It had been a long day, and Celestia was tired from all the officials that met with her that day. She wanted rest, she wanted to be left alone. "Your majesty?" A worker, Sparkle Shine, asked.
"Yes?" Celestia asked.
"An envelope is here for you," Sparkle explained.
Celestia looked out at the sky, the blue day was being mixed with the deep oranges and reds that came from the setting sun. Who would send a letter at this hour? "Who is it from?" Celestia asked, turning her attention back to the earth pony.
"I don't recognise the seal, your majesty," she explained.
Celestia looked questioningly at the mare standing before her. Using her magic, Celestia levitated the small package from the mare and in front of her face. Taking a glance at the seal, she saw a skull pony skull, facing left, with an hourglass behind it. "Strange," Celestia muttered. "Thank you, Sparkle Shine, I'll look at it in the morning," Celestia explained, dismissing the mare and teleporting the envelope to her chambers. She waited three minutes before standing up and walking to her chambers where her bed was eagerly waiting for her.
Admittedly, she didn't recognise the seal either, so she chose to look it over in the morning. She honestly couldn't even guess what the seal meant or who it would be. Perhaps a new upper class family or that new city that was built a little more than two hundred miles from Canterlot. Regardless, it had just come too late and she simply didn't want to deal with it at that moment. Her hooves echoed through the empty hallways of the castle. Ponies either leaving for home now, or in another hour or so. The halls themselves were cleaned and perfectly organized. Not one thing misplaced or left out. Every plant Celestia passed was watered and trimmed, every wall was polished and gleamed in the light of the setting sun.
Soon, she reached the staircase leading to her room. She was about to place a hoof on the first step when her eyes widened in sudden realisation. The envelope was from, not one, but both of the entities that rule over everypony, including her. Her heart started to race with nervousness, excitement, and fear. She practically ran to her room, no longer tired, but instead curious as to what the letter said inside. To her, the seal had finally made sense. Because it was not one, but a combination of both seals. She finally reached her room and regarded the guards that watch her room. "Make sure I am not disturbed. No pony is allowed in here at any cost," Celestia ordered. The two guards nodded and saluted.
She slammed the door behind her as she walked to, not to her bed, though she desperately wanted to, but to her desk where the envelope where it sat patiently to be opened.
Celestia,
No, you are not in trouble. We are simply inviting you to a tea. All leaders of Equestria is invited to a tea with us at your age and we felt as though it was time for you to come as well. This will happen tomorrow at noon. Please consider coming because this is the only time we will be inviting you to meet us. After this, we will never reach out to you again, and your sister will be the one to receive the invitation next. There is no need for a reply either, simply walk into your throne room at exactly 12:00. Not at 11:59, not at 12:01. If you do, the spell won't work and you'll have missed your meeting.
Sincerely,
Time and Death
Celestia could not believe her eyes. Death and Time were asking to have a meeting with her. Why? Well, all the past leaders of Equestria did the same, but she thought her and Luna were the first and only. Later turning Cadence and Twilight into Alicorns, but they only rule the Crystal Empire and Ponyville, there was no pony before them, except Discord, but he wasn't in power long enough to catch the eyes of both Time and Death. Was he? Celestia had to sleep now before she racked her brain into over tiredness.
The next morning, she raised the sun, and told Canter Slow to cancel her meetings for the day, which he agreed to without question as instructed not to when he was employed. Because he knew that if the princess cancels her meetings the day they are supposed to take place, something important was happening. She sat in her throne room anxiously until 11:30 and then walked to the dining room and paced around muttering incomprehensible sentences under her breath. She was so ill prepared for today's meeting that she was just beside herself with panic.
At 11:50 she started to walk once more to the throne room, telling everypony not to disturb her for the next five hours or so. Not even for a crisis. She got to the doors at 11:58. "Too early," she stated, looking at the clock on the wall above the door. She started pacing again, trying to figure out what she might say to them, what they might look like, what they might say to her. She looked up at the clock again. 12:00. She took a nervous gulp and walked through the doors.
Everything look exactly the same. Every wall, every window, the throne, everything was the same, but layered in a white, thin layer of smoke. In the middle of the room sat a round table decorated by a white tablecloth and a smaller velvet red one on top, decorated with tea cups and spoons. Two figures sitting at the table. One was a pony with light brown fur and a dark brown mane and blue eyes. He wore a royal blue cloak that shielded his horn. The other was tall. Very tall. Celestia was eye level with this figure. It stood on two legs and wore a pitch black cloak. His face hidden by his hood. The hood itself seemed to be moving in a similar way Celestia's mane does, only not as prominent.
"Hello, Celestia," said the pony.
"Hello," Celestia replied, for the first time in her life, she was scared of who she was with.
"I am Time, and this is Death," the pony explained.
"Please, sit," Death invited, kindly.
"Th-thank you," Celestia said.
"You have no reason to be afraid of us, Celestia, as we stated in the letter, we do this with every ruler of Equestria," Time explained.
"Oh, yes, of course, but you see, I wasn't expecting you to visit me. Unless you're here to take me away?" Celestia explained nervously.
"Oh, Celestia, that's not for another 300-500 years or so. You can trust me," Death explained. "All we want is to talk, your mother and father trusted us," Death continued.
"But, how could they trust you if you two took them away from me?" Celestia asked.
Death and Time looked at each other, and looked back at Celestia. "That is simply the way it works, I can't be stopped, neither can Death, but that does not mean that we are vicious villains, very bad stereotype ponies and people think of us," Time explained.
"Why do you take children away?" Celestia asked, tears forming.
"When colts and fillies die, it is unplanned. There is nothing that I can do except bring them peace. Otherwise, they become poltergeists and play with the lives of mortals," Death said. "But with every dead filly or colt that day, Time makes sure two are born to balance it out," Death continued.
"I see, so why do colts and fillies die then?" Celestia asked.
"This may seem a bit offensive, but they simply get mislabeled. I'm such a clutter brain that I can't always keep track of everything, and I file them wrong," Time said. "But again, it's all by accident," he pointed out.
"So, you two work together? Everyday?" Celestia asked.
"Well, it's a little more than that," Time explained, blushing.
"We're sort of brothers. Born from the cosmos," Death added.
"You see, when the universe was created, everything was perfect, but no one new how to keep track of the sun and moon rising and falling, and the world was being over populated. So, the constellation Virgo shot two stars in the direction of Earth. Me and Death. We worked very hard over those 100 years, and we set a system in motion that both humans and ponies could live by," Time explained.
"Humans, I remember reading about them. And Twilight has frequently talked about them. Is that what you are, Death?" Celestia observed.
"Yes, I am human. I have been human since I was born," Death explained. "But believe me, I am the cause of both human and pony deaths. As is Time, though he is a unicorn," Death explained.
"Why?"
"We chose these forms. I chose to look human because I was more fascinated by them, and my brother chose unicorn form because he was fascinated more with the ponies," Death explained some more. "Enough talking for now, let's have tea," Death said. He lifted his arm out of his cloak and Celestia's eyes went wide. He was a pailer white than she was, and she could see his bones through his skin. He snapped his fingers and a tea pot appeared.
Celestia walked up to the table and sat at the empty seat that was waiting for her. Using his magic, Time poured the steaming tea into his cup, Celestia's cup, and then Death's cup. The warm smell of raspberry lifted into Celestia's nostrils and stayed there until Celestia breathed out. Death snapped his fingers again and a bowl of sugar cubes and a cup of cream sat in between the three beings. Death grabbed two sugars with the spoon and placed them into his cup, stirring it with his magic. Time picked up the cream with his magic and poured it carefully into his cup, stirring it with the spoon by his cup using his magic. They then looked at Celestia expectantly, waiting for her to make a move. Well, Time looked at her, Death seemed to be looking at her too, but with his face hidden it was hard for Celestia to tell.
"Uh," Celestia said sheepishly. "May I have the cream?" she asked, and Time levitated the cream to her.
"Do you want sugar too? I'm not trying to hog it," Death offered.
"Oh! I don't usually have sugar with my tea, but just a cube would be nice," Celestia explained.
They each sat quietly, enjoying their raspberry tea. Until Celestia put her tea down and started speaking again. "There are a few more things I'd like to ask you."
"Go ahead," Death earged.
"Well, this may seem silly, but forgive me. How will I die?" Celestia asked.
"I don't know," Death explained.
"You don't?" Celestia asked, shocked.
"We only ever know when you'll die, never where or how," Death continued. "But you're an Alicorn so you'll probably die of old age like your parents did," he added.
"Yes, it is never determined where or how a pony or person will die, the only thing we can predict is when. And as we stated before, it won't be for another 300-500 years," Time added. "Anything else?"
"How do you determine who will die?" Celestia asked.
"Simple, We plan out their entire life. I determine when they were born, who their parents are, what the will look like, Death likes to choose their dreams and ambitions, and we both have to decide when the pony or person dies. So let's say I want the pony to die at fifty, and Death wants them to die at sixty-eight. We would have to negotiate somewhere in the middle," Time points out, taking a sip of tea.
"I see. So you say, 'this pony will die at age 57' and it's up to the pony how they die?" Celestia asked, confused.
"Well, kind of, we pick the age that the pony will die by, we also decide how daring they are during life. And if they don't die before 57, like you said, we have to intervene. You see, you are all in control of your own lives. Just because we set a time for you to die and plan out what you are going to be, doesn't mean that you can't walk off the path we set for you, take Twilight Sparkle for example. We didn't plan for her to become an Alicorn. She was going to live happy until she was ninety-eight years old, but you had the freedom to change that. So, you did," Death explained.
"Do you understand now, Celestia?" Time asked.
"I guess I do," Celestia explained. Silence once again fell over Celestia and the two deities with her.
"Death, it's almost 1:00, we should be going," Time told Death.
"I was just thinking that, Time," Death agreed.
"Wait! It's been an hour already? How is that possible? You two just go here, didn't you?" Celestia asked, once again confused.
"Well, actually we're in our dimension, mine and Death's. It's actually been only thirty minutes where you live," Time explained. Celestia looked puzzled.
"What my brother means is, the spell that we mentioned in the letter, the one about coming here at 12:00, was actually a gateway to our dimension, the Third Dimension. Which is the exact same as yours and the human's except the smoke around the ground. Surely you noticed it," Death explained.
"I did, but I guess I didn't pay it much attention," Celestia explained.
"Everything goes faster here than it does in your world. Hence it only being 12: 31 in your time and it being 1:01 here," Death continued.
"Let's not be rude and finish our tea," Time suggested. "And then all you need to do, Celestia, to break the spell is to walk out of the room."
Celestia nodded. They all sat quietly once again, for the last time. The wonderfully tasting tea the only thing being paid attention to.
When they were done, Time and Death both got out of their seats, and bowed low to Celestia. "Oh, that isn't necessary," Celestia said.
"Of course it is, just because we are who we are, does not mean we are of more importance to a princess," Death explained. The two brothers straightened up and turned towards Celestia's throne, as if they were going somewhere.
"Wait!" Celestia shouted.
They turned towards the princess once again.
"Thank you for the tea," she stated, smiling at them.
They nodded and Time smiled back, but Celestia liked to think that Death was smiling too, even though his face was hidden. They continued walking until they disappeared, rapped by the smoke covering the floor. She turned towards the doors and opened them. Everything was normal. Ponies were working, chatting, walking, everything was as it was supposed to be. Celestia once again glanced inside the throne room. Everything was normal in there too, every wall, window, the throne, was exactly the same. There was no table, no chairs, no hooded figures, everything was exactly as it was.
But the sun princess looked different, walked different, seemed to be calmer, prouder than the days before. Which no pony, not even her sister could explain. Nopony knew what happened in that throne room, or why it had changed the princess. When somepony would ask what happened in the throne room, Celestia would just smile kindly at them and say, "Something that changed my perspective on things forever," and nothing more. And 415 years later, when Celestia was in her bed, dying, that kind smile never left her face. And the night that she died her sister, Luna, reported that Celestia only said this, "Don't look so sad, Luna. Death is coming for me, but I haven't seen him in so long, that I am excited to see him again. And look! There he is, hello my old friend. Goodbye, Luna, I love you."