night, she had spent hours sobbing bitterly into her pillow, wondering why her friends were slowly, steadily fading away while she remained forever young.  

Even now, fifteen years after that first horrible loss, she was still unchanged.  Her face remained unlined, her body fresh, spry, and healthy, her fur and mane vibrant and unsullied by the streaks of grey that began to invade the youthful hues of Rarity’s brilliant violet tresses, Pinkie’s vivacious cotton candy pink mane and tail.  The first hints of concern had began to niggle at the edges of her thoughts at Granny Smith’s funeral.  It was the first time she’d had cause to look at other ponies around her with a fearful eye, suddenly noticing signs of aging in all of them.  Pinkie Pie no longer bounced everywhere she went, preferring instead to walk from time to time, her boundless energy suddenly limited.  Minute lines were slowly inching across Rarity’s face, demanding more and more drastic measures to conceal.  Even Rainbow Dash seemed to be steadily slowing down.  It was all very confusing to the lavender unicorn, because as far as she--and Spike--could tell, she didn’t appear to be aging at all.  It became even more obvious some years later when Scootaloo had finally announced her engagement, becoming the last of the Crusaders to do so.  Twilight remembered vividly the day she’d first met the Cutie Mark Crusaders, and even though all three were clearly now young mares, Twilight looked at herself in the mirror and realized she looked barely a few years older than they were.  The most damning evidence had come today, as she had sat at the edge of the grave and watched the coffin containing her last true, close friend, mate, and lover slowly lower into the pit, the wand and glittering swath of stars painted on the lid indicating who lay peacefully inside.  It was obvious--painfully so.  Twilight Sparkle was not going to grow old.

She had written Celestia the first time she’d had concerns, candidly expressing her fears to her beloved teacher, hoping desperately that the much older, much wiser alicorn would have some light to shed on the issue.  Her response had been frustratingly evasive, not at all like the normally direct and honest Princess.  It had been rife with the same palaver everyone was using to reassure her, nonsense about different rates of aging, the power of magical energy preserving the body, nebulous suggestions about healthy living and her element somehow prolonging her life.  None of it was conclusive or even, as far as Twilight could tell in her research, probably true.  The librarian had spent hours--days--poring over one book after another, obscure papers and research, requesting dusty, ancient tomes from the annals of the Canterlot Grand Archive, but nothing came of it.  Her repeated requests, then demands, then tear-stained pleas for help from the Princess remained fruitless, substituting apologies for information.  Finally, two years ago, after Apple Jack had passed quietly in the night, Twilight had written a furious, desperate letter, the ink smeared with tears of terror and sorrow as she realized that Trixie was now the only true friend she still had...and that even she had limited time left.  Finally, after years of evasion and dismissal, the Princess had written a letter that gave Twilight some tiny flare of hope.  It had been very short--easily the shortest she’d ever written.

“Please forgive my continual evasion of your questions.  The time is nearing when I can answer them, but that time is not now.  Please remain faithful, and be patient.  All will be revealed in time.”

She had signed it as she always did, with a long, flourishing script, but this time, two things were different, and one immediately caught Twilight’s attention.  Where she typically opened the letter with “My Most Faithful Student,” she had simply written, “Dearest Twilight.”  This was extremely unusual, and very informal.  Similarly odd and personal was the salutation at the end of the letter.  Normally, she signed the letter with the traditional ‘Your Devoted Teacher,’ but this time, she had dispensed with the officious closing and simply written, “With Love, Princess Celestia.”

Twilight had pored over the letter for hours, racking her substantial intelligence for any possible reasoning behind the sudden break with protocol, but her pondering was as fruitless as her research, and she simply contented herself with the knowledge that an explanation was finally forthcoming, even if it was years too late to help her avoid the pain and confusion she had thus far endured.

Then, days passed.  Then months.  Then a year.  Twilight’s initial enthusiasm and satisfaction swiftly faded into a deep, awful depression that even Trixie couldn’t help assuage.  In truth, the other unicorn’s slow descent into old age and her inexorably approaching passing did nothing to help Twilight’s mounting sorrow, and it was all the ageless unicorn could do to keep her anger at Celestia from bleeding over into her relationship with Trixie.  She knew her mate’s days were limited, even if her own somehow weren’t, and she had resolved long ago to enjoy them as much as she possibly could.  To that end, Twilight felt she had managed at least that much, and when she had finally watched Trixie’s eyes darken and close for the final time, her bitter tears had been sorrowful, and not regretful.

Now, as she pushed open the door to the library that had been her home for decades, she was out of tears.  The pain was no longer acute and searing, but had faded to a slow, horrible burn that sat heavily in her chest and stomach, rendering her without appetite, unable to sleep, barely able to breathe.  Spike watched her from the doorway, his sultry breath blowing past her fur as he sighed heavily, wishing, she knew, that he had something...anything that he could say that would ease his adoptive mother’s pain.  She wished the same thing.

“Spike, please prepare to leave for Canterlot as soon as possible.  The Princess will be waiting for us, I think.”  She levitated a few trinkets and mementos into the saddlebags on her sides, leaving almost all her personal affects where they were.

Spike’s brow ridges lifted in surprise.  “Canterlot?  Why?  What makes you think the Princess is waiting for us?”  His voice was deep and powerful, carrying with it the steamy scent of sulfur from deep within his chest.  “What was in that letter, anyway?”

“Not much,” Twilight sighed.  “But I think the Princess knows there’s nothing left for me...for us...here.  She’ll be expecting us to come to Canterlot.”

“Nothing left?” Spike said, alarmed.  “How can you say that?  What about the library?  The fillies who visit you every day?  What about the Crusaders?  What about Moonbeam and Sun--”

“Spike,” Twilight interrupted, her voice quiet but silencing his rant just the same.  “I know what you’re trying to say, but you have to understand...” she looked back at him with tears clinging to her eyelids.  “I don’t belong here.”

Spike opened his mouth to argue, failed to find words, and closed it again with a heavy sigh.  “Yeah...me either.”

Twilight managed a very meager smile.  “Come on, Spike.  I bet Pony Joe’s is still there.”

Spike’s stiff lips twitched downward ever so slightly.  “Yeah...but Joe won’t be.”

Twilight couldn’t think of a way to reply to this admission, so she stayed silent and simply walked out of the front of the library, carefully closing the door behind her.  Spike already had a wing pressed to the ground, allowing her a makeshift ramp to climb up to his shoulders.  There she sat and crafted magical bindings to keep her in place atop his back as he flew.  “All set?” he asked, glancing over his shoulder at the lilac unicorn.  Twilight nodded, and with a single powerful sweep of his wings, Spike was airborne.  Mere moments later, the pair was so high that the village they had called home for the last several decades was but a smear of faint lights in the inky countryside.

The flight to Canterlot was not long.  It never really had been, but Spike’s aerial speed was many times that of the Pegasi that normally pulled the Canterlot chariots.  Twilight had only an hour to contemplate exactly how angry she could get away with being at the Princess when they finally met face to face.  Even so, she had managed to work up a good, strong fury by the time Spike’s claws scraped the polished flagstones of the castle courtyard.

They had made this trip often enough that the guards no longer approached them with fearful but determined faces, demanding to know why a dragon was invading the protected area of Canterlot Castle.  Instead they simply nodded in recognition and allowed Spike and Twilight to approach the Great Hall unmolested.  The massive double doors swung slowly open in front of them, pushed inward by a pair of Pegasus guards.  The pair entered the gigantic room, passing under the mostly-hidden silhouette of a heavy portcullis, a defense that Twilight had never seen lowered.  The visible metal spikes glinted crisply, though, indicating that the structure was kept carefully oiled and cared for, eternally prepared to fulfill its purpose.

The doors were pulled closed behind them as Twilight and Spike stepped out of the courtyard onto the marble mosaic floor of the hall.  The hall was vast, stretching dozens of hooves into the distance where it terminated at the tall gold and crimson throne upon which Twilight could just make out the ivory smudge of the Princess, flanked in front by a pair of grey and gold smudges that Twilight knew were the Royal High Guardians, specially hoof-picked for the singular purpose of defending the Princess.  In truth, Twilight knew the role was primarily ceremonial in nature; there was nothing the Princess could not protect herself from that two Pegasi could possibly overcome.

Twilight followed the bright crimson carpet down the middle of the hall, passing soaring marble columns that framed magnificent stained glass mosaics, glowing brilliantly even in the deepening dusk, lit magically from the interior of the pane.  Twilight didn’t look at the windows; she knew them all by heart, having crossed this hall multiple times, both in youth and in adulthood.  They depicted centuries, millennia of history.  Twilight wasn’t sure exactly how new windows were added, as the hall didn’t appear to be any longer from the outside, but sure enough, the two windows closest to the entrance depicted her and her...well, now-departed friends defeating Nightmare Moon on one side of the hall and Discord on the other.  She couldn’t see any indication that any length of wall had been added to the room, but she remembered clearly that there had never been blank windows in the Great Hall.  As she approached the throne, the windows represented more and more ancient history, stories from thousands upon thousands of years before, so many different ponies and events represented that the histories could even have been tens, hundreds, or even thousands of thousands of years old.  She tried to contemplate a million years of history, and only succeeded in making herself lightheaded in the process.  Finally, she approached the foot of the dais upon which the burnished golden seat of power of all Equestria sat, and slowly raised her eyes to the alicorn seated thereupon.

Twilight was momentarily shocked to see not one brilliant white alicorn seated in front of her, but in fact both the ivory Princess of the Sun and the ebony Princess of the Moon standing calmly in front of the throne, looking stoically down at her.  Twilight resisted speaking her surprise, and simply said, “Princess.”  She glanced at Luna.  “Princess,” she repeated.

Both alicorns nodded vaguely at the address, and Celestia spoke to the guards at the foot of the throne.  “Gentlecolts, if you do not mind, I will be taking my leave.  My sister and I have some urgent business to attend to, so the throne will be vacant for some time.  Luna’s guards will be arrive momentarily to relieve you.”  

The guards responded forcefully and in unison.  “Yes, Princess!”

Celestia nodded, satisfied, and then turned her somber gaze to Twilight.  “Come, Twilight.  We have much to discuss.”  She immediately swept around and glided down off the dais, her ethereal tail wafting across the marble floor behind her.  Luna didn’t speak, but merely followed her sister, sparing only a momentary glance for the lilac unicorn standing dumbfounded in front of her.  It took a few moments for Twilight’s brain to change gears and allow her to move, and when she did, it was only after a stuttering suggestion to Spike that perhaps he should stay behind and help the guards protect the throne room.  Spike knew immediately that this was a naked feint to keep him from following her into the small side door the Princesses were approaching, but he said nothing, simply climbing up the dais and curling his long, powerful body and tail around the towering throne, concern easily visible in his glittering emerald eyes.  Twilight attempted a reassuring smile, but managed only a nervous grimace, which she quickly abandoned as she trotted over to the door and disappeared inside.
> Foundations
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The instant the door closed behind her, there was a blinding white flash, a sudden static, a flash of heat, and Twilight opened her eyes to a fully unsurprising change of scenery.  The hallmarks of teleportation were well known to the unicorn, who had mastered the art early in her studies in Ponyville, but she recognized the signs of a particularly powerful and proper teleportation spell, the likes of which Celestia had just used to move the trio from the side room to another room, one which Twilight recognized only from her oldest memories.

“This is...” she said involuntarily as she glanced around, waves of nostalgia sweeping over her.  Celestia’s solar was nothing like the rest of the castle.  It was large, of course, but felt incredibly cozy.  Every inch of the marble floor was covered in a thick red carpet, and the long crimson sofas situated around the broad, blazing fireplace were thick and soft, Twilight knew.  The gigantic four-poster bed on the opposite end of the room had bright white sheets and a deep crimson comforter and curtains.  The frame of the sofas and the bed were a warm mahogany, highly polished but well-worn from eons of use.  

All along the walls were tall, masterful paintings of ponies that Twilight had never met or seen in any of her studies, but who must have been incredibly important to the Princess.  A giant chandelier hung from the middle of the room, its dozens of fairy lights covered with black shrouds.  Twilight knew from experience that when all of the lights were uncovered, the room was as bright in the dead of night as a clear summer afternoon.  She remembered whiling away hour after hour at the Princess’s hooves, sitting in front of the fireplace and reading, writing, studying, or simply dozing under the alicorn’s wing.  A smile of recollection slid unbidden onto her muzzle as she recalled that simpler time, when she had only one friend...well, two, if she included Smarty Pants--and she always did--and the rest of her life was but a strange, ephemeral concept, years in the future and completely meaningless to her as yet.  How long had it been, she wondered?  It seemed a lifetime ago.

Twilight reminisced for only a few moments before a quiet cough brought her coldly back to the present, and the horror of the life now behind her.  “Yes, Twilight, this is my solar.  I trust you remember--”

“Yes,” Twilight interrupted the alicorn, her voice sharp and cold as she turned slowly to face the Princesses.  “I remember.  I remember a lot about this room, about my private lessons.  You used to tell me there was no question without an answer, that you would always help me find those answers, no matter how hard it may be.  I never forgot that promise, you know.”

Celestia’s face fell slightly, and she looked down at the carpet beneath her hooves.  “Yes...I know.  Nor did I.”

“Is that so?” Twilight spat, her anger overriding whatever sense of decorum she might have been clinging to.  “That’s funny, because I seem to remember asking you a question a long time ago that you never really bothered answering.”  The alicorn didn’t answer, so Twilight continued, Celestia’s silence fueling her rage.  “You know, I know what it sounds like when you lie to someone, Princess.  I saw you do it over and over in the throne room, telling ponies what they wanted to hear instead of the truth, because you thought you knew better.  You promised me it was for their own sake, and I believed you!  I believed you because you never lied to me!”  The tears on Twilight’s eyelids broke down her cheeks, and still Celestia didn’t look up or respond.  “All my life, you told me the truth, no matter how horrible it might have been.  When my parents died, you didn’t lie and tell me they’d just gone on a trip or something equally foalish, you told me the truth!  You told me the truth, because you believed I could handle it, that I was smart enough, mature enough, strong enough to know how the world really worked.  Isn’t that what you said?”  Celestia’s face remained stoic, and Twilight pressed forward, her voice quavering as her resolve threatened to break.  “But when I asked you the single most important question of my life, when I begged you to explain to me why my friends were dying around me while I just continued on, stagnating, never aging a day, you lied to me!  You lied to me, and I knew it, because I could hear it in your words, I could read it in the strokes of your quill.  Did you really think that your star pupil, your most devoted student, your best friend, wouldn’t be able to tell?  Well?”

She finished in a scream, her voice finally giving out as the pain in her chest reached a sudden pitch, raging into her throat and head, sending waves of bitter tears down her cheeks and awful, painful sobs searing through her lungs.  The horror and sorrow of the years finally crashed through the dam she had carefully constructed, rendering her utterly distraught.  She collapsed to the floor of the solar, her muzzle buried in her hooves as she cried loudly, the pitiful howls echoing off the marble walls and magnifying in the giant room.  

Suddenly, she heard a quiet sniff, mere inches from her ear, and she was stunned to feel a large body settle down next to her and press against her side.  Before she could react, a second, slightly smaller body pressed against her other side, capturing her in a tight, warm embrace.  She didn’t need to be able to see through her tears to know who the bodies belonged to, and in a moment of horrified shock, she leaped up from the carpet and fled a short distance, whirling around to glare furiously at the now-supine alicorns.  “How...dare...you!” she growled, her voice barely more than an irate hiss.  “After all you’ve put me through, you have the...the...nerve to think you can just cuddle up like I’m some little filly?  Like you could possibly make this better with a pat on the head and--”

“No, Twilight,” Celestia suddenly said, effortlessly stemming Twilight’s rant despite her voice barely being audible over the crackling fire.  “No, I am afraid that nothing makes what I am about to explain to you any easier to accept, or to comprehend.  In time, I hope you can forgive my...obfuscation of the truth, but I promise it was in your best interests.”

Twilight’s ear twitched involuntarily.  “In my best interests?  To lie to me?”

Celestia nodded.  “Twilight, please have a seat at the fireplace.  There is much we need to discuss, and I fear we have less time than I would like to do so.”  The purple unicorn contemplated refusing the alicorn’s request out of pure, fillyish spite, but there was something in the Princesses’ faces that resonated in her heart.  She could see genuine sorrow in the alicorns’ eyes, regret for their deception painted on their face in the flickering firelight.  Twilight suddenly found herself feeling slightly guilty for her outbursts, and for intentionally feeding her own anger, forcibly infuriating herself at the Princesses.  In her depression, she had searched desperately for a scapegoat, and it had just made sense to her to blame the two ponies she knew had the answers she sought.  Their constant refusal to provide any assistance only served to further indict them in her mind, and it had never occurred to Twilight to wonder whether they had had a good reason to deflect her questions.  Now, on the precipice of finally receiving the answers she had so desperately craved, she was ashamed of her own impatience.  Sheepishly, she hung her head and walked over to climb up onto one of the sofas in front of the fireplace.  Celestia took a seat on the sofa across from her, but Luna came up and paused, eyeing the spot next to Twilight.  After a moment, she appeared to make a decision and cautiously settled down next to the purple unicorn.  Twilight ventured a wan smile, which Luna returned.

“So,” Celestia said, heaving a deep sigh as she prepared to start speaking, “while you will certainly have many, many more questions by the time we are finished conversing tonight, I suspect there is only one question you are particularly interested in having answered right now, am I right?”

Twilight nodded fervently.  “Why aren’t I getting older?”

The two alicorns exchanged a small smile and a nod.  Celestia continued.  “Twilight, the time has come for you to learn about your past...and your future.”  She took a deep breath.  “A thousand years ago, just after Luna...well, Nightmare Moon," she corrected herself, after Luna turned away in shame for a brief moment, "was banished to the moon for her insubordination and attempted coup, I was summoned to the High Throne, to meet with the Deicorn Cosmos."

"Wait, but I thought--" Twilight interrupted before she could stop herself.  She froze in horror at her rudeness, but Celestia merely smiled and nodded.

"Please do not hesitate to ask me any questions that occur to you, my little pony. There is much to understand, and I know you of all ponies learns best when you are conversing, and not just listening."

"Th-thank you, Princess.  Anyway, I thought the Deicorns were just a myth.  That they didn't really exist, and were just how ponies explained things they didn't understand."  Twilight realized that she had inadvertently just accused the princess of either lying or believing in old mare's tales.  "That is, not that you don't understand, or that you would lie..." she trailed off, her face burning with embarrassment.

Celestia laughed softly, a light, musical sound.  "Twilight, please don't worry. This is not a formal meeting.  In fact," she said, smiling across the way at Luna, "I daresay nothing will ever have to be formal among the three of us again."  Luna smiled warmly at her sister.

Twilight glanced at Luna, then back at Celestia.  "What do you mean?"

Celestia shook her head.  “In time, Twilight, in time.  As for your question, no, the Deicorns are not a myth.  Some of the stories told about them are, but they do in fact exist.  I have met them very few times since I took over my role as the Keeper of the Sun, but I assure you they are quite real, and very, very ancient and very, very powerful.”  She paused for a moment.  “Tell me, Twilight, what do you know of the Deicorns?”

“Well, nothing except for the mythology.”

“Much of that mythology stems from truth, my dear.  Tell me what you know.”

Twilight immediately launched into a lecture as she had so many times before with other subjects.  “The Deicorns are a mythical pair of ultra-powerful alicorns.  The Discorn Asha, Queen of Nature, Chaos, and Life, and the Concorn Cosmos, King of Matter, Order, and Death.  Supposedly, they created the universe and everything in it, are beyond immortal, being utterly timeless, and everything that happens does so with their blessing.”

Celestia nodded.  “So far, everything you’ve said is true, except for all things happening with their blessing.  They take very little interest in the day-to-day affairs of the universe, and only take notice when something of extraordinary significance occurs.  But please, continue.”

“Well, legend has it that when the earth was still young, and life had just begun to flourish, the Deicorns each chose a race to be their ‘children’.  The Concorn Cosmos chose the gentle, diligent ponies to nurture and care for, carefully cultivating their intelligence and granting them extraordinary powers: immense strength and endurance for earth ponies, magic and wisdom for unicorns, and flight, speed, and agility for the Pegasus.  The Discorn Asha, much less concerned with perfection and success, chose instead to foster a new creature, one born of her most beloved element: chaos.  The Draconequus is supposedly the result of Asha’s attempt to create a being that embodied the very essence of Asha’s will.”  Twilight paused and looked at Celestia, wondering if the myths she was recounting were actually history.

Celestia smiled.  “Your command of mythology is excellent, Twilight, despite it being largely dismissed by most academics.  It is also generally accurate.  Cosmos is in fact the patron Deicorn of all ponykind, and Asha the matron of the Draconequi.  What happened next, Twilight?”

“Well, at this point, history actually takes over, because we don’t hear about the Deicorns for some time.  Supposedly, the Draconequi used their extraordinary power to cause chaos and upset the natural balance and order of the world to take complete control of the earth.  The ponies of the recently united nation of Equestria were able to resist them for a short time, but eventually, they too were overcome by the chaotic invaders.”

“Excellent, Twilight.”  Celestia beamed.  “As you well know, the Draconequi, and in particular their ruler Discord, maintained control of all the earth for several millennia, exacting tyranny over all living creatures, but especially over the unfortunate ponies, who were uniquely susceptible to the suffering wrought by their chaotic overlords.”

“Why is that?” Twilight asked.

“To a creature with limited intelligence, chaos is just a diversion.  A minor inconvenience.  A rabbit who finds one day that their burrow is suddenly filled with soap bubbles will simply find another burrow to live in.  However, a pony who finds her house has suddenly been made into an ice sculpture will be devastated.  All of her personal effects, all of her memories, the place she has called home for years and years has suddenly been irrevocably altered.  Destroyed.  By choosing them as his favored children, Cosmos had unwittingly given the ponies of Equestria the ability to suffer terribly at the hands of the Draconequi.”

“I see,” Twilight mused.  “So the Deicorns can’t see the future, then?”

Celestia didn’t immediately answer, putting a hoof to her chin and tapping it thoughtfully.  After a moment, Luna spoke up.  “Well, Twilight, you see, the Deicorns don’t really experience ‘time’ like we do.  They are timeless, so they can only see how things are at one moment, and only by manifesting themselves at that moment in time.  After they relinquish their manifestation, time becomes immeasurable to them again.  All things happen at once.”

“I don’t understand,” Twilight said.

“Consider this,” the lunar princess said.  “If I were to draw a picture for you, that would be a snapshot in time.  If I were to draw several pictures in sequence, that would be a period of time.  But because I am not a part of that timeline, I am not bound by its flow.  I can choose to look at whichever picture I please.  I can even look at them in reverse order.  However, that doesn’t change the actual order of the pictures.  Understand so far?”

“I suppose.”

“Now let’s say I only drew the first picture, and then someone else drew the rest.  Let’s also say I can choose any picture I want and change it however I want, forcing the rest of the pictures that come afterwards to change in response.  Let’s also say that there are many, many different possible ways each picture can be drawn, resulting in millions of possible series.  I can choose any picture to change however I want, whenever I want, and that will change the way the series proceeds.  The subjects of the picture will only ever see one series, no matter what changes I make, no matter where.  That is essentially what the Deicorns do.  They drew the first picture together, then began changing pictures from time to time as they saw fit, never really knowing beforehoof how their changes were going to affect the series.”

“I see.  So it’s not that they can’t see the future, it’s just that the future changes when they step in.”

“Exactly.”

“Fascinating...” Twilight said, her head spinning a little.  “Okay, so, after the Draconequi took over, they ruled for thousands of years, until one day, a new kind of pony appeared.”  Twilight smiled at the princesses.  “An alicorn.”

Celestia smiled and nodded.  “Yes.  This too was the Deicorns’ doing.  You see, while Asha was perfectly content to let nature take its course, allowing the Draconequi to rule unchecked, Cosmos was not willing to let his ponies continue to suffer.  However, he did not want to directly interfere, because that would be an act of treason against Asha, who, for all their differences, was still his beloved partner and wife.  Instead, he focused a small amount of his magic into six very powerful relics that embodied those qualities in his children he most admired and cherished.  He called them the ‘Elements of Harmony’.”
> Elements and Alicorns
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Ooh,” Twilight involuntarily murmured, a chill running up her spine. “So the Elements of Harmony are actually artifacts created by Cosmos himself?”

“Indeed they are. Now, understand that these Elements are extremely powerful, but are also very difficult to wield. Only those who embody the spirit of one of the Elements can wear or even touch the relics without harm.”

“But Spike wore one of the elements when we faced Discord for the first time. How did he not get...harmed?”

Celestia smiled warmly, a twinkle flashing in her eyes. “Can you think of anyone more loyal than your...what is it you call him? Number One Assistant?”

Twilight thought about this and giggled softly. “No, I suppose not.”

“There can be more than one soul with the fortitude of spirit to bear an Element at a time. Had he attempted to wear...or had foisted upon him,” the Princess added with a knowing smirk, “any other Element, he would have found it physically unbearable.”

“I see.”

“Now, in all of history, the elements have only been used successfully four times. Twice in your lifetime, to defeat Discord and Nightmare Moon, and twice more in my lifetime, also to defeat Discord and Nightmare Moon.”

“So does that mean you and Luna represent Elements of Harmony, too?”

Both alicorns nodded. Celestia said, “I, like you, once embodied the spirit of Magic.”

“And I,” Luna said, “the element of loyalty.”

“Loyalty?” Twilight exclaimed, stunned. “How could you have represented the element of loyalty? You tried to overthrow your sister!”

Luna looked at her hooves, regret etched across her face. “I know. Discord was a powerful enemy, and though there were no physical casualties, some wounds were deeper, more difficult to withstand, and impossible to see.” The princess glanced sideways at Twilight. “Surely you understand what it’s like to be affected by a Draconequus’ power.”

Twilight opened her mouth, then closed it as Luna’s words sank in. Yes, she did understand. She had been discorded for only a few minutes, and the memories still haunted her. The overwhelming despair, the awful disconnection from her friends, the sense of hopelessness. If Luna had been the element of loyalty, and had somehow been discorded without anypony’s knowledge...

“Yes, Twilight,” Celestia interrupted her train of thought, reading her mind in the expression on her face. “Before we began the coup against the Discordian tyranny, Luna was without equal in her loyalty. She was my dearest friend and closest ally. It was she who took the first step in the revolution, risking everything to spread the word and collect additional members to our cause. When the final confrontation came to pass, she personally ensured that she was the target of all Discord’s wrath, and as such, she was the only element to be affected beyond recovery by his power.”

“So Nightmare Moon was...”

“An inevitable result,” Celestia said, a shadow of sadness crossing her face. “She hid it well at first. So well that when we were working with the unicorn disenchanters to undo the damage the Draconequi had done, she managed to convince everypony that she had been unaffected at all. She was even able to resist the effects for several centuries, but over time, everypony succumbs to that terrible magic. Had we known earlier, we might have been able to reverse the spell, to save her, but her stubbornness and pride prevented her from seeking help until there was nothing we could do but stand helplessly by as she morphed into Nightmare Moon before our eyes. It was fortunate,” Celestia said in a solemn tone, “that a new bearer had stepped in to replace her when her affliction had rendered her unable to effectively wield the Element of Loyalty any longer.”

“How exactly does that work? You mentioned there could be more than one capable bearer at a time, but you didn’t really explain it.” Twilight asked. “How could the spirit of Loyalty just...leap from one pony to another?”

“It is less well-defined than that, Twilight. Being the embodiment of one of the Elements is neither permanent nor predestined. It is the fruit of a personal quest, one that results in the decision to pursue that element as completely and dutifully as possible. For example, consider Applejack. When she was a filly, she was likely to have lied and fibbed as much as any other filly her age would. That is simply part of being young and selfish, as we all were. However, as she grew into a young mare, she began to cherish honesty, and soon made it a personal quest to always be honest, as much as she could. As you well know, she was not always completely truthful; she lied from time to time, usually for the benefit of others, but when the truth was necessary, she would always return to that. It was the same for Rainbow Dash, for Rarity, and for all of your friends. The ability to wield the Elements requires only that dedication, and anyone with sufficient dedication could, presumably, wield them safely and effectively.”

“As a result,” the princess continued, “there could be several ponies at one time who could possess an Element. It is one of these ponies who took over for Luna when she was no longer fit to wear her element.”

“Okay, so that’s how you...banished Nightmare Moon?” Twilight said, cringing at the bluntness of the phrase.

“Yes,” Celestia said, “but there is a more important event that you must learn of that occurred before that. You see, with the fall of the Draconequine Empire, the world of Equestria was left in ruinous chaos. The damage done would never repair itself, and even our most powerful unicorns--”

“Us,” Luna said, grinning broadly.

Celestia sighed, but smiled. “Yes, even Luna and I were not able to reverse the effects of centuries of Discord. We needed greater power, and there was only one source of power we knew of that was greater than ourselves.”

“The Deicorns,” Twilight said, enthralled. She had read countless histories and mythologies, but had never heard the merest whisper of anything the princess was recounting. A small, academic part of her was skeptical of the tale, wondering how so much of history could have passed unrecorded by the ancients, but she resolved to wait until the princess had finished speaking before--politely--seeking proof.

“Precisely,” Celestia nodded. “Naturally, we were dubious of contacting Asha, as she had never shown any interest in the affairs of ponies, but Cosmos had proven sympathetic to us, and so Luna and I--the de facto co-rulers of the new Equestria--began a quest to find him. The next two years were...adventurous, to say the least, and most certainly a story for another time, but in the end, we finally made our way to the summit of Mount Sleipnir. We waited in the bitter cold and wind for three full days, watching the chaos of the world sweeping by unabated, the sun and moon rising and setting at random, the weather raging out of control, and the wild predators that now reside in the Everfree Forest roaming freely across Ponyville. Then, as the third day came to a close, the sun and moon both set at the same time, plunging the mountaintop into a deep, impenetrable darkness neither of us could see through. Our magic failed us, and we clung to one another in fear for our lives as a raging wind encircled us, deafening and threatening to push us off the peak. Then, in an instant, everything was still and silent, and in front of us, bathed in a warm, perfectly white light, was the Deicorn Cosmos.”

“You’ve seen him in person?” Twilight asked, stunned.

Luna nodded. “Indeed.”

“What’s he like? What does he look like? Wow...a Deicorn...I can’t even imagine what that must have been like.”

“Magnificent.” Luna smiled. “He is amazing in all possible ways. His armor flickers and roils like the fiercest of the stars. His coat is the night sky; you can see the stars twinkling in it. His hooves are blacker than night, so dark they make everything around them seem to glow. His wings don’t flap; they simply flow through the air, but you can feel the wind rushing off of them when he’s standing in front of you. His mane and tail flicker like a raging fire, but only put off the gentlest of warmth. His eyes don’t look directly at yours, but you can feel his gaze piercing through you just the same. When he speaks, you feel his voice more than you hear it. It was incredible...and unsettling. Not because he seemed like he was angry or hostile, but just because when you meet somepony that powerful, well...”

Twilight smiled, remembering the first time she’d seen Celestia up close at the Summer Sun Celebration. “Yeah, I guess anypony can be intimidated, even an alicorn.”

“Oh, we weren’t alicorns,” Celestia said, shaking her head. “Not yet, anyway. At the time we met Cosmos, we were still just unicorns, like you. Powerful to be sure, as any unicorn who wielded the Elements would be, but unicorns all the same.” She held up a hoof to stay Twilight from asking the obvious question and continued. “When Cosmos appeared to us, we explained our plight to him and begged for his assistance, but of course he knew everything we told him about, and had already divined a solution for us.”

“You see,” Luna picked up the story, “he still didn’t want to directly interfere. He was of the opinion that if the ponies couldn’t overcome our problems on our own, we were no longer worthy of his gifts, and he was willing to allow us to fade back to what we had originally been. Still, he knew that some of our problems were beyond our current ability to control, so he imbued us with one more gift to help put things right again. He made us into Alicorns.”

“He made you into alicorns? How?”

Luna shrugged. “Power that substantial is hard to really comprehend, even for us. As best either of us can remember, he touched his horn to ours, and we...changed. It’s hard to really describe. It’s something you can feel, deep in your soul. The magic penetrates every inch of your body, and the sensation is so intense that you might call it pain if you had to call it anything, but it isn’t painful. It isn’t anything you can really explain to somepony else. One instant, you can see, hear, and feel everything in the universe. The next moment, you wake up and stretch your wings for the first time.” She chuckled softly. “As you can imagine, that was an interesting experience.”

“Did he convert you both at the same time?”

Celestia shook her head. “No, he changed me first, as I was the elder, and in my own mind, more capable of adjusting to whatever changes he wrought. It took only an instant. His horn caressed mine, there was a flash of light, and when the light faded, I was lying on the snow, completely transformed. I remember the same sequence occurring when he changed Luna, although there was no flash of light. Instead, she was shrouded in an impenetrable darkness that slowly wafted away when the transformation was complete.”

“So that’s how you fixed the damage Discord had done?”

“Eventually. At first, we weren’t sure how it was supposed to help,” Luna said. “We didn’t understand what he had done. As far as we could tell, he’d just combined the abilities of the three types of ponies and given them to us. It took some time to realize just what that meant. It wasn’t just all the powers of the three pony types, it was true, seamless synergy. You see, earth ponies are very strong and have great endurance, but they are typically slower than Pegasi, and while they do possess some passive magic, they can’t directly control it. Pegasi are very fast and can, of course, fly, but that is the extent of their magical power. It’s less passive than the earth ponies’, but no less specific. Unicorns are fragile and slow, but their magical power is both active and immense. But when you unite these three forces, you have an intensely strong unicorn who can fly without magic, who doesn’t tire, and who has the combined magic of three ponies. It takes some time for that magic to fully awaken, but when you finally unlock your true potential, you can do extraordinary things, including, as you might have guessed, something as impossible as controlling the sun and the moon.”

Celestia took over again. “We spent the first several weeks simply getting used to our new powers, flying wildly around the mountaintop for hours on end, rearranging whole cliff faces with pure magical power, and generally enjoying ourselves as any young pony granted new and incredible abilities would. Then, when the pleasure of wanton amusement wore off, we finally came together to discuss a plan of action. It was at this moment that we both realized our cutie marks had been removed.”

“Wait,” Twilight interrupted for the first time in a while. “Your cutie mark hasn’t always been the sun?”

Celestia shook her head. “No, and Luna’s was not originally the crescent moon it now is. Originally I had a field of six-pointed stars. Each one looked very much like yours, in fact.”

“Really?”

Celestia nodded. “Of course. My special talent--like yours--was magic, and the six-pointed star represents that. Luna’s cutie mark, on the other hoof, was a shield. As a genuinely loyal and dedicated member of the resistance, her special talent was unusually broad.” Celestia smiled warmly at her sister. “She was a defender. The quintessential representation of those sworn to protect. Everypony was her dearest friend, every attack on them was a personal affront to her, and when it came to blows, her defensive magic was unmatched and unassailable. Without her efforts, we would have been devastated in the final confrontation against Discord.”

Twilight breathed a barely audible sigh of wonder as she tried to imagine Luna in combat. Then, she stopped breathing altogether as she realized that Celestia’s special talent had been magic, just like hers! She had always assumed, with good reason, that Celestia’s special talent was raising the sun, and that Luna’s had been raising the moon. In her wildest of fantasies, she could never have conceived that either pony could have had any other talent, let alone that her beloved teacher and mentor could have shared hers exactly. Slowly, small pieces of the past several years began to slide into place. Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns was the only school directly endorsed by the princess, and she made a point of visiting it regularly to make certain it was up to par. The princess had also made a special point of tutoring her personally, and in light of the fact that she must have seen Twilight’s cutie mark, and realized it was so similar to her own original cutie mark, it made perfect sense. The sheer amount of nostalgia the princess must have felt upon seeing another unicorn so like her younger, forgotten self must have been at once exhilarating and sobering. Twilight contemplated asking her about this directly, but ultimately decided that this was not the time. There was still a great deal of the story missing, and she noted with some consternation that none of this seemed to have anything to do with her or her apparent immortality. Celestia had paused upon finishing her explanation, and Twilight realized that both princesses were staring intently at her.

“You seem to be deep in thought, Twilight,” Celestia said, curious. “May I ask what about?”

Twilight shrugged, feigning nonchalance. “It’s just hard to imagine either of you without your cutie marks, or at least, without those cutie marks. I guess I just assumed you’d always been alicorns. Wait, does that mean you were mortal once, too?”

Celestia nodded. “A very, very long time ago, yes.”

“So does being an alicorn make you immortal, or was that a separate effect that Cosmos also granted you?”

“Neither,” Luna said. “As it happens, simply being touched by a Deicorn at all will grant immortality. This is something that we did not learn of until much later, though. Initially, we assumed we still had only one life to use our powers, so we immediately began the monumental effort of cleaning up the mess the Draconequi had created.”
> On the Mend
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“It was hard,” Celestia said, “especially where nature had been allowed to spread unchecked. The pure chaotic power that nurtured the plants’ and animals’ growth also twisted and mutated them into unrecognizable grotesqueries we had no way of reverting. Our magic could do many things, but it was unfit to undo generations of mutation that resulted in monsters like the Manticores, the Timber Wolves, the Hydras, and all the other nightmares of the Everfree Forest and the areas beyond. Instead, we simply had to force them away from pony cities and towns, employing animal caretakers like your friend Fluttershy with the ability to communicate with the animals on a higher level. They were able to keep dangerous creatures away from the populations while letting less menacing animals like cattle and chickens live and flourish under pony care.”

“Then, of course, we had to take control over the weather. This was relatively simple, as Pegasi have always had the ability to move, create, and destroy clouds and weather patterns, but it was too much to expect them to be able to do this across the whole planet. Instead, we simply designated special, highly-skilled Pegasi like your friend Rainbow Dash to lead teams of weather ponies in each population center to maintain safe, manageable weather patterns that would keep dangerous weather like tornadoes and floods from devastating small towns, but would still provide enough rain to nurture the orchards and gardens of the earth ponies, and to keep the aquifers from running dry. Of course, when we handed control of the weather to the Pegasus ponies, we also inherently eliminated seasonal change. This caused problems we could not have foreseen. When the seasons failed to change from Spring to Summer, we lost whole crops of plants that could not live through the occasional cold snaps of Spring weather. With no Winter frost, no early Spring plants would sprout, and without the Fall chill, Autumn plants never grew. Animals who normally hibernated through Winter grew fat and ungainly, and those creatures that stockpiled food for the Winter months continued to do so until their burrows were overflowing. We contemplated a few solutions, but in the end we decided it was simply more practical to continue to change the seasons manually. Pegasus ponies could alter the location and power of various weather fronts, and direct physical interference would make the transitions easier and more absolute.”

“So...we have to change the seasons because of the Draconequi?”

Luna nodded. “Before the Draconequine Empire took control, the seasons changed quite smoothly on their own, or so our histories taught us. Now, of course, they don’t change at all in Equestrian territory, and they change wildly and unpredictably elsewhere.”

“But there are plenty of plants that grow outside of pony cities...like Poison Joke and Zap Apples. Don’t they need seasons?”

Luna shook her head. “No, those are magical plants. They only exist because of the Draconequine magic, and so have adapted to growing and flourishing either without seasons at all, or by forcibly creating their own, like the Zap Apples. Zap Apples used to be normal apples until the chaos magic made them into what they are today. In truth, it is extremely unusual that anypony can properly tend and grow a chaos crop. The Apple family is truly gifted in the art of horticulture.”

Twilight smiled. “Yeah, they are. I think Granny Smith was the best there will ever be, but Applejack was extremely talented, too. Her son and daughter are carrying on the family tradition...or at least her oldest daughter is. Her younger daughter,” Twilight chuckled. “Well, she’s taken after Cheerilee.”

Luna smiled broadly. “I should hope so. Cheerilee was an excellent teacher. I imagine her daughter will follow in her hoofsteps quite ably.”

The grin on Twilight’s face faded slightly. “She has...it’s almost as though Cheerilee never left.” It faded further as she found herself slipping into nostalgic reminiscences of afternoons spent whiling away long hours with Cheerilee in the library, helping the teacher grade papers, develop lesson plans, or simply letting her rant good-naturedly about her more troublesome students, including, without exception, the rambunctious and strong-willed Crusaders. She remembered vividly the first time Cheerilee had bashfully expressed her attraction for the genteel orange earth pony who attended all of Apple Bloom’s parent-teacher meetings in lieu of their long-deceased mother and father. Her admission had amused Twilight as much as it had surprised her, so she had agreed to help Cheerilee catch Applejack’s attention. It had taken some effort to convince the stubborn apple farmer that ‘filly-fooling’ was not as rare or heinous as she had been raised to believe (a task made somewhat easier by Twilight’s preexisting relationship with Trixie), and a greater effort still to get her to give Cheerilee a shot.

In the end, the payoff had been substantially better than the investment, as on their wedding day, Applejack had tearfully thanked Twilight in an atypically tremulous voice for helping her find the magenta mare of her dreams.  Only a few months later, the couple had come to Twilight and sheepishly asked her to magically help them have a foal.  The next request two years later had been much less abashed, and the third, only a year after, had come via a shout across the marketplace.  Their children--a colt named Blenheim and two fillies named Honeycrisp and Topaz--had inherited their mothers’ stubbornness and diligent work ethic, ensuring that both Sweet Apple Acres and the Ponyville Schoolhouse would remain in good hooves for several years.

“Twilight?” The quiet address brought the lavender unicorn back to the present where she discovered that tears running down her cheeks.  Embarrassed, she brushed them away and looked over at Luna, the alicorn whose voice had awakened her.

“Sorry, I just got lost in...memories.”

Luna smiled sadly and opened a wing to drape it across Twilight’s shoulders.  “No, Twilight, please don’t apologize.  There’s nothing wrong with missing those you care about.”

“I know,” Twilight sniffed, fighting tears, “I just wish...I wish I could have...shared that experience with them.  I mean...I don’t want to die...but I think it might have been nice to...grow old with them.”  She resisted the coming storm for a few seconds longer, the pain in her throat intensifying as the reality she had been comfortably distant from ever since the princesses’ story had begun began to sink its icy fingers back into her consciousness.  

The alicorns were not fooled, and Celestia finally said in a gentle tone, “Twilight, please don’t think you must keep up appearances here.  You are one of our dearest friends, and we hate to see you suffering alone in silence like this.”

“I can see the pain in your eyes, Twilight,” Luna said.  “Please let us be here for you, as you were once there for me.”  The memory of coming upon the distraught Princess Luna on her very first return trip to Ponyville after being reverted back from Nightmare Moon forced its way to the forefront of Twilight’s mind, and brought with it a dozen more awful, beautiful memories of her friends.  It was all too much for the lilac unicorn to take, and she suddenly burst into tears, burying her face in Luna’s waiting embrace.  The alicorn immediately wrapped both wings around the sobbing unicorn and rested her head firmly on Twilight’s.  “That’s it, don’t be ashamed,” she murmured, her lilting voice softer, less formal and more soothing than Celestia’s.  “You’ve suffered more than any pony can be expected to withstand alone, and you don’t need to do it by yourself any more.”

Twilight cried hard, the fierce sobs wracking her chest as Luna continued to mutter softly to her, holding and rocking her like a filly.  Had she been in a state to care, she might have been embarrassed to be coddled so, but the sheer weight of all she had experienced coupled with a lack of anyone available to share her burden left her completely inured to whatever shame her pride may have left her with.  Luna’s body was warm and firm against hers, her fur soft and soothing.  Her wings were strong, and her voice seemed to echo in Twilight’s head, extracting and easing all her deepest sorrows.  It was more than simply comforting, it was cathartic.

Several minutes passed before Twilight was able to regain her composure and the bitter sobs subsided, leaving her with her tear-streaked face pressed up against Luna’s shoulder while she sniffed quietly.  The princess did not move, but simply muttered, “Twilight, are you alright?”

The unicorn slowly pulled away, suddenly aware of the wide patch of darkened fur her tears had left on Luna’s side.  “Yes,” she said, her voice quavering slightly.  “I think so.  I mean, better than I was before, anyway.”  Her face flushed slightly.  “I’m...I’m sorry about...that,” she said, gesturing vaguely to Luna’s tear-stained shoulder.

Luna chuckled softly.  “Don’t worry about it, Twilight.”  Her horn glowed faintly for a moment, and the patch dried in an instant.  “I’m simply glad you felt comfortable enough here to allow yourself to cry like that.  I know you’ve been wanting to for some time, but you know as well as we do that your pride would not have let you show any of your friends how much you were hurting.”

Twilight sighed.  “No...I mean, they all had their own problems to deal with.  I didn’t want to add to that any more than I had to.  After all, how bad could it possibly be to simply live, when everypony else has to cope with dying?  I couldn’t do that to them.”

“Actually,” Luna said, the faintest hint of sadness visible at the edges of her expression, “it turns out that living is often a great deal harder than dying, as I believe you have seen.”

“How?” Twilight said, unconvinced.  “How could death be the less difficult ordeal?”

“The greatest pain anypony can feel is losing someone dear to them.  Those of us who live for eternity will experience that pain thousands upon thousands of times in our immortality.  Those who eventually pass need only suffer that pain a few times, maybe as many as a score, if they are truly blessed with a multitude of great friends, and even they may not need to suffer terribly, if they pass on before their friends do.”

“Like Pinkie Pie,” Twilight said, almost involuntarily.

“Yes, like your friend Pinkie Pie.  She was the first of your friends to depart, wasn’t she?”  Twilight nodded.  “How fortunate for her, that she did not have to suffer the gnawing ache of a lost loved one, wouldn’t you agree?”

Twilight smiled very faintly.  “Yeah...Pinkie was always pretty emotional.  I guess it’s better that she didn’t have to attend any funerals...although she’s probably upset she had to miss her own”  The purple unicorn grinned in spite of herself.  “I’m sure it would have been one heck of a party.”

Luna chuckled.  “No doubt.”  Several moments of contemplative silence passed, and Twilight was surprised and pleased to find that her crying episode seemed to have eased a lot of tension and nebulous sorrow she hadn’t realized she’d been carrying.  Luna’s counseling had also assuaged the guilt Twilight had been ashamed to admit she felt for feeling sorry for herself.  It didn’t seem fair to curse her apparent immortality while her friends were aging and dying around her.  She had always assumed that they were worse off than she, and it had upset her deeply to realize she felt sorry for herself.  Somehow it just didn’t seem right.  Now, though, with Luna’s explanation, Twilight realized that there was no shame in her feelings.  

The whole room seemed warmer now.  The fire’s flicker seemed brighter, more cheerful.  The sofa was a little softer, and even the two alicorns lounging around the hearth seemed closer, more relaxed.  Twilight felt herself easing into a more informal state of mind as she realized that like her, the princesses must have felt the pain of losing close friends a hundred times more than she, and if anypony could understand her suffering, they could.  She found herself suddenly eager to hear more about the princesses, their life, and their unique origins.  “So how long did it take to clean up after the Draconequi?”

“Years,” Celestia said, sighing lightly at the memory.  “We managed to make our lands livable again fairly quickly, but it took much longer to bring everything to the level of predictability and stability we now enjoy.  In truth, I wish there was some way to allow even a small amount of caprice in our lives, just to alleviate the stagnation that such a strictly controlled world causes, but any time we’ve attempted to do that in the past, there have been terrible consequences.  Eventually we decided it was better to live a predictable, if boring existence than an exciting, but frequently dangerous one.”

This comment caught Twilight slightly off-guard.  She had never imagined the princesses who had originally brought Equestria to its current state of stasis could possibly want to undo it for the sake of excitement.  Like most ponies, Twilight had always assumed Princess Celestia preferred the stability in her domain, if only to make ruling it easier.  Admittedly, while Twilight enjoyed the occasional adventure outside of the peaceful monotony of Equestrian territory, she found coming home to be all the sweeter for the knowledge that everything would be exactly as she left it.  Very few ponies ever left home to try and strike out on their own in Free Lands, and the few that did usually came back within days, cursing their decision and all too eager to put it behind them.

“So with the chaos of the earth under control, there was only one more aspect of life in Equestria that needed our attention, and that was the heavens.  The sun and moon still insisted on rising and setting at random, and the stars would wantonly rearrange themselves every night.  Luna and I eventually realized that it would be up to us to control these immensely large, stubborn, powerful elements of the universe.  The decision of who would control what was actually very easy.  I had always had a fondness for the sun, especially the first rays of the morning light peeking over the horizon.”

“I, on the other hoof,” Luna picked up and continued, “preferred the night, the soft glow of the moon, the beauty and majesty of the star-studded midnight sky.”  She smiled.  “And I still do, of course.”

Twilight knew which of these she preferred, but she did not say, for fear of offending one alicorn or the other.  “Was it easy to do?”

“Not at first,” Celestia said.  “The sun is a very powerful, very noble creation.  It is stubborn and not easily coerced.  It took several days of dedicated work to make it rise when I wanted it to, and several more to keep it from rising before I was ready.  Eventually, I managed to bring it fully under control, and the first day I raised and set the sun in exactly the time and place I wanted, my cutie mark appeared.”  She glanced down at the ornate yellow mark on her flank and smiled.

“It took me a few weeks longer,” Luna said.  “The moon is not as wild or powerful as the sun.  She is gentle, timid, and difficult to dragoon.  Excessive force can cause catastrophic damage, something my sister learned during the first several days of my banishment,” she smirked sideways as Celestia, who blushed faintly.  “However, I did eventually manage to coax her into a slow, steady progress across the night sky, after which I merely had to expend a small amount of magic to set the stars in place.  Fortunately, Discord’s magic was not strong enough to effect permanent change in them.  Like my sister, when I manged to pass a single night without incident, I too earned my cutie mark.”
> Losing Hope
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Celestia continued.  “With all of equestria finally working the way ponydom needed it to, the question of government finally demanded our attention.  There was a small congress of powerful, wealthy, and charismatic ponies who helped debate and decide the fate of the government, but it was fairly obvious from the outset that we would be the defacto heads of state.  Even so, being formally elected and granted the role did help lend a certain authority to our position.”

"Originally,” Luna said, “we were concerned that ruling such a large nation as Equestria would be beyond the ability of just two ponies to manage, but it turns out those concerns were unfounded.  Ponies are generally clever and cooperative, and we found that most towns in Equestria are more than capable of running themselves quite smoothly, even though they don’t all use the same system.  Where Ponyville has a mayor, other pony cities have had parliaments, dukes, and some have been largely anarchic, only bowing to our authority when they had to.  In deference to our subjects’ free will, we tried not to bother them any more than necessary,” she added with a faint smile.  “In the end, it turned out that for the most part, Equestria doesn’t need a lot of direct rulership.  We visited the cities once or twice a year, just to insure everything was running smoothly, but we’ve only ever had to directly invade and depose a few radicals.”

Twilight nodded.  “The rebellions of the 3rd and 5th era.”

“Exactly,” Luna said.  “Please understand we never wanted to step in and upset anypony’s lifestyle, but there are some things we simply couldn’t tolerate.”

“You don’t have to explain yourselves to me,” Twilight said.  “I read all about those rebellions, and I think you made the right decisions.  They can’t have been easy decisions to make.”

“They weren’t,” Celestia said.  “But we learned that very few important decisions are easy.  We ended up building Canterlot on the side of Mount Sliepnir so we could be as close to Cosmos as possible, in case we ever had to visit him again.  We even started looking for ponies we might want to have replace us when we inevitably passed on, but after one century passed, then a millennium,  then another, we realized we would never have to be replaced, because we weren’t going to grow old and die.  We started ruling with that in mind.”

“Well, Celestia did,” Luna interrupted, her face hardening slightly.  “I, on the other hoof, was starting to feel the effects of Discord’s magic in terrible ways.  I began to resent my sister.  At first it was just small twinges for minor slights: the sun rising just a moment too soon or setting a moment too late, unimportant decisions made without consulting me, that sort of thing.  Then it started to bleed over into things she had no control over, such as various dignitaries failing to include my name in the salutation of official correspondence, or the fact that I would no longer get invited to royal functions that occurred during the day because they knew I couldn’t come, or even just ponies specifically waiting for an audience with her instead of me when they arrived before sunrise.  Over time, I even grew resentful of the most absurd of imagined insults, convincing myself that everypony loved the day and hated the night because they had the nerve to sleep when it was dark.”

Twilight nodded.  “I remember the legend.”

“Then you know, of course, that one day I could resist Discord’s corruption no longer, and I refused to lower the moon.”  Twilight nodded again, and Luna’s face darkened.  “Under any other circumstances, my insubordination would have been trivial.  Celestia is now and has always been the more powerful alicorn, and had I not been imbued with Discord’s additional magic, she would easily have overpowered me.  Instead, his spell allowed me to transform into Nightmare Moon, the immensely powerful avatar of Discord’s corrupted influence over an already powerful alicorn.  I easily subdued my sister and drove her from the castle along with all of her guards.  I became consumed by an irrational rage against the ponies I believed had betrayed me, and spent the next few weeks destroying everything inside the palace, replacing it all with idols and banners with my likeness on them.”  She looked at her hooves sadly.  “A great deal of magnificent art and literature was lost in those few days.  All of the histories of past deeds, all the fables and tales passed down for centuries, all the tapestries and sculptures and paintings lauding the accomplishments of generations of ponies was destroyed in mere days while my sister sought ways to defeat me.”

“Initially,” Celestia interrupted, cutting the navy blue alicorn off as her voice darkened and became bitter, “I was afraid I would be unable to.  The only power I knew of that was great enough to oppose an alicorn like myself was a Deicorn, and the only Deicorn I could contact was inaccessible, his domain located on the summit of a mountain I was no longer welcome to.  Instead, I looked for the next closest thing I could find that rivaled the Deicorn himself, the very artifacts he had personally bestowed upon ponydom to protect itself from beings too powerful to fight alone.”

“But how did you even get them?” Twilight asked.  “Aren’t the elements stored in Canterlot Tower?”

Celestia shook her head.  “No, not at that time.  Canterlot Tower was built after Nightmare Moon was banished.  The Elements were originally left in the care of their spiritual representatives, and only relocated when they passed away.  We would hold funerals for those who had represented the elements in Canterlot, and would give the newly orphaned element to whomever we deemed most worthy of it.  Sometimes we were wrong, but fortunately, as I mentioned, the elements are not to be trifled with or deceived, and the moment they were given to someone who didn’t deserve them, they would become unbearable to wear or even hold.  Then we would know the pony we had chosen was unworthy, and would seek a new candidate.”

“This worked well until Nightmare Moon was summoned, because with Luna’s knowledge of the elements, she now knew exactly where to find the only powers that stood a chance of defeating her.  It was a race against the clock to beat her to each element, but eventually I had collected all but the element of Loyalty to my side.  With no alternative, I found a pony I believed would be capable of wielding it and returned to Canterlot Castle where Luna had kept her necklace.  The confrontation that resulted when Nightmare Moon returned to the Palace was horrific, but in the end the elements won out.”  Celestia hesitated, her brow furrowing in remembered anxiety.  “At the time, I did not realize Luna was not responsible for her actions.  I believed, with great sorrow, that Luna’s anger was genuine, that she had honestly turned her back on me and our subjects, and I was heartbroken.”

“The original plan, therefore, was to try to reason with her.  I hoped, perhaps foolishly, that if Luna could be convinced to see truth, that I could save her from herself.  She was, after all, my sister, and my best friend.”  She glanced down at her hooves.  “But if that failed--as it was destined to--then we would attempt to...to kill her.”  The princess’ voice cracked over the last phrase, and she looked away, her eyes glistening with unshed tears betraying the ache she still felt at a memory centuries old.  “Of course, you cannot kill an alicorn, so we merely wasted our energy and our...resources.”  She hesitated again.  The reflection, however distant, was still visibly painful for her to recall.  Twilight waited patiently for her to muster the will to continue.  Eventually, she sighed and said, “In the end, we chose the only option left to us, and banished her from this world.  Of course, banishment spells are not easy, and they are very inexact, even when cast flawlessly.  I never intended to send her to the moon, nor to do so for any specific length of time, and it required some magical divination to discern where she had gone, and when--if--the spell would weaken enough for her to return.  That was where the legend of Nightmare Moon came from.”  She finally smiled, very faintly.  “A legend you know well, I think.”

Twilight returned the smile with slightly more confidence.  “Yeah, well...it brought me to Ponyville, and to my friends.  It would be a difficult to forget anything about that day.”

“As well it should be,” Celestia said.  “In any event, when I discovered that we not banished Nightmare Moon forever, but only for a thousand years, I knew I would eventually have to face her again, something I knew I would never be prepared for.  Instead, I again sought the counsel of Cosmos, who revealed to me that he had foreseen all I was explaining to him, and that I had never been intended to permanently defeat Nightmare Moon.  He told me that the elements of harmony are very sensitive to the will of the user, and their effect can be altered by even the slightest subconscious thought.  To that end, he explained, my element, the most powerful element, entered the battle crippled.  My emotional attachment to Luna, my shame at failing to see the signs, my hesitance to do what was necessary--all of these things severely hindered the strength of the element of magic, rendering it unable to properly activate, and weakening the efforts of my companions.  In the end, it was a miracle that we even managed to successfully cast the banishment spell, let alone summon the magic we needed to defeat her completely.”

Twilight was enthralled.  “What magic did you need?”

“Friendship,” Luna said, smiling gently.  “The rarest and most elusive of magic.  Love can be magically emulated and easily faked, and acquaintance is commonplace, but true friendship, that deep, devastating affection that can only exist between two truly connected ponies, is impossible to feign, impossible to deny, and infinite in its power.  And only the magic of friendship could undo the damage wrought by Discord’s cruel spell.”

“So...when my friends and I faced you in the Ancient Castle...”

“It was not the elements themselves that defeated me, no.  It was the magic that the elements channel.  They magnify and focus the magic of friendship, which you and your friends wielded in tremendous amounts that night.”

“And this, dearest Twilight,” Celestia said, her voice suddenly heavy with consequence, “is the part of the story where you become important.”

“I...become important?”  Twilight raised an eyebrow, puzzled.  Then revelation dawned, and her eyes lit up.  “Oh!  Right.  I...I had actually forgotten that this whole story was...about me.”  She blushed.  Ever the student, Twilight had become so engrossed in the history lesson that she had completely lost sight of the original purpose of the story.

Celestia laughed softly.  “Yes, Twilight.  In fact, you are nearly as important as anything else that has happened in this story so far.  Cosmos explained to me that as long as I harbored any emotional attachment to Nightmare Moon, I would be unable to properly unleash the full power of the elements of harmony, and our second confrontation would end very much like the first, if not worse.  His solution, then, was for me to find somepony to replace me as the element of magic, someone unconnected to my sister and our history, who would have no qualms about facing Nightmare Moon, and no hesitation to do what was necessary...no matter what that may be.”

“I must admit,” Celestia continued, looking down at her hooves, “I was not entirely satisfied with his answer.  I had hoped, perhaps naively, that he would tell me how to return my beloved sister to me, or at worst, how to banish her permanently, so I would never have to see her like...that...ever again.  Of course, he knew perfectly well that the former was not an option as long as I possessed the element of magic, and he knew the latter would have devastated me.  His option, however unpleasant it may have seemed at the time, was the best.”

“So I began my search.  I started the school for gifted unicorns in Canterlot to attract all the greatest magical talent Equestria could muster.  Anypony who was sufficiently gifted would be taught free of charge, provided they could pass the entrance exam.  From this pool, I began to select the most skilled and enthusiastic young ponies to teach personally in hopes of finding somepony who I trusted enough to bestow the element upon.”

“So I wasn’t your first protege, then?” Twilight asked, a hint of disappointment seeping into the words.

“No, Twilight, you weren’t.”  Celestia smiled warmly.  “But I haven’t finished yet.  You see, as the centuries passed, I met many extremely talented, extremely enthusiastic young mages, and many of them went on to be the greatest spellcasters that Equestria has ever seen.  Starshine the Gazer, Sunsoar the Determined, Nightsky the Black, and many more famous names I’m sure you’ve read in your studies all passed through my school and found their way into my private tutelage, but none of them quite managed to meet my exacting standards.  As hundreds of years slipped by, I began to fear I would never find anypony I would be comfortable bestowing the element of magic on.  With only a couple decades remaining before Nightmare Moon’s return, my fear evolved into panic, and then into a terrible, gnawing depression as I realized that I was out of time.  I stopped taking new students under my wing as I convinced myself that nopony would be capable of wearing my element.”

“Then you came along.”  The alicorn’s smile broadened, her eyes lighting up as she looked at Twilight.  The lilac unicorn smiled back, blushing faintly.  “I remember the first time I saw you, Twilight Sparkle.  A tiny little unicorn struggling through the crowd to watch me raise the sun.  It was as though this one moment was the most important thing in the world to you.  I remember the wonder in your eyes, the excitement on your face.  It made raising the sun more than just a task I was bound to perform; it was a privilege again.”  Her eyes glistened slightly.  “I had been tracking the sun and the moon across the sky for so long that it had lost all meaning for me.  The sun no longer resisted, and even the moon’s path was hewn ruthlessly through the stars.  I pulled the celestial bodies through the sky because it was simply what I do, and had done for hundreds upon hundreds of years.  There was no magic left in it for me.”

“But to you...Twilight, I don’t know how much of that day you remember.  We spoke only long enough to share our names with one another, but even then I could sense there was something marvelous about you.  I could feel tremendous magic potential teeming in your eager frame, and I felt something I hadn’t felt for years.”  The smile became a grin, tears clinging to her eyelashes.  “I had hope again.”
> Revelation
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Twilight felt a tightness in the back of her throat at Celestia’s admission.  “Princess...”

“Celestia, please,” the alicorn corrected her.

“Celestia,” Twilight started again, “I...I don’t know what to say.  Of course I remember that day.  That was the day I fell in love with magic.  I watched you raise the sun, and I was transfixed.  My parents never did anything that...incredible with their magic.  I’m sure they were both very powerful in their own right, but to see you effortlessly drawing the sun itself above the horizon was amazing to me.  I knew I could never be that powerful, but I sure wanted to try.”

Celestia chuckled softly.  “Don’t sell yourself short, Twilight.  You may be surprised what you may someday be able to accomplish.”

Twilight smiled.  “Well, under your instruction, I’ve already come further than I ever imagined I could.”

“Twilight, you would have come this far with or without my help.  You are an exceptional mage, and have been for as long as I’ve known you,” Celestia said.  “Do you know what the entrance exam for the academy usually is?”

Twilight was puzzled.  “What do you mean?”

“You didn’t think all the school’s students have to hatch a dragon, do you?”  Celestia laughed.  “Twilight, dragon eggs are rarer than phoenix eggs, and the phoenixes in Equestria only mate once a millennium.”

“Well,” Twilight said, blushing slightly, “I knew that, but I just figured the exam was random, and hatching a dragon was just my exam.”

“You’re half right,” Celestia said.  “In fact, the exam is normally very straightforward.  I know even the most gifted young unicorns have limited magical power, so the exam is usually just having them write their name on the chalkboard with their telekinesis.  It’s supposed to test their endurance, control, and precision, not necessarily their power.”

“But you had been guaranteed admission for years, Twilight.  I had contacted your parents shortly after the Summer Sun Celebration, inviting them to enroll you in the academy with my blessing.  They were understandably surprised, but more than happy to accept.  I watched you develop from a distance, and even I was stunned with your progress.  I couldn’t wait for you to reach the enrollment age so I could start teaching you directly and watch you grow and prosper in front of my eyes.  By the time you actually came to the academy to take the exam, you had already vastly exceeded even our most talented second year students, and I was eager to see just how much power you truly possessed.  Dragon eggs require an extremely strong surge of magic to hatch.  Normally the mother will provide this when the time is right, but Spike’s egg was an orphan.  I had initially planned to hatch it myself, but when you arrived, I was suddenly curious to see just how much power you could muster when it truly mattered.”

“So I told the ponies who proctored your exam to act as though they were unimpressed by any amount of magic you could produce unless you managed to hatch the egg.  They were somewhat concerned by this, because they know as well as I do that hatching a dragon egg is a feat nigh impossible for any unicorn, let alone a filly who didn’t even have her cutie mark yet, but I assured them that you would be admitted regardless of your performance.  I just wanted to see what you could do.”

Twilight’s mouth opened slightly in surprise.  “Wait, so...so I didn’t have to hatch the egg at all?  I still would’ve been allowed to attend the academy?”

Celestia nodded.  “Oh, absolutely.  Your name had been on our roster for years.  Twilight, you were a phenom.  You still are.”  The purple unicorn blushed and smiled sheepishly.  “We knew you were more than talented enough to excel at the school, we just weren’t sure how much.  To be perfectly honest, we didn’t really expect you to be able to hatch Spike’s egg.”

“I almost didn’t,” Twilight said, the incident still vividly etched into her memory.  “I thought I had blown my chance at getting in altogether.”

Celestia looked away.  “I’m sorry for that, Twilight.  I didn’t really consider how upsetting that might be to you if you thought you were going to be turned away, but--”

“Oh, princess, please don’t worry!” Twilight interrupted her.  “Sure, I was upset at first, but when you came in and told me you wanted me to be your personal student, I forgot all about it.”

The alicorn smiled.  “Well, I hadn’t initially intended to come in to your exam at all, but when it became obvious that your magic was, shall we say, getting away from you?”  Twilight blushed.  “Well, I had to come in to make certain you didn’t hurt yourself or anypony else.  As soon as I saw you had not only successfully hatched Spike’s egg, but had managed unintentionally to cast numerous extremely high-caliber spells that you couldn’t possibly have had any previous practice with, I knew you were exactly the unicorn I had been searching for the past nine centuries.  That feeling only intensified over the years as you grew and learned under my tutelage, frequently surprising me with your remarkable skill and mastery of even the most complex magical theory.  Eventually, it came time to decide whether you would be able to withstand Nightmare Moon’s wrath when she returned.”  Celestia paused for a moment as if trying to decide how best to continue.  “Twilight,” she finally said, “do you remember one night, perhaps two years before you left for Ponyville, when I invited you to join me in the Arcane Solar for some particularly high-level study?”

“Of course,” Twilight smiled, her eyes sparkling at the memory.  “How could I ever forget?”  The Arcane Solar was the most magically tuned area of the castle.  All of Canterlot was interwoven with small amounts of magic--some spells were just to keep it from sliding down the mountain face, others were defensive spells meant to ward off dragons or other invading forces--but the castle itself was a humming nucleus of arcane power, and the crux of all the magic in castle was the Arcane Solar.  It was so powerful, in fact, that no one but the princesses were allowed to enter it without express permission and an escort.  At the time, being invited inside had been Twilight’s dearest and most private dream.  “It’s still the only time I’ve ever been there.”

Celestia and Luna shared a brief knowing glance, but said nothing about it as Celestia continued.  “Well, the Arcane Solar is more than we have always let on.  It is most certainly the heart of all magic here in Equestria, but that is only because it is also a conduit to a far greater power.  That power is the reason I took you there that night, and the reason I suggested that perhaps we could spend the night in the tower.”

“Wait...you don’t mean...?”  Twilight’s breath suddenly caught in her throat as she dared to imagine what the princess was suggesting.

The alicorn nodded shallowly, confirming what she knew Twilight had already realized.  “Yes, Twilight.  The Arcane Solar is Cosmos’ link to this world.”

Twilight’s jaw fell open in shock.  “Then I...we were...”

“After you fell asleep, he visited us, just for a moment or two.  He confirmed my hope that you would be able to oppose Nightmare Moon, but also my fear that you were too young, too fragile, and not nearly powerful enough to withstand her wrath.  He knew that if she even contemplated a lethal spell, you would have no defense against it, no matter how strong your magic or your connection to the elements.”  Twilight started to speak, but Celestia quickly cut her off, eager to finish the explanation before letting the unicorn interrupt.  “I promise I begged him for some alternative, not wishing to change you or your life in any way, especially without your consent and understanding, but he would not be moved.  He assured me that if I let you face Nightmare Moon as you were, you would be killed.  She would likely be defeated, if only through magical backlash from the elements and your attempts to wield them, but at the cost of the lives of all six element bearers.  This was not a price I was willing to pay.”

“So instead, you just let him...CHANGE me?” Twilight said, her voice louder and more high-pitched than she wanted it to be.  “Without asking?”

“There was not time to ask, Twilight,” Celestia said, her voice suddenly firm.  “And he did not change you.  He merely touched you.  You didn’t need any more power than you already had, you simply needed to be protected from hers.  Please try to understand, Twilight, if there had been any alternative, I would have pursued it.  To the ends of the earth, I would have followed any lead I thought may have allowed me to preserve both your life and leave you unaltered, but there wasn’t one.  I had exhausted all options hundreds of years before you were born.”

“There was an alternative!” Twilight said, her voice strengthening into an accusing yell.  “You could have let me die with my friends!”

“Twilight--”

“You knew how hard it is to live forever!  You knew how hard it is to watch everyone you love and care about dying around you, unable to follow them even if you try!”

“Twilight, you didn’t--”

“Of course I did!” she cried, tears streaming down her cheeks.  “I tried a dozen times, a dozen different ways!  I didn’t want to live forever, to agonize for the rest of eternity over relationships that had ended a hundred or a thousand years ago, to miss my friends for centuries!  After Applejack died, I...I couldn’t stand it any more.  I couldn’t imagine living without Trixie, and I...I tried jumping off the edge of Ghastly Gorge.”  The tears were flowing fast now, blurring her vision and thickening her voice.  “I wanted it to look like an accident, like I had just stepped too close to the edge and fallen in, but...but it didn’t matter,” she finished, sniffing.  “I woke up just a few hours later, not even hurt.”

Celestia looked at her hooves, her face lined with pain.  “Yes, that’s...that’s what happens.  We can’t be killed because our injuries are never permanent.  They mend quickly, and we feel only the slightest pain, if any.”

“I’ve noticed,” Twilight spat, venom in each word.  She regretted her tone almost immediately  .“I mean...I’ve noticed,” she repeated, softening her voice as much as she could manage.  “It’s...sometimes it’s nice, but...”

“No, I understand, Twilight.  I know how you feel.”

“We both do,” Luna said.  “Remember how I told you we didn’t realize that being touched by a Deicorn makes you immortal?”  Twilight blinked.  She had not remembered this.  “Well, it took us a couple centuries to figure it out.  Cosmos never did tell us directly, and it wasn’t until we realized that the only Draconequis we couldn’t actually kill--Discord--was supposed to have been hoof-crafted by Asha, who had then allowed him to craft additional Draconequi at will.  We reasoned then that it must be a trait shared by anyone who had been touched by one of the Deicorns.”  The blue alicorn’s eyes darkened slightly.  “So I understand your anger and frustration, but please remember that we’ve both been there with you.  We know what it’s like to watch our friends dying around us, never growing old, never suffering major injury...unable to kill ourselves even if we try...” she added, her voice suddenly much softer and her eyes drifting down to the cushion between them.  “I assure you, we know exactly what you’re going through.”

Twilight felt her face growing hot.  “I’m sorry...I didn’t think--”

“It’s alright, Twilight,” the blue alicorn interrupted her gently.  “I know you didn’t mean anything by it.  I just wanted to try and impress upon you that we’re not trying to excuse or dismiss anything you’re going through or have been through, because in every possible way, we’ve already been there, often many times before.”

“Of course,” Twilight said.  A moment of silence stretched between the three ponies before Twilight managed to muster the courage to ask, “Does...does it get easier?”

A sad smile graced Celestia’s lips.  “Yes...and no.  Each loss hurts as much as the last, but you learn how to manage the pain, to feel it without letting it overwhelm you.  You learn to focus on positive memories, and rejoice in the opportunity to make many more friends than anyone else will ever have.  I have lost many friends, but I have also had the privilege of making many more, as well.”  The smile broadened, and any vestiges of sadness dissipated.  “And for that, I am extremely grateful.”

“So...it’s worth it?”

“Worth it?” Celestia repeated, tapping her chin with a thoughtful hoof.  “I suppose that depends.  If I had the option, would I have sacrificed immortality for a shorter life with my friends?  Maybe.  I have had many centuries now to live eternally, and I have since come to appreciate the many, many unique opportunities such a life provides.  I would imagine that so dedicated a student as yourself would particularly enjoy the ability to spend all of eternity in diligent study, both in the archives and in person.”

Twilight blinked.  She had not considered this.  The prospect of centuries upon centuries to pore over all the many thousands of volumes locked away in the Grand Archives sent a thrill down her spine.  Twilight had, once upon a time, lamented the fact that even if she lived to be a thousand, she would never read all the books she wanted to.  Even at the pace she typically read, Twilight always found her list of ‘Books to Read’ grew substantially more quickly than she could chip away at it.  Now, at least, she could be content in the knowledge that no matter how long that list became, she would never want for time to work at it.  It was a surprisingly exhilarating realization, and provided a silver lining to what Twilight had, until now, considered a complete and utter disaster.  “Yeah,” she said, smiling a little.  “Yeah, I think I’d like that a lot, actually.”

Celestia beamed.  “I thought you might.  As it happens, I try to spend as much of my free time as I can reading through the Archives, and I have barely begun to scratch the surface.  There is a wealth of material there, just waiting for somepony more...dedicated than I to enjoy.”

The purple unicorn chuckled lightly.  “Well, I guess I should get started then, huh?”

“Eventually,” Celestia said, “but your story isn’t over yet, my little pony.  You see, Cosmos made me promise something when I brought you to him the first time.  He made me promise that I would bring you back to meet him again when you were ready.”

“Wait...bring me back...to meet him?”  Twilight’s mouth fell open.  “He made you promise?”

Celestia nodded.  “Very much so.  He made it quite clear that he wanted to speak to you in person someday when you were better able to comprehend what he had to say.”

“And what, exactly, does he want to talk to me about?”

Celestia shrugged.  “I don’t know.  He didn’t share any more than that desire with me.  I have my suspicions, but I wouldn’t want to get your hopes up...or to concern you unnecessarily,” she added, with a hint of tension in her voice.

A tiny shock of fear arced down Twilight’s back at this.  What could Celestia be thinking Cosmos might say that would concern her?  Was it possible he might be disappointed in her, that he had granted her immortality expecting her gratitude, and would be displeased to her that she was less than thankful?  Maybe his gift had been a temporary one, meant only to last as long as Twilight was needed to face the more dangerous threats to Equestrian safety, and now that these had all been defeated, he was going to rescind it and let her die?  Twilight wasn’t altogether certain what to think about this possibility.

She didn’t have time to ponder it for long.  “Twilight,” Celestia said, interrupting her mildly panicked contemplation, “I believe that time has come.  I think you are ready to meet Cosmos for yourself.  You deserve the opportunity to ask him any questions you have.  I assure you that he will be more than willing to answer them completely, and honestly.”

Twilight’s eyes widened.  “Wait, that time...you mean right now?”

The princess nodded.  “Yes, Twilight.  Would you like to accompany me to the Arcane Solar?”

“I...I guess so.”
> Infinity
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Twilight Sparkle had only visited the Arcane Solar once in her life, but she had passed the heavily-guarded door leading to it many dozens of times.  It was on the route between Celestia’s solar and the Grand Archives, and the insatiable bookworm had worn a groove into the flagstone floor traipsing between the two in her younger years.  The first few times she passed the door, she had paused momentarily to wonder about its contents, and even after she had spent the night there, she had still marveled at the secrets the tower held, secrets nopony had ever really grasped.  Over time, the door had become as the wall around it, silent, permanent, and essentially decorative, as nopony ever went in or came out.  Even the guards who stood watch over the door seemed to treat the duty as punishment, though they maintained a sense of dignity and dedication all the same.

Today, the guards were shocked out of their ennui when Twilight walked up to the door, flanked by the two princesses.  She smiled wanly at them as Celestia said, “Good evening, gentlecolts.  We’d like to enter the solar, if you don’t mind.”

“Yes, princess!” they intoned together, bowing shallowly to the trio.  Celestia inserted her horn into the lock in the middle of the door.  The door glowed bright blue for an instant, and a dull click sounded from deep within.  The entryway swung slowly inward of its own volition, revealing a distinctly unimpressive spiral staircase beyond.  Twilight noticed the guards stealing curious glances as the three mares passed between them, confusion and moderate disappointment clearly written on their faces as they realized exactly what lay behind the door they were tasked to guard.  Then the portal swung shut behind her and she was alone with the princesses again.

“Come along, Twilight,” Celestia said, starting up the staircase.  Twilight followed a step or two behind, with Luna bringing up the rear.  Lanterns adorning the walls of the stairwell  flared to life as Celestia approached them, and extinguished just as suddenly as soon as Luna had passed.  The party went through four more locked doors, each of which Celestia opened with a pulse of magic through her horn, generating a different color each time.  Finally, they reached the top of the staircase, and approached one final door.

“That...was...a lot...of stairs,” Twilight panted, her legs shaking and sweat beading on her forehead.

“I’m sorry, Twilight,” Celestia said, “but you know how very specific magic must be.  For the Solar to truly be the crux of all magic in the realm, it must be at the top of a tower with six doors and 192 steps.  You understand.”

Twilight nodded, wiping a hoof across her forehead.  “I understand.  I just wish magic didn’t always need such big numbers...”

Celestia chuckled softly as she used her horn to unlock the final door with a flash of magenta magic.  As the door swung open, Twilight felt a surge of magic burst forth from the room behind, washing over her and making every hair on her body stand on end.  The unicorn felt her horn vibrating in tune with the arcane energies pouring out of the solar, filling her ears with the hiss of static interference instantly overwhelming her comparatively meager magical power.  It was at once exhilarating and terrifying.  Never before, not even in the presence of both princesses together, had Twilight ever felt so meek and impotent.  Several seconds passed, each one longer than the previous, before the wave subsided to a slow, steady flow that ebbed past Twilight's trembling form, gentler now, but no less overwhelming.  Celestia smiled faintly as she noticed Twilight's awestruck expression.  "As I said, it is the focus of all magic in Equestria.  It can be overwhelming if you are not prepared."

"I...I don't think I could ever be prepared for that..." Twilight said, her voice shuddering.  "Why...why don't I remember it being so...powerful when I was younger?"

"You were but a filly, with substantial--but wildly uncontrolled--magical abilities.  It is only because of your years of diligent practice, study, and advanced magical aptitude that you sense the raw power of this room at all.  If you sensed it at all when you were younger, it would have been as a warm breeze, or a heaviness in the air.  It would never have registered as it does to you now, as an overwhelming sense of power."

"I see," said Twilight, more out of reflex than actual understanding.  Still vaguely nervous, she followed Celestia into the solar.  

The room at the top of the tower was not particularly large, smaller even than Twilight's bedroom in the library back in Ponyville, but the ceiling towered several dozen hooves above her head.  It was perfectly circular--a configuration magical energy often required--and the stones of the walls were polished perfectly smooth, with no seams or cracks.  The floor was solid onyx flagstone dotted with glittering diamonds in patterns that Twilight instantly recognized as constellations.  Even the sizes of the diamonds reflected the relative sizes of the stars they represented.  There were no lanterns in the room, but a single glowing sphere hanging silently in the air near the ceiling, casting a pall of bluish light across the room and the occupants.  In her hazy memories, Twilight recalled the room had had books and cushions for reclining on or sleeping, but now, she realized these must have been planted beforehoof by Celestia to invoke a sense of comfort and ease in the young filly.  Tonight, the room was barren, without even a hint of dust to provide any indication of normalcy.  The air hummed silently with magical energy that heated the room almost imperceptibly, and again Twilight could feel the sheer power of the solar hissing across her horn.  

Despite all of this, however, the unicorn was stunned to find she felt...welcome.  For all its awe-inspiring presence, the solar was not forboding in the least.  She didn't feel overwhelmed as she had in the hall, nor meek and powerless as she had been fearing only moments before.  The lilac mare relaxed, settling down on her hooves and letting her tail droop slightly.  The static in her horn tickled, and she smiled in spite of herself.  The light glistening on the floor was beautiful, shimmering in the diamonds and casting miniscule rainbows on the walls.  Twilight glanced over at Celestia and saw the alicorn standing to her left smiling broadly, her eyes closed and her wings spread wide.  The feathers ruffled ever so slightly in the ebbing magical flow, and the princess's ethereal mane and tail shimmered more than ever, the rainbows inside intense and magnificent.  On her other side, Twilight saw Luna in a similar state of bliss, though her mouth was open slightly in a silly grin, and she leaned into the magic, letting the wafting energies flow through her royal blue mane.  After a moment or two of this, Luna suddenly shook her head and recovered, glancing down at Twilight with a faint blush on her cheeks.

"My apologies, Twilight.  The solar's energies are...unique..." she smiled again.  "And wonderful."

"That they are, my dear sister," Celestia said.  "That they are."  Twilight looked back to see the ivory alicorn leaning forward to remove her crown and her necklace, and stepping out of her shimmering golden slippers.  Luna was doing similarly on her other side, and once both princesses were nude--a state so rare that Twilight actually felt an improper thrill at the sight--they slid their adornments into a pile by the door.  Reading Twilight's expression, Celestia explained, "It would be highly disrespectful to show any hubris in front of a deicorn.  Cosmos may not be concerned with such petty concepts as pride, but it never hurts to show deference...and to remember one's place."

Twilight nodded.  "But why not use magic to remove them?"

Luna smirked.  "Try to manipulate my crown with your magic, Twilight."  The unicorn raised an eyebrow at the alicorn, but the princess simply nodded at her trappings.  Twilight did as she was instructed and was only moderately surprised to find that she couldn't seem to effort any magical effects at all.  Her horn did not glow, or heat up as she was used to.  She could not even feel the normal flow of arcane energy through it.  All she could sense was the constant static interference from the energies within the solar.

The unicorn nodded.  "I see...so no magic works in here?"

"No earthbound magic," Celestia confirmed, shaking her head.  "Even Luna and I are overwhelmed by the forces here.  Even our pegasus magic is inert.  We couldn't fly if we wanted to."

"Amazing," Twilight breathed, trying again to evoke some response from her horn and receiving none.

"Prepare to be further amazed."  The voice came from everywhere and nowhere, a statement Twilight would have dismissed as nonsensical before tonight.  It came from all around her, from the air itself, from the walls, echoing and reverberating in her very bones, from inside her head, a soft gentle whisper in her ear, a cacophanous roar on the verge of painful.  The voice was marvelous, at once powerful, awe-inspiring, and gentle, reassuring.  It sounded like her father's proud support, her mother's loving wishes, like Celestia's approving commendation, and her friends' joyful laughter.  It made her weak in the knees, but strong...confident.  Despite the voice having no definite origin, Twilight found her eyes drawn back to the center of the room and was shocked to see what could only be the deicorn Cosmos standing in front of her.

He was tall.  Easily twice as tall as Celestia, and broad, his inky black fur flowing over a sleek, perfectly symmetrical frame.  The fur didn't seem to reflect light at all, absorbing it into the darkness and giving him the appearance of a silhouette against the wall behind him.  His wings had no feathers, but flowed ethereally in the air above his back, like Celestia's mane.  In them, Twilight could see stars flickering in constellations she had never seen before.  His mane and tail were similar, flowing wildly around his head and flanks, the darkness of them studded with brilliant stars burning millions of miles away.  His horn was long and sharp, with a point that Twilight could swore she saw cutting the very atmosphere around him as he moved, leaving tiny trails in the fabric of reality that sealed as quickly as they opened.  His eyes were a pearlescent white, shimmering and iridescing in a myriad of colors, from blue to yellow, from red to green, and a thousand variations between.  He wore a necklace much like Celestia and Luna, though his appeared to be hewn from massive blocks of diamond, with hundreds of brilliant facets enveloping a single large-cut onyx in the middle.  His crown was likewise cut from diamond, rising to razor-sharp edges at the tops, and his hooves were ensconced in diamond as well.  On either side of her Twilight saw out of the corner of her eye that both alicorns had dropped into deep, reverent bows, but the unicorn was unable to move, even to show the proper deference.  Instead, she simply stood, her mouth hanging slightly open, staring at the magnificent being in front of her.

Several seconds of silence passed before the deicorn blinked, breaking the spell, and smiled, the corners of his lips barely visible against the black abyss of his fur.  "My dear little ponies.  How wonderful it is to see all of you again."  The voice was still just as magnificent, just as powerful and awe-inspiring, but hearing it paired with the movements of the deicorn's mouth brought an additional sense of wonder and contentment to the little lavender pony in front of him.

Somehow, Celestia managed to speak.  "Cosmos.  It is wonderful to see you again, as well.  Welcome back to the solar...and to our realm."

Cosmos smiled, the expression sending a wave of pleasure through Twilight's mind.  "Thank you, Celestia.  I do so love to visit you all here.  It is remarkable, and not a little joyful, to see how you have progressed in my absence."

"We do our best to not need your intervention," Luna said, her voice requesting validation.

Cosmos nodded.  "And you do well.  It is my sincere hope--and yours as well, I suspect--that I need not return for many millennia after tonight."

"It is, your majesty," the princess of the night said.

"Time means little to me, but I imagine you would not wish to lose more than you must here tonight," the deicorn mused, glancing back at Twilight.  "To that end, I will attempt to keep my visit brief.  Twilight," he said, sending a thrill of terror and excitement down the unicorn's spine, "though this is the second time we have met, I imagine you do not remember the first."

Twilight swallowed hard several times through a dry throat before she managed to muster the ability to answer.  "N-no, your m-majesty."

Cosmos chuckled softly, sending a shock of pleasure through Twilight's chest.  "I remember it well.  Time may have no meaning for me, but there exist certain remarkable ponies who stand out greater, more memorable than others.  You are one such pony, my little Twilight."

"W-why is that, m-majesty?"

"My dear, call me Cosmos.  It is the name your ancestors used when they called for my attention, it is the name they used when they sought my guidance, and it was the name they cursed when I abandoned them to their fate," he said matter-of-factly.  "It is only right that you, of all ponies, should use it as well."

"Why me...C-Cosmos?" Twilight choked out, the name sounding thoroughly inadequate on her tongue.

Cosmos' eyes stayed focused on hers, even as the colors shifted and ebbed within them.  "In all of this universe's history, there have only been--and will only ever be--three ponies who have seen my face.  All three of these ponies have been graced with the greatest and most powerful gift I possess: the gift of immortality."  The deicorn paused.  "But I sense, as I had foreseen, that you are not entirely pleased with your endless life."

Twilight's face burned as she shuffled her hooves nervously on the diamond-studded floor.  She suddenly felt foalish and stupid for being upset about being immortal.  Of course it was a gift.  A gift from a deity.  How could she possibly be so idiotic as to resent such an incredible favor?  She wanted desperately to lie, to say she loved it and to thank him profusely, if only to prevent him from being angry with her, but his piercing gaze carried the weight of eons, suggesting it would be unwise and fruitless to attempt to deceive him.  "Um...well, you see...it's just..."

The deicorn smiled again, his eyes crinkling slightly at the edges.  "Please speak freely, my little pony.  You cannot disappoint me, nor anger me.  I expect nothing from my children but that they be who I gave them the wisdom, intelligence, and freedom to be."

A warm wave of reassurance and sincerity washed over Twilight, instantly easing the tension in her chest.  She took a deep breath and started again.  "I just...I wish I'd had the chance to decide for myself.  I wish I'd had the opportunity to grow old with my friends, to be...I don't know...to be..."

"Normal," Cosmos finished, nodding very slightly.  "I understand well, dear Twilight.  I may not know myself what it is to grow old and die, but I have watched many generations of ponies suffer the exquisite pain and joy of aging, the respect of the elder, the quiet comfort of the twilight years.  It is one of the few gifts I had never foreseen my children missing when it was taken from them."  Twilight wasn't sure what to say to this.  Several seconds of silence passed before Cosmos spoke again.  "I never force my will on my children.  If old age is what you desire, I can provide you that opportunity."

Twilight's cheeks flushed again.  Was she really about to refuse another gift from a deity?  "Well, your majesty...it's just...I don't really want to get old now...I wanted to...you know, do it with my friends."

"I apologize, dear Twilight.  You misunderstand.  I mean to give you precisely that opportunity.  Time is as nothing to me; I possess the ability--and the will--to return you to a time before your friends began to age without you, to let you experience the remainder of your life as a normal pony, unaware that I had ever interfered, or that I even exist.  It is best, if you should choose this option, that you live as though we had never met, or you may have second thoughts about your decision, and your regrets may well taint what would otherwise be a truly remarkable experience."

"Y-you can?" Twilight said, her mouth falling open.  "You could...you would do that?  For me?"

Cosmos nodded.  "Certainly.  It is well within my power, and as I said, my children possess free will by my own design.  You have been forced without your consent to live beyond when you should, and the pain you feel is my doing.  If you desire, I can undo that.  However," he continued, "there is an alternative, and it is one I wish you to consider as well."

Twilight blinked.  "What alternative is that?"

"Celestia and Luna are two of my greatest children, and I am immensely proud of both of them.  I am glad they have existed for millennia, as this world is greatly better off for their presence in it."  He smiled broadly, and Twilight glanced over to see Celestia's face uncharacteristically flushed with pride.  "Even Luna, who still blames herself cruelly for the effects of Discord's magic, is dear and wonderful to me, though I sense she still does not believe me when I say so."

"I...I do, your majesty, but I..." Luna faltered over her explanation, but it proved unnecessary.

"Fear not, dear Luna.  I do not blame you.  Someday you may understand and accept it, but you have many, many centuries ahead of you in which to do so.  Regardless," he said, turning back to Twilight, "as I said, I grant only those ponies I find truly extraordinary the gift of immortality, but I wish to provide them even more.  Celestia and Luna were the first recipients of my supreme baptism, and I would like you to be the third.  To the best of my knowledge, you would also be the last."

Twilight's mind raced as she tried to piece together what the deicorn was offering.  She heard Celestia and Luna both gasp in surprise, and she glanced over to see another uncharacteristic expression on Celestia's face: undisguised, unabashed joy.  Confused, Twilight turned to see the same expression on Luna's face, though Luna's expression was, if possible, even more delighted.  She puzzled for a few moments more over what Cosmos could be talking about before her eyes passed over Luna's long horn and wide, erect wings.  It clicked.

"You," she started, shock rendering her nearly speechless, "you want...to make me...an alicorn?"

Cosmos nodded.  "I would, very much.  I foresee great things in your future, my little pony.  You have done tremendous things with your life thus far.  I would like to see you continue to surprise and enamor for many centuries to come, but I believe you can be even greater with the combined powers of an alicorn."

"I...I could...be like you?" Twilight said, looking at Celestia.  

The alicorn nodded briskly.  "And so much more," she said.  "Equestria would benefit greatly from a third princess.  You could be the deciding voice in critical affairs, you could be the voice of reason when our judgment is clouded...but more than that," she added, her eyes shining suddenly, "you could be our sister, and our friend, for all eternity."

"Twilight," Luna said from the other side, "I know you want to return to your old life, and to enjoy the experience you missed with your friends, but please...please consider his offer."  Twilight looked to see Luna's eyes glistening as well.  "We love you too, Twilight.  We want you to stay with us forever, but...but we don't want you to do it if you don't want to.  I..." she looked away for an instant, "I will be selfish and say I think you should remain..."  The blue alicorn smiled weakly, a tear running down her cheek.  "I...have to admit, I've enjoyed having a little sister..."

Twilight felt a lump rise painfully in her throat at the sight of Luna's tears.  She looked down at her hooves to keep herself from saying yes just to stop the princess from crying, but was surprised to feel the heat of her own tears rising in the corners of her eyes.  She closed them against the flood and tried to sort out her thoughts.  "I...don't want to say no..."

"Twilight, please--" Luna started, but Cosmos interrupted her, his voice suddenly forceful, echoing fiercely off the walls.

"Luna, this decision is hers to make.  Allow her time to consider."

"Yes, your majesty," the alicorn whispered.

Twilight continued, tears squeezing out from between her eyelids.  "I don't want to say no.  This is something I've dreamed about for years, just being an alicorn, being a princess...living here in the castle with Celestia and Luna...but I miss my friends so very much...and I would like to grow old with them."  She opened her eyes, ignoring the tears sliding down her cheek and splashing on the mirrorlike floor.  "But I still have friends," she continued, "friends who will miss me as much as I miss mine now.  Spike, Celestia, Luna...and they will suffer for the rest of eternity for losing me."  The unicorn looked up at Cosmos again.  The deicorn's face was expressionless, a mask of neutrality.  "If I went back, I would live out my life naturally, right?  I wouldn't die early because of illness or injury or anything?"

Cosmos nodded.  "Your life would play out precisely as it already has, but you would age and die normally.  Specifically," he added, "you would die a mere two months after your beloved mate, happy, warm, and content in your bed at home, with your daughters and your dear friend Spike by your side.  It is a good way to die."

Twilight smiled through her tears.  "I don't suppose you would have anything to do with that, would you?"

The deicorn smiled faintly.  "Perhaps."

Twilight looked back at the floor.  Several minutes of tense silence passed with only the occasional fearful sniffle from Luna and the constant hissing of static in her horn interrupting the peace of the night.  Finally, Twilight heaved a tremendous sigh and looked up again.  Her eyes were dry and focused as she narrowed them at Cosmos.  

"I've decided."
> Twilight
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The sun's slow progress across the sky was once again approaching its inevitable denouement, casting long, sensational streaks of crimson and titian through the atmosphere, vainly resisting the encroaching evening darkness that seeped above the opposing horizon, meek but inexorable, drawing a curtain of plum velvet, dotted with shimmering, eternal constellations.  It was a sight so common that many ponies grew accustomed enough to ignore it as they went about their busy day, rushing to complete those insignificant tasks that had escaped their attention until the lanterns flaring to life along the boardwalk alerted them to the coming night.

Moonbeam and Sunspot were fortunate in that regard.  Their mothers had been devoted admirers of both the sunrise and the sunset, and had worked hard to instill a similar appreciation in their daughters.  The indigo unicorn and her ice-blue sister were sitting on the edge of the Ponyville fountain, leisurely watching the sun slip behind the horizon.  Moonbeam held a sprout smoothie in her violet magical aura, sipping contentedly as her sister casually flipped the page in the massive tome she was perusing.  The dark blue mare nudged her companion.  "Hey, put that book away, would you?  You can't read a sunset."

Sunspot scowled at the other mare for an instant before returning to her book.  "You might be surprised, Beam.  Mom always said she preferred to read about beautiful things when she could.  Easier to notice all the subtle details that way."

"Really," Moonbeam scoffed lightly, "because I seem to remember Mom saying she only read when she had to.  'Life is to be experienced, not explained.'  Remember?" the cerulean unicorn raised an eyebrow.

Sunspot made a show of tapping her chin with a thoughtful hoof.  "Yeah, that does sound like something Momma Trixie would say."  She turned another page and returned to her book.  "But she was also a showmare; obscuring details was crucial for her."

The indigo mare rolled her eyes.  "Whatever, Spot."  She took a sip of her smoothie and turned back to the sunset.

"Oh, hey there, Moonbeam!"  A chipper voice with a faint southern drawl pricked Moonbeam's ears to her left, and she turned to see Honeycrisp and her brother Blenheim pulling the Sweet Apple market cart back towards the road to the farm.  The unicorn smiled as the two earth ponies unhitched themselves and came over.  "How's it goin'?" Honeycrisp asked.

Moonbeam smiled.  "Pretty well.  It was a quiet day at the library, so I got a lot of practicing done."  She nodded at her sister, who had looked up from her book and was smiling at the two Apples.  "Sunspot's been studying, of course."

Blenheim chuckled.  "When isn't she?"

Sunspot stuck her tongue out at the stallion.  "You could stand to do a little research yourself, I bet.  You might be surprised at what you could learn about horticulture if you would just take the time to read a journal or two."

The dark orange earth pony snorted.  "Pass.  If I can't learn it on my own, it ain't worth learnin'."

"Suit yourself," the unicorn shrugged.  "How about you, Crisp?"

Honeycrisp smiled, but shook her head.  "Thanks anyway, Sunny.  There just ain't enough hours in the day to run a farm and stick my nose in a book.  Ah'm lucky if I get an hour to eat lunch, what with all we have to do."

"I understand, but if you--"

"Sunny," Moonbeam interrupted her, "let it go."  The ice blue unicorn looked as though she was going to press the issue for a moment, but a stern glance from her sister closed the issue, and she shrugged.

Honeycrisp cleared her throat and said, "So, uh...what're y'all doin' out here so late?"

Moonbeam nodded at the distant burnt sienna sky.  "Just watching the sunset.  It's not something we get to do very often, what with our studies and all, so I thought it would be nice to take an hour or two to take stock, you know?  Remember that the world's a lot bigger than our little library and our desktops."  She glanced at Sunspot, who looked up with a slightly guilty expression, then sighed and closed her book, slipping it into her saddlebag.

"Fine, fine.  I get it."  She scowled, but Moonbeam could see a hint of amusement in her eyes.

"The sun only sets once a day, Sunny.  You can read anytime."

"Yeah, yeah..."

Moonbeam looked back at Honeycrisp and Blenheim.  "You want to join us?"

The two farm ponies exchanged a look and a shrug.  "Sure," Blenheim said, walking over and dropping heavily onto his rump next to the unicorn sisters.  Honeycrisp sat down somewhat more delicately than her brother, but still settled in the dirt, rather than on the edge of the fountain.  She removed her well-worn leather hat and shook the dust off of it before sitting it back on her head, snugging it down tightly over her ears.

The four ponies sat in silence for some minutes, watching as the sun slowly slid down past the horizon.  It was half-gone when another familiar voice broke their reverie.

"Watching Celestia say goodnight?"  

The quartet turned as one towards the voice, and Sunspot immediately broke into a wide grin.  "Hey, Mom."

Twilight smiled and walked over to the group.  "Good evening, Sunspot.  I'm surprised you aren't out here reading."

Sunspot blushed faintly.  "Yeah, well...I was, but Beam made me put my book away."

"I did not!"

Twilight giggled.  "Well, she was right to do so if she did.  You know what your mother would say, don't you?"

Moonbeam grinned.  "Life is to be experienced, not explained?"

The older mare nodded.  "Exactly."  She looked at the Apple foals.  "Good evening, Honeycrisp, Blenheim.  Where's your sister?"

Honeycrisp doffed her hat in greeting.  "Evenin', Missus Sparkle.  I think Topaz is still at the schoolhouse.  Friday night, you know."

"Speaking of missing companions," Moonbeam said, "where's Spike?"

Twilight nodded in the general direction of the Carousel Boutique.  "Visiting Rarity, of course.  It's not something he gets to do very often.  In fact, speak of the dragon," she said, nodding over the other four ponies' heads.  The group turned to see a vast shadow materialize out of the waxing darkness and settle heavily to the ground in front of Town Hall.  The massive purple form took shape as it stepped into the flickering light cast by the lanterns around the fountain, and the scaly face broke into a broad grin as the owner recognized the small party.

"Hey guys," Spike said, his deep voice perpetually undercut by a low growl deep in his chest.

Most ponies would be terrified to face, let alone speak to a dragon, even one that was still relatively small, but Moonbeam and Sunspot had been cared for by the big purple beast since they had been born, had grown up climbing all over his smooth warm scales and hiding under his big leathery wings, and had treated him like one of the family for their entire life.  Honeycrisp and Blenheim had similarly grown up around Spike, and although they'd spent a great deal less time around him, they still treated him like just another pony in town.  All four ponies' faces lit up with wide smiles, and Sunspot actually jumped down off the fountain to go nuzzle the dragon.  "Spike!  How have you been?  We don't get to see you too often around here any more."

Spike chuckled as he leaned into the embrace.  "Aw, shucks.  Well, you know there's not a whole lot of room for a dragon in Ponyville, even a little one."

"Little, he says," Blenheim repeated, laughing.  "Spike, you haven't been little fer a while.  Heck, you've been bigger'n me as long as I can recall."

Spike grinned.  "Well, when you put it that way..."  He stood up on his hind legs and spread his wings as far as he could.  Fully extended, he was roughly three-quarters as tall as Town Hall, and his wings were broader than the building by several hooves.  The collected ponies stomped enthusiastically in appreciation, and the dragon made a show of flexing and posing for them.

Twilight rolled her eyes and giggled.  "Alright, alright, enough showing off.  You're making everyone nervous, Spike."

"Don' be silly," Honeycrisp scoffed.  "Ain't no pony in Ponyville who'd be afraid of Spike.  Heck, we're the only town with their own resident dragon."

"Well, I'm not really a resident, exactly..." Spike said, rubbing the back of his neck with a claw.

"Shucks," the yellow earth pony said, "you grew up here, didn' ya?  That makes it yer home, no matter where else ya go."

Twilight smiled.  "I think that's fair to say, don't you, Spike?"

Spike nodded.  "Yeah...yeah, I guess so."  He looked around, sighing shallowly.  "Canterlot never did feel as cozy as good old Ponyville."  A wistful smile tugged at the edges of the dragon's face.

"So," Twilight said, "how was your visit?"

"Oh, it was pretty good," Spike said, the smile widening for an instant, and then fading.  "Well, as good as it ever can be anymore..."

Twilight nodded, walking over and nuzzling the dragon's shoulder.  "I know what you mean.  It's hard to visit any of them these days."

"Sure...did you get to see Trixie and the rest of the gang already?"

"Yeah, I did the rounds earlier today so I could take care of my errands without worrying about getting a chance before we had to leave."

Spike nodded in agreement.  There was a moment of reverent silence before the dragon spoke again, his voice quiet in spite of his size.  "I miss them a lot."

Twilight closed her eyes against a wave of tears.  It wasn't very strong, more of a token response to a well-worn painful memory, but it happened every time just the same.  When she opened them again, the tears had subsided, and she was able to nod and actually smile.  "We all do, Spike, but that's a good thing.  It means that they were loved, and that at least someone in this world will never forget them."

"Well, you aren't the only ones!" Sunspot suddenly spoke up, her voice lightly tinged with offense.  "We won't forget them either, you know."

Twilight smiled.  "I know you won't, sweetheart."

"Yeah, but we won't live to be a million, Sunny," Moonbeam smirked at her sister, who shot the indigo unicorn a nasty glare.

"So?  That doesn't mean we'll forget!"

"Girls," Twilight said, her voice quiet but stern.  "Relax.  Sunspot, no one's saying you'll forget, or that your love is any less valuable.  Moonbeam, stop antagonizing your sister."  

Moonbeam rolled her eyes and sighed.  "Yes, mom."

Twilight came over and nuzzled her daughters.  "As wonderful as it is to see you girls, I'm afraid I was only in town for the day.  I've got to go back to Canterlot before the sun sets completely."

"Aw," Sunspot said, folding her ears back on her head.  "Are you sure you can't spend the night?  We've got the spare room in the library, you know."

Twilight giggled.  "You mean my old bedroom."  The two unicorns nodded.  "Thanks, girls, but it's sort of important that I be there, you know."

"Yeah, yeah..." Sunspot sighed and looked sadly at her hooves.  Twilight nuzzled her daughters again, gently kissing Sunspot's forehead.

"I'll visit again soon, Sunny.  I promise."  She smiled at the Apples.  "Good night, Honeycrisp, Blenheim.  It was wonderful to see you again."

"Likewise, Missus Sparkle," Blenheim said.  Honeycrisp simply doffed her hat again.

Twilight turned to Spike and said, "Spike, I'll meet you back at the castle later, right?"

"Yeah, I'll be there in a couple hours."

The lavender alicorn nodded and spread her wings, the powerful magic lacing through them rendering her capable of lifting off with a single graceful flap.  She took a slow lap around the courtyard as she ascended, reveling in the wind whipping through her mane and tail.  As amazing as Rainbow Dash always swore it was...  She glanced reflexively down past the Boutique, beyond which lay the small, peaceful plot of land that constituted Ponyville's only cemetery.  In it, she imagined she could see six immediately recognizable headstones, each with a different gem set into it: a rose quartz balloon; a topaz butterfly; a ruby apple; a sapphire diamond; a pearl rainbow; and an azure wand.  Tears she had avoided on the ground now flowed freely past her ears, blown backwards by the rushing wind.  The alicorn allowed herself a moment of reflection before she left.

Goodbye, my friends.  I will never forget you...and maybe someday...we'll meet again.

Then, in a flash shorter than the beat of an aching heart, Twilight vanished.