Stories in Stone
Last Dance
By TDR
Last call.
[2343 years after Tirek's first defeat]
“That is not how you make it!” the gray furred Kirin snorted.
“Seriously? Who's the bartender here you finicky jackass!” a Zebra stallion cursed back.
“It won't be you for long if you keep screwing up the mix.” Jer'rahd snapped.
“This is how you make a Rainboom, I’ve been doing it since I was twelve!” Baelit yelled.
“And I’ve been drinking them for over three thousand years I know what the right mixture is.” Jer'rahd growled.
“Jer'rahd leave the poor child alone.....” Luna sighed in exasperation.
“I'm thirty three.” the bartender snorted.
“As I said........” Luna quipped.
Luna, Jer'rahd, and Twilight sat in the Sabite Imperyum. The bar was closed for the day, though Jer'rahd had some how convinced Baelit to serve them while Twilight spoke with the youngest foals of Sunshine and Starcloud who now owned the bar.
Baelit was not thrilled to be dealing with the bars oldest customers, but one of them was a princess so the Zebra stallion held his tongue... mostly.
His sister, Celes, sat with Twilight discussing where their parents had run off to. The pair of them had been named for grandparents that they had never met. Both of them knew that they were not the first foals of their parents, particularly since Sun Drip, the first foal of Starcloud and Sunshine had died of old age about three years ago.
That was the act that had likely caused their parents to leave a few months ago without a word. Baelit had been expecting the immortal pair to leave, he had over heard them talking about it , though he had not expected it to happen so soon and he was angry at the pair as now he had to explain to his two year old daughter why they couldn't go see granny and granpaw any more.
Celes had taken it harder and had gone into their house after a week of them missing and found a nearly empty building with only a note and a package on the table addressed to Princess Twilight. This was why the Princess was here, and the other two had come along with her.
“So this is all you found?” Twilight asked ignoring the pair at the bar. She was not really fond of this bar, not because of the alcohol or the atmosphere. In fact, one of her few remaining friends had lived here with her husband until recently.
Why she didn't like this place, was because a small bedroom upstairs over the bar.
It had been where Celestia died.
Sure that had been a little over a hundred years ago , but it still bothered her, Twilight hadn't been able to bring herself to visit any of the places her friends had died aside from her secret room in New Canterlot. A room that grew larger with each passing year.
But that wasn't the situation now, the situation now was the two gems sitting on the table before that had been in the package addressed to her and a well worded note that sat between them.
There was also the rather concerned Zebra mare before her who bore her mentors name.
“This is all they left?” Princess Twilight asked.
“Yes Princess.” Celes nodded.”........ They..... they are not coming back are they?”
Twilight sighed looking at the pair of crystals. She wasn't sure how Zecora … Sunshine, had gotten the information on how to make them, it was still a well guarded secret. Still if any one could find out it would have been Sunshine and Starcloud. The stallion's power would have made him a master spy given it forced everyone to forget or gloss over his importance rendering him functionally invisible. Paired with Sunshine's ability to always know the right place and time to be. They could have easily gotten the information. And now those two powers were before her, set in the stone of a crystal and two former Zebra gods were wandering the world some where as mortals.
“I... don't believe they will be, no.” Twilight sighed, noting the Zebra mare fluttering her wings in worry. A gift from Starcloud's side of the family it seemed. None of the pairs foals had the red stripes of the Zebra casters or gods, and aside from Celes all of them were normal Zebra's. Not that the winged Zebra could fly very well, given she was only a quarter pegasus, but she was recently married to a Pegasus, so their foals likely would be able to fly.
“Why would they do this?” Celes pouted and Twilight unfortunately had an answer.
“The same reason your grandmother did. Your father had been a god even longer than your grandmother and your mother had been one for over three thousand years. It gets..... tiring......”Twilight mused. “Mortal ponies envy the immortal and the immortals envy the mortals, if they have been around long enough. After your older brother died I expect they simply didn't wish to out live any more of their foals.”
“But I don't like not knowing what happened Princess......” Celes muttered.
“You're a good daughter Celes, but they made sure that you and your brother were set in life before they left. Both of them have been gods since birth and if my studies are correct since they gave up their power they are the equivalent of eighteen in pony years, younger than either of you. Had they stayed , they would have most likely out lived you. While I have yet out live one of my foals, the two at the bar there have, five of them in fact. As well as a slew of grandfoals. They are rarely here in New Canterlot for that very reason. Every time they visit they become more and more morose until they have to leave again. The same can likely be said of your parents. There's too many memories here that they cannot be around any more. Do you understand?”
“A little, princess.”Celes pouted.
“Just think of it this way, they are alive and well out there some where.” Twilight collected the gems and the note that told Celes to give them to her. “I will keep an eye out for them as will Jer'rahd and Luna. So long as they are alive there is the chance they might come back. All you can do is carry on with your life and remember them.”
“Does that help?” Celes asked.”To carry on and just remember them?”
Twilight blinked at the question, her ears drooping for a moment before her Princess mask returned and she smiled at the Zebra mare.
“It does.” Twilight lied.
And so, many years after their disappearance, Zecora/ Sunshine, and Starcloud, departed from Equss.